42

After a week, Rayna and Harley are now both back at the castle, this time with Serenity. Her room's in the alpha wing, just down the hall from theirs. Rayna had asked the little girl what her bedroom is, gave her answer to Harley, and he took it seriously.

They show Serenity her new room for the first time, and she let's out an excited squeal that gives them a headache. The walls were painted a mixture of pastel pink, yellow, and purple. Her bed was in the middle of one wall with white comforter, pillows, and a lace canopy overhead.

Fairy lights were scattered across the walls, giving it a cute yellow glow. On the opposite as the bed, there's a little bookshelf and table underneath a small second story—almost like the top half of a bunk bed—that can easily be changed to anything she wants. She also had her own connected bathroom and closet, along with a desk for when she gets older and a chest for all her toys.

They showed Serenity around the castle but focused on the Alpha Wing, especially where their room is if she ever needs them. She got to meet all of the other leaders along the way.

That night, Rayna woken up around midnight to Serenity standing at the side of her bed.

"I miss Mommy," Serenity whispers in a shaky voice, wiping away a tear. Rayna sits up and cups Serenity's face in her hands. She wipes away the tears and gives her a kiss on her forehead.

"I know. It'll be okay, Serenity," she tells her softly. Rayna throws the covers back and pats the bed next to her.

"You wanna sleep with me tonight?"

Serenity softly nods and crawls into bed with Rayna. Soon, the two were fast asleep, holding onto their sole connected to their family.

*~*~*~*

The next day, they begin settling into a new routine.

Rayna went to bed a bit earlier than usual and wakes up around 3:30 A.M. like usual and meets up with Freya to train before heading back to her bedroom a little after six. She naps like usual, but wakes up again at eight instead of ten. By now, Harley is working in his office.

Rayna washes off in the shower and gets ready for the day, getting dressed into a cute blue sweater and a pair of white jean shorts. She ties her hair back into a messy bun and walks to Serenity's room, waking her up. After a bit of resistance, Rayna and Serenity head into the kitchen for the first meal of the day.

"What's your favorite thing to have for breakfast?" Rayna asks, leaning against the kitchen counter. Serenity takes a seat at the kitchen table.

"Chocolate chip pancakes!" Serenity exclaims.

"Okay. Coming right up," Rayna replies with a smile and a small giggle.

In not too long, Rayna serves a plate of chocolate chip pancakes to Serenity. For some reason, Serenity doesn't seem excited anymore. She looks up at Rayna with big violet eyes and a questioning look. Rayna becomes worried.

"You- You didn't do the thing," Rayna says softly, looking down at her lap.

"What?" Rayna questions, confused.

"M- Mommy always-" Serenity stutters.

Soon, her lip is trembling and her eyes are becoming glossy. Rayna bends down next to her.

"Serenity? What's wrong?" she asks, concerned.

The little girl shakes her head as tears spill from her eyes, and she runs away towards her room. Rayna stands up once she hears the door slam, feeling confused and guilty. She quickly grabs her phone and calls Topher."Hey, Rayna. What"s up? How's the first day going?" Topher asks. His two little kids can be heard in the background, along with his mate, Riley.

"Uhm . . . Not so good. I asked her what she likes to have for breakfast, and she said chocolate chip pancakes, so I made them. Then when I gave them to her, she started crying and ran away. She said I didn't do 'the thing' that Brielle did, and I have no idea what that means," Rayna explains.

"What? Ohh," Topher exclaims. "I know what she means. Brielle told me once. So, you know how Serenity is a bit of a picky eater? She used to not like the chocolate chips in her pancakes. To try to get her to try them, Brielle pretended to 'secretly' sprinkle some sugar on it. Serenity tried it that way and loved it, so she started doing it every time. Since Serenity didn't see you do it, she probably got upset. Brielle's death has been really hard on her so she may have overreacted a bit."

"Oh . . . Okay. Thank you," Rayna says softly.

"No problem," Topher tells her before hanging up.

Rayna lets out a sigh. She puts her phone away, pulls out the sugar, and heads to Serenity's room.

A few minutes later, she has Serenity back at the kitchen table. It breaks her heart to see the little girl with red eyes. She takes the pancakes back and does her best to 'secretly' sprinkle sugar on them before handing them back to the four-year-old. This time, she smiles happily and digs into the pancakes instantly.

After breakfast, Rayna helps pick out an outfit for Serenity and get her dressed. Then spent the morning together doing arts and crafts before Rayna made them lunch. Then, Naomi came over.

Naomi will have a three week training course before she can be Beta Female, but she decided to wait until closer to Rayna becoming Queen to take it. As a human, she's also taken up self-defense classes and plans on taking training classes sometime in the future. For now, she has a ton of free time, so she volunteered to babysit Serenity when Rayna has to go train with Diane.

"Thank you, Mimi," Rayna says genuinely, giving her best friend a hug.

"No problem," Rainy," Naomi replies with a smile, hugging her back.

Rayna waves to Naomi and Serenity as she walks away, trusting her lifelong best friend with her newfound niece. She heads to the castle gardens and meets up with Diane.

They train like usual and afterwards, Rayna still has about two hours to kill before gets off work. She finds Naomi and Serenity and lets Naomi go on her way. She asks Serenity what she wants to do, and they end up watching Moana together.

"You know, Moana is one of the few Disney princesses without a prince," Rayna points out.

Serenity smiles. "She's my favorite."

After Moana is finished, Harley comes down from his office to meet them in kitchen, and the three have supper together. Serenity goes on about how much fun she had today and seems disappointed when Rayna and Harley don't have much to share, as Harley was working and the only time Rayna wasn't with Serenity was when she was training, and according to Serenity, that isn't interesting table talk.

The girl was craving cookies that night, so they all decide to bake together. Rayna convinced her mate and niece to do her mom's recipe, and none of the, regretted it.

Cookies were eaten, Serenity was changed into pajamas, and Harley sat down with the little girl to read her a bedtime story. Rayna got a bit of alone time, and it's good for Harley and Serenity to bond. As Rayna drinks some milk on the living room catch, exhausted, she giggles to herself when she realizes the big bad scary king is in there with little Serenity reading a bedtime story.

After a bit of time passed, Rayna wondered what was taking Harley so long. She walked into Serenity's room to find her seven foot tall mate sitting helplessly still with a sleeping four-year-old on his lap. She can't help but giggle.

"A little help here?" Harley whispers. Rayna stifles her laughter and nods.

She walks over and slowly eases Serenity off of Harley's lap and into her bed. Luckily, she didn't wake up. They tuck her in and turn off most of the lights, keeping the fairy lights lit up.

As they look at Serenity from the doorway, Harley wraps his arms around Rayna and kisses the top of her head.

"So . . . what do you think about us having some of our own kids?"

Rayna let's out a chortle.

"That's a conversation for another time."

*~*~*~*

It's been about two months now. It's gone from July to September.

Serenity has settled in nicely. She's made friends and feels comfortable with Rayna and Harley. Everything is going smoothly. Rayna is progressing rapidly in her training. She's almost on par with Freya, and Diane has told her that they're almost finished training. She's even gotten her drivers license!

Everyone's doing well. Even Jake is becoming apart of the group, though there are obviously members who still aren't entirely comfortable with him.

Naomi has started her training, so Rayna, (as per Diane's advice,) enrolled Serenity into the pack daycare. At first she was a bit anxious, but Serenity has made tons of friends and enjoys going, so she knows she made the right choice. She continues to watch Serenity in the morning, takes her on time for lunch, and picks her up before supper.

Rayna jogs into the pack garden after dropping Serenity off that day.

"Sorry that I'm a bit late," Rayna apologizes. "Serenity wanted me to meet some of her friends at daycare."

Diane chuckles. "No worries, Rayna. I know what it's like to have children."

Rayna, a little out of breath, laughs along. "Yeah."

"Now, let's get started," Diane says, getting down to business.

*~*~*~*

Two and a half hours later, Diane sits Rayna down on one of the garden benches.

As it's fall now, the leaves are beginning to change color. There's still tons of green and a few alive flowers in the garden, but the hints of brown and yellow and orange and red are beautiful.

Rayna and Harley have already gone on a fall hike, and she loved watching the leaves fall. She's so excited to take Serenity to a pumpkin patch and carve pumpkins with her and Harley and enjoy the apple and pumpkin tasting treats. Growing up, Rayna never got to participate in fall activities, so now's her chance.

"It's gorgeous, isn't it?" Diane observes, looking around the garden.

Rayna nods. "It really is."

"How is your training with Freya going?"

"Really good," Rayna replies. "I haven't beaten her yet, but I know I can."

"What about with your powers?"

"Also really good. The Council hasn't really helped, but the paper they gave me has helped a little bit. Even so, I think I've gotten them mastered."

Diane nods.

"What do you think is the most valuable lesson I've taught you?" Diane asks, continuing to look at the scenery.

Rayna pauses for a moment, thinking. "To trust my gut."

Diane smiles.

"You're ready."