Chapter 249

Jackson hesitates, glancing away from me and looking down the stairs.

“Jacks!” I gasp, pulling his face back to look at mine, aghast at the idea that he wouldn’t come. “You said you! You told my mom!”

“Ariel,” he sighs, shaking his head and wrapping the arm around my waist tighter, pulling me closer so that my feet are barely on the stairs anymore, my weight all on him. “It’s just…it’s been a lot, okay? And I’m no good with this…people stuff, and there are going to be a lot of people there for winter break.”

Understatement of the year, but I don’t say anything that will encourage him on this ridiculous idea not to come.

“Maybe it’s better for me to not go?” Jackson says, soft, hesitant. “To just take the next two weeks to get my head together, and stay here where it’s quiet, and then I’ll see you when you get back?”

“Jackson,” I cry, my heart breaking at the idea. God, not seeing him, for two weeks? After everything we’ve been through in the past few days?

He groans, clenching his teeth at the sound I make. “Don’t ask me, Ari,” he whispers, shaking his head, his eyes exhausted and sad. “Don’t ask me for more today, because if you ask, you know I’ll give it – I can’t say no –“

“Baby,” I murmur, taking a hand from his cheek and running it through his hair, not knowing where the pet name came from, not worrying about that now. But Jackson closes his eyes at the sound of it, hardly able to bear it. And even though he’d probably die rather than let anyone hear me call him that…

…I know that he likes it. He likes it a lot.

“It will be good, Jacks,” I whisper, a promise in every word. “I promise it will be good, we won’t push you too far – we’ll…we’ll make sure you’re happy. All of us.”

Jackson opens his eyes, staring up at me, and the bells start to peel again.

Worried, he glances down the stairs, and I know he has to get to his room to get his things.

“Just meet us at the train,” I whisper, again turning his face back to me again before pressing a kiss to his mouth – fast, too short, not at all what I really want to do. I pull back, staring into his eyes. “Just meet us at the train, all right? Jackson?”

“I’ll try,” he whispers, looking up into my face. And I nod, knowing that’s the best I’m going to get right now, and that he means it. He will try, but if it’s too much…

Well, my mate has a tendency to run, doesn’t he?

Jackson kisses me again, just as swift as the last, before carefully putting me on my feet and letting me go. “Get back to your brother,” he growls, narrowing his eyes a little. “Don’t go wandering around this castle by yourself –“

“Oh, they’re ten feet away,” I snap, rolling my eyes and turning to dart up the stairs. “The train, Jacks!” I call over my shoulder. “I’ll see you there!”

But as I hurry up the stairs, he doesn’t call anything after me, and my heart sinks. I hope to the ends of me that he comes, but part of me knows…well, I know that if he was going to come, he would have told me so. He would have promised.

“Ari!” Rafe shouts as I reach the top of the stairs, frowning furiously at me. “Come on!”

I dash to his side, trying to get back into the room, but Jesse and Ben are already at the door, backpacks over their arms.

“I tried,” Ben says, apologetic as he hands me a woefully under-packed bag. “I don’t know which of your things you wanted –“

“It’s fine,” I say, trying my best to give him a smile and slinging the pack over my shoulder.

“Let’s go,” Rafe says, pressing me on the shoulder and turning me back towards the stairs. “We are not missing this train. We are getting home, tonight. To see our parents and our insane passel of siblings.”

“And to drink our faces off.” Jesse murmurs, shooting me a wink as I laugh and the four of us hurry down the stairs. “And get back in touch with all of Ariel’s friends –“

I gasp at that, but Ben laughs and gives me another little shove, making me move forward. noveldrama

Forward to the train, where I’m supposed to meet my mates – both of them.

And bring them home to meet my family.