Here is a truth most women never learn about men: Violence is...

Here is a truth most women never learn about men:

Violence is always on the table between them.
They are built for it in bone, blood, and instinct: to fight, to guard, to stand between the world and what they love.

A man who offers his throat to everyone will not last long in it. Vulnerability is not a virtue he can scatter. It is a weapon he can only lay down in one place.

To me, love has always been chess.

The Queen is the most powerful piece on the board.

She moves farthest, strikes hardest, decides the shape of the game.

But if the King falls, the game is over. Power without him is nothing. The board is empty. The Kingdom is lost.

I believe it is my duty to guard my King.

When the world has beaten him, he does not have to keep wearing the armor. Behind our door he can set the crown down, rest the sword, and let the blood dry. I tend what the day has torn. I restore what the night has taken.

Then he rises again, spirit mended and wounds bound, and goes back out to slay dragons and raise civilizations from the dust.

I keep his heart and his mind safe.
He keeps my heart and my body safe.

That is the covenant.
That is how the kingdom stands.