Historical

He claims she belongs to another man… but he looks at her like she’s already his.
    Aveline Willowgrave was born to wealth, dignity… and a future she would never live to claim. At ten years old, she watched her parents die. The years that followed were worse. Her uncle stole her inheritance, her home, and her freedom.
    And at last… he sold her.
    She was masked, chained, and priced like livestock before a room of hungry men.
    Just as the crowd surges forward to strip her bare, a single voice cuts through the auction… A bid so high it silences the entire hall.
    A knight from Greenvale.
    He does not save her.
    He buys her.
    And when he removes his helmet, Aveline’s breath catches.
    Theron.
    The quiet orphan boy she once mocked when her world was still soft and golden.
    Now, he stands before her, powerful, controlled… and impossible to read. He tells her she was never meant for him.
    She was purchased as a gift, for Prince Vaelor of Greenvale, the Crown Prince whispered to be as cruel as he is untouchable.
    Cornered between slavery and a fate worse than death, Aveline makes the only choice left to her.
    “Don’t give me to the prince,” she whispers. “Take me as your mistress instead.”
    But Theron did not return to her life by accident. He has his own reasons. His own secrets.
    And as Aveline is drawn into Greenvale’s glittering court, she begins to wonder...
    Why did he choose her?
    Why did he disappear days before her parents died?
    And why, when he looks at her now, does it feel less like hatred… and more like something far more dangerous?