Sealing alliances with marriages was nothing new. It was something you had always expected. What you hadn’t expected was that your chosen betrothed would be… like this. Aleksandr sat on the floor extremely drunk just outside the dining room where both of your families were meeting. He had left a while ago and not come back. Apparently this was why.

Suddenly his eyes snapped open to focus on you and he spoke in heavily accented English “Come to find me, eh, sweetheart?” The words were bemused and taunting but his eyes showed little besides coldness.