“I trust you had a good night,” the queen all but sneered the following morning during breakfast.
“Great,” Emily beamed at her.
“A wild one is more like it,” Theodore retorted. “Thank you, mother.”
“Yeah, wild indeed,” she quipped. “I believe the whole palace heard you two. What happened to being discreet?”
“Ah well, shit happened,” Theodore chuckled.
“Language,” the king admonished his oldest in a tone that bordered on the annoyed.
“I’m not a kid, father,” Theodore told him tersely.
“No, but you are a prince, darling,” his mother supplied.
The royal couple sure had some weird way to show how they cared for their offspring, Emily reasoned inwardly, but didn’t dare to point it out out loud.
She had learned a few lessons from Serena already, and she didn’t want to put Theodore in a bad position where he had to choose between her and his family.
“When should we hold the coronation ceremony?” His mother then asked matter-of-factly, almost as if she was speaking about the weather.
“It’s still too soon,” he told her in much the same tone as hers.
“Too soon for whom?” The queen raised an eyebrow at that. “You were born to lead. And you were brought up to be the best king this community will ever have. So, I must ask again, for whom is it too soon?”
Emily felt the weight of the scrutiny she was being subjected to. And despite her fear and her desire to cower back in fear, she held her head proudly, looking ahead of her, unseeingly, as if she had no care in the world – as if she wasn’t listening and they weren’t talking about her.
“I do not care for the coronation just yet,” he told her off-handedly.
“Well, you should,” the queen told him almost amiably. “Because it’s happening – soon. You have one month to get used to the idea, and to groom your little innocent mate into someone worthy of the title of a queen…”
And with that, she left the table. The king was hot on her heels.
“Well, that was intense,” Serena observed jokingly, trying to lighten the mood no doubt.
“You don’t say?” Liam supplied sarcastically.
“What did she mean by grooming me?” Emily asked, worriedly biting on her bottom lip.
“It’s going to be okay, dorogaya,” Theodore tried to reassure her.
“So you’ve been telling me all along,” she sighed. “What does she mean we only have one month? And does that mean we’ll never go back to our normal life?”
Theodore hung his head, and that was all the answer she needed.
“We are not normal, dearie,” Serena told her softly, trying to appease her. “We are dragon royalty. I believe Theo came clean to you about being a prince before you two mated?”
“Even so, he led a normal life at the estate,” Emily declared hotly and received a pointed look from Liam that challenged her to go on with her illusion. “Okay, save maybe for his aloofness, his speech pattern, and his desire to be a total recluse.”
“So, you see, he was never normal to begin with,” Serena offered her a small smile as a means to console her.
“Still, that doesn’t explain what is required of me?” Emily sighed again.
“Many things, dearie,” Serena said sheepishly.
Emily humphed at that, and it wasn’t until she felt Theodore squeeze her hand lovingly that she calmed down a notch.
** ** ** ** **
“Dorogaya,” Theodore called her name as she was getting ready for lunch – yet another royal gathering for which she was not mentally prepared.
And as always, his voice did wonders to her. She shivered in pure physical awareness.
“Yes?” She said breathlessly as she put on yet another layer of the far too pale pink lipstick. She looked at his eyes through the mirror. He looked troubled.
Great, now was not the time to start reading him the way he did her.
“I apologize for my parents, and for the duties that come with my being a prince,” he told her softly before planting a kiss on her shoulder.
“Uprooting you was never my intention,” he carried on before putting his hand on her shoulder. “I knew it was bound to happen, but I never thought it would be so soon.”
“It’s okay,” she told him as she tilted her head to the side, and placed a kiss on his hand. “I’m the fool who believed we could carry on living in our small bubble back at the estate.”
He smiled wryly at her statement.
“I even miss Mrs. Steams’ haughty manners and overly strict work ethics,” she admitted to him softly.
“As long as you stand by my side, dorogaya, I am invincible,” he told her. “Without you, I would be naught. Never forget that.”
His words meant to her more than he could possibly imagine. Her phone vibrated with a text but she didn’t bother checking it.
“I love you,” she told him, a timid smile stretching her lips.
“I love you more,” he retorted.
“Debatable,” she countered with an eye-roll.
“Don’t roll your eyes at me,” he groaned and she stiffened slightly. “Nobody has the right to be late to a function. There’s no such thing as fashionably late at the royal court.”
She nodded earnestly, and made a mental note to remember to always check the time, unless she wanted a serious chastising from the queen.
And with that, they left their bedchamber and went to the dinning hall… where a crowd awaited by the chairs.
Emily appraised the persons present, and realized they were all dressed in elegant evening gowns. She was the only one wearing a summer maxi dress.
To escape the stares and the queen’s glare, she checked her once again vibrating phone.
Serena’s first text was a warning: Nobles will be of the party. Dress nicely.
The second was an outraged: Did you not read my text?
Emily lifted her eyes and caught Serena’s eye-roll to which she smiled slightly.