BUSTING RIVER OUT TO PARTY

Suddenly it was like we were just four pups again. We slipped out of Bell's room and up to mine like ninja mice. Even though it's not like Mum and Dad would come up to the side wing, the girls and I still tiptoed and giggled behind our hands up the stairs... Ahem, THEY giggled. Not me. Alphas didn't giggle.

"Okay, what's the plan?" Lizzy asked when we made it safely to my room.

Savy ignored my school uniform hanging respectably on my golden birdcage rack. She beelined straight to flip the switch that opened my wardrobe, "We gear up."

Immediately, I knew whatever was happening had River involved. Simply because Savy was being uncharacteristically in charge.

"Ohhh...." Lizzy's eyes widened.

"We can borrow Sam's clothes." Savy said, "This is the perfect base because our parents won't come over to this side of the house."

Savy disappeared into the wardrobe.

Lizzy in contrast, still looked undecided, "Mum's going to ground us for sure."

"Yeah." Ben folded his arms against my bedroom door.

"Just get out, Ben!" Lizzy decided then, "We need to change, and you're being totally useless."

"Yeah." Ben agreed. And then he reported, "Jonah is in. He says he's in the Packhouse."

"Oh good!" Lizzy immediately forgot that Ben was useless.

"He says the security's solid." Ben said, "There are four snow wolves along the corridors, and two snow wolf patrols on the first floor. This is on top of our guards. Wilhelm is in the suite with River. Beta Glenn just knocked and went into Alpha Gunter's suite. It's risky. Even if I jammed the security cameras, I don't think there's any chance of us busting River out without being spotted."

"What about from the bathroom window?" Savy asked.

Ben smirked, "I'll tell Jonah to go scout outside. But there are patrols because of the party and snow wolf guests. It's not like they won't notice a prince hanging out of the side of our packhouse."

True. Plus River was more likely to fall and break his butt or something dumb like that.

"Wait, why are we busting River out?" I mean, I was all up for the adventure, but wth were we doing?

"I just want to see him." Savy popped out of the wardrobe with a few black dresses, "Which one do you want Lizzy."

"Oh. Prada... Is this for real?" Lizzy's eyes widened at the tags, and then she turned to me, "Can we really wear this?"

"Sure. There's loads." Savy shrugged, "Like an entire rack of black dresses. These are stretchy so it should fit you Lizzy."

Yeah because Lizzy had just a little more oomph than I did.

Savy dropped the dresses on my golden clamshell bed, "Put one on too, Sam."

And then she froze and pointed to a waterfall of blue hair on one side of the bed.

Oh right, "I'm dream traveling."

Lizzy screamed. She had to clap her hands to her mouth to make herself stop.

Ben came over from the door to look, "Is that you sleeping?"

Of course it's me. Who else would be in my bed?

He looked from the blue hair to me.

I walked over to check, just in case. Yup. It was me alright. I was snuggled all the way in with the quilt up to my nose, so most of what came out was just hair, splayed over the pillows and over the side of the bed.

I looked down at all that hair that had fallen onto the floor and toed it with my foot, "So much dead weight."

I mean, on me, I barely notice sometimes, but from a third person perspective, I've got to say, I've got a lot of hair.

"Oh my goddess." Lizzy still had her hands over her mouth, "I'm so weirded out right now."

I remembered how it felt to see myself sleeping when I was a ghost. I was pretty weirded out too.

"You've seen me sleep before." I said. I guess I was trying to reason the weirdness away.

Ben put his hand in front of my sleeping form, "Yeah, still breathing."

Why wouldn't I be breathing?

"It's like there's suddenly two of you." Savy said.

"What will happen if we wake you?" Ben wanted to know.

"My dream travel form will disappear and I'll wake up and bite your head off." I decided.

Ben backed away from the bed. Lizzy laughed now, "This is so weird."

"Yeah." Savy nodded, "Sorry, Sam, but your powers are weird."

Yeah, whatever. I tossed my head and huffed a little, "They're not weird. They're urm...special."

Which was all I could think of then. Now that I'm writing my diary, I wished I told them my powers were INSANE or something cool like that.

Okay... I mean, wth were we doing again?

"Savy wants to see River." Lizzy explained, "The Snow Wolves are staying overnight because the last meeting ended so late. But River will be going to school early tomorrow morning."

"I don't know when I'll get another chance to hang out with him again." Savy looked at me pleadingly.

"Why don't you just knock on River's door and see him?" I asked. I felt a little lost... It was a bit like having to walk Maria to look at Dino, except we were all dressing up in little black dresses and makeup and heels... And this was Savy, not Maria, so for some reason, I felt even as I asked that this entire operation was absolutely warranted.

"Those are going to get stuck in the mud Savy." Lizzy didn't look entirely enthusiastic at the heels.

"Hmmm... True." Savy gathered the heels and disappeared into the wardrobe again, "Sam, hurry up and pick a dress so I can return those. I don't want to leave a mess for Ki to pick up."

Cos Savy was so considerate like that.

I picked up the dress closest to me. All black dresses looked alike anyway.

"Ooohhh... Nice." Lizzy approved my pick.

"Okay. Jonah says there's a five-minute window. River can jump out and we can scram easy." Ben reported, "I'm going to wait outside. Don't take all night. Party ends at dawn"

And then Ben was gone, the door shut firmly behind him.

"I honestly don't know how you put up with him." Lizzy told me.

I laughed, "He's not that bad."

Lizzy looked wholly unconvinced.

"I mean, he kinda completes me... You know, like he balances me out." I tried to explain.

"Only if you mean he's the opposite of you." Lizzy said.

"Sam, you better not let Bell hear that." Savy grinned at me. She had emerged in a black wrap dress and black tights and boots. She found boots for all three of us.

"Nice." Lizzy said, "Hope they fit."

The three of us were half sizes apart with me in the middle, so my shoes would be a little loose on Savy and a little tight on Lizzy, but we'd all fit in. I had very average-sized feet. If I were Cinderella... It'll be like 75% of all females would have fit in my glass slipper.

Good luck Prince Charming.

"How is it?" Savy asked her BFF. There's one that looks a little broader, but it's brown, not black.

Lizzy shook her head and winced a little, "Bit tight, but it's okay."

Then Lizzy and I went to get changed. My dress turned out to be a biased cut one with a halter. I had to change my bra to a strapless black one.

"Wow." Lizzy said. Then she yelled, "Ben, come see Sam in a dress."

Hey! I've worn dresses before!

Two knocks and Ben poked his head in, "Let's go already. Jonah's got the patrol timing. The next window is in ten... Woah."

Lizzy burst out laughing, "Yeah, that's probably what all the guys are going to say."

I turned to check the mirror. Lizzy, Savy, and me. Yeah, we were pretty woah. I grinned, "Okay, let's go!"

Savy popped back in and out of my wardrobe with matching jackets for all of us.

"Why'd you girls have to take so long to dress up if you're just gonna wear a jacket over it?" Ben grumbled.

"Do you want us to freeze?" Lizzy scolded.

"But we should stop by at the Packhouse dining hall for a hot drink later." Savy decided.

Ben rolled his eyes, "Girls! Come on. Let's go pick up Prince Charming."

We laughed and followed Ben out, sneaking down the stairs and out the side wing.

"We are going to be so in trouble tomorrow." Lizzy said with white clouds in her breath against the night sky.

"Then we better make this worth it." I zipped up my leather jacket.

"Will you girls be warm enough in that?" Ben looked skeptical.

No. I was already freezing, really.

Ben took off his scarf, "Here, Sam. You look the worst off."

The girls laughed.

"Sorry." Savy realized, "I was trying to match your dress. But I guess it's a little on the light side."

"It's okay. Alphas aren't afraid of the cold." I shrugged.

"Then give me back the scarf!" Ben said.

I shook my head, "Man up, Ben. You've still got your jacket AND pants."

Jonah met us on the quiet side of the Packhouse. Supposedly, the bathroom windows were on this side of the building. He pointed up one of the columns, "He's on the seventh floor."

"That's a long jump." I looked up and then I yelled, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let down your hair!"

"Shhhhhhh!!!" Savy covered my mouth, "You'll alert everyone!"

Lizzy laughed and laughed. She had to hold Jonah's shoulder to stay upright.

"It's not that funny." I said. But I was grinning. I liked making my friends laugh.

"But you're the one with the Rapunzel hair." Lizzy said.

Oh. Haha. I guess that was a little ironic. But still not THAT funny. Then again, everyone was smiling and we were having fun.

A window opened and a boy glowed and then floated down to us.

Woah.

River had leveled up.

He smiled, his usual open happy smile, "Hi Savannah."

And then he tripped, "Oooof."

The rest of us winced. There wasn't even anything in particular to trip over where he was standing. We were on flat grass.

"Ouch." Jonah said empathetically.

"I'm okay." River got up quickly.

Savy beamed at him like he was amazing.

Right. I forgot how Savy not only gets a personality change when it came to River, she also turned to mush when he was around.

If I were the kind of wolf who rolled my eyes, I would. But guess what? I don't think Alphas rolled their eyes either.

"Uh... You look cold." Jonah told Lizzy when we were creeping past a lit porch.

"You're supposed to say I look hot, not cold, you doofus." Lizzy scolded with a toss of her head.

"Uh yeah. You look hot in a cold way." Jonah said.

Hahahaha. Jonah sometimes said such weird things, it was funny. He noticed my scarf and immediately looked at his best friend because he recognized it, and then he pulled off his scarf and dropped it over Lizzy's shoulders, "Here. You'll look hotter in this."

"In what way will your old scarf make me look hotter?" Lizzy challenged.

"Uh... In a less cold way." Jonah said.

"Oh, is this how wolves date?" River asked. He quickly removed his scarf and wrapped it around Savy who smiled so sweetly at him, I nearly forgot to be mortified.

Lizzy didn't forget for a moment, "No! I'm not dating this doofus!"

I pulled off the scarf to return it to Ben, but my beta shook his head, "No, Prince Charming. It's more like taking care of stupid girls who would otherwise freeze to death."

I put the scarf back on. I hope his neck freezes.

And then Jonah thought to explain further, "But you only lend your scarf to stupid girls who are close to you. Not to any stupid girl you meet."

Which was just insulting btw, but at the same time, probably necessary to tell River. It wouldn't be good if he randomly lent his scarf to every girl who said it was cold.

It's not like he'd be claiming them or anything. We weren't fire wolves. But no woman likes her man's scarf to be covered with the scent of multiple other women.

"You didn't have to put it that way." Lizzy complained.

"Uh, I mean uh... Hot. Yes. Replace the word stupid with hot." Jonah said.

Ben laughed.

Lizzy hit Jonah a few times.

But just to make sure River understood, I gave him an example, "If Bell came home with another female scent on his scarf or coat, I'll hunt her down and kill her."

"Me too." Savy said and then she smiled her angelic smile.

"Girls are scary." Jonah told Ben.

"Just shut up and you'll survive." Ben said.

We were still walking towards the dance party, but the long way around through the woods behind the packhouse. I guess Ben didn't want to get spotted.

I laughed a little.

"What?" Ben asked.

"We're like the Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and some Foreign prince VIP, and we're sneaking around the back of the woods like puppies getting in trouble." I mused, and then I stopped to wait for River and Savy to catch up with us. Looking around at the familiar sight of the old trees behind our packhouse I couldn't help but remember, "It's like just yesterday when we really were just pups mucking around like this."

"Yeah." Lizzy said quietly as she looked around too.

"Uh oh." Jonah said.

"What?" Ben asked.

"I just remembered how every one of those adventures end up." Jonah said sheepishly, "We're going to be so dead tomorrow."

Lizzy laughed then. A full laugh. Of all of Lizzy's laughs, I liked this unfettered one best.

It was strong and free, and contagious.

When was the last time we laughed like this?

"Since we're going to get grounded," Ben cracked his knuckles, "Let's make it worth it."

{So fun!}