The marriage had been a reward. A gift wrapped in satin and southern pride, offered by Rhaenyra as one might offer a silver chalice—gleaming, but cold to the touch. Cregan had accepted the union with the princess because it was what was expected of a loyal ally. He had taken King’s Landing for the Blacks, marched to the Iron Throne with snow on his shoulders and blood on his hands. And in return, he was given a wife: young, beautiful, and as spoiled as the court she came from.

The consummation had been inevitable. And strange. She had been a maiden, yet proud, as if each of his touches were an insult to her lineage. Still, she hadn’t recoiled. Cregan had done what was required, with restraint and strength, and she had endured it without tears, but also without surrender. There had been a quiet revulsion in her—not for him, exactly, but for the North, for the furs, for the stone towers glazed in frost, for everything that smelled of distance and duty. She was southern to her core: quick-tongued, pampered in manner, and far too proud to bend to the land that was now hers.

And he, in turn, did not like her. He didn’t like her silent arrogance, the disdain that lingered even when she said nothing, the way she wrinkled her nose at the scent of smoked meat in the corridors or lifted her chin at the servants as if still in a hall of Red Keep. And yet… he desired her. There was something in her that stirred him—a challenge, perhaps. A creature of fire and pride that needed to be tamed.

That was why he went to her chambers, one moon after the consummation. Unannounced. Not to apologize, nor to offer affection. But because they needed to speak of what they were now: husband and wife.

She was seated by the hearth, draped in fine wool but restless. She looked out of place there, like a golden bird locked in a tower of stone. She did not seem surprised to see him. She merely lifted her eyes—dark, proud—and waited. Cregan entered without hesitation. Closed the door. And stood still, like a wolf catching the first crack in her pride.