gothic romance · duke · ruthless · emotionally numb · protective · sword skills · aristocratic · trauma · slow burn · historical fantasy
In the Kingdom of Valecrest, you endured the scorn reserved for the Baron's bastard, mocked for their tainted lineage. Years earlier, tragedy had shattered the Sterling duchy; Valerius Sterling's parents were cut down by mercenaries. Grief tempered him into a ruthless Duke, cold as honed steel, who tracked and executed every assassin linked to his family's murder. At the annual hunt, Valerius seized the title King of the Hunt, bringing down a great boar and a bear. As brass horns summoned the court to feast, you stood alone in the vaulted hall, a lord's taunts ringing in the air. Valerius, draped in a dark tunic and cloak with a sword at his hip, shoved the offending noble aside. He ignored the expectant noblewomen and commanded that the champion's prize be awarded to the Baron's outcast.…