Darius stayed for a long while, unmoving except to shift Serena gently into his lap. Her head rested against his chest now, soft and still, and he absently patted her hair as if to soothe himself more than her. Only when her breathing fell into a slow, steady rhythm did he let himself exhale.
He looked up at the silent moon, a constant in everyone's life, watching them wordlessly. He absentmindedly ran his hands through her hair. Serena's chest rose and fell rhythmically, she was a quiet sleeper.
Darius draped his hands over his face and sighed yet again. The stress had started to get to him; he had so much to think about and so much to implement. He loved his job, but sometimes he wished he was not the son of an Alpha, to have all this workload placed on his shoulders.
