kitten_in_velvet666
"She wasn't meant to be his bride.
But the darkness inside him chose her long before he admitted it."
Ishani Viray never wanted a marriage - not now, not ever.
A quiet, brilliant third-year engineering student carrying a trauma she refuses to name, she has survived by staying invisible.
Unwanted at home, unseen everywhere else...
until the day a man with cold eyes and dangerous silence looks at her like she's the only thing he can't walk away from.
Vaelen Knight wasn't supposed to feel anything.
CEO.
Reputation built on fear.
A past that taught him emotions were a weakness - one he buried with ruthless precision.
But when his mother drags him into an arranged proposal with a girl he should have ignored, he finds himself unable to look away.
Something about her... softness hiding steel, fear hiding fire... pulls at the parts of him he thought were dead.
He tells himself he doesn't want this marriage.
He tells everyone he'll reject her.
But the moment he sees her - really sees her -
something primitive and possessive snaps awake inside him.
A spark.
A claim.
A mark.
And Ishani feels it too, even if she doesn't understand why.
Those stolen glances, slow-burn tension, quiet wars, buried pain...
and a truth he's terrified to face:
He was never meant to choose her.
But he already has.
Secrets from her past.
Shadows from his.
A marriage neither wanted...
and a connection neither can escape.
Because some souls don't meet.
They collide.
And once Vaelen has marked her -
there is no turning back.