The start of the series feels a bit off at times, where it feels like the story wants to start by showing the ML as the villain, aka kidnapper, then it switches to them having a good relationship but after escaping she didn't want to interact with him. It might get explained later but at least currently it feels a bit arbitrary. While this might be the case that is revealed later I think it would of been better if they made it that she felt guilty towards him due to accidently stealing the heirloom causing her to avoid him. Right now it just feels a bit unnatural due to them supposedly having a good relationship when she lived with him and her having fond memories, while at the same time her trying to avoid him.

First, while in normal cases it would be absurd for a prince to press two families together we don't have the world building set up. Saying its madness is taking the world building of common novels and applying it to this one without knowing if it applies.

Second, in this novels case I don't think its a political novel, and its more in there for plot devices. While there is "bad blood" between the clans its not like war from what i've inferred. The main scene so far has been at the fox gathering FL attended for the first time where a lot of foxes were talking bad about wolves but the FL did not agree with this viewpoint.

Third, again this is a novel so it does not need consideration to political realities. This is a world where people can turn into baby foxes or have snake scales appear, this novel could easily set up a different culture than our world and many common novels which doesn't make this such unrealistic politics. Now, I don't honestly think that this novel will do that, the politics feel like a plot device to me, but my point is as of chapter 35, which is way further than the 8 in the review, we do not know this kind of knowledge so I think its unfair to judge a novel based on this reasoning.

Now, for the main point which I do somewhat agree with is how the ML set up the engagement. It does feel like it was done in a way that feels very very off for a romance novel. I believe the author somewhat did this on purpose trying to have the image of him being bad for a while, since up to a certain point it talks like ML is a horrible kidnapper before switching to her liking being with him during her time there.

It's later revealed that he is plagued by madness, where he will hallucinate and go insane. Originally FL in fox form & and heirloom helped him keep it under control, and there is a line about how the current FL also helped suppress it. None of the following is explicitly stated, but it can be assumed that he isn't in a good mental state at this point in the story, and there are a lot of hints that he is desperate. While this doesn't defend his behavior, I think it at least hints that this will go away once and as of chapter 35 once past the inital start of their relationships it feels like he became a lot more normal. I think the author just struggled with the set-up and starting up the dynamic of her keeping the secret of being his pet while them having a relationship.