Chapter 111

When I wake up the next morning – or, at least, I think it’s morning – it’s not like this weird mountainous hospital room has windows – I smile, because I smell Jackson.

But then I frown, rubbing at my eyes, because…

I mean, I took a shower. His scent wouldn’t be all over me anymore, so why…

But then, when I follow my nose and peer over the side of my bed, I burst into a smile because I have my answer.

Jackson’s laying there, on a way-too-small mattress of all things, dead asleep. I grin, looking at him, wondering how the hell he got here and why he’s not back at the Academy yet, but…

Well, also, I just look at him. Because he’s so damn handsome, even with his mouth hanging open and his arm splayed out to the side, and so incredibly precious to me, even though we’ve only been bonded for less than two days.

Before I can stop myself, I crawl out of bed and drop down onto his mattress, curling up at his side with my head on his chest. Jackson jumps the moment I touch him, but he instantly calms when he realizes what happened. “Don’t scare me like that,” he murmurs, instantly wrapping his arms around me and pulling me tight.

I laugh. “Good morning to you too.”

“Yeah yeah,” he mutters, and I can almost feel him rolling his eyes at my insistence on a greeting. “How are you? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I say, though my stomach instantly growls in response. “Starving, but fine.”

Jackson frowns down at me and starts to sit up, like he’s going to go get me some food immediately, but I laugh and stop him with a hand on his chest. “Just stay still with me for a moment, Jacks,” I whisper, wanting nothing more than to have a peaceful few minutes with him before the rest of the world catches up with us.

My mate lays back down and exhales like he’s exhausted, but also like everything, in this moment, is…completely fine. Which, honestly, is precisely how I feel.

After a few long minutes of just holding each other, our breathing slowly coming to match, our heartbeats synching up, I raise my chin to look up at him. “Jacks,” I whisper, curious. “Why aren’t you at school? And where did you get a mattress?”

He laughs a little. “I’m not at school because I refused to go.”

“What!?” I squeak, sitting up to stare at him. He tightens his arms, making me lay back down and relax.

“I wouldn’t go,” he says, as if it’s simple. “I wouldn’t leave without you. The professors got pissed, but what are they going to do, carry me? I’m bigger than they are.”

“Jackson,” I breathe, staring at him. “One night with me in the hospital is not worth getting kicked out of school –“

“I’m not getting kicked out,” he says, his voice completely unworried. “I’m just getting a demerit on my record.”

“What’s a demerit?” I ask, fascinated, worried.

“Who knows. Who cares.” He peers at me for a second. “Ari, I’m like…very good at this military stuff. They’re not going to kick me out and lose everything I can offer just because I slept in the wrong facility one night. I haven’t done anything bad.”

“I don’t like you arrogant,” I murmur, giving him a little smack on his chest that makes him laugh. “You have to follow the rules, Jacks – you don’t get a free pass just because you’re big and nobody can boss you around.”

“Oh, look who’s talking about rule breaking, little girl,” he mutters, his voice dry. And I go still but then burst out laughing.

“Okay, I’m properly shamed on that one,” I sigh, putting my head back on his chest. “But, where did you get the mattress?”

“Your mom did that,” he says, and I can hear the smile in his voice. “She found me curled up outside your locked door –“

“Jackson!” I gasp. He just grins down at me.

“She pulled me to my feet and yelled at me a little –“

“Which you deserved –“ I say, my brow furrowed.

“Yes, she looked just like that,” he murmurs, raising a hand to cup my cheek and making me grin. “But then, while she yelled at me, she dragged me off to where they keep the spare furniture and helped me carry this in here. And then she left your clothes and your notes and she left.”

He points to the end of my bed and I see my black Cadet uniform there, along with some folded pieces of paper. I grin, encouraged by the sight of my Academy Black, hoping to hell this means my dad will let me go.

I mean, I’m an adult now – my decisions are mine. But, if he really doesn’t want me to go he can absolutely blow my cover and just let the school know that I’m a girl. I scowl, hating it, but also trusting, deep down, that my dad will listen.

“Are you coming to breakfast?” I ask, looking down at Jackson.

“Hell no,” he says, shaking his head like I’m crazy. I laugh, grinning at him.

“One conversation with my dad was enough?”

“I need…a great deal of prep before the next time that I sit down with your father,” he murmurs, covering his face with his hand and taking a deep breath. “That was terrifying.”

“He was being nice to you!” I laugh.

“Ari,” Jackson murmurs, shaking his head even as he refuses to look at me, “I have a very different relationship with men in positions of authority – yesterday I almost had a heart attack when I saw you yell at the King. Where I come from, you’d have been killed for that –“

“But it’s my dad,” I say, frowning down at him.

“Yeah,” he says, taking his hand away with a sigh and looking up at me. “We don’t have those.”

“Oh, Jackson,” I sigh, lowering myself to his side and curling up with him again. “We’ll get Rafe to have some chats with you to teach you how to handle parents, and I’ll tell dad to be nice.”

“Tell the King to be nice,” he mutters, shaking his head in disbelief. “And he’ll just…listen to you.”

“Obey my orders, more like,” I mutter, smug, and he just laughs.

We lay still for a long time after that, chatting about nothing, when suddenly the door opens. I sit up straight with a gasp, but then relax when I see that it’s just my mom.

“Oh,” she says, coming around the bed and peering a us with her hands on her hips. “Well, this is very chaste. You’re just…laying next to each other. Honestly, Ariel, I’m a little disappointed in you –“

“Mom!” I gasp, horrified at her implications that Jackson and I would be, like, tearing into each other.

“Well, you’re my daughter, Ariel!” She says with a big sigh.

I shriek, covering my ears. “Far too much information, mother!” I shout, pressing my eyes shut, wishing to erase that information from my brain.

But before I can complete the task, my mom comes close and swats me on the head, laughing, before offering a hand out to Jackson.

“Come on, you,” she says, smiling at him, and when I look up at her I can see that she’s already welcomed Jacks into her heart completely and is deeply, deeply fond of my mate. “King’s up. You have to run off to school before he finds out where you slept tonight.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jackson says, taking her hand but not really using it to get up, instead pulling himself to his own feet.

“Why aren’t the rest of you this polite?” mom asks, grinning at me as Jackson stands.

“Can you just yell at her or something?” I say to Jackson, turning my face up to his. “This is going to get old real fast.”

Jackson just looks at me, horrified at the idea. Mom laughs and stands on her toes to pat him on the cheek. “Off you go. Ariel will be along later today.”

Jackson says his goodbyes – to my shock – and after I get to my feet he leans down to kiss me chastely on the cheek before he goes from the room, again shooting looks over his shoulder at me like he desperately doesn’t want to leave my side.

“Seriously, Ari,” mom says when he closes the door behind him. “I kinda thought I’d be interrupting a major romantic scene this morning.”

“Well, you sort of were,” I sigh, looking over at her, and she smiles at me, tugging me close. “Just…the tamer sort.”

“Go on, baby trouble,” she murmurs, pressing a kiss to my other cheek. “Get dressed. We need to talk before breakfast, and we don’t have a lot of time.”