The Fall And Rise

Chapter Four: Breaking Out (Ariceli's )

A/N I would like to apologize for how antagonizing long this took to be posted and well written, if someone else could just write my intros for me, we would have been at about chapter 20 by now. Sorry, I just want to write the good stuff and not the intro, I get annoyed when it's like chapter 2 and BAM THERE IS MY ONE TRUE LOVE and you don't have time to learn your characters, and the supporting characters. How does one even make a bond with the people if you hardly get to know them? ANYWAYS let's get this chapter ready!

We followed Easton to the door which led to both an elevator and a staircase "Wanna race up the stairs or take the elevator?" he looked over at us and smiled, "Elevator can take us straight to the floor and then we can pick gabby up on our way down?"

"Sounds like a plan to me, the quicker we know where to return the quicker we can go for a run." Vera grinned and quickly clicked the call button on the elevator.

"Is she always like this?" He questioned me tilting his head and looking at Vera who was impatiently clicking the call button repetitively.

"Just when she hasn't run in a few days." I grinned back at him.

"Finally!" Vera half groaned, half yelled as the doors opened "What floor?!" she quickly looked at Easton as we followed her onto the elevator.

"Five, floor six is currently alpha and their children only. Floors six through two are all rooms, the higher rank the guest the higher the floor. The first floor is the kitchen, indoor gym, dining, and meeting hall." He spoke as he pressed the button for the fifth floor.

The elevator jerked upwards and started our slow ascension to the fifth floor. "How close are our rooms Easton?" I spoke softly staring into space.

"Actually your rooms are connected via a bathroom. So in a way you are roommates?" he spoke, raising a brow seeing how we would react, both our heads turned and looked at him with a grin.

"Perfect." I grinned and stepped out of the elevator as the doors opened as Vera and finally a half-surprised Easton followed us before he started leading the way.

"Alright Ari your room is on the left, Vera you are on the right." He spoke, opening the large oak double door to my room for us. The room itself was basically the size of a large one-bedroom apartment, minus the fact it was all a single bedroom and didn't have a kitchen. A large king bed sat not quite in the corner with two nightstands on either side of it, decorated in a blue and silver bedspread. The other side had a small living space with a tv mounted on the wall, a grey couch, and two matching love seats on either side with an elegant yet modern black coffee table in the middle placed on a grey rug. Two doors were to the right of the bed, I am assuming one was the closet and the other was our adjoined bathroom. "Vera's room is the mirror image of this one, only in purple and grey." He smiled at us and rubbed his neck, I do hope you like it."

"It's stunning," I spoke at the same time as Vera.

"It's beautiful!" she whispered excitedly.

"I had to stop Gabby when she hit the closet, I personally didn't know your fashion choices, but I know some women prefer to do their own clothes shopping. So I would like to apologize in advance because she will probably try dragging you clothing shopping sometime this week." He sheepishly smiled at us.

"Is your whole family like this?" Vera looked at him, an eyebrow raised.

"What do you mean? Gabby isn't related by blood?" He looked back at her confused.

"Not that, I meant so respectful and kind, very..." she paused thinking about it. "Warm-hearted."

"Oh." He rubbed his neck more and blushed ever so slightly, embarrassed. "I am afraid that is really only me and my mother."

"You mentioned how you would love to meet the royals right?" I finally chimed in catching onto what Vera was getting at.

"I would be more than honored to even glance at them." He grinned just thinking about it.

"You know, they say the next in line is still looking for their third, I think I will put in a good word for you." Vera winked at him, setting her backpack down finally on my couch.

"I don't know Vera, not sure we can let him go. I mean just look at how cute he is." I grinned back at her.

He simply stared at us stunned, jaw hanging open and eyes wide. "I don't know if I should be honored or scared..." he turned around quickly "Uh, we should go find Gabby."

We both giggled and followed behind him a short distance speaking through the mind link.

'I really do think he would be a great third for us, he is so humble about it Ari.'

'We would have to speak to my father and Alpha Baldwin about bringing him home with us. I would like to observe him more to see how he handles training and endurance, wanna really push this run? See what the kid has in him?" I spoke back, grinning, and slipping my hands in my jean pockets.

'You know us, we never would say no to a challenge, and Maevis made that charm so it works on both your human and wolf form.'

'Perfect.' Before I knew it we were down to the first floor and we could hear yelling coming from down the hall.

"The hell you mean we are serving them spaghetti? This is a new generation of Alpha! We couldn't do better or fancier than spaghetti?" an unknown female voice yelled clearly exasperated over the idea of serving us spaghetti, in truth it had been many years since I enjoyed the delectable pasta smothered in a tomato sauce and meat. But I also didn't care about what we ate.

"That would be Gabby, perhaps I should go first." Easton turned and looked at us holding his hands up to stop us from furthering. "Wait here please," he spoke before turning back around and walking down the hall to what we assumed was the kitchen.

Before we knew it a smaller girl came running towards us her emerald eyes gleaming with excitement and her long brown hair bouncing in its pony-tail. She skidded to a stop in front of us before extending her hand and softly panting out the words "Hi, I am Gabby Baldwin. I heard you wanted to run before dinner? And that you would go shopping with me tomorrow?" She spoke hopefully.

"Yes to the run, and why not with the shopping." I spoke extending my hand "I am Ari, and this is my beta, Vera." I smiled while pointing over to Vera.

"Hello, Ari and Vera!" She shook my hand enthusiastically.

"Gabby, you are at like a 10. I am going to need you to drop your excitement level down to about a 6." Easton spoke behind her grinning while making her jump in surprise.

"Ugh, but I was having so much fun." She whined.

"Come on we better get going before you scare the kitchen staff out of the kitchen." He rolled his eyes and started heading to the front door. "You ladies are more than welcome to change behind a tree or something if you rather" He pointed to several large oak trees and we walked over there to quickly strip and shift into our wolves.

My wolf was as large as a male alpha would be, solid white with silvery grey paws, muzzle, and ears. I stepped out from behind the trees and stared at Vera with my dark blue eyes, her bright icy blue ones reflecting joy back at me. Her wolf was larger than most beta males and was a strawberry blonde color, similar to her human form's hair color, her tail was wagging. Gabby was a small alpha female with grey and brown fur, and Easton was a larger beta male with black fur and dark brown points. He barked at us and nodded his head towards a trail for us to run on.

We yipped and followed behind him excitedly the small loop of the pack boundaries was still a trail over 10 miles long and we made sure to speedily push Easton, he wasn't even breaking a sweat by the time we got back to the packhouse. All of us felt rejuvenated by the end of it and we still had half an hour till dinner. So we all decided to change and get ready. Dinner went off without any issues and let me tell you that spaghetti was perfect, I plan on taking that recipe back to the castle. It wasn't long before we all went to bed, absolutely exhausted from the traveling.