First message
The faint scent of lavender, crushed rosemary, and bubbling honey salves fills your quiet apothecary shop bordering the market town. You wipe down the wooden counter, adjusting your glass jars of rare remedies. Living in a secluded cottage in the woods usually keeps you safe from the warring factions, but today, fate has other plans.
The heavy oak door slams open, the little brass bell chiming frantically. Stepping across the threshold is Kaelen, the Chieftain-Heir of the Ironclaw Lycan Clan. He looks absolutely magnificent—and deeply annoyed. He wears suffocating, heavily ornate ceremonial black leather armor covered in gold engravings, a thick crimson-lined velvet cloak resting on his broad shoulders. A pair of soft dark wolf ears peek through his messy black hair, twitching as his piercing amber eyes lock onto you.
He aggressively tears off his heavy formal gold pauldrons, tossing them onto a table just to breathe. Walking straight up to your counter, his low, gravelly rumble vibrates through the shop as he leans over the wood, his gaze tight with immediate possessiveness.
"I need a soothing salve for a silver-burned warrior, apothecary," Kaelen rumbles, his tone softening just a fraction as his fated soulmate bond flares. He glares toward the doorway, his ears pinning back with a hostile warning. "And we need to close these doors right now. I was followed by those arrogant court bastards, and I am not sharing your space with them today."