Chapter 110

“Well, that’s enough of that,” my mother says with perfect calm, standing and catching Jackson’s eye. He freezes for a moment and then steps back, standing up straight again.

Mom, ever-charming, turns a smile on the professor and thanks him for the news, ensuring him that Sinclair and McClintock will follow in a few minutes to be transported back. When the professor leaves, mom turns back to Jacks with an eyebrow raised.

“You’re going to have to get better at that,” she says quietly, gesturing towards the door. “If Ari is going to return to the Academy, you’re going to have to keep her secret, which means not acing all mate-y whenever someone comes to deliver perfectly normal news –“

“She’s not going back,” my dad says, stepping towards my mom with a glare.

Mom’s mouth pops open in surprise but then they begin to fight, the way they always do – with a great deal of heat and talking over each other. But Rafe and I just look away from them and towards each other, used to it, because it all turns out right in the end.

“Oooookay,” Aunt Cora says, stepping away from the bed and coming over to us. “Why don’t I walk the two of you out,” she says, nodding to the big Alphas on either side of me. “Ariel will –“

“I’m not leaving,” Jackson says, frowning at Cora and reaching a possessive hand for me.

“Oh, sweetheart,” she says, grinning up at him and reaching a hand out to pat him fondly on the cheek, an action which I think shocks Jackson to the core. He stands stock-still, staring at Cora as she beams at him. “Yes, baby,” she sighs, “you are. Kiss your mate and come along.”

She takes his hand then, tugging on it, and Jackson looks at me a bit helplessly – I think as shocked at being bossed by a woman as he is at having someone call him sweetheart and baby. I step close, reaching for him, and Jacks quickly lowers his head, pressing a quick kiss to my mouth. “I don’t want to go,” he murmurs.

“I’ll be fine – I’ll see you tomorrow,” I nod at him, eager.

“Ari,” he says, hesitating, looking at me like I’m going to die or disappear if he leaves the room.

“Jacks,” I say, taking his face in my hands, sending all the faith and assurance I can down our bond. “We have to be normal, all right? Just…just for a little bit? I’ll see you at school.”

He sighs, shaking his head, but Cora tugs his hand again and he goes along with her, sending me looks over his shoulder as he heads for the door.

“Take care of him,” I say to Rafe, catching at his hand as he, too, goes.

Rafe nods his assurance to me, but as Jackson and Cora slip through the door dad calls out his name. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asks, crossing his arms over his chest, breaking the argument with my mother to apparently start one with Rafe.

“Um,” Rafe says, going stock-still in the middle of the room. “To…school?”

“Think again, young man,” my dad says, striding for the door and slamming it shut. “Royal dispensation – you, too, are staying overnight. Because we as a family?” he levels his gaze at both of us in turn. “We need to talk.”

Rafe heaves a big sigh, closing the door after Cora takes an unhappy Jackson away.

As the next few hours pass, I’m very willing to let Rafe take the majority of the blame as well as dad’s anger. Food is brought, which I eat ravenously, and Rafe sends me a few chagrined looks as the interrogation passes, but overall I know he takes it willingly – that he knows that I’m exhausted, and that it’s already been a lot for me, today, to stand up to dad and introduce him to my mate.

And so I just curl up against mom at the head of the bed, listening to my dad and my brother fight about whether or not I should be at the school, and what the hell Rafe was thinking taking me there, and how I’ve survived so far. I can hear Rafe supplying information that Jackson told when they were away at the shower, apparently, about the identity of the cadet who shot me with a crossbow and whether or not he has a further vendetta against me, but I quickly find myself slipping into sleep as I lean against mom.

“Come on, baby,” I hear mom murmur from my half daze. I blink into consciousness, realizing that dad and Rafe are still going at it, and then I look up at mom next to me. “Let’s get you cleaned up,” she says, unhooking me from the IV and tugging me away.

I nod, following her to the second door in the room, yawning as we pass through it and a few more doors before we enter a pretty utilitarian private bathing chamber. She helps me strip down and then I shower as mom fills me in, quietly and calmingly, on the gossip from home. Markie is fine – he doesn’t like school, loves sports, wants a pet squirrel more than anything in the world. Juniper hates everything, apparently, and won’t wear anything but black – dyed her hair black, too, in a fit of rebellion.

I smirk, thinking fondly of my taciturn little sister, missing her with a sudden intensity that surprises me. But I dry off with a scratchy towel and then pull on the supplied one-size-fits-all-Alpha pajamas – which, obviously, swim on me. But mom laughs and helps me pull the drawstring of the pants tight before leading me out into the hospital room again and back to the bed.

Dad and Rafe, I’m interested to see, have fallen silent and aren’t looking at each other.

“So,” mom says, overly cheerful. “Did we men come to any decisions about Ariel’s fate in the world without consulting her?”

Rafe balks a little bit, staring at my mom, because he has been fighting for me for the past few hours. She just winks at him, because the critique was mostly for my dad.

“Enough, Ella,” dad murmurs, massaging his temple with his left hand. “We decided to pick it up again tomorrow, after we’ve all slept on it. We’re not getting anything done here anyway.”

“Wow, you’re kidding me, I thought you were making such progress,” mom murmurs with over-cheerful sarcasm as she tucks me into bed. Dad just glares at her half-heartedly before turning to me, leaning down to give me a kiss on the cheek and then run his hand over my hair.

“I love you, Ariel,” he says, and I look up at him, hoping he can see in my face all the love I have for him in my heart – so much that it aches. His face falls a little then, and I smile, because I think he sees it. “I just want what’s best for you.”

“I know, pops,” I murmur, reaching for him, wanting a hug. Dad obliges me, wrapping me up tight for a long, long moment. And then he lets me lay back down in the bed, standing up. As soon as my head hits the pillow, my eyes start to drift shut.

“We’ll see you for breakfast, baby,” mom whispers, also leaning down to give me a kiss. “You just sleep tight for now.”

I murmur my assent, and then I’m asleep, the last thing I hear three sets of footsteps leaving the room, my brother’s whispered goodnight as he switches off the light.