Chapter 220

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. noveldrama

“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.”