20

A few days have passed since Harley talked to the guards.

Rayna is officially completely moved in, and she's settled in nicely. Instead of shopping at the mall—since that didn't go well—she, Naomi, and Savvy went on Naomi's laptop and shopped online. When everything came the next day, Rayna spent a good two hours organizing her closet. She's proud of how it's turned out.

Neither she or Naomi have gotten lost in the castle for a while. Rayna knows what every door in the Alpha Wing leads to, and she's also able to make her way around the entire castle and find her way back to the Alpha Wing.

Rayna is still listening to the audio version of The Flower Wolves. She's been spending most of her time working on her artistry. Harley has gotten her a pair of wireless headphones, a speaker, and an entire fucking art studio. When he surprised her with the last one, she was speechless and even cried a little bit. It's right down the hall from his office. She loves it, so she's been spending a lot of her time there.

Speaking of Harley . . .

Rayna has been thinking of him more and more each day. She even drew a picture of him. She plans on re-drawing it on a canvas and painting it. After she experiments with her new paints, of course. Slowly but surely, she's getting the same dirty thoughts of him as he got of her, and, frankly, still gets.

Sadly, as this happens, she's been seeing less of him. Those surprises were the day after those meetings, and right afterwards, he went back to working a lot. Whenever she wakes up, he isn't there. He eats lunch alone in his office. They do eat supper together, but there's never much to talk about. He asks her what she did today, finishes his entire plate in five minutes, and heads off to train and run. He doesn't get back until around ten at night and regardless of if she's awake or asleep, he goes right to bed, barely saying a word to her.

Needless to say, she's been feeling a bit down.

*~*~*~*

2:42 P.M.

Rayna is sitting silent and still in the middle of her art studio.

There's an easel, canvases, large desk, bins, papers, markers, pencils, colored pencils, crayons, oils, tons of different kinds of paints, and just about anything you can use for art all in one room. It's basically her paradise. Even so, she can't manage to be happy about it.

She keeps thinking about the day before.

She had tried to show Harley one of the pieces she made, but all he did was barely give it a glance and some generic compliment and then walk off. It made her feel like shit.

*~* Flashback *~*

Rayna and Harley were sitting in the kitchen in silence. The clock read 7:02 P.M. It was supper time. Harley was eating, but Rayna hadn't touched her food. He was right there, next to her, yet she felt like he was so far away. Then, she remembered the piece she finished earlier that day.

"Stay right here," she said, jumping up excitedly. "I have something to show you."

She ran up the stairs and into her art studio. She quickly grabbed the dry canvas and ran back downstairs and into the kitchen. She held the canvas up to Harley, a huge smile on her face while she awaited his reaction.

He looked up at it, gave it a nod, and looked back down at his food.

"Looks good," he said, going back to eating.

Her smile fell, and her head drooped. Hours of hard work for a nod and "Looks good"? She bit her lip to stop it from trembling and numbly and slowly walked back up the stairs. She put the canvas back and walked downstairs again only to find out Harley wasn't there anymore. He was off to who-knows-where again.

She sighed, picked up her full, untouched plate of food, and threw it away. Alone in the Leader Commons, she curled up into a ball on the floor and cried silently.

He doesn't care.

*~*~*~*

"That's it," she mutters to herself.

Angrily, she stands up and exits her studio. She starts stomping down the single hall between her and Harley's office, but right in front of his door, she hesitates. Her lower lip trembles, her throat hurts, and her eyes sting. Her heart speeds up, and her limbs feel weak.

Her anger towards Harley quickly switches targets.

'I'm so sensitive.'

'It's nothing.'

'I'm overreacting.'

'He's just busy.'

'I'm such a narcissist.'

Tears are streaming down her face before she knows it. She doesn't know what to do. Does she go to Harley? What does she even say? Should she be mad? Should she be quiet?

Now confused, she turns around and runs to the bedroom.

*~* Harley *~*

Harley calmly works at his desk, mulling over a decision.

He still hasn't taught Rayna how to block herself off in the mind-link, and since he's the only one with access to her file, he doesn't see any reason to. He's enjoyed listening in on her new, dirty thoughts of him, but that's all he's tuned in on. Otherwise, he hasn't really listened to her thoughts or felt her emotions.

Suddenly, he freezes when he's filled with a sense of confusion and sadness and despair that isn't his. He instantly dives into Rayna's head. He quickly gathers that she is feeling all of these, but for some reason he can't find out why.

A darkness is creeping over her, and he fears that she might do something harmful.

He growls and stands up quickly at the thought, his chair falling backwards. He rushes out of his office, down the halls, and into the bedroom he and Rayna share. Inside, he doesn't see her.

"Rayna?" he asks, his tone unintentionally loud and somewhat threatening.

That's when he hears the sounds coming from the other side of the bed. He walks around the bed to find Rayna sitting with her back against it, hiding her tears behind her hair. He crouches down next to her.

"Rayna, baby?" he asks, brushing her hair behind her ear. In a quick move of defense, she scratches his wrist. He growls in pain, making her freeze in fear for a moment. She sees the blood and only starts to sob harder.

Seething in pain, Harley backs up. He cradles his wrist, wondering what to do.

'Hey. What's up?'

'I need you to come to my bedroom. Rayna is really upset and she just scratched me.'

'I'll get one of the McClains to come look at that and be there with Naomi to try and help as soon as possible.'

'Okay. Thanks, dude.'

He doesn't respond, just closes his file. Harley stands up, still cradling his wrist as it continues to bleed. He doesn't know what to say to Rayna as she continues to bawl her eyes out, so he ends up exiting the room. Mrs. McClain, Keane, and Naomi arrive at roughly the same time barely even a minute later.

"Oh, dear," Mrs. McClain says, seeing the blood. She reaches out, and he shows her his arm. "You should be okay, but we need to patch this up."

"Naomi is gonna go in and talk to her, okay?" Keane says. Harley nods. "You go to the infirmary with Mrs. McClain. We got Rayna."

"Okay . . ." Harley replies hesitantly. Hollow is very much against the idea of leaving his mate in such a state, but he knows it's the best choice. So, he follows Mrs. McClain down the hall.

*~* Naomi *~*

Naomi enters the bedroom. She quickly realizes where Rayna is and walks over to her.

"Rayna," she whispers. "Hey, it's me, Naomi."

Rayna looks up at her, tears still streaming down her face as she ugly cries. Naomi slowly approaches and wraps her arms around her, comforting her with the contact and rubbing her arm.

"It's okay, Rainy. It'll all be okay," she repeats.

After another minute, Rayna has calmed down enough to talk.

"What's wrong?" Naomi asks.

"W- Well, H- Harley has j- just been s- s- so busy lately, a- and h- he d- d- doesn't c- care about m- m- me anymore," Rayna tells her.

"You're right, he has been busy, but that isn't his fault. He's the Alpha King. Of course he has a lot of work. Where'd you get that he doesn't care about you? Of course he cares about you. He's your mate. He loves you."

"I- I tried to sh- show him th- th- this p- painting I made yesterday a- a- a- and h- he-" Rayna starts, but then breaks out sobbing again.

"What did he do, Rainy?" Naomi presses.

"He j- just d- didn't seem to c- c- care at all," she sobs.

Naomi holds Rayna tightly as she calms down again.

"I bet he didn't mean that, Rainy. He's busy, so he was probably overwhelmed and didn't realize. He still cares about you. You should talk to him about this. It obviously really hurt you."

"Y- You're right. Th- Thank you, Mimi."

"Of course, bestie."

The two share a nice hug before standing up. Rayna moves to sitting on the bed while Naomi walks out.

*~*~*~*

Fifteen minutes later, Harley opens the door. He was patched up, and Rayna was calm now.

"Hey, Rayna," he greets softly.

"Hey, Harley," she greets back. He sits down on the bed next to her. "I'm really sorry for scratching you. I was very vulnerable a- and didn't realize it was you," she apologizes, her voice breaking a bit.

"It's okay, baby. It'll be healed soon."

"You sure?" she questions, holding his hand and looking up at him.

"I'm sure. Don't worry about me," he assures her.

"Okay . . ."

"Why were you so sad, baby?" he asks, concerned.

"Uhm . . . Y- You've b- been so busy lately, a- and I felt l- like y- y- you d- didn't c- care about me anymore," she mumbles, her lip trembling again.

"Oh, baby." He wraps an arm around her and pulls her into his chest. "Of course I still care about you. I care about you more than I thought I could ever care about anyone. Where'd you get that from?"

"I don't know . . . W- We just haven't s- seen each other that much a- and when I tried to show y- you that painting last night . . . Y- You didn't really seem to care," she admits.

"I'm so, so sorry, baby. I never want you to think that I don't care about you. I've just been busy, and your panting is amazing. I didn't realize . . ."

They're quiet for a minute, holding each other.

"From now on, you can get me to take up to a fifteen break whenever you want, and we'll do something together," Harley says.

"So . . . I can have you take multiple fifteen breaks in a row and spend the day with you?"

"What? No. How about two fifteen minute breaks in a day?"

"Aww. Fine," she whines with a pout. Harley chuckles, cupping her face and kissing her cheek.

"We'll spend the rest of the day together, okay?"

"Okay!" she exclaims, pushing him onto the bed and snuggling into his side. He hums in contentment and squeezes her a bit for a second.

After a few minutes of silence, Rayna's heartbeat speeds up only moments before she straddles Harley and kisses him on the lips. He groans in surprise and reacts quickly, placing his hands on her back.

After a little bit of making out, she pulls away breathlessly.

"I love you," Rayna confesses.

Harley's eyes widen before the biggest smile covers his face. He flips them over and kisses her softly.

"I love you, too."

'Keane.'