Chosen by Fate, Rejected by the Alpha

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Trinity

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With the birthdays for Reagan and Rika done and over with, it was time for us all to prepare for a trip to the Fae compound. Since I was visiting as a Fae and not as an ambassador this time, I didn't need Acacia to accompany me. Not to mention, Cedar wanted them to spend Christmas with his parents this year since they had gone to the Yule celebration last year.

It wasn't just me and Reece going though. All of us were going. Me, Reece, Reagan, Rika, Lila, Mom, Dad, Grandfather, Noah, Nikki, Elias, Carter, Emmalee, and CJ. All of us were going. Noah wasn't going to be able to perform his Beta duties like he usually did when the Alpha was gone, so Vincent, who had been captain of my guard since I became the Luna and was recently promoted to being my Beta, would be handling the pack for us while we were gone. To assist Vincent, Gabriel was going to be there.

I was still a Queen though, and no matter how peaceful, or mostly peaceful, things had been the last time that we were there, Reece was still insisting that I take guards with me. Alongside my family, Izzy, Thoma, Shane, Shawn, Dietrich, and David were the familiar faces going with us; oh and let's not forget Alexandria, Alyssa, Levi, and Luka were going too. We had recently expanded my guards somewhat as well, feeling the need to have as many capable hands near us as possible as the children got older. We had brought in another dozen Sentinelle warriors, both male and female guards. We had also added a dozen warlock guards as well; all of them came highly recommended by Crawford and Eldrige.

Among those new guards, six of them were coming with us. That would provide me with a dozen total guards and that in my opinion amounted to my husband being an overly paranoid moron who just couldn't stop thinking the world was out to get me.

I let Fido do as he pleased though; I didn't want to deal with the hassle of making him stop. Instead I packed our bags and made sure we had way more stuff than we needed. OK, I am overly paranoid as well, but mine was at the expense of space in the car and not wasting someone's time.

Mom was worried about what to bring so I decided that it was best to go over to their house and help her pack. I think that the real truth of it was that she was just nervous about meeting the Fae Queen. She didn't know what this might mean for all of us, and she wasn't Fae. Of those going, not counting the guards, there were fourteen of us; of those fourteen people, six of them had no relation to the Fae aside from marriage. Five of those six people had never dealt much with the Fae and were nervous about their first big excursion into the Fae world. The others were excited to see what we would find there.

"Trinity! Help me please!" The moment I walked into the house Mom ran up to me and started shaking me by the shoulders. "I don't know what to do, and your dad is absolutely no help at all."

"Calm down, Mom. It's not like you're flying to the moon. You're just going to the Fae compound for Christmas so we can try to find out who our Fae relative is."

"I know that, but we will be meeting a Queen. I've never met a Queen before!"

"Ha?" I Couldn't believe what she just said. I just crossed my arms and stared up at her as I tapped my foot in annoyance.

"Oh, you know what I mean. You're different. You're my daughter, and I raised you since you were a little baby. You've been my princess your whole life. Don't go acting all high and mighty now." I laughed at her and shook my head.

"Queen Gloriana is a really nice person, so you don't have anything to worry about. Let's just make sure that you pack something nice because there will be a ball and probably a banquet or two. We will be there for three weeks and that will include Christmas and New Year's Eve, so we need to make sure we've got everything covered for that whole time."

"That's just it, I don't know what I need for all of that."

I watched as she put both of her hands on her face and threw her head back in frustration. She was so out of her element right now. To be fair, this wasn't exactly my element either, but I was better at it now since I had gotten some experience.

I worked with Mom for at least an hour figuring out what all she and Dad had that would work for the trip. We managed to get them each two large suitcases filled with the clothes that they were going to need for the time that we were gone. And just as I was leaving, Nikki called me to ask for help as well.

I went and offered as much help as I could to my sister in law so that she and Noah wouldn't have to worry. She was even more of a wreck than Mom since she had to pack for Elias as well. I told her not to worry too much about the babies since they would be with Acacia's family for a good chunk of the time if we had something important that required all of us to be there. I trusted Acacia's family and knew that they could handle all the children at once since they had nothing but multiples.

When I got home Emmalee video called me and asked for the same assistance as Mom and Nikki. The benefit of this call was that I didn't need to be there, and I could spend some time with the babies. Emmalee loved clothes and had a lot to choose from so hers had been so much easier than Nikki's had been.  Really since she had gotten so many new clothes for Carter so all his suits were new and nice. Noah had nice suits too, but not all of them were exactly the newest they could have been.

Luckily, Lila and Grandfather didn't seem to require the same assistance. That was a relief, that meant that I was done and free to enjoy Ilana and Rowan's birthday party tomorrow before we left on Saturday. We needed to get to the Fae compound before the Yule celebration started after all.

The party for Juniper and Paul's twins was a lot smaller than the one that I had to throw, but they had one thing going for them that I didn't; they weren't shadow world royalty that needed to follow certain protocols whether they liked it or not.

Reece had to finish up some work before we left so I took Reagan and Rika to the party with Izzy, Thoma, Shawn, and Pierre who was one of the new Sentinelle warriors. Everything went smoothly, and the twins loved playing with their friends. I was really glad that we got to have this one last little thing before we left for almost a month.