Where Crowns Do Not Rule

Princess Elara Valenne has spent her entire life preparing for the future chosen for her.

Elegant, poised, and dutiful, she was raised to become everything a royal woman should be: a devoted wife, a mother to future heirs, and eventually, a queen. Her marriage to King Alaric has been arranged for years, and Elara has never questioned it. Why would she? This is the life she was born for.

Until a Viking raid changes everything.

Eirik Stenvar is a ruthless chieftain feared far beyond his northern lands. Brutal, unpredictable, and entirely unimpressed by crowns, he takes what he wants and answers to no king.

When a raid places a valuable princess in his path, taking Elara captive should be nothing more than an opportunity for ransom.

Instead, she becomes the one prize he never expected to want for himself.

Elara is everything Eirik is not: controlled where he is wild, refined where he is crude, and accustomed to duty where he lives entirely by his own rules. Yet beneath her perfect manners is a strength that continually surprises him.

As Elara is pulled into a world of longhouses, warriors, feasts, raids, and freedoms she has never known, Eirik begins showing her something no royal tutor ever taught her: how to live simply because she wants to.

But Elara has a kingdom waiting for her, brothers determined to bring her home, and a king she was raised to marry.

She has always known what is expected of her.

For the first time, she may have to decide what she wants.

She was raised to wear a crown.
He was born to bow to none.