Arianna's Tale: The Beginning (21 page)

“You must be Arianna,” he greeted
insightfully, “I’m sorry… Anna…Tobias told me you prefer Anna.”

“It doesn’t really matter,” I replied in
confusion, wracking my brain to try to remember who it was Alex had
said was supposed to arrive in the morning. “I mean, either is
fine. I didn’t think anyone was getting back tonight….”

“Oh, I’m sorry,” he chuckled lightly and
stepped out of the doorway to let me inside, “I’m Farren. I wasn’t
planning to get back so soon, but my plans for tomorrow fell
through so I came back.”

“Oh… well… do you know where Caiden went
with my stuff?” I asked and he shook his head, “Could you ask
him…?” His blue eyes briefly widened as he realized just what I
meant.

“How did you figure that out? Alex said
you’d only been told what you had already figured out…” he pondered
aloud, shaking his head in awe, “Caiden said he put you in the
upstairs guest room…. Up these stairs… down the left hall… third
door on the left.”

“Thank you,” I thanked, but he was looking
at me then as though seeing me for the first time, “What?”

He laughed and shook his head again. “Alex
wants to see you,” he finally answered, but that wasn’t what he’d
been thinking. “Would you like me to take you to him?”

I nodded and started to follow him. “Are
there four more guys and five girls coming, or is the elite group
unbalanced…?” I inquired aloud and Farren looked over his shoulder
at me.

“Unbalanced,” he stated, “Only four more
girls. It’s not really ideal for you, though….”

“Wha… Why?” I stammered and he chuckled but
shook his head, stopping and pushing a door open that led into a
large library where Alex was sitting in front of the unlit
fireplace, reading.

“Because all of my male pack members are
developing crushes on you,” Alex interjected knowingly, setting his
book down on the table beside him to look up at me, “They’re
enamored with you, even Farren and he’s only just met you.”

“Are you serious…?” I whispered, crossing
the room to sit in the chair across from him as he chuckled and
nodded.

“Very serious; you have this strange pull
about you…” Alex stated, his aqua eyes staring at me, “I’m glad
you’ve decided to stay here, but Caiden mentioned your wanting to
get Jason more involved with kids his own age.” I nodded. “You’re
trying to get his attention away from you… but Caiden also
mentioned not getting him involved with our pack, and it’s too late
for that, Arianna… the kids he’s been hanging out with at the
bonfires, those are pack members… I seriously doubt your little
brother would get as deeply involved with us as you have, and they
hang out with a lot of mortals.”

“I don’t want them getting stuck here… but
Austin is already so involved with Amy… and those are the only
friends Jason has…” I faltered, slowly shaking my head, “I don’t
want them trapped here, too.”

“We have precautions in place to keep
mortals from discovering our secrets… you either aren’t entirely
mortal, or are one of the exceptions, because you shot straight
through all of them…” he muttered with a hint of annoyance in his
voice.

“Alex… what else is out there…?” My voice
was barely audible and I wasn’t entirely sure he had heard me. The
fact remained it was something that worried me and frightened
me.

“Our biggest enemies are vampires,” he
revealed nonchalantly, but a chill a mix of excitement and fright
ran down my spine, “The dayhunters cause us the most trouble,
though… they appear completely human and can even tolerate the
sun….”

“Vampires… are real…?” I whispered and he
must have caught the hint of joy in my voice because his aqua eyes
turned deadly serious as he met my gaze. I had always had a bit of
a fascination with vampires. The stories about them captivated me,
for no truly apparent reason. The fact that more stories were
spreading in the recent past only fueled my interest and despite
the fact that I knew their dangerous side, I couldn’t help be in
awe of them.

“The stories out there about them, the ones
that romanticize them, they hired humans to write, some of them
they wrote themselves,” Alex started again, but his voice was cold,
“Those stories are completely fictional… they’re monsters. Those
stories were a way to make humans less wary of them and more
susceptible to their charms.” I was still thinking about his
revelation that struck me as so amazing when he reached over and
grabbed my hand. “You won’t find vampires anywhere near this town.
They know this is werewolf territory and they don’t come here.”

“So you’re saying they’re all bad… and they
never
come here…?” I reiterated and he nodded slowly,
“Wouldn’t they probably say that
you’re
all bad?”

“Don’t, Arianna,” Alex scolded and I
shrugged, “I can only hope your feelings alert you to their
presence before they get an opportunity to hurt you, should you
ever
run into any of them. Not that you should really be
able to run that risk… since I won’t let you out of the town
without escorts….”

“You said it would be possible for me to
accidentally let some people know what I know about all of you…” I
began curiously and he nodded again, “Can you explain that to
me…?”

“If a vampire drank your blood, it would
have access to your thoughts,” he reasoned quietly, “You wouldn’t
be able to stop it… well, the average human wouldn’t be able to
stop it…
You
might… Either way, that is only one of many
ways you might reveal our secrets. I’m more concerned now since you
have such a fascination with those blood-sucking monsters.”

“I’ve always thought they were cool…
dangerous, but cool,” I admitted dreamily, but the heat on my hand
jerked me back to reality, and I stared down at Alex’s hold on me.
“Why can you do that? That heat thing…? Can all of you do
that?”

“It’s a werewolf thing,” he evasively
answered, sighing and shaking his head, “We’re having a barbeque
tonight, people will be in the pool, too. Feel free to join
them.”

“Okay… Can I go to my room then?” I queried
and he nodded as the door opened again.

“Farren offered to take you,” Alex
announced, turning his attention back to his book while I stood up
and walked back to the door to find Farren’s blue eyes inspecting
me.

“Come on,” he motioned with his head for me
to follow him and I did as he closed the door behind me. “You’re
prettier in person than you are through their minds… even though
they do see you through rose-colored glasses for the most part.” I
looked up at him in confusion and he laughed as he walked between
me and the railing up the stairs and we made a left, further into
the house than I had really been. “So why did you have to decide to
like the one pack member that Alex won’t let you date?”

“Because I’m destined to never go on a real
date?” I laughed but he looked at me curiously, “My big brother
didn’t let me date… Now that I think he finally would… well… like
you said, I picked the one guy Alex doesn’t want me around….”

“But you like Jack and Caiden too, don’t
you?” Farren queried, stopping at a door with his hand resting on
the doorknob behind him while he turned to face me. I tilted my
head to one side as I looked into his eyes, spotting a ring of
silver around his pupils.

“Why would you say that?” I wondered and he
smirked.

“Because you told Caiden you like all of
them, which was an exaggeration because you don’t like Alex… I
haven’t seen you around Tobias enough… but it’s clear you like
Caiden and Jack…” he considered thoughtfully, “But you still
haven’t met all of us… maybe someone else will catch your
attention.”

“Who? You?” I teased but he only shrugged
his shoulders, “I don’t even know you, Farren.”

“Yet,” he corrected with a grin as he pushed
the door open behind him and stepped out of the way, “This is your
room while you’re here. Do with it as you please.”

I walked inside to find an elaborate bedroom
with a large sleigh bed which my suitcase was sitting atop. I
spotted two other doors in the room and started towards them before
I realized Farren was still standing in the doorway. I looked back
at him curiously and he grinned at me.

“How did you figure out the telepathic
stuff?” he asked and I shrugged my shoulders, my gaze falling to
the floor, “I won’t tell if you don’t want me to, I’m just
curious.”

“You’re very calm,” I murmured, glancing up
at him again, “I didn’t expect you to be calm… the others are all…
tense? I don’t know… it’s like they’re on edge….”

“I’m older than they are,” Farren chuckled
faintly as I pulled my attention back to him, “We’re raised to be
on alert at all times, some of us just learn to make our
subconscious the alert part instead of our conscious. We all have
our own temperaments, though… it’s not like we’re alike… I would’ve
thought you knew that by now….”

“I do,” I countered with a smile, “But Rayne
was still the only one of you that I had met that didn’t have that
constant tension about him… I guess I had kind of decided it was
something caused by being in
this
pack… but you’re calm,
too….”

“You’re evasive,” he laughed softly, “So do
you not trust me, or do you just not want to say how you figured
out the telepathic stuff?”

“Could be either really, couldn’t it?” I
coyly countered as I dug through my suitcase and pulled out my
black bikini.

“Do you believe what Alex said about
everyone liking you?” he wondered and I shrugged but barely nodded
my head when I glanced at him again, “Do you have something you can
wear over that?” My face flushed but I nodded again and he smiled
softly. “I’d wear it, if I were you, or at least take it to the
pool with you.” He leaned inside the room a little further and
pointed to each of the doors while he spoke, “Closet, bathroom. If
you need anything, just let someone know, okay?”

I only nodded and waited to hear the door
click closed before I dug through my suitcase again and pulled out
a silver sun dress.

I didn’t make it all the way downstairs
after I’d changed before I ran into Jack who had a coy grin on his
lips. When he slipped his arm through mine, I tried to remember
everything I had said that day and gasped as my hand darted up to
cover my mouth when I recalled my conversation with Caiden in the
car.

“You heard that, too?!” I blurted, only
glancing at him to find his emerald eyes sparkling as he nodded, “I
thought he’d tuned out, or whatever you call it… So everyone heard
it…?”

He chuckled, and lightly pulled me to a stop
just inside the back doors. “I’d suggest taking off the cute little
dress before stepping out that door, though. Somebody might be
thinking about throwing you in the pool as soon as you get
outside.”

I glanced up to find his pupils ringed with
silver and tilted my head to the side curiously. “You’re blocking
them out right now?” I queried and he grinned and nodded, “I like
the silver in your eyes… it’s pretty….”

“I will kiss you,” he countered coyly,
leaning just a little bit closer to me with his one arm still
linked through mine and the other pressed against the doorframe,
“This serves as your only warning.”

He lightly kissed my forehead before
slipping out the door and after careful consideration I took off my
sun dress and folded it up with my towel to drape over my arm. I
had to take a deep breath before I could get my feet to step out
the back door and onto the patio where almost all of the commotion
stopped and a split second later Tobias jerked my things off my arm
while Caiden lifted me off the ground.

Even though I’d expected it, and nearly
convinced myself of who would do it, I still screamed and clung to
his neck. That seemed to throw him off for all of a second before
he just jumped in the deep end with me still in his arms. He also
kept me under for an extra moment after all of the bubbles cleared
before tugging me up towards the surface.

I swam over to the edge and pushed myself up
to sit on the cement side, my feet still hanging in the water,
water which I was scrubbing out of my eyes before I ran my hands
over the top of my head to push back my hair.

“Gee, thanks,” I murmured as Caiden jumped
up to sit beside me, laughing while he shook his hair out of his
face.

“Alex said I could,” Caiden chimed gleefully
while I rolled my eyes.

“I said I wouldn’t punish you for it,” Alex
interjected and my gaze shifted to find him tending the grill
across the patio, “I didn’t say that you
could
do it. That’s
your own suffering now.”

“Suffering?” Caiden pondered while I climbed
the rest of the way up onto the patio. As I walked behind him, I
leaned over just enough to shove him back into the pool then went
off in search of my towel which Tobias had thankfully set out on
one of the deck chairs. Everyone had burst out laughing when I
pushed Caiden and they were still laughing when he climbed back
onto the side of the pool again.

“You get what you deserve,” Farren chuckled
from the chair beside mine, “I believe that is kind of what
Alexander meant by suffering.”

“I didn’t expect her to exact revenge quite
so quickly,” Alex laughed while I wrapped up in my towel and
plopped down in the chair.

“It’s not like I can pick him up and throw
him in whenever I want…” I murmured more so to myself, but Farren
looked over at me from his book and I noticed the silver around his
pupils which faded out into that striking blue of his eyes.

“You get others to do your dirty work for
you,” he commented simply and I stared back at him in shock, “I’d
throw him in if you asked.”

“You don’t even know me…” I whispered and he
smiled, an actual, sweet smile, something that was a bit of a
rarity amongst those wolves.

“I’ve seen you plenty through their eyes
before I met you today. And I’m quick to make decisions about
people,” he calmly replied and I tilted my head to the side
curiously, “I’m always right about my decisions. And you, Arianna,
I would trust with my life.”