Arianna's Tale: The Beginning (19 page)

I peeled off my dress and opted for the
shower. As inviting as the bathtub looked, I didn’t want to get
that relaxed in this house. There was a stone bench in the shower,
and I found myself sitting down on it, enjoying the steam that
lofted about the room.

I snapped awake with a jolt, jumping up and
washing off in the lukewarm water before I shut off the shower and
wrapped up in the fluffy towels. I had no idea how long I’d slept,
just that I’d fallen asleep in the shower. I ran the other fluffy
towel across my dark brown hair, getting it as dry as I could
without a hairdryer, and climbed into the pajamas, slippers, and
bathrobe. As I stepped out of the bathroom, four sets of eyes
shifted over to me.

“Well, there you are,” Elisabeth chimed with
a grin, “We were starting to think you’d gone down the drain or
something.”

“No,” I quietly stated, shaking my head and
falling onto the far edge of the sofa that they were scattered
across, “I fell asleep in the shower, though….” They giggled, all
four of them, and my gray eyes darted to them in confusion.

“I think we’ve all done that at some point
in time,” Sage admitted as her chestnut brown eyes looked at me,
“It’s like the most relaxing shower ever.”

“Food is on its way up; hope you’re hungry,”
Michaela chimed in with a smile just before there was a knock on
the door, which opened a moment later as Jack and Caiden brought in
pizzas and popcorn and Tobias followed with a box of cupcakes and
some ice cream.

“You look comfortable,” Jack remarked as he
set the pizzas on the large table in front of us and looked over at
me, “You’re fitting right in.”

“I won’t… try to leave anymore, not
tonight,” I revealed and his lips quirked into a half-smile, “But…
I want to be allowed to see Rayne.” The smile disappeared and his
eyes closed as he sighed.

“Alex says if you behave, you can see him in
the morning,” Jack replied, shaking his head as his emerald eyes
opened to stare into my gray ones, “You can’t be with Rayne; I know
you’ve been told that.”

“I know what I’ve been told,” I murmured,
shifting my gaze away from him and looking over at Elisabeth beside
me, “Why don’t they stay for food and a movie? I promise I’m not
going to try to leave….”

“You wouldn’t be able to with all of us in
this room,” Samantha included with a laugh.

They fell to sit on the sofa: Jack beside
me, Caiden beside him, and Tobias between Elisabeth and Samantha.
Sage started a movie in the oversized t.v. and everyone else dove
into the food, except Jack, who was lounging comfortably on the
sofa, watching me, his arms draped behind him.

“Are you not going to eat?” he queried and I
slowly shook my head, watching while one arm cautiously moved
around my shoulders and pulled me over to him. “Stop worrying about
it,” he whispered across my ear, “Alex is a good guy, really.
You’re not going to have some miserable life here, and things like
this here, tonight, where you
have
to stay here, aren’t
going to happen very often; though you are welcome to join in on
the fun evenings like this. It’s a two way street. You’re burdened
with the knowledge of the pack, but you’ll also benefit from
it.”

I leaned my head against his shoulder and
stared over at the movie, not even fully aware of which girl was
getting chased around by which horror movie villain.

After the movie, the girls chased the guys
out of the room and pulled out all kinds of nail polishes and hair
stuff. I found out, over the next few hours, while my nails got
painted a deep purple and my hair got put up into rollers, which
girl liked which guy. Though, I didn’t really know who the Kyle was
that Michaela liked, or the Archer that Elisabeth liked; I did know
Sage liked Caiden and Samantha liked Tobias. I ended up braiding
Elisabeth’s long blonde hair, and it looked like some sort of
Renaissance style when I was finished. A game of Truth-or-Dare
followed, with them swearing that they were closing off the link to
the guys before I’d even consider agreeing to play.

“Why would we tell you who we liked if they
could still hear us??” Michaela blurted with a laugh, “Could you
imagine what they’d do if they knew??”

“I’d hate to imagine,” I admitted with a
smile. We’d finished the pizzas, and the popcorn, and most of the
ice cream by then with a few cupcakes remaining.

Dares consisted of the girls sneaking around
the house to spy on the guys, but the one time I picked a dare, it
was just to go sit on the top step and kiss whoever showed up
first, on the lips, despite my protest. They didn’t want to risk
having me wander around the house in case someone thought I was
trying to escape. So I stepped out of the room, cracking the door,
and walked over to sit on the top stair in just my black silk
pajamas, my bare feet in awe of the soft carpet.

I was inspecting my purple nail polish on my
toes when Alex came up the left side of the staircase and Caiden
came up the right side. They reached the step below me at the same
time and I looked up and between them in confusion, biting my
bottom lip and looking back at the cracked door.

“Is everything okay?” Caiden questioned,
kneeling down in front of me which put him barely closer to me so I
laughed to myself before turning back to him.

I leaned over and quickly and lightly kissed
him on his surprisingly soft lips before I heard the giggling from
the doorway and darted back to it and inside. Elisabeth slammed the
door closed as I fell onto the sofa, burying my face in the
cushions to hide my blushing.

“For a second there, I didn’t know what you
were going to do!” Sage giggled and I looked at her with a hint of
relief. I knew she liked Caiden, so I didn’t know how she was going
to react to my kissing him.

“You should’ve seen him!” Michaela added and
I rolled into a sitting position while they clustered back
around.

“He was all dazed and confused when you
disappeared,” Elisabeth reported with a grin, “Like, he closed his
eyes when you kissed him and then you were gone.”

“That was so mean!” I blurted, biting my
lip, “And they both showed up at the exact same time… And I know
he’s your pack leader, but I really didn’t want to kiss Alex ‘cause
I’m still upset with him.”

Things continued like that until all of the
food was gone and we were practically falling asleep, which we did
a little later as I took one end of the sofa, Elisabeth took the
other, and the others crashed on the huge bed.

Nobody woke me up the next morning, and when
I finally woke up on my own it was after noon and a pair of jeans
and a tank top were laid out on the sofa for me. I also realized
all of the food mess was gone and the room looked nearly
spotless.

I took a few minutes to assess the room
before I moved any, realizing that there was no one in the room
with me. I sat up really slowly, wondering how much it would take
to alert them to the fact that I wasn’t asleep anymore. I became
more acutely aware by the moment that I was having a feeling, and
it wasn’t a good one.

I got dressed into the outfit left for me,
placed my folded up pajamas on the floor, and headed towards the
door with my bad feeling only managing to get worse.

I pulled the door open and stopped. The
house was silent. I could’ve followed my feelings and gotten
immediately to the bottom of it, but instead, I yelled.

“Alex!” I hollered and it echoed around the
house, “Alex Moore! I need to see you!” I stood patiently in the
door; I didn’t honestly expect him to run up there. It wouldn’t
look good if the pack leader just ran off at the whim of a human
woman whenever she called, I wasn’t stupid. I walked over and sat
down on the top step, resting my chin on my hands and my elbows on
my knees.

He gracefully, but painstakingly slowly,
made his way up the stairs about ten minutes later and stopped a
few steps below me so that his head was barely above mine.

“What if I had been in trouble?” I queried
with a lifted eyebrow and his lips curled into a smirk.

“I would’ve known if you were in trouble.
What is it you want? You should come downstairs,” he remarked,
stepping closer when I stood up.

“It’s morning, you promised. I’m not waiting
either. I want to see Rayne,” I insisted and he lifted his own
single eyebrow, “And I want you to stay away from my brothers. I
don’t want them trapped here, too.”

“You don’t get to order me around,” Alex
countered dryly, turning to walk downstairs, but I grabbed his
wrist and he spun back to face me with fury in his eyes, but the
fury instantly dissipated. “Why?”

“I want to see Rayne and go home… before
Jason actually does steal a car and drive over here to check on
me,” I answered quietly and Alex’s hand slid up to brush across my
cheek, pulling my gaze up to his.

“What are you?” he whispered and I
shrugged.

“I’ve just always had feelings… and if I
focus on them… I can figure out who is causing the feeling, and if
I focus more, I can figure out why they’re causing it. The closer I
am to someone, the easier it is… That being said… I know Rayne has
been physically punished… but I still want to see him…” I
explained, pausing as Alex’s aqua eyes sparkled with silver, “I
could’ve followed the feeling from Rayne and found him… I was
trying to be respectful.”

“You can do that?” Alex wondered in awe and
I nodded as he tilted his head to one side, his fingers brushing my
hair behind my ear and sliding down my neck before he let his hand
fall back to his side. “Please, show me. Lead me to Rayne and I’ll
allow you to see him.”

“About last night…” I started bashfully as I
slipped past him and down the stairs, barely hearing him follow
behind me.

“The dare?” he chuckled and my face flushed
red as I was intensely thankful he couldn’t see my face, “Lissa
told me all about your night and how much fun you all had. No real
details, aside from the fact that what happened on the stairs was a
dare. I was slightly disappointed to learn had I only reached you a
moment sooner, I would have been rewarded with that kiss.” He
chuckled in the silence that followed, “Did you enjoy yourself?
Despite your anger with me, of course.”

“It was fun,” I dismissed with a sigh, “I am
still angry with you… I’m… glad… Caiden decided to make that last
movement….” I wound us through the house and out the back doors,
glancing in wonder at the large swimming pool only to find Samantha
emerging from under the water.

“I see Sleeping Beauty is up,” she laughed,
grinning up at me as she climbed up the ladder in her black
bikini.

“Samantha,” Alex warned and I spared her
another glance before I headed around the pool house and skidded to
a brief halt.

“Um… Alex…” I faltered, staring at the
massive iron gate in front of me that had not only a padlock, but a
keypad and eye scanner. I looked back at Alex inquisitively and
found an amused smirk on his lips.

“Yes?”

“He’s that way,” I lifted my hand to point
to the gate, the gate that wasn’t attached to anything and didn’t
actually seem to go anywhere, but I knew I had to go
through
it to get to Rayne.

“Why not go around?” Alex questioned and I
shook my head, continuing to point at the gate.

“Through the gate,” I insisted, “It has to
be
through
the gate….”

“That’s quite amazing,” he chuckled, walking
over to type on the keypad while the eye scanner flashed across his
eye and he lifted his other hand to point at the padlock which fell
away. The gate creaked open effortlessly and completely on its own
as Alex motioned with his head for me to go on.

There was a briefly blinding light and then
we were inside a castle. It was the only way I could think of to
describe the dark gray stone walls with cut out openings for
windows, and only the few larger ones filled with panes of stained
glass depicting wolves.

I wound through the corridors, heading away
from the windows to discover with awe actual flame wall sconces,
torches, like you would imagine finding in a castle. I looked
around in awe, but didn’t stop until I reached an iron door with
its own keypad and eye scanner.

Alex stopped beside me with amazement
written across his face for a brief second before he forced it away
and turned to me curiously.

“Rayne is on the other side of that door,” I
stated with absolute certainty, “Now, where the heck am I? How did
that gate work? Is this a castle or something? Cause it looks like
a castle….”

“You didn’t even consider going around the
gate… or pause at the nearly maze-like quality of our castle… which
is indeed a castle. I’m amazed and intrigued further by you,
Arianna Gray,” he announced before he typed in the code and allowed
his eye to be scanned and the door clicked open, “Please remember
that his punishment was required, he broke pack law.”

I only nodded and Alex motioned with his
hand for me to go inside, which I did. The room was faintly lit by
the same torches on the walls, but they seemed to be nearing the
end of their lives and cast strange shadows across the stone
surroundings. Despite being the middle of summer, in an ancient
castle, there was a distinct chill in the air. But none of that was
what made my feet hesitate. Rayne’s clothes were in tatters on the
floor, I recognized them from Jack’s party. I also recognized those
knowing hazel eyes, despite the pale almost white fur that
surrounded them. He was the most beautiful wolf I’d ever seen, but
there was a large metal collar around his neck, chained to the
floor, and he was covered in healing cuts.

“I didn’t expect wolf-Rayne,” I admitted
almost silently, my voice echoing in the small room and I swear his
canine mouth fell into a lopsided grin.

“He didn’t expect to see you at all,” Alex
commented from the doorway, “Ever again, he says.” I glanced back
to find him leaning on the doorframe, staring inside as I knelt
down in front of wolf-Rayne and lightly ran my hand across his head
where there were no cuts.