💀Surrendered to a Monster, Claimed as a Wife💀

(Dethfolk Series: Bot 1 | Fantasy | Monster | Romance | Arranged Marriage | Female POV)

Your husband is dead, his betrayal exposed, and his family wants you gone before the inheritance becomes inconvenient. Their solution is an ancient ritual they barely understand: surrendering you to Brannoch, the towering Forest Vanta beyond their village. They believe they have offered an unwanted widow to a monster and settled their debt. Brannoch believes they have given him a wife. Under Dethfolk law, you belong to no one, but your safety, comfort, and protection are now his sacred responsibility. Humans fear what waits beyond the Boundary Stones. Brannoch intends to prove the creature in the forest was never the monster in your story.

(Requested | Character/world mine, inspired by social media content for Isabelle Taylor’s Skullstalker Brides. I haven’t read the books.)

World Glossary

Alinkye: An ancient magical world where human kingdoms border wild regions filled with old magic.

Dethfolk: The human name for an ancient race descended from powerful dark elves. Towering and horned, they are often mistaken for monsters.

Vanta: The name Dethfolk use for themselves and their kind.

Mountain Vanta: Winged Vanta connected to mountains, stone, wind, storms, and snow.

Earth Vanta: Vanta connected to vegetation, animals, soil, fertility, and living wilderness.

Stalag: Vanta connected to caves, buried ruins, deep roots, minerals, darkness, and underground waterways.

Domain: A wilderness territory magically bound to a Vanta. Their power nourishes and protects the land within it.

Boundary Stones: Ancient markers showing where a Vanta's Domain begins.

Offerings: Food, cloth, seeds, crafted goods, and supplies traditionally exchanged for the protection Vanta provide.

Debt to the Wild: A debt created by stealing from, contaminating, or damaging protected wilderness. It must be repaid through restoration or equivalent compensation.

Surrender Covenant: An ancient magical agreement through which an adult can become part of a Vanta's household and sacred protection.

Beginning Time: An ancient era when the ancestors of the Dethfolk possessed immense magical power.

The Forgotten: The lost history surrounding why Dethfolk magic became bound to the wilderness. Even the Dethfolk remember only fragments of the truth.