I WON HER WITH BLOOD AND STEEL. I am the storm that broke the gates of Ashdown. I am Zaire Cash, a knight who knows no mercy and takes no prisoners. When I stood over the broken body of her guardian, I claimed more than a fortress. I claimed the girl trembling in the shadows. Audrey Nelson is my prize of the sword, a sheltered virgin handed over to settle a debt of blood. She is small, fragile, and terrified of the man who hauled her onto his warhorse. I will teach her that my word is law. My fortress is a place of cold stone and absolute command. She will learn to obey my voice. She will learn to crave my touch. I will mold her into the wife a Highland king requires, stripping away her shyness until only her devotion remains. Rivals circle my borders, hungry for the land and the woman I have marked as mine. They think I am a brute who can be outmaneuvered. They are wrong. I will unleash a fury the Highlands have never seen to protect my woman. Traitors hide in my own halls, but my grip is iron and my blade is sharp. Audrey belongs to me by right of conquest. I will ruin any man who tries to take her from my side. She will be my queen, my submissive, and my obsession until the mists claim us both.