Not My Fairytale (ON HOLD)

7: Dress Rehearsal

-Annabelle-

This last week has been awful. Without Connor, I've felt alone, depressed, and weak. I haven't strayed from my normal schedule, just to make sure I didn't have to see him. I wake up, go to the feilds, come home and eat dinner with my family silently, go back to bed, and repeat the next day. Last Friday, Connor did come and try to see me, but once I heard his voice, the air around me became suffocating. We made eye contact for a second, until the deafening ringing in my ears made my knees weak, and I crashed to the floor while screaming out in pain. He knelt down to see what was wrong, but when he touched my shoulder, a painful shock sprouted from where he layed his hand and I squealed once again. I laid on the floor crying, eventually, my mother dragged Connor away as she explained the situation to him. He left without another word, and hasn't been closer to me than three miles since the incident. It saddens me when I say I'm thankful I haven't seen him since.

The only thing keeping me sane from being away from him, is the necklace that I have refused to take off. It keeps me grounded in the moments when I want to be with him, which is nearly all the time.

Getting dressed, I sigh unhappily when I remember the day's events coming for me. It was only 6:30 am and I knew it was going to be a long day as the sun wasn't even up yet.

Groaning, I make my way down to the kitchen to greet my family. Dragging my feet on the ground expresses how exhausted I'm feeling in all. Once I have made my way to the doorframe, I intake a quick breath and take in the figures in front of me. Once again, I am greeted with unwanted faces. Even though not a single word was spoken, just their presence made the air thick and suffocating. Three chairs are added to our dining table, which were all filled with large and bulky men. My mother was walking around and pouring coffee for each of them, careful to not step a centimeter out of line in fear she might be punished.

General Will reached out and picked up his mug and held it to his lips. He took in the smell of the newly brewed coffee and smiled and he took a sip. He brought the mug back to the table and sighed in pleasure.

"Nothing makes my morning better than a cheap and crappy cup of coffee! At the palace, it's just not the same when you get sick of the same old top-notch stuff." General Will let out a carefree laugh as it was clear he was joking.

My mother let out a nervous and forced laugh, not finding his joking nearly as funny. Immediatatly, my mother's head snapped in my direction and she let out a sigh of relief, glad to not be alone with them any longer.

"Good Morning, Annabelle. I'm very happy to see you made your way up." My mother's words were laced with a secret meaning, and I nodded my head and as I made my way over to her to give her a hug. We wrapped our arms around eachother, and I rested my head on her shoulder. We were brought out of our stance when a low and gruff clearing of the throat came from behind us. I was met with three pairs of beading eyes and I groaned inwardly.

"General Will. Soldier Steven. Soldier Adam." I bowed my head at each of them, not feeling the energy to cause any trouble this morning.

"Annabelle. I'm suprised to see you here, early." General Will chuckled lowly, but I didn't let his statement get to me.

"I actually wanted to eat before you had to drag me away." I stated with no remorse.

I turned away from all of them and grabbed the can of oats on the counter. I poured some in five clean bowls, poured milk in them, and stuck them in the microwave. While waiting, I turned back around to face the quiet bunch at the table. All three werewolves were staring at eachother intensly, almost as if they were having a secret conversation with just their eyes.

I heard the 'ding' of the microwave, right as my father and brothers made their way to sit at the table. My mother rose her eyebrow expectingly at my father who shook his head and spoke under his breath to her.

"I just needed to have a conversation with them. I'll tell you about it later." He whispered to her and kissed her cheek in greeting.

I grabbed the oatmeal and stuck them in front of each of my family members. We sat down in our usual seats, but stayed awkwardly silent as we weren't comfortable with our new guests. My mother tried to make small talk, but she was only cut off with quick and short answers. Eventually, General Will cleared his throat and began his needed speech.

"As you may know, we will have a dress rehearsal of the ball today. We will be heading back to the kingdom. At the place we are going, there will be a ballroom as well as a dining room. You will have your ball shoes, as you will put them on to get used to dancing and acting in them. This is not where the ball is held, but it was the best we could get. Maggie and Quinn will both be there as well, meeting us at the place." he made eye contact with me, and I looked down automatically, not wanting to challenge his wolf.

Staring directly at me, he made his next statement.

"You will all be on your best behavior. There will be other humans there with their guards. Along with Mr. Gunther and his two sisters."

I snapped my head up, eyes wide in disbelief. Connor would be there. What kind of sick joke are they playing? Do they want me writhing in pain in front of everyone?

"For your sake, Annabelle, Maggie will take off her Alpha Command when you see her, just in case you happen to spot Mr. Gunther there. However, one of us will be at your side the entire time, making sure there is no funny business between you too." He glared at me, trying to get his point across that he doesn't want me and Connor together.

Ignoring General Will's threat, smile broke onto my face. I get to see Connor again! I tuned out the next part of his speech, as I was too happy to care what else he had to say.

The scraping of chairs brought me out of my moment, and I noticed everyone was standing up. I followed suits and followed my brothers as they made their way to the front door.

"Thank you for the coffee Caroline. And it's always nice to see you Dennis. We will have them back tonight." General Will opened the front door gesturing us to walk out to the limo waiting for us. I ran to both my parents and gave them a huge hug. I whispered 'I love you's' in both their ears, and my actions were followed by both of my brothers. We barely made it out the door when Micheal yelled, "Window Seat!" loud enough to break my eardrum. Jacob yelled the same thing, as they sprinted towards the limo.

I let out an easy laugh as I jogged after them. They act like kids, considering they're pretty much adults.

"Sucks to lose, Anna. Loser sits in the middle." Jacob shook his head with a smile, and gestured for me to sit next to Micheal in the middle.

I smiled back and shook my head, as I crawled into the middle between my brothers.

Most of the car ride was filled with small talk between General Will and his pups. Every once and a while, they'd ask us a question or involve us in their conversation, but most of the time we remained silent. Instead, my brothers decided to annoy me and eachother by poking eachother or squishing to one side when the car turned. It was too long of a car ride, and I became irritated very fast.

After multiple hours, we pulled into the kingdom town and parked in the back behind the shops. We walked along the sidewalk once again, but made our way to a different building. I could only hear the sound of feet clattering against the ground and my nervous heavy breaths as we moved down the sidewalk. Soon, a tall brunette came into view as long with a feiry red head. Before I could make out faces, the red head ran down the sidewalk at inhumane towards us, her eyesight was directed to a wolf behing me. The smile stretched on her face could run for miles. She squealed as she jumped in the air, and wrapped both her legs around Soldier Adam's waist, kissing him senseless.