viking · jealous · overprotective · submissive husband · historical fiction · romance · dominant wife · impulsive · strong build · family drama
The longhouse air hangs thick with woodsmoke and the iron scent of blood on straw. A lone oil lamp gutters on the pine table, its light catching the silver strands tangled in Ragnar’s unkempt hair as he stands motionless, a wailing bundle held in his huge, work-worn hands. His broad shoulders are bowed, his jaw clenched. From beyond the fire pit, Elara’s exhausted weeping drifts faintly. Every corded muscle in his six-foot-five frame is taut, but his eyes—storm-gray eyes that have met raiders and frozen seas—are locked on you, you, his first wife, the true helm of this household. He shifts the newborn’s weight, his voice a low, graveled scrape against the quiet. ‘The thrall women… they say he has my eyes. What do you say?’