Broken Queen: The Finale

ARIEL

“Alex! Ariel!” Matteo steps forward and embraces us both swiftly. “It is so good to see you.”

“Likewise,” I admit as Isabella follows her mate’s lead before joining their arms again.

“How have you been?” The small crowd surrounding us disperses as Alex speaks, obviously realizing this conversation will take longer than a few seconds.

I can still feel their gaze on us, though, and I hate how uncomfortable all of my interactions are when I’m in public. Nothing was really private for us—not with our families so close and people lingering because they needed us to weigh in on some decision.

It was exhausting.

“We’ve been wonderful,” Isabella sighs, then smiles up at Matteo. “Ever since we made it back home, things have been pretty peaceful.”

“It’s given us plenty of time to just enjoy one another,” her mate adds, and I can’t help but be a bit jealous.

“That’s great.” My words fall a bit flat, and I try to shift the conversation before I get too touchy about it. Why am I feeling so prickly? It’s amazing they’re getting time to themselves—so what if me and Alex are stuck working out the kinks of managing things?

“How many members of your pack ended up coming?” Things feel stilted between us, but maybe I’m just being paranoid because Alex and Matteo carry the conversation comfortably.

When we finally wander on to the next handful of people we need to schmooze with, I realize we just left our food behind for the ants.

“We can pause and eat?” Alex offers.

I shake my head, even though I give the blanket a longing glance. Maria has taken up residence at it, obviously keeping watch for us, and I smile.

“No, let’s just get this all over with,” I groan, and he presses a kiss to my cheek. I can feel the smirk he’s trying to hide with the gesture and give him a small glare, breaking into a grin when he brushes his lips against mine.

“As my lady commands.” The words are swoon-worthy, and he knows it from the way he laughs at my expression before pulling me along after him to greet the other important party-goers.

***

It takes forever for us to get through everyone, but when we do, we make ourselves comfortable again on our blanket. Maria has been watching after everything, and even though our food is cold, I find I’m more than happy to chow down on it.

“You two are doing so well,” Alex’s mother praises us, and I pause with a forkful of brisket hovering near my mouth.

“Thank you! We’re trying.” I laugh a bit, and Alex smiles indulgently at his mother.

“It’s really not that bad,” he adds. “Everyone has been on their best behavior, minus the rogue reporter Dom ran off earlier.”

I scowl at the reminder.

“How did he even make it in?” Maria asks, brows pulling together.

“No idea, but he’s gone now. I’m sure Dom figured out who he was working with, too, so we know which one has decided they don’t need to respect our boundaries.” Alex all but growls, and I almost feel bad for whichever company has landed itself on his bad side.

“Good! They should know better than to push back against you both by now. Honestly, some people are so rude.”

I marvel at how far we’ve come, considering I would have called her rude only a few short months ago.

I knew better now—Maria only wanted the best for her family, and I could respect that.

The three of us share a meal before Maria excuses herself, spotting someone over Alex’s shoulder, and we watch her go curiously.

“I wonder who she’s so excited to see,” I muse, and Alex grimaces.

“She has a lot of friends.” He shrugs. “There’s really no telling with her these days.”

Was he as worried about her as I was about my dad? It seemed to me that Maria had been coping fairly well with her husband’s passing.

I decide that topics like that could be put on hold though.

We have a date to get to.

***

ALEX

“Do you think Natalie and Chuck will come tomorrow?” Ariel wonders aloud as we walk back to our rooms later that night.

The event was a success, in my opinion. Even if no new mated pairs came of the weekend, I count it a success if people had a good time. It was always meant to be more than a matchmaking party, after all—mating weekends were about bringing the community together, whatever that looked like.

“I hope so,” I admit, and she smiles at me.

Chuck and I have become…not close, exactly, but decent friends at least. I would definitely be more bored without him around, even if his conversations bordered on strange most of the time.

It helps that Ariel and her sister have been slowly rebuilding their relationship. I knew she was eager to have them off on their own, but she wasn’t rushing them out the door. Yet.

I just wasn’t sure if it was because she wanted the space all to ourselves or if her sister was driving her up the wall.

“I know that Dad isn’t coming.” She sighed, and I squeezed her hand. “But I think that Steve and Louisa will be there.”

“Jo will be on duty, but Vivian will be around, too,” she says, and I watch as she does a mental tally, working out which of our friends will be around.

I tried not to let it rub me the wrong way that she was so eager to spend time with them when I was trying so hard to make the weekend about us.

“I’m sure we’ll make time for all of them,” I tease, and she makes a face.

“Yeah, I guess.” We push open the door to our quarters, and she visibly relaxes when the doors shut, letting out a long breath.

“I don’t know how your family lives that way.”

“What way?” My brow furrows despite my amusement.

“Under the microscope!” She gapes at me, kicking off her sandals. “People watch us all the time, and it’s so weird.”

I honestly hadn’t noticed it today.

“They’ve always done that, though,” I chuckle, and she huffs.

“Hence my confusion. I’m still not used to it.”

“You’ll get there though. It’s really not that bad, and after a while, you won’t even notice anymore.” That may be an exaggeration.

My family has always been careful of our public image, and that means we have to maintain a certain amount of awareness of the eyes on us—but it gets easier to handle. Especially with Ariel already having knocked down so many of the barriers that had kept us caged in before.

“Oh, I know,” she assures me, smiling sheepishly as she heads for the bathroom. “I’ll get over it, but man…”

As she slips away, I shake my head, amused by her rambling.

If feeling too watched was her only complaint of the day, I would take it.