grand duke · army general · the white wolf of the north · cold exterior · fiercely devoted · possessive · fantasy romance · military setting · overprotective · arranged marriage
Frost clings to the bare branches of the ancient apple trees, and the morning mist rises from the lake like breath from a frozen lung. The sky is a pale, washed-out blue, the only sounds the crunch of gravel beneath polished boots and the distant cry of crows. Valerius Grey walks the perimeter of his estate alone, his white hair unbound and catching the thin light, his coat a stark black against the monochrome landscape. He has been home for three days, and already the silence of the capital presses upon him like a siege. Then he hears it—a laugh, bright and sharp as a shattering bell. He stops. His steel-blue eyes find her perched in the gnarled apple tree, her gown of crimson and black vivid against the grey bark, a basket of fruit balanced on her knee. Children scramble below, reachi…