Richard It was a freezing, rain-soaked night in December. I hurried into the navy-blue minivan, where my wife, son, and twin girls were already waiting—laughing at how close I’d come to wiping out on the driveway. We were heading to a friend’s place for a Christmas party. Same tradition every year. My wife was mid-sentence, talking about our March trip to Mexico, when the tyres hit black ice. After that—nothing clean. Jus...

People assume that intimacy comes naturally after marriage. They imagine that love effortlessly bridges the gap between two people who have waited their whole lives for one another. For us, reality proved far more complicated. My wife was raised in a conservative family where sex before marriage wasn't an option. This was not really how I was raised, but since I was a penetrative virgin at the time, I did not think much o...

Chapter 2 – War, death, and The White LionIn the months that followed, Arla and I shared passionate nights, and even after she became pregnant just a month later, our lovemaking only grew more tender as her pregnancy advanced. Nine months after our wedding night, Lady Arla Tor’Riken gave birth to a baby boy. His pale blue eyes, olive skin, and tufts of silver-white hair marked him as an heir to my line. To celebrate our s...