Chapter 132

“You came!” I breathe, thrilled and relieved and nearly insane with happiness as Jackson laughs and lifts me up, holding me tight against his chest.

“I could get used to this greeting,” he murmurs, his arms wrapped so snug around me, his face so close to mine that our noses brush.

“You scared me!” I protest, half laughing and half shouting as I smack him on the chest with both hands, one after the other. “Why didn’t you come into our train car!? Why didn’t you tell me!? I was so sad! I thought you stayed behind!”

Jacks shrugs, smiling at me like he can’t keep the joy off his face, his blue eyes shining. “I figured my presence in your fancy royal car would cause more trouble than it was worth. You deserved a minute to be calm and happy, and I didn’t mind riding with the other cadets. I just slept the whole time anyway.”

“And you didn’t think,” I say, taking his perfect face between my palms and narrowing my eyes, scolding playfully, “that maybe I wanted you close by?”

“Well, you’ve got me close by now,” he murmurs, lifting his chin towards me in a bit of a challenge. “So, what are you going to do with me?” He tightens his arms, further proving his point as his voice drops an octave to a level that…does dangerous things to me. Emotionally. Physically.

My smile grows slowly, a little devious, but my response is clipped by the sound of Rafe clearing his throat again.

I turn my head and blink in surprise to see my family and friends standing around us now, and the guards grouped around them, all of them staring at us.

Except for Luca. A strong pang of guilt runs through me when I see him staring at the ground to his side, clenching his jaw.

“Ariel?” Rafe says, his arms crossed as he glares at me. “Would you like to…climb down? Before the paparazzi get some great footage of this?”

“Um,” I say awkwardly in response before turning to Jackson and giving him a little grimace. Unperturbed, he smiles at me and slowly lowers me to the ground, careful to ensure that my skirt doesn’t ride up.

“You know, you don’t have to pick her up every time you greet her,” Rafe says softly, frowning at Jackson.

Jackson just stares at Rafe like that is clearly not true.

Rafe just rolls his eyes, laughing a little as he moves on and I fix my dress into less rumpled lines. Captain Conner looks a little frantically between me and Jackson before moving his eyes to Luca, with whom I was just holding hands. I sigh, realizing that…whatever secrecy I held on to at the Academy, isn’t hasn’t really disappeared here, has it?

Unless I want the entire nation to know about my complicated love triangle, I have got to learn to cool it.

“Captain Conner,” I say, stepping forward towards him and doing my best to be the nation’s Princess again. “This is Jackson McClintock. We got accidentally separated from him on the way home, but he’ll be joining us at the Palace for break and should have all the rights and freedoms of an honored guest.”

“As you will it, Highness,” Conner says, giving me a sharp bow. He casts out a hand towards the three-story arch through which the city waits. “If we have our entire party now…?”

His implication is clear and, with another little glare at me, Rafe leads the way out. Luca follows close behind him, not looking at me, and Daphne sends me a little smile and a nod before she hurries her steps to walk with Luca, making a little small talk that I hope will comfort him.

Ben and Jesse fall in with Jackson and I as we bring up the rear, both of them greeting Jackson warmly and likewise telling him that they’re thrilled he came along. Jackson’s smile in response to their genuine excitement to see him fills my heart with joy, because I’m watching him realize that he truly has friends now.

It gets a little awkward in the close quarters of the limousine, but Jesse does a good job of breaking the awkwardness by pouring more champagne – god, mom really made sure we were stocked – and pointing out all of the landmarks that we pass on the way to the palace to Ben and Daphne, keeping us all laughing with his commentary.

Rafe, when we got in the car, sat me deliberately on his right with Daphne on my other side, very carefully ensuring that I wasn’t sitting next to either of my mates, I think trying to be fair to both of them. But as we draw close to the palace, Rafe turns to Jackson on his left and raises an eyebrow. “You ready for this?” he murmurs, smirking a little.

“Absolutely not,” Jackson returns, deadpan. But then he smiles at my brother, and moves his eyes to me, and his smile deepens. “But we’ll get through it, right?”

“That’s the spirit,” Rafe says, laughing and clinking his glass against Jackson’s before taking a sip.

Jackson just glances down at his champagne with distaste.

“What,” I say, leaning further over Rafe with a grin, unable to help it. “You don’t like it?”

“What is it?” he asks, baffled, holding his glass up to stare at the pale bubbly liquid.

“It’s champagne!” I say, laughing.

Jackson just shifts his eyes to me like I’m crazy if I think he knows what that means, which makes me laugh more. Jesse, having caught the conversation, laughs as well in a good-hearted way. “What do you like, Jacks?” he asks, flipping open the little travel bar that dad keeps quite well stocked back here.

“I don’t know,” Jackson murmurs, peering over my head with surprise and a little delight at the secret compartment. “Something…brown.”

“Whiskey it is,” Jesse says, pouring him a draft and handing it down the line.

“If he’s not going to have his champagne,” Luca calls, and I turn my head to him with surprise to see him holding out his hand. “I’ll take it.”

Grinning, pleased to see him come back to himself a little more, I take Jackson’s glass and pass it down to Luca, who empties it into his own half-full flute. “No sense in wasting five-hundred-dollar champagne,” he murmurs, lifting his glass to me in a toast with a wink before taking a sip.

“That cost five hundred dollars?” Jackson gasps, almost dropping his glass of whiskey in his shock.

“Whoa, whoa,” Rafe says, putting a steadying hand under Jackson’s glass. “Listen, if you’re that shocked about the champagne, don’t even ask about the whiskey – just…be careful. And enjoy.”

Jackson stares at Rafe, and then at me, and then at all of us in appalled shock, which just makes us all laugh harder. But after a moment he smiles too, shaking his head and taking it in stride. I lift a hand to my cheek, which aches a bit from smiling so much, because this is…this is working, isn’t it?

At least right now it is.

On my other side, Daphne’s leg bounces anxiously.

“You okay?” I whisper, resting my hand on her knee.

“Oh, you know,” she says, her voice high and too breezy. “Just…about to meet the king and the queen. Just a normal day. No reason to be anxious.”

“They’re nice,” I whisper, grinning. And then I tap the bottom of her glass. “Bottom’s up. Liquid courage.”

“You want me to be drunk when I meet the royals!?” she says, aghast, but I catch the corner of her grin and realize that she’s kidding.

“Yes,” Jesse says, leaning towards her with delight, “you’ll fit in just fine if you’re utterly plastered.”

“You’re going to give her the impression that our family is all alcoholics,” I say, rolling my eyes at him as the limo pulls around the final corner to the palace and my home – my home! – comes into view. My face stretches with my smile, my cheeks aching more.

“Not alcoholics,” he says, with a frown, “just your run-of-the-mill magical lycanthropes who know how to party. Finish up everyone!” he calls, leading by example and draining his glass. “We’re here!”

I can’t help the little squeak of excitement that makes its way out of my mouth as I grab Daphne’s hand and pass glasses back along the line to Jesse, who neatly stacks them on top of the bar. And then, one by one, we climb out of the limousine and onto the steps of the palace.

As soon as Rafe opens the door to the car, the shouts of the paparazzi start and lightbulbs begin to flash.

Rafe goes first, followed by Jackson, and I eagerly follow after him, stepping close to my mate’s side and watching as his mouth slowly falls open while takes in the palace and all the people standing to our right, held off by red ropes, their cameras going mad. I glance once to the entrance and grin, a thrill of joy passing through me when I see my parents standing there, waiting to greet us. But I turn my eyes back to Jackson, wanting to make sure he’s okay.

“You…you live here?” Jackson breathes, not even blinking as he takes in the expanse of the Palace.

“What,” I say, frowning a little and looking where he’s looking. “is it like…big or something?”

Jackson turns his head to me, staring, shocked, and I burst out laughing, unable to help myself from pressing closer to his side just for a moment, even though I don’t take his hand or wrap my arms around him, like I want to.

“I’m kidding!” I say, laughing up into his face. “Obviously, it’s a ridiculous house. But yes, we live here – and inside we actually just have a really small suite of rooms to ourselves. It’s – well,” I shrug, “it’s cozy, if you can believe it.”

“If you’re there, it’s cozy,” he murmurs passively before glancing back up at the palace before us, apparently completely unaware of how damn sweet what he just said was. I beam at him, thrilled, before I feel my other mate come to my side.

And then I turn my attention to Luca, tucking my hands behind my back as I look up into his face, beaming at him in turn. “You ready to meet my parents?”

“Well, your mom I’ve met,” he murmurs consideringly as he looks up the steps towards my parents as Ben, Jesse, and Daphne climb out of the car. “Your dad…does he know who I am to you?”

“He’s supposed to,” I say, giving a little shrug. “Mom said she’d tell him, so that…well, so that we didn’t have a scene like we did last night.”

“Well then, Princess,” Luca says, surprising me by taking my arm in his own and starting forward after Rafe, leading me up the stairs like he’s my escort. Instantly I walk with him, not having enough time to take a moment to think about what it means – or what the press will make of it – if I walk up these stairs on Luca Grant’s arm. Because it’s already done, isn’t it?

So instead of worrying about it I just smile at Luca and walk at his side. Because perhaps he’s right – what, really, is wrong with walking into the Palace on the arm of my mate?

Luca and I smile at each other and then turn our faces forward, towards my parents as the seven of us troop up the steps to the palace where the King and the Queen of Moon Valley wait – the Queen with a wonderful smile, the King’s expression grim as he moves his eyes slowly between my two mates.