***First Bonus Chapter of the Week***
Dreadfort Castle
POV of Domeric Bolton
"They plan to betroth Sansa to me."
Domeric said with a frown, not liking the idea of someone deciding the future of such a young girl. He also didn't want anyone to decide his life, though.
But he also knew that betrothal deals between Houses were one of this world's customs and a lot of Houses were doing that.
A few years ago, he would have thrown a tantrum and said things like no one could decide his fate or force him to do anything. But he didn't do things like that anymore.
In the last few years, he has realized something very important and alarming about himself. He was becoming someone he certainly didn't want to be. Like someone he would despise in his past life. Someone like Voldemort. Or like someone worse than Voldemort.
That was a hard blow to him. So, he tried to find the reasons behind his behavior. And eventually came to the conclusion that he had psychological traumas from his past life.
When he was living with Dursleys he couldn't control his life. The Dursleys decided what he should and shouldn't do. And if he did something he shouldn't, he was punished severely.
Therefore, he overreacted when someone forced him to do something in this world. And he didn't like it and was irritated quickly when someone called him kid or boy because that reminded him of his Uncle Vernon.
When he was in Hogwarts, strange things happened year after year, and he realized that he was being manipulated by Dumbledore whom he saw as his grandfather. Therefore, he had some trust issues in his second life.
Then Ginny betrayed and cheated on him. So, he was oversensitive about betrayals and had some fear of being cheated on again.
And because of all these traumas from his past life, he became someone cold, someone throwing tantrums for small things, someone manipulative, someone stealing people's free will, someone he deeply despised.
But he had changed and fixed his mentality in the last past years after he realized that he had some issues.
He certainly didn't accept a forced betrothal in the past. But now he was calm. He knew why Lord Stark decided to betroth Sansa with him. And understood that it was a political decision. Also in this world, some betrothal deals concluded even before kids were born. So, the betrothal between Sansa and him, among the two most powerful Houses in the North wasn't something absurd.
It was a good move in terms of political stance. And politics must be dealt with politics. He could definitely change the situation or bend the conditions with politics. Throwing tantrums wouldn't be helpful in this situation.
And if he couldn't change the situation with politics, that was also okay with him. He didn't want to betroth with Sansa because she was too young to understand the situation. If he was to be betrothed to a person, he would at least expect the other person to understand the situation and willingly accept the betrothal.
But except for that, a betrothal with Boltons and Starks was a beneficial thing for him. Becoming an ally with Warden House of North would prevent a lot of trouble in the future. Not that he needed but less trouble was better than more trouble, right?
As for Sansa's age, he would think something about that.
"It's a smart decision." She said with a shrug though there was a bitter smile on her face. "Your power and wealth are increasing day by day and the Starks are feeling threatened, as they should. But they cannot attack you without any provocation. Lord Stark's honor wouldn't allow it. So, marrying you to their daughter and cementing the alliance between the two houses is a rather smart decision. One that I would have made as well if I had been in their shoes."
He raised an eyebrow at her, and she simply smiled at him.
"You should be happy with this. A marriage with a Stark would be a great boon to your house." She said.
"Maybe. But Sansa is still too young to understand the meaning of this betrothal. And if I am going to betroth someone, I want to at least like her and her to like me. Even if there wasn't love between us. So, I need to talk with Lord Stark about some conditions."
---------------
Winterfell Castle
POV of Domeric Bolton
Domeric was at Winterfell at the moment.
House Bolton was one of the last ones to arrive at Winterfell and Robb Stark's 10th name day.
He came to Winterfell with only 20 men along with Aunt Barbrey Dustin. He didn't bring any Direwolf with him as riding a direwolf, which was Stark's symbol, a second time into the Stark House might be taken as an insult by the other lords.
After all, at the first time, there weren't any other lords from other Houses, only the Lord Stark family and their castle folks were there. Probably Lord Stark understood the reason why Domeric did that in the past and he didn't pursue the matter.
But doing that again while all lords from Nort were at the Winterfell would be an insult to Stark House. He also didn't bring any wargs or giants with him either.
Although no one had said anything to him yet, it was a fact that people were uneasy about him. Of the power that he's accumulated over the past few years. And they're even nervous of Raksa who was easily the largest person they had ever seen in the whole North.
He wondered how they would have reacted if he had brought the giants and the wargs with him.
'Good thing I didn't.' he thought.
But he understood their fear to an extent.
The Boltons have a bad history. And reading the minds of the other lords made it very clear that even if some of them smiled at him and tried to act confident, they were slightly nervous about the whole thing.
Even Lord Wyman Manderly who acted like a kind grandfather to him held a slight resentment because of the amount of business that is being taken away from his lands after he opened the new port at the Weeping Water.
Normally he wouldn't use Legilimency in this kind of situation anymore. But this event was different. He and his aunt thought that Lord Stark was planning to betroth Sansa to him but they might be also wrong. And this event might be a trap for his Bolton House.
They shouldn't have worried as he wouldn't take any action against them as long as they don't act with any hostility toward his people.
And they likely won't act directly against him as long as Lord Stark has control over the situation. But he didn't want to take risks. After all his aunt was also here.
After looking at Lord Stark's mind, he easily understood his game plan to control House Bolton's growing power.
And that game plan was to marry him to his oldest daughter, Sansa Stark.
Just as his aunt has guessed.
But he could also see the hesitation in Lord Stark's mind when he thought about this topic as he didn't want to promise his daughter's hand to anyone just yet. And that was a good thing for Domeric as he was planning to change betrothal conditions.
---------------
Author's Note: Thank you, Sirice, for becoming my Patron and a BRONZE member of my page. This Chapter is dedicated to your name.
You folks also can read up to +47 Chapters on mt P@treon Page as an early access privilege.
You can also read "+2 Free Chapter" and see some pictures as aFree Member.
www.patreon.com/vanguard_v
P@treon Page Name: V For Vanguard
Next Chapters' Name:
Ch.63: Long-Awaited Gifts
Ch.64: Is She Dumb?
To 3rd Bonus Chapter Of Week: 24/100 Power Stones – You folks can get, up to 7 bonus Chapters every week by completing the quota. 1 B.Chapter = 100 Power Stones