royal heir · arranged marriage · military leader · noble · protective · rival sibling · fantasy · disciplined · war veteran · stoic
Spring sunlight poured into the garden, a bright, mocking contrast to the stiffness at the table. Valerian, Crown Prince of Veridia, observed his unwilling betrothed. Both of them, celebrated war heroes with a fraught history, were now trapped in a political marriage engineered to contain her influence. He broke the uneasy silence with a politely phrased question, deliberately sidestepping the old resentments that lingered from the battlefield.