I Married the 'Mad' Heir

He was supposed to marry my brother.

Instead, three days before the wedding, I was sent in his place.

The reason?

The man I was marrying had gone mad.

Abel Valerian was once the kingdom’s most brilliant young heir—a powerful Alpha, feared on the battlefield and admired throughout high society.

Then a carriage accident changed everything.

Now, the once-proud heir spends his days playing with wooden horses, forgets where he left his boots, gets lost in his own estate, and worries more about sharing his cookies than ruling a duchy.

His family calls him useless.

His servants don't respect him.

His former fiancée abandoned him.

And now I'm expected to become his husband.

I thought I was being sacrificed to protect my family's alliance.

I thought I'd spend the rest of my life taking care of a broken man.

Then, on our wedding night, my husband looked at me with those innocent golden eyes and asked—

“Do you want to play with me?”

...How exactly am I supposed to survive this marriage?

He is clingy.

Ridiculously affectionate.

Terrible at tying his own boots.

And apparently convinced that husbands are supposed to stay together forever.

But sometimes...

He looks at me differently.

Sometimes his smile disappears.

Sometimes those golden eyes become frighteningly sharp.

And sometimes, for just a moment—

I see the man everyone claims is gone.

I don't know what happened to Abel Valerian three years ago.

I don't know why everyone seems so determined to keep him powerless.

And I certainly don't know why the “mad” heir sometimes remembers things he shouldn't.

But one thing is becoming painfully clear.

I may have entered this marriage to protect a helpless husband.

I might end up needing protection from the man he used to be.