Charlene calmly and quietly made her way up the stairs after finishing setting up the sheets for the fold out couch for Cynthia to sleep on through the night. She gave a small glance over her shoulder to see Rachel slowly following her, though Rachel had her head turned back, almost as if to look back to where Cynthia was moving to lay down. Charlene also noted a small smile on her oldest daughter's lips, and that made Charlene smile. She loved all her girls dearly, and things that had happened in Florida between Rachel and Leslie had painful for Rachel, and that in turn made things painful for Charlene.
She had loved her husband, and to a great degree, while she knew he was pretty conservative politically and not really a fan of same sex couples, she'd had the hope that a lot of that on her husband's part had more to do with him not knowing or dealing with gays or lesbians personally. That he'd only listened to his talk radio personalities ramble on about things they didn't know about so long as it didn't affect him directly. She'd had the hope that one day, when the moment was right, Rachel could have explained things to him, and he would recognize that he'd been negligent on the subject and would put his love of family over his politics. The fact that the reveal had been due to Rachel being raped by her then girlfriend at a club wasn't the way it should have been, and the fact that her husband filed for divorce and didn't even ask for custody of Jasmine or Michelle before Leslie's trial finished came as a massive shock to Charlene.
She'd lost her husband, and the way it happened only made Charlene question her own choice in men. It made her feel that the only things that were good in her marriage were actually Rachel, Jasmine, and Michelle. She was glad to have her daughters and they were important to her, but that was where major pangs of guilt and other things came about after Rachel was raped. She never pushed Rachel into dating Leslie, but Charlene had the sort of feeling that she could have done more to protect her eldest daughter and had failed to do so. It was partially that drove her to make the cross the country move to Moon Lake and why she'd considered becoming a werecat to help Rachel. It was something where she felt she could make things up to Rachel for failing to protect her in Florida.
Seeing Rachel smile, though, and seeing her more comfortable with her werecat form, that began to put Charlene more at ease. It gave her a sense that the move would help Rachel and would heal things there, and in that sense, that made Charlene smile and she turned back to Rachel once they reached the top of the stairs and the doorway to Rachel's room.
"I'm glad you're doing better, dear," Charlene said to Rachel, "and I thank you for sharing your opinion and what you'd want from me..."
"You're welcome, mom," Rachel managed, "and I know you've wanted to help... I've had that sorta sense ever since you, Michelle, and Jasmine found out I'd become a werecat. And it's that desire to help that has helped the most."
Charlene couldn't help but leave a prideful smile to her eldest daughter who smiled back, "I love you, Rachel."
"I love you, too, mom," Rachel answered.
From there the two of them went to their respective bedrooms. The master bedroom was the largest and was clearly built for a married couple. Something that Charlene figured she might one day have again in the future in the future. For the present, though, Charlene was content to undress and ready herself for bed, and it wasn't long before she was in her teal blue nightgown and was settling in under covers and feeling good at seeing Rachel doing better. It let her settle into things and it wasn't long before she drifted off to sleep.
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The evening was fairly calm, and Charlene felt quite content as she sat down on a hammock that hung between a pair of posts that gave her a few of some of the woods in the background, but also some of the goings on in the yard in front of her. She could see Rachel dancing with Cynthia and looking happy. Jasmine was eating a hamburger and laughing with about four male teens hovering around her, one actually looked like he was one of Jasmine's boyfriends from Florida. It was all something that Charlene expected, but things seemed to be going fairly well. Not too far away, Michelle was racing back and forth across the yard, dodging others that were there as she went with a young man running with her, or just ahead of her.
The one thing that really stood out and surprised Charlene the most was that there were a fair number of other people there. Most were women and a few of them were African Americans, and all were conversing happily. It pulled something off like a camping picnic, even though they were all in someone's backyard. The only thing that kept Charlene from wondering about the additional guests was the sense of calm that the entire atmosphere seemed to carry.
"It would seem that my queen is enjoying surveying her domain and those under her guard," came a male voice that interrupted Charlene's thoughts and that made her jolt up with some surprise.
Charlene sat up and turned to look over the other side of the hammock and saw the origin of the voice. It was a large and powerfully built male lion, with an impressive mane that started above and going behind his ears, which were up and alert. The thing that stood out, though, was that this lion was covered in white fur. It wasn't a pure white, more a creamy white, and the mane was a bit darker, but it was still rather whitish in color. A darker shade of cream, as if there was a very faded shade of tan that was that mane, and the tassel at the end of his tail of the same color as his mane.
"I'm no queen, Aslan," Charlene answered.
The lion shook his had and propped himself up so that his forelegs hung over Charlene's legs on the hammock, "I do wish you wouldn't call me that."
"Aslan?" Charlene asked back, "well, maybe I wouldn't if you didn't continually call me a queen. I'm not royalty."
"Not so far as humans see things," the lion answered, "but you're raised three wonderful daughters and protected them from the threats to them... including the man that fathered them. Done everything to teach them right from wrong and making sure that those that may mean them harm... put themselves in great danger."
Charlene flexed her fingers fore a moment and looked over to see Rachel and Cynthia kiss and thought over some things, "you make my abilities to protect my family out to be better than they are, Aslan. I couldn't prevent or protect Rachel from getting hurt. And the one who did hurt her was punished by human law... not by me."
"You were still there for her," the lion answered, "that must mean a lot. And you know that Rachel's bore you no ill well... and as you can see, she's doing well now."
"Yes," Charlene nodded, "coming to Moon Lake did do a lot to help Rachel, and I'm glad for that. It's brought out the part of her that I feared was forever lost when she was raped."
"And you gained your territory to hunt and rule over, and a male to protect it for you," the lion spoke and then nuzzled his head to Charlene's head and had the pink triangle at the front of the lion's muzzle rub against Charlene's territory.
"But I don't..." Charlene began.
"We haven't met, yet," the lion answered and nuzzled Charlene again, "but it will be pleasant meeting."
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Charlene rolled over in bed and found herself coming out of that dream. Part of it seemed fine and seeing Rachel happy, and apparently with Cynthia, and that Michelle and Jasmine were doing well. That was all well and good, but there was a section that was rather puzzling, and that being talking with a male white lion. It looked like a mundane lion, and it talked with her as though he was person, or maybe a werelion, but she hadn't seen Rachel turn into a full cat and only an anthropomorphic cat. Of course, maybe some of that was something that Rachel didn't have control for yet, it was something that Charlene couldn't picture. She figured she could argue it was just a figure of her mind, but then, she had never met anyone named "Aslan" as she'd called the lion in her dream, and even that lion didn't match fictional character. It then only puzzled Charlene further on where that came from... but with the sky still dark and with only some twinkling of starlight coming in through the window, Charlene could also tell it was still nighttime.