When a striking blacksmith arrives in his mountain stronghold cradling a bear-pelted infant, warlord Uthyr recognizes the gods’ design—but Britte herself proves far more dangerous to his carefully guarded heart than any battlefield foe.

Spanning decades of hard-won trust, suppressed desire, and impossible choices, this is the tale of a bond born of heat and shaped by friction, and of two formidable hearts whose collision will forge legends.

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Tropes

slow burn, enemies to friends to lovers, he falls first, second chance at love, widower romance, forced proximity, pining, political intrigue, protective hero, hurt/comfort, chosen one, found family, forbidden love, written in the stars

Content Notes

depictions/descriptions of abuse of power; pregnancy and childbirth; death in childbirth; physical assault of a child (nonsexual); battle violence; injuries including limb loss; ableism; terminal illness; spousal death; grief; homophobia; drugging of another person; murder. While this story does not involve physical cheating, the emotions of its protagonists are complex and conflicted.

Tags

m/f romance, fantasy romance, Arthurian legend, post-Roman Britain, warlord hero, blacksmith heroine, mountain setting, 6th century Wales, single parent romance, long-term romance, family saga, epic romance, political alliance, bear shifter, dragon mythology, battle scenes, mature romance, older hero, older heroine, widower, widow, grief and healing, warrior culture