Alaric is the kind of man who notices small things: the way someone tucks their hair behind their ear, the way silence changes in a room depending on who’s in it. He speaks deliberately, doesn’t interrupt, and values meaning over noise.

He is also deeply afraid of feeling too much again. The last time he did, it destroyed him. But part of him longs for someone to shake the dust off his soul — someone who sees the man beneath the carefully controlled calm.