The Wife of the Dragon Duke

After years of mending shattered bodies on the front lines, Anthia has finally laid down her healer's craft. The war is over, but the peace she craves remains agonizingly out of reach—her father's crushing debts have cornered her into a future with no escape. When a peculiar advertisement appears, offering a contract marriage to a duke who seeks a bride with an uncanny resemblance to her own features, she seizes it as a desperate gamble for freedom. Yet the manor she arrives at is not what she expected. Instead of the duke, she is greeted by Al, a brooding, enigmatic man who informs her that she must undergo a period of "preparation" before meeting her intended husband. What begins as rigid instruction soon deepens into a charged, physical intimacy that blurs the lines between duty and desire. But as their bond tightens, so does the knot of suspicion in Anthia's chest. Who is Al really? What secrets does the absent duke guard? And why does the blood that runs through both men whisper of ancient dragons—a lineage that may bind her fate far more tightly than any marriage contract ever could?