Chapter 393

“Of course I want to know get to know you, Midnight,” Jesse says, smiling at the girl, meaning it even if his heart and mind are still consumed with thoughts of Daphne and incredibly confused about what on earth is happening between the three of them. “My grandmother picked us for each other, after all. It makes sense that I’m interested.”

“Yes,” Midnight says, putting her plate down and her slapping hands on her thighs, leaning forward towards him. “Yes, first we can get to know each other, and then we will have the pups, and then –“

Jesse laughs, shaking his head at her as he holds a hand out, palm flat. “Midnight, you’ve got to drop the whole pups things. It’s not happening.”

She squeaks in dismay, sitting up rigidly, staring at him. “Why not!?”

“Why do you want pups so bad?” he asks, utterly confused.

“Because we’re supposed to,” she says, huffy, a bite of a whine in her voice. “It’s the whole point!”

“Who told you that?” Jesse asks, frowning at her.

“Darkness,” she says, pouting at him. “As many pups as we can get, and all dedicated to him. They will be so good at the shadow magic because they will get it from both of us!”

“Well, that’s a double no, then,” Jesse says, frowning at his little mate. “I’m not dedicating any pups to Darkness.”

“What is the point of this yurt!?” Midnight asks, casting her hands dramatically out to encompass the entire yurt. “If not to fill it with children!?”

“Really?” Jesse says, his face screwing up in confusion. “You see a yurt and your first instinct is…to put have infant in it? Or eighteen of them?”

Midnight narrows her eyes at Jesse before looking away to the door, anger and confusion all over her face. “I don’t know why you won’t love me,” she says, shaking her head. “They told me you would. That you had to.”

“Hey Midnight?” Jesse says, seeing that he’s honestly worried her. She gives a little grunt of confirmation, inviting him to go on, even if she doesn’t look at him. “Can we just…slow down?”

She turns back to him now.

“Look, we barely know each other,” he says quietly. “And neither of us really know what’s going on. Can we just…chill out? Put all the pup and the love talk on extreme hold? Just…spend some time getting to know one another on a much more basic level?”

A small smile comes to her lips and Jesse honestly thinks she’s a little relieved. “Okay,” Midnight says, nodding lightly. “Um, what do we do?”

“We hang out,” he says, shrugging. “Talk. Go for…walks. Play cards.”

“What are cards?” she asks, turning her head to the side.

“All right,” he says, laughing a little. “We’ll…make cards. And I’ll teach you how to play. But in the meantime maybe we just…ask each other questions.”

Midnight considers this for a second and then shrugs like she can’t think of anything else. “Okay. You go first.”

“I already asked you what your favorite food was.”

Her shoulders slump. “But I don’t know any questions.”

“All right,” Jesse says, laughing a little and starting to gather their plates up, wondering where on earth she washes these. “I’ll go again, then. What’s the Fancy House?”

She shakes her head, vehement. “Nope,” she says. “Not allowed. Ask something else.”

“All right,” he says, slow, trying to hide his smile. “Where do you go when you spy on the Atalaxians?”

“Jesse!” she groans, slumping to the side. “That’s not fair! You know I’m not supposed to tell you that stuff!”

He laughs and stands, holding out a hand to her. “All right, then, come on. Show me where to wash these plates and while we go there, tell me which of those books over there is your favorite.”

Midnight perks up, taking his hand and getting to her feet, beginning to chatter eagerly about each of the books and what she likes about them as she leads Jesse out the door and to a surprisingly clear little stream not far away.

As Midnight chatters and Jesse cleans the plates, he only half listens, his mind wandering to the big important questions of his life at the moment. How to get home. How to get to Daphne again, to see how she is, to try to figure out what the hell is going on. How to find a way to explain to her that he has a mate, but that it doesn’t change a single thing about how he feels towards her.

But even as he thinks of Daphne, his wolf turns towards Midnight too. We have to protect her, he says, standing on straight and stalwart legs, ready to leap into action. She’s just a poor, abused little girl who has had nothing – probably for her whole life. And she’s ours.

Solidly, Jesse agrees, as determined on that point as his wolf. Because even as he tried to keep his distance from her emotionally, Midnight – she’s grown on him. She’s bizarre and strange, but sweet and earnest and so eager to do what’s right. He wonders, passively, what she’d have been like if she had been raised in his world. Bright and passionate, surely, and clever, and funny.

But here? She’s just…so alone. Just a little girl, even if she is physically grown, her emotional growth stunted by neglect. A beautiful girl, but –

Hey! His wolf snaps, biting him hard and giving him a hearty scratch in his soul. Don’t you dare even think about her beauty. No funny business with this poor girl – that would take advantage of her –

Oh, would you lay off, Jesse growls, swatting his wolf away. Obviously, I would never.

“Hey, are you listening to me?” Midnight snaps. Jesse whips his head up to see her with her hands on her hips, glaring down at him. He smiles, laughing a bit.

“I’m sorry, Midnight, will you start again? I got lost in my thoughts.”

She frowns for a minute but then slowly her expression turns into a smile. “I like it when you apologize,” she says, quiet. “It’s nice.”

“Then I’ll keep doing it,” Jesse says, smiling back. “But please, continue.”

She does, and Jesse does his best to truly listen. But just before he gives Midnight his full attention, Jesse reaffirms to himself and his wolf the very real truth in his mind: that even if she is his mate, Midnight is off limits, physically and romantically. To cross that line with someone so damaged would be a sincere violation. And he would never do that – not to her, not to anyone.

And so Jesse determines, instead, to be Midnight’s best friend – her protector and her buddy, by her side whenever she needs him.

Because mate or not, everyone deserves someone like that. And Midnight’s never had it.

So, Jesse steps up to the task, determined to keep Midnight by his side even as he tries to get back home to his family and the people he loves.

At the meeting, Jackson just stares at the floor, clenching and unclenching his fist – the one that held Ariel’s hand. The one she was ripped from. The one that failed her.

He knows that he’s supposed to be paying attention but…god damn it, he doesn’t want to fucking be here. He doesn’t understand why he’s here – just standing at Rafe’s side – listening to people debate what the hell they’re going to do.

Why – why isn’t anyone taking any action!? Why isn’t he racing from the room –

“Hey,” Rafe murmurs, lightly knocking his shoulder into Jackson’s. “Are you okay, man?” Jackson looks over at his friend, his mate’s brother, with a solemn frown. Ben, on Rafe’s other side, looks at Jackson with worry too.

Unwilling to answer that question, because he knows they want a yes and he’s not going to bother to lie, Jackson just tersely turns his gaze on the King and the Duke at the front of the room. Dominic and Roger listen closely to advisors who tell them vital information about the state of Atalaxia’s military and anything they know at all about Jesse or Juniper or Ariel.

But after the good news about the fact that Ariel basically obliterated Atalaxia’s entire air force in one go – stupid of them to send them all out at once – the rest of this meeting has been useless gibberish. The kind of bureaucratic hemming and hawing that makes Jackson want to tear his hair out.

Despite himself, Jackson lets his eyes drop again to the floor, lost in his thoughts.

This morning, he’d woken up in his old bedroom at the Palace with Ella in a chair at his bedside. She’d looked worn and exhausted as she explained that she had healed his palm, on which Ariel had left third-degree burns. And then Ella had held Jackson as he sobbed after she told him what happened – that Roger injected him with something to knock him out, and that they took him from the battlefield, and that Ariel is gone.

Gone, completely gone – snatched right out of his hands by someone that intelligence had identified as a fucking Atalaxian prince. Where…where the hell had he taken her? Jackson understands completely why they’d want her – and why they’d want her off that battlefield. She had been absolutely obliterating them and was about to burn herself out letting loose more hell on their armies.

But…where? Where the fuck is she now?

The question gnaws at him. Because despite Moon Valley’s apparently extensive resources, no one seems to fucking know.

“All right,” Dominic Sinclair says, snapping Jackon’s head back up. “So that’s the plan for now. We marshal our intelligence units, we send queries and ambassadors, and we…hope. Hope that we get some information soon.”

Jackson turns away from the room the moment the meeting breaks up, disgust filling him. Rafe calls after him, grabbing for his arm, but Jacks…he doesn’t want to hurt his friend, but god, he’s just got to get out of here. He’s got to make a plan, he’s got to –

The moment he steps out of the door, though, someone grabs him by the hand, startling and nearly knocking him off balance. Jackson growls, whipping his head to whoever, his teeth bared –

But he gasps and reels it all in the moment he realizes that it’s the Queen.

“I’m sorry,” Jackson stumbles out, shaking his head, horrified. “I’m so sorry, Ella –“

“It doesn’t matter,” Ella snaps, her hand still tight on his, looking up into his face. “Jackson, you have to go to get her. You know that, right? This is – this is all taking too long.”

Jackson’s vicious snarl is all the confirmation Ella needs.

“Good,” Ella says, giving him a steady nod. “Then I’ll help you. Let’s go.”

Side by side, the two start off down the hall.