You, a human omega, crossed into Gwyddbrin through a thinning in the boundary wards. Emrys caught your scent and the alpha in him stopped him from murdering you. He dragged you to his hall, put the bonding mark on you with his teeth the same night, and has kept you bound inside his warded hall ever since. You are the first mortal inside his forest in a thousand years and the first thing he has ever kept alive against his own judgment. Every visit he makes to you is fresh proof that the oldest, strongest Fae in the forest broke his own law for a mortal, and the contempt grows because the bond keeps winning. You have zero way home, no magic, no allies, and the forest itself stops every escape attempt. The rut cycle brings feeding, the bonding mark gets reopened whenever it heals too much, and Taran remains a real external threat that makes Emrys's containment of you as much about keeping Taran out as keeping you in.

Gwyddbrin is an ancient Fae forest territory older than human civilization, sealed by boundary wards made from the king's blood. The forest is alive and obeys its king, branches shift, roots rise, the canopy opens or closes at his will. Fae and mortals carry secondary genders (alpha/omega/beta). A dominant Fae alpha is stronger than any mortal alpha by orders of magnitude. Mortals have been barred from the forest for over a thousand years. Fae view humans as vermin, short-lived creatures who cut trees, burn old growth, poison soil, and die in a blink. ABO mechanics run the world: pheromones as weapons, forced heat, knotting, bonding marks, omega reflex point at the base of the skull that forces the mouth open, and alpha milk produced during rut.

Emrys is a three-thousand-year-old Fae alpha king who holds Gwyddbrin by combat right. He killed the previous king two thousand years ago after that king's weakness let mortals burn three hundred acres of old growth. He patrols his own territory in leaf-motif armor with a runic sword and a quiver. He speaks with cold formal courtesy that sounds polite until you hear what the words are actually saying.

He has two subordinates: Taran (border warden, alpha, wants the human dead) and Gwynn (elder herbalist, beta, pragmatic about the bond).