Chapter 437

Just past midnight, Rafe stands with his adult family on the roof of the palace, everyone’s face turned up to the sky and towards the steady pounding of chopper blades they can barely hear in the distance. A steady hum of excitement runs between them all. Roger and Cora in particular stand with their expressions rapt, his arms around her shoulders, her leaning against his chest.

But still, despite his excitement to see his cousin – his best friend – Rafe’s wolf keeps nipping at him inside, urging him to go back downstairs, to find the human girl, to grab her and mark her immediately.

Rafe growls a little, the sound rumbling in his throat, frustrated with his wolf for being so ridiculous and impractical. Ariel said it was like this but god – he didn’t realize how annoying it would be.

“You okay, baby?” Ella asks, reaching up and brushing her fingertips against her eldest son’s short dark hair. “You haven’t been…yourself today.”

Rafe glances to the side to see his mother looking at him curiously. His dad stands on Ella’s other side, listening but pretending he is not. Rafe smirks even as he sighs, appreciating their concern, even if he’s not ready to tell anyone at all what he discovered.

After all, Maryam herself doesn’t know. He watched her all day for some sort of sign, but she either ignored him or treated him with disdain. But how could she know? She doesn’t have a wolf.

“I’m okay,” Rafe says, turning his face back up to the sky where the chopper is quickly approaching. “Just…lots of changes, right? Jesse coming back from another world, with a mate of all things. We didn’t leave things on the best terms but…god, I hope he knows that none of that matters anymore. And Ariel is still missing, Junie too. It’s…” he shakes his head. “A lot.”

“I know, sugar,” Ella says, leaning against her son and resting her head against his arm. “But…piece by piece, we’ll figure it all out. We always do.”

Rafe nods down to his mother and gives her a tense smile and then, like the rest of the family, watches as the helicopter begins to land.

The phone call with Jesse had been short and strange. Rafe had been disappointed when Roger had hung up with his son before Rafe or even Cora got a chance to talk with him – but apparently, Jesse had been in a rush to get everything settled.

And then the strange demands that he made – to send a train to the Academy to pick up twenty ambassadors as well as a helicopter for Jesse, Ben, and three rather anonymous guests, one of which is the mate who kidnapped Jesse and swiped Daphne across the face with her claws?

And his request that all of his siblings be left at home for a few hours, just until they got settled? I mean, they had complied with it all and Mark is at Cora and Roger’s house babysitting the ducklings, but…

What…what are they all in for tonight? What the hell is inside that helicopter that needs that kind of preparation?

The helicopter finally settles down, the blades beginning to slow, and Rafe takes a step forward, eager to have a reason to turn his thoughts away from Maryam and desperate to know who the hell is inside.

The door opens and Rafe’s face breaks into a smile when Ben steps out first. Ben’s face bursts into a grin and he waves before putting a hand up to help a very pretty, very pregnant young woman step out. Rafe’s eyebrows go up at this, taking in her rich but very conservative gown, realizing that she’s an Atalaxian – and likely a high-ranking one.

The answer of her identity comes a moment later when she’s followed out of the helicopter by a dark-haried Alpha who Rafe knows from Midwinter, when he was here. Elias – Prince of Atalaxia and now the heir to the throne, if rumors and Jesse’s report are to be believed.

The Atalaxian Prince bows deeply to the King and Queen of Moon Valley and then takes his Luna’s hand – or at least, that’s what Rafe assumes she is – and leads her forward. Rafe frowns a little to see Ben moving closely at their side because…when the hell did he have time to get close to Atalaxian royalty?

But there’s no time to consider it when another tall figure appears at the door of the helicopter, stepping out of it with a cheerful smile deliberately pasted to his face. But Rafe has no time to truly consider Jesse’s expression, his eyes moving immediately to the little figure bundled up in his arms and balanced on one hip, shadows streaming off of her like dry ice as she tucks her face tight against Jesse’s shoulder.

Rafe’s eyes fly wide as he stares at his cousin, shocked.

What…what the fuck is this?

“Hey, guys!” Jesse says, his voice tight and falsely cheerful as he strides over to his family, all of them staring at him, agape. Jesse keeps his smile fixed on his face even as he glares around at his parents, his uncle, and his favorite cousin, silently demanding that they play along. “This is my mate, Midnight! She’s really fantastic and I’m sure she’ll be glad to meet you soon but she…she did not like the helicopter.”

“Infernal machine,” Midnight hisses, lifting her face. Cora gasps at the sight of the hollow pits of darkness in the place of the girl’s eyes, the shadows that stream from the dark ruin of her mouth. “Cursed metal bird – carrying people in its belly like eggs! We are lucky to have survived! It should be destroyed – I will destroy it!”

She spins then, casting shadows out from her hand that streak towards the helicopter. Rafe gasps as the pilot’s eyes go wide, but Jesse turns and grabs at the shadows himself, almost like grabbing a cat by the tail, hauling them back.

“Mids,” Jesse growls down at the girl still in his arms. “What did we agree on, regarding the destruction of vehicles?” The shadows suck neatly into his outstretched hand, obedient and trim.

Midnight’s face turns down in a trembling little frown, her personal shadows receding almost completely from her visage so that Rafe can see that she’s not some kind of monster just…

Just a girl. A really, really frightened, tiny, skinny girl with big brown eyes and a sweet, heart-shaped face that has masses of dark curls tumbling around it.

“We agreed to temporarily contain the urge for destruction,” she whispers. “Until we have more information and can make an informed decision regarding whether or not it a vehicle or…a foul beast that needs to face a bloody end.”

“You got it,” Jesse says, grinning at her, laughing a little bit. When he turns his face back to his family, Rafe is shocked to see a little more of his cousin there now – more relaxed, more full of humor.

But one glance around at all of his family’s faces assures Rafe that everyone else is just as freaked out about the Goddess’s choice for Jesse’s mate as he is.

“So,” Jesse says, grinning around at everyone. “Can we…go inside?”

Twenty minutes later Jesse’s family is gathered in the living room around a crackling fire, watching Midnight work her way through her fourth bowl of ice cream. The Atalaxians begged to be let to rest and so Ben was charged with showing them to their room and ensuring that they settle in.

Ella, predictably, softened towards Midnight the moment she heard even the barest outlines of her story, gasping and ushering the girl to a warm seat by the fire, covering her with blankets and ordering her up a great deal food even before she took the time to wrap Jesse in a warm hug and tell him how glad she was that he’s safe and home, how very much he was missed and worried for.

Not to Jesse’s surprise, Cora is…taking a bit more time in her assessment of Midnight.

“So,” Cora murmurs, sipping a cup of coffee and standing close to her son while Dominic, Roger, Rafe, and Ella talk to Midnight, getting to know her and being incredibly kind – as Jesse knew they would be. “What’s…what’s really going on there?” She raises an eyebrow at her son, letting him know precisely what she’s asking.

Jesse sighs and smiles, shaking his head as he crosses his arms. “It’s…very complicated, Ma. Midnight really is the best and incredibly important to me, but I had no idea, really, how…intense it would be, meeting my mate. But she’s still very much a child in her heart and her mind and I worry about her a lot. I want the best for her – and so a romantic connection…it’s not even on my mind.”

Cora hums consideringly as she turns her eyes back to the poor girl, though inwardly her heart sings with pride for her son, for his restraint in tucking away any romantic impulses he might have towards his mate, putting her needs first. “I’m very proud of you, Jess,” she says, soft.

“Aw shucks, ma,” Jesse says, his face breaking into that pretty smile that reminds Cora so much of his father. “You’re going to make me blush.”