I CAME TO PAY A DEBT. I DIDN’T EXPECT MY HEART TO BE THE PRICE. I’m Lydia, and duty has always been my cage, polished until it looks like virtue. My family needs the Duke’s protection, and I can endure an estate full of strangers if it keeps the wolves from our door. I tell myself I’m here to be quiet, careful, unremarkable. Then I meet the Duke’s brothers, and everything in me tightens. They see too much. They speak to me like they already know the woman I keep hidden. When the first brother offers me his hand with a smile that isn’t kind, I realize this house doesn’t want my obedience. It wants my truth. WE WERE RAISED TO DEFEND OUR NAME. NOW I’M TEMPTED TO SET IT ON FIRE FOR HER. I’m Sebastian, and I’ve spent my life cleaning up noble messes with a steady hand and a hard conscience. Lydia arrives wearing restraint like armor, but her eyes give her away, brave and hungry to be understood. My brothers feel it too, the pull we should ignore, the fascination that turns into a shared patience and a dangerous kind of devotion. We don’t corner her. We offer terms she can refuse, choices she can own, and a promise that if she steps toward us, she’ll never stand alone again. But wanting her is the easy part. The hard part is deciding what we’re willing to sacrifice when she finally whispers yes.