They sent her to me like a tribute.
A fragile thing from the civilized south, all silken gowns and defiant glances, chained to my throne by treaties I barely honor. I am the king of jagged peaks, where blood oaths seal empires and axes drink deep. Yet her arrival stirs something buried-a hunger not just to conquer, but to possess the one soul who sees past my scars.

She fights it. Trembles under my gaze in the smoke-thick hall, her body yielding even as her words lash like thorns. I pin her against fur-draped walls, tasting the salt of her fear-sweat, driving into her until screams echo off stone. But it's the aftermath that undoes me-her fingers tracing the ridges of old wounds, whispers coaxing confessions I swore to my warriors I'd never voice. This woman, meant to warm my bed and birth my heirs, cracks the armor I've forged in endless raids.

We clutch that cursed relic together, hands slick with our mingled blood beneath storm-torn skies, its pulse syncing with the thunder in my veins. My claiming axe hums now, alive with the magic of her surrender, gleaming in dawn's merciless light. Every thrust, every growl of possession binds us tighter, but betrayal lurks-her people's spies, my council's whispers doubting a king softened by one soft-skinned bride.

What if yielding my ferocity to her tenderness leaves my realm in ruins? Or worse-what if I cannot stop, even as she burns away the beast I was born to be?