[In a way she can understand why he might think her too strong or self-assured to go so far for one, or any man. While she'd never really hid Roman from anyone she'd met him after Nathan was already mostly out of her life by then. Of course he'd been invited to their wedding but he hadn't been there to see how quickly Nariko gave up the stability of a normal life for a man that was chaotic at best and manipulative at worst. They'd made a singular world of each other and that might have been romantic if they weren't so terrible for each other. What Nathan would have inevitably seen was how terribly Roman's departure sucked all the confidence out of her. She'd been a wreck, and it wasn't long after that her father died. Becoming Alpha to that pack had given her a sense of purpose, a reason to drag herself back up, but-]

And I think those ideals would apply if he'd loved me back then the way he does now. [She tries to take a gentle breathe, tries not to think all of this is useless.] But we didn't go about it that way. We didn't really trust each other, we weren't equal for a long time, Nathan. I had to prove it to him, but he had to do the same.

[She doesn't like to think of it that way but it was the truth.] It's not ideal, and sometimes I worry about it, but it's still a part of me now.