Song: Lemon Boy by Cavetown
Words: 2444
Published: June 19th, 2020
Third Person POV

Harley struggles with keeping a conversation, even with how badly he wants to get to know her. She isn't good at asking questions. He also doesn't want to seem intrusive. He's scared that if he slips up, she'll leave him. His wolf is in shock, which he went into the moment he laid eyes on her the day before.

"So . . . How long did you live there?" he asks.

"I- I was f- f- found there at -t six months," she stutters in response. He nods.

"So, you weren't originally from that pack?"

She shrugs. "I- I guess not."

"How many siblings do you have?"

"Th- Three. They're all boys." Slowly but surely, she's getting more comfortable with answering his questions.

"Is your mom the only other girl then?"

She looks at her lap, fiddling with her sweaty hands. "N- No. She . . . uhm . . . passed away . . . a few years ago."

"Oh . . . I'm sorry to hear that," he whispers softly. Without thinking, he takes her hand. They both flinch at their first skin-to-skin contact, causing sparks and tingles to erupt and send shivers down their spines.

Rayna surprises herself when she doesn't pull away, but rather she flips her hand and intertwines her fingers with his. Harley sighs, his wolf rising to the surface to pant happily at the contact. He looks at Rayna, smiling at her.

He really is my mate, Rayna thinks. She looks at him and can't help but return his smile.

"U- Uhm . . . Wh- What's gonna happen now?" Rayna asks, sitting up straighter and pulling her knees to her chest. Anyone else and Harley would've growled and pushed their feet off his nice leather seats, but he decides that his mate gets a pass.

"Well, right now, we're heading to the castle. I'll show you around. Your friend will be, too, and she'll get her own room. You two will unpack, though that will probably be after lunch."

"How long until we get there?" she asks, looking up at Harley intently.

"About five hours."

She nods and looks down at his hand in her lap. She wraps both of her hands around his and realizes that his hand is easily twice the size of hers. She giggles when she's able to wrap her entire hand around his pinky finger. She gets lost in her thoughts that she almost forgets someone is right next to her even though she's holding their hand.

Harley continues to glance at her in amusement, unable to hide his smile at her happiness.

"You're so cute," he whispers.

"Hm?" she hums, looking up at him. "Wh- What did you say?"

"Oh, nothing," he lies. She brushes it off and continues playing with his fingers.

After a few minutes, she leans towards the window, still holding Harleys hand, and closes her eyes.

It only takes a minute or so of smooth roads for her to fall asleep.

*~*~*~*

She wakes up just under five hours later, the time displayed on the trucks dashboard reading 1:12 P.M.

She rubs her eyes, confused. Looking out the window, she realizes that they're in the middle of a forest on an oddly single lane paved road. She looks over at Harley, who had stolen his hand back a few minutes ago. She stretches out a bit with a slight yawn.

"Where are we?" she asks.

"We're almost to the castle," he informs her.

He's dumbstruck as to how one woman could be so adorable. Her messy brunette hair falls right into place once she sits up. The white sweater suits her and her innocence perfectly, and he finds it's size--with one shoulder exposed--to make her look even cuter. He could drown in her big blue eyes. He wants to caress her soft, tanned skin so badly, but he's scared that she'll break at the slightest touch of his large, rough fingers.

She realizes that she no longer has his hand and shrinks a bit. He probably got tired of her touch. Even though she wants to hold his hand again, she doesn't want to risk him getting upset with her. The truth was that she was accidentally bending his arm into an odd angle and it fell asleep. He would've kept it cradled in her grasp if not for that.

Rayna looks into the backseat of the truck and sees her backpack. She reaches around the seat and grabs it, turning it to be able to unzip the pocket with her phone inside. She sits back down and turns it on. Of course, there are messages from Naomi.

Naomi
Hey girl. What's going on in that truck??
Rainy?
Rayna
Oh well. I'm makin a pit stop

Rayna
Sorry. I was sleeping

After replying, she puts the phone back in her backpack. Harley glanced at her, becoming nervous as they near the castle.

Looking forward again, Rayna is left in awe as the large Royal Castle comes into view.

It can get up to ten stories in some places, but the most part of it is only four. It's made of brick and stone and wood, painted a cute pastel yellow in most places. There's a large fountain outside the front, which Harley parks his truck around. There's a small river to the right, following a ditch not far from some benches. The main doors had multiple stairs and huge columns surrounding it. There were hedges a few yards away from the windows, whatever on the other side unable to be seen.

"Whoa . . ." Rayna whispers. "It's beautiful."

"Built in the late 1800's. The bases for the Royal Werewolves would change quite often before here, as the species hadn't yet found their footing. When my father became King, he had it largely renovated. My mother chose the yellow," Harley explains, just as if he was a tour guide. With his entire life revolving around this castle, he decided he might as well learn as much as he could about it. He's always had a good memory and is therefore a history geek.

Rayna nods.

"I'm gonna get lost in this place," she mumbles.

"You'll figure it out," Harley assures her, turning the truck off and unbuckling his seat belt. He opens his door and steps out, making Rayna do the same. She looks around, only to find that they're the only ones there.

"Wh- Where's Naomi?" she asks, walking around the car to where Harley was grabbing her stuff.

"With my beta. They took a rest stop and'll be here in a few minutes. I'm gonna show you around, okay?"

He hands her her backpack while he carries her suitcase. She nods and slides it over her shoulders.

"Well, this is the front lawn," Harley says, holding his hands out and spinning to show. "That little road leads to the garage, which is where we could start?"

Rayna shrugs.

"Yeah, you probably don't care about cars. Sorry. Let's try the front door." Harley gets awkward and tries to laugh it off. He starts walking up the steps, and Rayna follows. She wants to tell him it's okay but doesn't really know how.

Harley pushes open the large doors to reveal a pristine white room. There were mats and coat hangers lining the walls along the door and a set of two white leather chairs with a white side-table between them on the right. On the left was a beautiful staircase swirling around up to the second floor. Between the two was an entrance to farther rooms.

"This is the foyer," Harley says.

"How many floors are there?"

"There's only two in this wing. Over by the leaders, there's seven. The tallest tip of the castle reaches ten stories, but it's really just an attic and not counted as a floor."

Rayna nods. Harley walks through the entryway, causing Rayna to follow.

It opens up to a large hallway. The next half an hour from there was a blur to Rayna. Harley showed her around the entire castle, making her head ache a bit. He went into detail on whether or not it was built in the original castle, and if it wasn't, he went into detail on who added it and when. She doesn't let her attention level show and pretends to listen, when in reality she was spacing out and running on autopilot.

Lastly, they come to the Leader Wings. Harley dismisses everyone's but his. He was above the four stories that separated into Beta, Delta, and Gamma with his own three. His own penthouse. It was one of the most modern parts of the castle. Five bedroom, three and half bath, living room, kitchen, balcony, etc. Rayna could've never imagined a place quite like this.

"Even though I do have my own kitchen, my leaders and I usually use the one in the Leader Commons."

There were the Commons, in the front of the castle, and the Leader Commons, which was in the middle of all of the individual leader's wings, which is easiest to get to from their offices.

Rayna nods.

Harley shows her the rooms, and the last they come to is his. It's the master bedroom. A bay window, a couch, a California king bed with white and light grey comforter and sheets, large flat screen TV, two nightstands each with a lamp and clock, a desk with a bulletin board above it, a shelf, a huge closet, and an en suite.

"What do you think?" he asks, looking down at Rayna for her reaction. For some reason, she instantly feels at home in the bedroom. She walks across the room to the bay window. Below were the trees with the river in view and bushes of flowers.

"I love it," she exclaims softly.

"That's great," Harley replies with a big smile. "Do you want me to help you unpack?"

Suddenly, she tenses.

"W- Wait, I- I'm staying in h- here?" she stutters, turning to look at him. He, too, tenses. His wolf, Hollow, is not going to let his mate stay without him. She needs to be there with him always. Harley hasn't thought much of it yet, but Hollow knows that there's something troubling Rayna. He isn't going to relax unless he has her.

"Yes," Harley responds, his face hardening and his posture stiffening.

"B- But it's y- y- your room. D- Don't you want your pr- privacy?" Rayna is completely facing him now.

"It's fine. You're staying with me," he reiterates, a slight growl forming in his throat.

"I- I can't," she repeats, her lower lip trembling. She can't help it as she starts to shake. She holds herself and backs up against the wall.

Harley growls.

"You. Are. Staying. Here."

She doesn't respond. She silently sinks down to the floor, fighting to keep her tears and sobs inside. Harley snaps out of it and feels his heart break. He realizes that he scared his precious mate.

He slowly walks over to her and bends down a few feet away.

"I'm sorry, Rayna. I shouldn't have growled. My wolf and I just feel a lot better having you with us. Is that okay with you?" he rephrases. When he was in therapy, his doctor had said that communication and voicing his feelings is vital.

Harley cups her face and softly kisses her forehead. She sniffles, but she instantly feels better.

"I'm sorry."

She grabs onto his arm, and then she's in his arms. He rubs her back as she calms down, which doesn't take long.

"Are you hungry?" Harley asks once she pulls away, and he wipes away her tears. "We usually have lunch around noon but of course it's already past that. If you aren't we can do something else."

Rayna shakes her head. "I- I'm not hungry."

"Okay. Would you like to unpack?"

She nods. "Y- Yeah, sure."

The two stand up. Harley shows her where she can put her stuff in the closet and bathroom. She proceeds to unzip her backpack. She places her charger and sketchbook on the nightstand. She doesn't have anything for the bathroom besides a hairbrush, nearly empty stick of deodorant, a nearly empty tube of toothpaste, and a toothbrush that has been used a few weeks longer than it should. Harley promises to buy her new stuff once he notices.

Regarding clothes, she doesn't have any shoes besides the ones she's wearing. She only has between two and five pairs of everything else. She still has on the jewelry she and Naomi made at their sleepover, but otherwise, she has no real jewelry or accessories besides a few hair ties. Of course, she also had a few items of her mothers and her binder.

"I'll have to get you more things," Harley says.

*~*~*~*

After a long talk and lunch in the Leader Commons with Naomi, Rayna is back in Harley's room. He's ready to call it theirs, but she isn't. She's just sketching to try and help herself with all of this new information in the nice bay window. She isn't really focusing on what's coming out onto the page, but it doesn't take a genius to realize it's the castle.

Harley disappeared once he took her to meet Naomi in the kitchen. All she remembers him saying is that he was going out and he'd be back in an hour or so. That was 2:17. The two girls talked until around 2:30 when Rayna got hungry. They explored and made her some grilled cheese sandwiches. Naomi had already eaten by then. They had finished by 3:15 and went back to their rooms.

It is now a little past four.

Just as Rayna starts to wonder where Harley is, the door to the bedroom opens.

It's Harley, and he's holding a wrapped box.

"What's that?" she asks, sitting up and setting her sketchbook aside.

"It's your present," he says walking over.

"U- Uhm, y- you didn't-" Rayna stutters, trying to push the box away.

"Shush. I got you a present. It isn't an issue for me. Just open it," Harley interrupts, forcing it into her hands.

"O- Okay . . ."

She unties the ribbon and takes the lid off the box. She gasps.

Inside were temporary tattoo markers, but underneath that, a tablet with a 4 in 1 stylus.

"Y- You got me . . . a tablet?" she asks, completely in shock.

"Yeah," he answers with a nod. "Do you like it?"

"I . . . How much did this cost? Y- You shouldn't-"

"Rayna," Harley interrupts. "I'm the Alpha King. Price doesn't matter. Do you like it?"

She nods. "Y- Yes."

Harley smiles.