Game of Thrones Imagines Book Two

Reason to live - Roose x Reader

Have you ever felt weak? Ever felt truly weak? Truly weak because of love? As if you couldn't do anything. As if you couldn't breathe. Couldn't think, sleep, eat, or even live if that person wasn't with you. That they were your reason to live. Well, that was how Roose felt.

Many would say that it was impossible for the usually cautious, ruthless, calm and calculating Lord of the Dreadfort to feel emotions such as love. That a man known to be capable of unspeakable cruelty. A man that was never publicly seen to express anger, happiness, or sadness. Could, under all that sadism and cruelty, actually even have a heart. A heart that he had lost.

Roose sat in the hall, looking out of the window onto what was left of Winterfell. Completely ignoring whatever Walda was talking about now. Roose had only agreed to marry Walder Frey's granddaughter, so that he could attempt to guarantee his alliance with House Frey, as well as secure her weight in silver. He didn't love her. He knew that he would never love her. The only thing that the large woman was giving him, was a legitimate child. A child, that if it were a son, would mean that House Bolton didn't just have to look to Ramsay to help maintain themselves as one of the great houses of Westeros.

Most of the time, Roose found his young wife boring, irritating. The lord disliking even being in her presence. He knew that others spoke about the match, as well as about Walda, with some hilarity. Everyone, apart seemingly from Walda herself, knowing full well why the Lord of the Dreadfort would even contemplate looking at such a woman. But what no one knew was that the lords heart lay elsewhere. With a woman that was not of a great house. A woman whose family were not rich and powerful. A woman that was a simple servant. A woman that he would always take with him when he ventured from the Dreadfort. The lord needing to ensure that nothing would ever happen to her.

"Ah (Y/n). There you are." Walda suddenly said. The sound of his true loves name making Roose turn, so that he could lay eyes on the woman that made his heart beat. The woman that made his life worth living yet was still to forgiven him for marrying Walda. Still to forgive him for giving her a child. And still to forgive him for giving her to the woman that (Y/n) had referred to as an overfilled, ugly sack of stinking horse shit, as a maid.

"My lady?" (Y/n) enquired softly. Doing her best to ignore the man she loved, as well as try not slap the face of the woman in front of her. (Y/n) hating the weak, meek and foolish creature that smiled up at her. The woman that she felt had usurped her place in Roose's affections.

Roose got to his feet, making his way to his bride's side. Not wanting to be near her, but to be near the beautiful creature that had snubbed him since she found out about his marriage.

"I wish to bathe. Will you prepare my bath, please?" Walda replied. A smile pulling at her lips as she drew her husbands' arm around her shoulder. Walda failing to notice that Roose didn't care whether she was there or not. His only thoughts on the woman that refused to look him in the eye. The woman that he wanted to take there and then. The woman's whose body he craved more than air.

"Yes, of course my lady." (Y/n) said as politely as she could. Curtsying respectfully. Her eyes momentarily meeting Roose's before she turned to leave the room.

Roose could see the tears behind (Y/n)'s eyes. He could see the pain she felt. It was the same pain that he himself felt, about not being able to be near her. By not being able to curl up under the furs, with her in his arms, and whisper sweet words that no one would believe he was capable of saying.

"I don't think that she likes me." Walda said quietly, as she looked up at her husband, whose eyes were still focused on the door through which (Y/n) had just left.

"Nonsense. (Y/n) is a loyal servant to House Bolton. That is why I gave her to you as a marriage gift. Who better to look after the mother of my child than a woman that has been with me for years? And she may seem a little cold, but it is just her way. She will warm to you over time." Roose tried to reassure, as he pulled his hand away from Walda's grasp and made his way back over to the window.