Hade's Rose

Chapter Five: Faint

I decided to give it another month before returning home to my parents, to live out the last of my days with them. My parents, loving as they are, would hopefully understand why there was nothing else to be done.

Shuffling around the King's office, not touching any papers but only removing the rubbish in the bin, I noticed the increase of pins on the incredibly large map. I'd managed to work out that new pins only got added after he had been away for some kind of trip, but I still hadn't worked out what they meant. Perhaps he just liked a record of all the places he'd been? I mused to myself, as I bustled out into the corridor.

"Your Majesty." I heard Henry from the other end of the corridor, blocking the partly open door to the passage. Without thinking my actions through, I dropped my bag of rubbish and flung myself into the nearby broom cupboard. Unable to support my weight at such an odd angle, I pressed myself into the shelves. An odd creaking was the only warning I got before various brushes and oddments rained down upon me as the shelf cracked, sending me sprawling to the ground.

"Rose?" Henry called out, his voice and footsteps echoed closer, before the door to the cupboard was wrenched more widely open.

Towering above me was Henry, looking both shocked and bemused to find me covered in bits of shoe polish at the bottom of a cupboard.

"Yes" I demurely murmured, now staring resolutely at his shoes. Pride being the only scrap of dignity I had left, I ignored my impulse to cower.

"Do you... need a hand?" Henry enquired, trying to stifle his laughter.

"No... I just fell." My reply was very quiet, but I trusted his extra senses to hear me. Unsure of where to place my hand to push myself up, I was forced to reach for Henry's outstretched arm who gave me a small yank which nearly threw me into the air. I had never touched a wolfman before, and the contact made me feel queasy. I stabilised myself using the doorframe, keeping my eyes lowered to the ground.

"I'll just tidy this up and be gone." I muttered, dying of mortification. My head spinning from the fumes of the cupboard and now that warm and mellow butterscotch scent that I knew so well.

"It's quite alright." Spoke a voice to the side of Henry. The voice was not stern as I remembered it, but warm. Similar to Henry's, there was a touch of amusement in his tone that further compounded my embarrassment. I felt like my mind and body were in overload; I read that this could happen, although not much was documented on Mate Deprival Sickness. The Bane pack were the only ones crazy enough to allow it (only amongst the humans of course).

Curiosity got the better of me and I raised my eyes to meet that of my mate. Taller than Henry by a good couple of inches, King Hadrian stood robed in a simple brown and gold tunic. Tousled hazel-coloured hair sat a few centimetres from his shoulders, framing a chiselled and striking face. He would not be considered handsome, but if decisive was a facial construct then that is what he had. Oddly enough, his skin tone matched mine; a faint olive complexion, perhaps slightly darker from frequent travelling and time spent out in the sun. For I knew he liked to sit outside, as there was a little balcony attached to his bedroom overlooking a walled garden.

Months of separation took its toll however, as I felt my body strangely relax whilst buzz with a faint electricity. The last I saw were the two men's eyes widen, as I collapsed back into the cupboard in a dead faint.