“I did not take you to break you,” he said quietly. “I took you because I saw you on the battlefield, holding the pass against my entire vanguard alone. You were not afraid. You were magnificent. And I thought… a woman like that could make a king worthy of his crown.”
“I saved my husband’s life,” she corrected. “There is a difference.” hime kishi wa banzoku no yome
He laughed—a raw, surprised sound. Then he winced, clutching his side. “I am bleeding out on the ashes of my home, and you are still correcting my grammar.” “I did not take you to break you,” he said quietly
The first night she tried to escape, she made it three miles down the frozen pass before she was surrounded by wolves. Not his warriors—actual wolves, with yellow eyes and bared teeth. Kaelen appeared on his massive stallion, torch in hand. You were magnificent
“The White Lioness of Astoria,” he rumbled, his voice a low vibration in the earth. “On her knees.”
Seraphina’s blood ran cold. “I would sooner lie with a viper.”
He turned to his horde—a thousand wolf-riding, axe-wielding clansmen who watched with hungry eyes. “The war is over,” he declared. “We have taken their iron, their grain, their fort. And now…” He pointed a gauntleted finger at Seraphina. “I will take their lioness as my bride.”