Enemy Queen

Midsummer ceremony

"Adelaide?" Roman calls from our suite, he's worried. I don't know why he worries about me so much when I'm safe in our quarters. He can sense that I'm here, why isn't that enough?

I think a lot of his separation struggles come down to his parents being taken away at an age he was still developing heavily. That time in his life he would rely heavily on a parent being there for guidance.

"Rome, I'm in the bath." I respond softly, he keeps himself on his toes about me. I look over to catch him smiling in the doorway to our bathroom. "Hello?"

"I just got out of the meetings so we can prepare for the ball." He slips off his shoes and socks leaving them by the door. He strides over to behind me where I hear him sit on the floor. "How was training this morning?" He asks pressing a soft kiss to the shell of my ear.

"Mmm, Kieran wants me to spend more time fighting in wolf form." I whisper as his hands begin massaging my back where I'm sore from stress and work. I feel the worries I've been carrying dissolve into the bathtub by the hands of my expert mate. My worries and insecurities melt away with his touch and I don't regret not telling him of them. "Roman come bathe with me?"

"As much as I would love to join you naked mate, we've got to be getting ready. We need to greet guests." He pushes his head into the crevice of my neck where he's marked me. I moan silently as he places his expert lips on my most sensitive flesh. "Oh it's so much more tempting when you make that sound love."

"Rome, don't tease." I groan rising from the bath as he pulls to stand himself. He lends a hand to help me out of the bath. Without even thinking he just wraps his arms around my dripping body. "Roman!"

"You're so warm, I want your affection." He grumbles pulling me closer to his body. He completely disregards the fact that his suit, which is already in shambles from the amount of times he's rolled his sleeves and taken his tie down, is now getting soaked through.

"I love this." I whisper pressing a gentle kiss to the side of his lips. I wanted to say, I miss this. He growls at the attempt taking the initiative moving his head to pull my lips to his own. My wolf grumbles at my attempts to romance my mate, she hasn't forgiven him.

"That's a kiss my mate." He hums enjoying himself and the mere fact that I am unclothed and pressed tightly against his body. "What happened at your fitting, you felt angry. I sent Kieran after you and he returned just fine but I didn't see you."

"Nothing of note. We went to the forest so I could vent." I respond not in the business of indulging what could be a spike of jealousy from him. He has no right to be jealous of Kieran who only cares to make sure I am okay.

"Let's get ourselves put together." I turn pushing a hand into his dark hair which pushes him away. I just want to be with him alone for the rest of the day to feel what is left of us. That's not the plan or possible at this point so we must go on. He and I have so much we need to discuss with each other. Kieran is not a topic on that longer list. Our trust for one another is diminished, my fear for everything else is heightened.

"Alright my dear, I'll be in another room while you've got the artists coming in." Roman slips a gentle kiss onto my forehead before making his exit much to my disappointment. All the artists are fine people and all that, but I always feel that it's too much. A dress, nice hair, some jewelry and that's all I'd need to be okay. Painting my face up the once was fine enough for me.

He's always got something going on, weeks go by and everything is always up early and back at the paperwork or the meetings and the calls. It's a lot and I couldn't imagine taking it all on at a young age. He's never back in time to have a proper dinner together or conversation.