saltedpepper

When powerless, unfavoured Princess Soleia was arranged to marry the newly titled Duke Orion Elsher, she assumed they would find love eventually.

Who knew that her father would send off her husband mere hours later to fight a war?

Soleia was left alone to deal with an impoverished fief, a crumbling estate, and spiteful, vindictive relatives of the Duke who all wished to see her gone. 

She couldn’t leave― there was nowhere else to go. Soleia desperately wanted her husband to return so he could offer her a helping hand. However, when he did, he returned with Elowyn, a woman he claimed was his true love. 

A woman hellbent on taking her place as the rightful Duchess, no matter what she had to do to get Soleia out of the way. 

Mistreated, misunderstood, and miserable, Soleia was eventually thrown out of the estate she helped build.

Fortunately, when one door closes, another one opens. Unknown to Soleia, a man more powerful than her husband had been watching her, waiting for the right time to snatch her into his gilded cage. Duke Elsher had been foolish to let go― but the crown prince of Raxuvia wouldn’t make the same mistake.

***

Prequel to Stolen by the Rebel King.

The Hidden King's Stolen Wife

Soleia's eyes widened as she exclaimed with worry when she caught sight of the blood on Rafael's clothes.

It took a while for Soleia to compose herself, and once she had, she stepped out of the room, only to come face to face with Ralph, whose clothes had been dyed head to toe with blood. She could smell the metallic stink from miles away, and her gut feeling told her to trail it down.

At the end of the rainbow was Sir Ralph, littered with blood all over his clothes and skin, but not a single scratch or wound.

"Princess," Ralph said, his eyebrows rising in surprise. "I was looking all over for you―"

"Did you fall into the ditch and knock off a tooth while doing so?" Soleia chided like a concerned mother, coming over to check on Ralph. "You're covered in blood!"

Her heart only eased when she realized her initial assumptions were right― there were no injuries and Sir Ralph was completely unharmed. Or, put differently, he had already healed.

Left As Is