Marrying the Khan

- The first book in the Northern Yan series. This story takes place before Song of the Chile. It can be read as a standalone.

- Age gap and size difference / two brothers competing for one woman, 1v2, all sexually inexperienced / an arranged marriage that turns to love with the second male lead, a khan / the first male lead, her brother-in-law, takes her by force and imprisons her / ensemble cast

- Bright, proud beauty x scheming, mad older brother-in-law x loyal, rugged khan

- The brother-in-law is seven years older; the khan is three years younger.

Blurb:

When Su Limo saw his beloved again, she was already his younger brother Su Likun's wife, the Khatun of the Northern Yan tribe.

At the banquet, the couple played music together in perfect harmony, their affection plain to see.

As he watched their hands clasped together, darkness flashed through his phoenix eyes.

Su Limo had once served as a spy and hostage in the Great Ning imperial palace for twenty years.

During those days, when every step was perilous, a bright presence had entered that unfathomably deep pool of darkness.

Zhong Changying was a maid in attendance on the princess. They met by chance and fell for each other.

On the night she was tricked into taking an aphrodisiac, the two of them drifted out to the middle of the lake. There, aboard the boat, they became intimate...

"Will you marry me?" Afterward, Zhong Changying nestled against him, her palm on his chest as she felt their heartbeats slowly settle.

Su Limo wiped away the tear at the corner of her eye and studied her carefully in the moonlit reflection on the lake.

He was returning to Northern Yan to seize the throne. If he had a spy close to the khan, it would make his task twice as easy.

And Yingying was so wonderful; his younger brother would surely like her.

"I will." Su Limo pulled her closer, his gaze dark and heavy.

The boat rocked in the night, sending ripples across the water.

Of course he would marry her, just not now.

So he used Zhong Changying's love for him to arrange for her to marry his younger brother.

He forgot that he was the one who had pushed his beloved away.

Remembering the passion they had shared aboard that boat, Su Limo disregarded propriety and stared at his younger brother's wife, seated at the head of the table.

As expected, she quickly looked away, pretending they had never known each other.

The trouble began within the family that day. Their reunion under false identities set off years of tragedy and separation.

Throughout the banquet, Su Limo stared at her without moving. His ambition swelled to its peak.

She, and Northern Yan, should both be his.

Su Likun noticed that his wife had been troubled these past few days.

Tonight she came home late, and her lips were red.

He lifted her onto his lap. His gentle gaze already knew the answer. "Where have you been?"

Zhong Changying lowered her head and said nothing for a long while.

She didn't dare tell him that his older brother had forced her to sneak out for a secret rendezvous, and had kissed her for a long time in the grass that very night.

"My khan... I..." Before she could finish, he silenced her with a tender but forceful kiss.

Su Likun knew everything.

He knew his wife had been sent to the grasslands in the princess's place.

He also knew about her past with his older brother.

He loved her, so he could pretend none of it had ever happened.

"Come back earlier at night from now on. There are wolves on the grasslands. I don't want you to be frightened." Su Likun held her hand tightly and gazed into her eyes.

"Leave whatever troubles you to me."

In the tenth year of Zhong Changying and Su Likun's marriage, the upright Su Likun died in a struggle for power.

That year, their eldest son was eight, and their twins, a boy and a girl, were only four.

Northern Yan had only recently become a kingdom. The khan's sudden death threw the court into turmoil. Eight-year-old Su Lifeng ascended the throne, but with a child ruler, the country was in doubt. His widowed mother and the children were walking on thin ice, their lives in constant danger.

Su Limo stabilized the situation in time and became regent, wielding absolute power over the court.

That night in the mourning hall, he cornered his newly widowed sister-in-law and hooked a finger beneath her sash, pulling open her mourning robes.

He kissed her tear-filled eyes, full of anger and resentment, and spoke gently:

"I will govern Northern Yan well, and I will raise Feng'er to be a great ruler. Your children are my children. I will treat you all well."

"But Yingying, what will you give me in return?"

Reader's guide:

1. The first and second male leads are both devoted exclusively to the heroine, in body and heart, and are sexually inexperienced.

2. The brother-in-law is very bad and very mad, willing to do anything to get what he wants. He would hurt anyone except the heroine and her children. He's a good ruler, but not a good person.

3. The story covers two generations and spans twenty years.

4. The planned ending is a tragic one, but the extras all have happy endings.

Theme: The dragon coils over the land, greater than ever; the world turns upside down, stirring awe and passion.