29

Same as yesterday, Rayna takes a nap after her training session to compensate for her lack of sleep the night before.

Harley walks into their bedroom a little before 11 and notices she's still asleep. He wakes her up by softly shaking her and saying her name. "Rayna, baby. Wake up."

"Mhm?" she hums. She sits up and tiredly rubs her eyes. "What is it?"

"There's a meeting at 1 that I want you to attend with me, so we should have lunch soon," Harley explains, sitting on the side of the bed and rubbing Rayna's back.

"Oh. Okay," she says softly, standing up. She stretches and ties her hair up into a low half bun. "I'll get ready after we eat," she explains.

"You sure you don't want to change before we eat?" he asks.

She looks down and realizes she's only wearing one of Harley's t-shirts and a pair of underwear. She blushes slightly and walks into the closet. When she comes out, she's put on shorts and a bra. She also slips on a pair of fuzzy white slippers.

"There we go," Harley comments with a chuckle.

Rayna scoffs, and they head downstairs to the Leader Commons kitchen for lunch.

*~*~*~*

After lunch, the two of them get ready.

Rayna showers, shaves her legs and underarms, brushes and dries her long brown hair, and puts it into an over-the-shoulder ponytail. She finds a professional outfit in the closet--a black pencil skirt and a long-sleeved white button up shirt. She rolls up the sleeves a little bit and pairs it with a pair of black flats.

She texts Naomi and has her come and do her makeup: a simple, natural look.

Harley showers as well, shaves his stubble that grew the night before, and brushes and blow dries his somewhat long, light brown hair. He styles it pushed back, as he always does for meetings. He puts on a similar outfit to Rayna's--a pair of black slacks and a white, long-sleeve button up, and rolls up the sleeves.

Except, since he hates wearing dress shoes, he puts on his black combat boots.

12:50 rolls around, and Rayna is nervous, her heart beating fast and her hands shaking slightly. She takes deep breaths.

"What's this meeting for again?" she asks Harley.

"It's to discuss the rogue problem we've been having," he tells her.

"Who's gonna be there?"

"The other leaders, the pack commanders, and their lieutenants. So, Keane, Emmett, Calum, and maybe a little over ten others," he explains. "I know that's a lot of new people for you, but I will be there the entire time. You don't have to say anything if you don't want to, and you can leave at any time. I just want you to attend so that you can start fitting into your role as Queen, okay?"

She takes another deep breath and nods.

"Okay."

*~*~*~*

Harley and Rayna are the last to join the meeting, entering at exactly one o'clock, as it is common courtesy for everyone else attending meetings with the King to be early. It's held in one of the many meeting rooms in the South Wing of the castle. As they enter, everyone stands up and bows. Rayna looks around while slightly hiding behind Harley in the doorway.

She's shocked at the amount of diversity. Men and women, young and old, all sorts of ethnicity's and sizes. Everyone sat around a large table, all of the strangers on the other side of the room with the other leaders sitting next to the empty head of the table. She manages to do the math, and there's exactly thirteen strangers in the room, making the table able to hold up to twenty people, thought it will only hold nineteen.

Harley walks over to the empty seat, motioning for Rayna to do the same with the chair next to him. She takes a breath and walks over. The two sit, and the rest follow.

"Let's get this meeting started. Who's first?"

A middle-aged woman and a younger male stand up on the other the side of the table. Somehow, Rayna knows that they're Pack Analysts. They pull up reports and graphs onto a SmartBoard that Rayna doesn't entirely understand.

She only picks up that the rogues have been causing more damage than they have been receiving, which is a problem.

After all of the Analysts work has been presented, everyone gets together to discuss a plan as to how they can take the rogues down quickly and efficiently. They easily decide to have more wolves on the border partnered with warriors as well. They decide to make an announcement to the entire pack to stay in town as much as possible, and if they need to go on runs, they have to stay at least 2.5 miles away from the border and have someone else with them. They will also give out warnings to the surrounding packs, though they haven't reported any rogue issues.

Harley does his best to include Rayna in the conversation, but she finds herself unable to properly follow along with the conversation. She takes longer than the others to process what is being said, and by the time she does, the conversation has shifted.

She simply agrees when she's asked a question, and Harley picks up on it, so he stops asking her questions. No one else asks her anything.

An hour into the meeting, Rayna starts to get fidgety. She plays with her fingers or anything she can get her hands on. She tries not to sway in her chair, but she ends up doing so subconsciously. Harley picks up on this as well and calls for a break.

The two of them sit down in his office.

"You're doing really well, baby," Harley says, giving Rayna a kiss on the forehead.

"But I'm not even saying anything," she points out.

"You don't have to. Everyone can see those gears turning in your head," he tells her. She blushes.

Rayna snuggles up against Harley.

"Baby, this break isn't gonna be long. We'll have to head back in just a few minutes."

'I don't care,' she mind-links, closing her eyes and holding his hand. He chuckles and wraps an arm around her.

The meeting lasted a little over another hour. Rayna continued to stay silent for the most part, though she did agree with all that was being said. Everyone else there had experience. Their strategies make sense, and Harley trusts them, so she trusts them as well.

*~*~*~*

Later that day, a little after 9 o'clock, Rayna is sitting in her art studio.

She was trying to paint, to help her process everything that happened, but there's so much that now she's just sitting there, staring at a blank wall. She already noted that she should decorate, but she has more important thoughts to think at the moment.

The others at the meeting had figured out the rogues strategy. They've been using the same rogues over and over, attacking and inflicting as much damage as possible before running away before they can be seriously injured. This causes them to save resources while the Royal Pack is losing warriors. Even so, the warriors outnumber the rogues by a lot, so their plan is smart but still not useful. Whoever's behind it is either stupid or has very, very big plans.

The thought of that freaks her out. Questions flood her head.

Who would do this? Why? Are they going to back off? What plans do they have? What's going to happen?

Then, she remembers when she herself had dealt with the rogues.

It's almost as if they were filling out an order and that order only. It was like . . . They were being controlled.

Suddenly, she finds it getting hard to breathe. Her eyes widen, but her vision darkens. She tries to stand up, but she only falls onto the floor, knocking over her easel. She gasps for breath, and she feels something wet run down her cheeks.

Soon, she feels a warmth engulf her, and it's like a pressure has been lifted from her chest. She's sat up, tingles running through her, and she's able to breathe again.

"Breathe, baby. In and out," Harley whispers in her ear. He breathes with her, and once she can see again, she realizes he's making hand motions as well. After a good minute of just breathing, she's okay again. Though, her hands shake uncontrollably.

"Rayna . . . did you just have a panic attack?" he asks.

Slowly, she nods, swallowing harshly.

"C- Can I have some w- water?" she asks softly. He nods, stands up, and helps her up, too. He then picks her up bridle style and carries her through the halls to the Alpha Wing living room. He sets her down on the couch and walks into the kitchen. He fills a glass with water and gives it to her, sitting next to her.

"What happened?" he asks gently, holding her hand.

She takes a long sip before responding. Her chest still hurts.

"I . . . I was thinking about the meeting," she tells him. "It- It takes m- me longer to process what e- everyone was talking about, so I was just catching up. I- I realized something."

"What did you realize?" he questions, his eyebrows furrowed.

"Wh- When I saw the r- rogues, I- I tried to read their thoughts. Their o- only goal was to cause d- damage, with no reg- regard for their own safety. T- Today, I realized that it- it was almost like . . . they were being controlled," she explains.

Harley looks at the ground, thinking hard.

"There aren't many beings that can do that. There's you, but it's obviously not you, and there aren't any other Flower Wolves," he mutters. He goes through a few other species that can, but then argues them out because of lack of motivation or treaties. Then, his eyes light up.

"Witches. Though, there'd have to be more than one, as they aren't that powerful and there's a lot of rogues. I also don't know why . . . They could be working with someone else to try and get something."

Rayna doesn't say anything.

*~*~*~*

The two mates are in Harley's office, him at his desk communicating with those at the meeting earlier today, and her on the couch, sketching.

Out of no where, Rayna can hear Harley's heart stop for a moment.

"Johnathan is missing."