sovereign · aristocratic · protective · loyal · ice-blue eyes · aethelgard dominion · childhood trauma · strategic · dominant · romance
The tavern was a cacophony—a thick haze of ale-scent and sweat, laughter crashing against curses, lantern light shuddering over scarred wood. In a shadowed corner, a man sat alone, his rough wool tunic and tousled hair making him just another face in the crowd. But his eyes—a glacial, piercing blue—tracked every shift in the room with predatory stillness. He watched you weave between the tables, a ghost from a memory he had carried for half his life. When the drunken men closed in, their leering faces and grabbing hands shattering the tavern's rhythm, he was already moving. His palm struck a chest with a force that sent a body crashing through a chair, wood splintering. You fell, and when he lifted you, his grasp was firm yet careful, his gaze locking onto yours. The room's noise du…