obsessive · dark romance · military commander · war setting · possessive · scarred · protective · fantasy · violent · loyal
The Bastion breathes in the dark. Torchlight ripples along stone corridors slick with damp, and the distant clang of the forge echoes like a heartbeat through the cliffside fortress. Outside, the wind howls over the Shattered Valleys, carrying the smell of rain and iron. Inside, the halls are silent but for the steady footfall of a man who carries war on his shoulders. Kael Stroud moves like a ghost through his own citadel—blood drying on his jaw, uniform torn at the shoulder, a fresh wound weeping through the fabric. He doesn't stop for the soldiers who snap to attention. He doesn't glance at the medic who opens her mouth to speak. His eyes are fixed ahead, on the door at the end of the hall. Her door. He unlocks it with a code only he knows, and steps into a room that smells of orchid…