Chapter 775

"Jess!" Rafe barks out as Jesse leaves, flipping Rafe the middle finger as he goes.

Then Rafe, growling, storms back to his own sleeping area and begins furiously pulling his dresser drawers open, not seeming to get much done but needing the distraction of having something rather violent to do.

"What...what is happening?" Jackson murmurs, tearing his eyes away from the Prince and looking down at Ariel, worried.

"Oh, puppy," she sighs, beaming up at him and squeezing his hand. "Come help me pack, I'll explain everything."

"Pack?" he says, grinning down at her, unable to help it. Then he snarls and snatches her up into his arms. "Pack!? I have nothing to pack - you're my only luggage, tiny - I'll zip you up in a bag right now -" She shouts with laughter that goes right to Jackson's heart, makes everything actually feel okay, makes war and devastation and death and the thought of losing her feel very, very far away. Jackson laughs too, falling with her onto the bed as she quickly begins to explain a very baffling story about Jesse and Daphne somehow being in love.

But even as his mouth falls open in surprise, Jackson only half listens. Because his heart and his soul are elsewhere, on other thoughts.

We have to mark her, his wolf growls, pacing back and forth in his soul as Jackson's eyes fall to her neck, to that spot he's been thinking of for months, even if it's covered now with black fabric. We should do it now.

Patience, Jacks murmurs, running a comforting hand over his wolf's raised hackles. She has to be ready. It has to be right. She can't have two bad experiences being marked - I'm not going to ruin this just because we're impatient.

No time for patient, his wolf growls, shaking out his fur, anxious. Now. We have to do it now, before it's again too late.

Jackson just grits his teeth, forcing himself back to the moment, ignoring his wolf and concentrating on his girl.noveldrama

Who is, after all, the center of the entire world.

Ariel grins up at him. "You've been lost in your thoughts, haven't you, pup?" She runs a soft hand through his hair and Jackson smiles, leaning into it.

"All thoughts of you," he murmurs, utterly truthful.

She beams. "Good thoughts?"

"Every single one." He dips his head and presses a soft kiss to those perfect lips.

Jesse leans back against Daphne's pillows in her tiny bed and shuts his eyes, the weight of her against

his chest a balm to his entire soul. Mittens purrs softly, a little ball of fur happily curled up on the upper ridge of the headboard.

"So," Daphne sighs, her voice weary. "Rafe...knows."

"Rafe knows," Jesse confirms, dour. "I fucked up. Badly."

"We should have told him," she murmurs, closing her own eyes and nuzzling closer, tugging his neat Cadet shirt out of his pants and slipping her hand beneath so that her palm rests flat against his stomach. She exhales softly, relishing the touch.

"It wouldn't have been any better," he

murmurs, shaking his head. "Any way that Rafe found out, no matter how, he was going to be pissed as hell about it. Bro code and everything - in his head, you're

off limits to me because he had you first."

"Jesse that's ridiculous Alpha bullshit," Daphne sighs, lifting her head and resting her chin against his chest to peer up at him. "I'm not an that's given permission for or forbidden - I'm a whole person with my own emotions -"

"I know, Daph," he says, opening his eyes and looking down at her, running his hand over her lovely, soft hair. "Don't let it bother you, love. It will all blow past." He steels himself, because even if his wolf is still raging a bit at all the things Rafe said, he doesn't want Daphne to be mad about it. No, his cousin is his business to handle, not hers to stress about.

"Do you think he'll get used to it?" she whispers, anxious.

Jesse sighs and moves, pulling Daphne close to him and turning onto his side so that they're face to face. He loops one arm around her back with which to hold her tight and the other, a bit unable to help it, slips low, his hand gently cupping her ass.

She grins and shakes her head at him, thinking that he can't even help it when they're having a serious chat, but not minding - not really. Not at all. He just shrugs like why wouldn't he, while he still has the chance.

"He'll have to get used to it, won't he?" Jesse murmurs, pressing a kiss to her cheek and then her nose and then her mouth. "Once we're married - even before that - he's going to see us together and have to deal with it. I'm sorry I haven't gotten the ring yet - it's been so crazy, but the minute we get back to the city —"

"Jess," she whispers, hesitant, making him go still.

"What is it?" he asks, peering at her.

"Are you - are you serious about that?"

He blinks at her, then frowns. "Did you think I wasn't?"