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“You’re in a castle and you’re bored?” Hannah scoffs.
I drop back on my sofa and glare up at the beams overheard. “It’s not like there’s a Renaissance fair going on in here. It’s so quiet and there’s no one to talk to.”
“What about Nathan? I assumed that after the mating ceremony, you two would be all...” Hannah makes a disgusting squish noise with her mouth.
“Ew, and no. I slept for like ever after the transformation. I only just saw him this morning for breakfast, and he took off right after.” I don’t tell her about the “soon” remark. It’s not a great look to call up your friend and start bitching about your husband less than two days after the mating ritual.
“Well, I guess that’s what happens when you marry royalty,” Hannah says with a sigh. “But I can’t come over today. Jo-jo’s colicky and I don’t have the energy to shower.”
“I get it.” I’m disappointed, but I get it. “You have to come visit soon, though, okay?”
“I’ll visit soon,” she promises, and we hang up, and I’m all alone again.
Nathan doesn’t come home that night. At least, he doesn’t come to see me. I’m still not sure where his bedroom is, and he never comes down to the sitting room or dining room. I end up falling asleep on the couch where I almost had sex with him weeks ago, only to be awoken by a thrall and sent off to my bedroom like a child.
Aconitum Hall is a prison. I’m not allowed to leave the residence still, for my own “protection.” The thralls are the only people present and none of them are interested in me beyond making sure I’m behaving. I can’t just keep Hannah on the phone with me until someone comes along to entertain me, but even in London I didn’t spend this much time alone. I’m not used to the quiet, I’m not used to people not filling up my time, and I’m not used to not having any responsibilities. Maybe other people would love it, but it’s definitely not for me.
I don’t see my mate again until breakfast the next morning, and I can’t take another whole day of nothing.
“What are your plans for the afternoon?” I ask, digging my fingernails into my palm beneath the table to stop myself from asking where the hell he’s been. “Maybe we could... do something.”
“Do something?” He frowns like I’ve asked him if he’d like to eat a bug.
“Yeah, like...hang out or...” I should have thought of something before suggesting anything at all. But what does one “do” with one’s much older mate, when one doesn’t really know that mate at all? “I just thought, you know. To get to know each other.”
“Why do we need to get to know each other?”
The question is like a slap in the face. I don’t need Nathan to fall in love with me, but I don’t want him to be a stranger forever.
“Because we’re mates. And we’re going to rule this pack together. And I’m starting to think that maybe you’re not as ‘intrigued’ by me as you claimed.” That makes me sound super vain. I added, “And I’m bored.”
“The thralls will bring you anything you desire,” he tells me, as if nobody has mentioned it yet.
“I know they will. That’s the answer I got any time I tried to talk to any of them. I’m lonely. I don’t have many friends and you won’t let me leave the residence.”
“For your own good.”
“I can’t even walk around the whole house ‘for my own good’?” I’m raising my voice, something Mother always chided me for. “It’s unattractive, Bailey.” I take a deep breath. “I feel like I’m just killing time here. I have no purpose. I used to have a job, back in London.”
“You’ll have a job here.” Nathan spreads his hands. “You’re about to be crowned queen next week.”
“But right now, I’m alone. And I’m unhappy. And I don’t think it’s too much to ask that my mate spend time a little time with me, when he’s engineered it so that nobody else can.”
He sighs deeply and tosses his napkin on the table. For a moment, I’m afraid he’ll leave the room and tell me to call his secretary. Instead, he says, “Bailey, I recognize that this is a difficult transition. But you’ve come into great power. And power is lonely.”
My lip quivers under the strain of my disappointment. I look down at my plate and silently order myself not to cry.
“I promise, I’ll make time for us, just the two of us, when I return from London.”
My head snaps up. “You’re going to London?”
“For business unrelated to the pack,” he says with a nod. “I’ll be back in time for your fertile days. Thank you, by the way, for sending the information so expediently.”
