Ch. 196..200: The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 196-200

Chapter 0196

I work hard to fight my grin, wanting to be serious, but his own smile brings mine forward. “I know,” I whisper, nodding, “I saw you with Daphne.”

“Oh my god,” he mutters, taking a deep breath before slowly releasing it. “I thought my heart was going to pound through my chest when she came in.”

“Why!?” I ask, laughing. “Daphne is really nice –“

“Because she’s a girl – it’s like meeting…I don’t know, a gigantic whale, or a unicorn or something. Even if you know it’s nice you still don’t know what to do – what it’s going to do –“

“We’re unicorns to you?” I squeak, pleased to death.

He laughs, shaking his head. “Almost nearly as mythical,” he murmurs. “To me, at least.”

I narrow my eyes a little, suddenly struck by something. “That was one hell of a kiss, Jackson,” I say, tilting my head and wrapping a hand in the fabric of his shirt, possessive, “if it was your first one.”

His mouth twists a little and he looks away for a second. “Well, no,” he murmurs and I gasp a little at the drama of it all. “I knew…I knew one girl. For a little bit.”

My eyes go wide and a thousand questions are instantly on my lips, but they all fall away when he turns back to me.

“Please,” he murmurs, shaking his head, his eyes a little sad. “I…I will tell you about her, okay? Just…not right now. Not when I’ve just found you, and…there’s so much else to explain first.”

I nod, agreeing to it, though my hands tighten their grip on his shirt. I find that I do not like, at all, the idea of this singular other girl. It is somehow, bizarrely, worse than Luca’s fifty anonymous women.

So, I let him move on from it, because I’m…honestly not sure I want to know. At least, as he says, not right now.

“The world I grew up in,” Jackson begins, his voice soft and hesitating, “well, we called it the Community. It’s way, way up North, in the mountains. It’s really pretty there, honestly, Ari. Like… much prettier than here.”

I smile a little, cozying up against him, settling in to listen and pleased that he grew up somewhere beautiful. But I don’t say anything, wanting him to talk.

“But, um…” he hesitates again, “we do things…really differently. Like, for instance, I grew up with boys. And only boys. The girls were…kept elsewhere.”

“Kept?” I murmur, confused.

“Yeah,” he replies, and I can feel him nod. “We grew up in barracks – which is why, I think, it was easy for me to fall into life here, I’m kind of used to it. Except you all talk a lot – like constantly, Ari, everyone is always chatting – most of the time about nothing –“

“Jackson,” I murmur, lifting my head to look into his face, frowning, “what do you mean grew up? Like, from how young?”

He pauses his harangue against chattiness and goes a little still before he shrugs. “Since I can remember. That was my home.”

I frown, not understanding, and then I remember suddenly something that he said last night…

God, was that just last night, when Daphne came over and Jackson mentioned that he…

“Jackson,” I murmur, shaking my head, “where were your parents? Were they there too?”

“No,” he replies, his eyes suddenly wary as he confesses what, I think, is part of the great secret of his life. “I don’t…I don’t have parents. Or, I mean, obviously biologically I do, but…I was raised apart from them. We all were. If I ever met them,” he shrugs, “I didn’t know who they were. And they probably wouldn’t have known I was theirs.”

My mouth falls open in shock and horror as I stare at my mate.

Because what…what the hell!?

 

Chapter 0197

Jackson works hard for a smile when he sees my reaction to my story, though he kind of fails at it. “I take it,” he murmurs, “that you have parents? And you like them?”

 

 

“Well, yeah, Jacks!” I reply, staring wide-eyed into his face. “They’re kind of great!”

 

 

Jackson laughs a little, tightening his arms around me. “Well, if you don’t know that parents are a thing, you don’t really notice them missing, do you?”

 

 

I tilt my head, considering this, as Jackson goes on with his story, telling me about being a little boy growing up in a Community and sleeping in what was essentially a bunkhouse full of little boys just like him. The youngest babies, he knew, were raised in a nursery, and every year a new batch of boys was brought to the bunk house when they were very young.

 

 

And from that young age, they were trained to fight.

 

 

“Just every morning,” Jackson murmurs, his face distant as he remembers, “we’d troop out of the bunkhouse and get to work – running, learning to fight, sparring with each other.” He shrugs. “It wasn’t so bad. As we got older, the guys who weren’t as good at it – they stopped coming to practice and I’d see them out in the fields and stuff, or training for a new job. But, I mean, I was… good at it. So. I just kept going.”

 

 

“You could see them?” I ask, trying to picture this world. “But not…talk to them?”

 

 

“The bunk house was for men and boys in warrior training,” Jackson explains, turning his face back to me. “If you were sorted out of that, you…moved to another bunk house, I guess. I could see our little community – the main part of it, with the council house, and the mess hall. And the women’s barracks, too.”

 

 

My eyebrows raise at this but I press my lips together, wanting him to tell the story any way he wants to. He notices, though, and smiles.

 

 

“Yeah, the women lived all together too. And we could see them, from where we lived on top of the hill.”

 

 

“But weren’t you curious?” I breathe, fascinated.

 

 

“Of course we were,” he laughs, smiling at me. “Especially as we grew older and…noticed them more. In a different way. But you have to understand – it was forbidden. We were taught our roles very, very well, and we were never, ever supposed to talk to anyone in town, especially the women.”

 

 

I shake my head, baffled by it, and especially by the fact that these kinds of attitudes towards gendered difference and communal living exist within my own nation. It sounds, like anything, more Atalaxian than native to Moon Valley.

 

 

But, honestly, who the hell am I to judge? Just because Jackson grew up differently than me…does that honestly make it worse?

 

 

“Were you happy there, Jackson?” I ask, my voice worried. Because while I desperately want him to have been…I just don’t see how a little boy could be, growing up in a world with that much restriction.

 

 

He takes a long moment before he answers. “No,” he whispers, shaking his shaggy head, and I raise my hands to his face, stroking his cheeks with my thumbs and murmuring soft nothings. “But you have to understand…I didn’t know anything else. I didn’t even know I was unhappy for…for a long time. I thought that was just…life. I thought everyone lived like that, and that everything was hard, and…a little sad.”

 

 

“Did you have any friends?”

 

 

“Of course I had friends,” he replies, smiling at me. “They still live there – Cristof and Zachary. I spent pretty much every day of my life with them until I left. They were…well, they were the best part.”

 

 

“Why did you leave?” I ask, fascinated. Honestly, I could listen to Jackson talk for days about this world – and he probably has enough information to fill those days.

 

 

“Because I was assigned to,” he answers instantly, perfectly honest. “I was sent…um…” he hesitates now, glancing away, and I can see that he’s suddenly measuring his loyalty to the Community against his new loyalty to me, his mate.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 0198

 

 

I wait, trying to be patient, letting him decide what to tell.

 

 

“I was…sent to learn things,” he murmurs, hanging his head a little. “New fighting techniques, new technologies. And then, when I’ve decided that I learned enough, I’m supposed to…desert. To go back and teach the Community what I learned.”

 

 

I tense in his arms, my hands again taking fistfuls of his shirt, suddenly terrified by the idea that he’s going to leave and go back to that…that place.

 

 

But Jackson just laughs and shakes his head. “Don’t worry,” he murmurs, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to first one of my cheeks, and then the other. “I already decided that I’m not going back.”

 

 

“Oh,” I say, surprised, even as the tension lessens in my shocked muscles. “Why not?”

 

 

“Because,” he murmurs, “I learned…enough, in the few months that I lived in Capital, to understand that what they’re doing is…well, I mean, it’s a cult, right? They control people, give them no choice in their lives. They…take their children away.”

 

 

He sighs, shaking his head, and I press myself closer against him, wanting to fix it all – heal it all, instantly.

 

 

“I mean, I don’t know…anything about having a family,” he murmurs, raising his eyes to mine. “But I do know that if I had found you, somehow, when I lived there? They…they wouldn’t have let me keep you – wouldn’t even have let me see you. And there’s something wrong about that, Ari – wrong about all of it. It’s not right – I can’t go back. I can never go back.”

 

 

My eyes fill with tears as I study his face, as I see that his own heart is broken with the realization. And I’m overwhelmed, suddenly, with the strength it must have taken to come to that decision –

 

 

To decide to leave, forever, the world in which you were raised? Everyone you’ve ever loved, no matter how badly they’ve treated you?

 

 

God, my mate, he’s…he’s so much stronger than me. So much stronger than I’ll ever be.

 

 

“You can have a home here now, Jacks,” I say, speaking fast and earnest, pressing a desperate hand to his cheek. “We’ll be really nice to you – everyone will! And you can have my mom – she’ll take care of you, she loves being a mom –“

 

 

Jackson just laughs, his eyes crinkling as he turns his head to the side and presses a kiss to my palm. “You’re my home now, mate,” he murmurs, the words simple and true.

 

 

And I can’t help it. I sit up, and wind my arms around his neck, and hold my mate tight to me as he wraps his arms around my back, pressing me to his chest like he’ll never let me go.

 

 

“Damn right I’m your home,” I growl, possessive, ready to rip into anyone who’d try to say otherwise. He laughs, I think pleased by the ferocity of his little mate. I pull away then, looking into his eyes, willing him to see it and believe it. “You stay with me now, yeah?”

 

 

“Nowhere else I’d rather be,” he replies, the corners of his mouth turning up as he raises a hand, stroking it down the length of my hair, letting his fingers get tangled in the rose-gold lengths of it.

 

 

And I can’t help it, then. Even though we’re supposed to be talking, even though there’s so much more I want to know, I kiss Jackson, wanting him to feel the promise in my words as well as hear it. Because he’s mine now, and I’m not letting him go, not for anything.

 

 

And as my mate kisses me back, I feel it happen – feel our perfect silver bond snap into place between us.

 

 

I can feel it, in my soul, shining just as pretty and bright as my other bond, that points…oddly in the other direction.

 

 

Towards Luca, wherever he is, out there in the night.

 

 

While I’m wrapped up here, in Jackson’s arms.

 

 

Chapter 0199

 

 

 

I worry about myself, a little, just passively, as Jackson kisses me. Because something about the way that his mouth moves against mine makes me…just…really, really stupid.

 

 

Honestly, all logic is gone from my head – all thoughts, all sense, all practicality.

 

 

It’s almost like all of my wolf’s crazy impulses – which I usually think are so ridiculous - come to the forefront, and they all make a great deal of sense. Because the only thing I want to do right now is strip off my clothing, and climb on top of him, and let him do whatever the hell he wants to my body – just take…complete control.

 

 

I am all instinct and impulse now as I lose myself in Jackson, as he bends me backwards, slightly, in his arms, levering his body over mine even as he holds me tight, dominating me and demonstrating in the same moment how incredibly precious I am to him.

 

 

His hand moves slowly down my side as his tongue dips into my mouth, and my hips rise up against him, seeking friction, wanting to be touched as his hand moves lower to take a firm grip on my ass. I moan, deep and shuddering, as Jackson presses me tighter against him and then lets his hand dip further in, his fingers just barely tracing the hot core of me through the fabric of my cadet uniform.

 

 

My head falls back on my neck at this touch, a panting gasp escaping my lips.

 

 

“Fuck, Ari,” Jackson growls, tucking his face against my neck and then pressing his cheek to my chest. But he moves his hand away, back to my ass and then slipping down my thigh to tuck safely behind my knee.

 

 

I lift my head, confused, foggy. I frown to see Jackson’s frustrated expression, his clenched teeth.

 

 

Slowly he shakes his head at me as I blink at him, coming back to myself.

 

 

And then I laugh, covering my face with my hands, groaning a little as I do – because I can sense his emotions now, sense just how much he wants to continue precisely what we were doing just a few seconds ago.

 

 

But…he’s right. We can’t do any of that right now. Nothing has changed.

 

 

And we have…we have got to find some semblance of self-control and resist getting lost in each other. This is the Examination, after all.

 

 

“You should sleep,” he murmurs, working to clear his throat.

 

 

I laugh at the idea, rolling my eyes even as I sit up in his lap and tuck my hair back from my face, pretending to ignore the hard, thick length of him that’s now pressed against my ass. I do my very, very best to resist the urge to press myself more firmly against that length.

 

 

And I…fail. Just a little bit.

 

 

Jackson groans, suddenly grabbing me beneath the arms and lifting me bodily out of his lap, placing me gently beside him as if I’m as light as a kitten. I burst out laughing as he leans away from me.

 

 

“I cannot be the only responsible party here, Ari,” Jackson growls, glaring at me even as I can see the joy on his face, the temptation in his eyes. “You have got to help me out here.”

 

 

“But I don’t want to,” I murmur, leaning closer to him again, reaching to wrap my hand around the back of his neck, wanting his mouth back on mine –

 

 

But Jackson just laughs, deep and rueful, pulling away and then getting to his feet, shaking himself from head to toe like the wolf he is. “I am…going to take a very small walk,” he murmurs, turning away from me. “And when I come back, we are going to behave ourselves, yes?”

 

 

I grumble, discontent, even though I know he’s right. And then Jackson does precisely as he says – walking a little distance away into the woods with his hands on his hips. I smirk, my hearing straining a little to hear him giving himself a little pep talk about self-control, and then I lean over in our little space, reaching for an apple as my stomach growls.

 

 

How can you think about eating, my wolf murmurs, sprawled out in my soul in a satisfied daze. We have to strategize – think about how to get him naked. Do you think, if we accidentally spilled the water all over him, that he…

 

 

But I smirk, shaking my head, knowing that I’m not going to ruin our only water source in what will be a vain attempt to get my mate naked. I bite into the apple with grim satisfaction, staring into the dark after him, wanting him back right now.

 

 

He takes his time, though – time that we both probably need. And as my body unwinds a little bit – god, I hadn’t realize how tense he’d made me – I wonder at myself.

 

 

I mean, sexually, I have been so shy with Luca – I’ve made him wait months to barely do more than kiss me in the dream state.

 

 

And then here, after thirty minutes with Jackson, I’m ready to just…throw down in the dirt? Let him have all of me, just after a couple of kisses?

 

 

 

 

Chapter 0200

 

A couple of really good kisses, my wolf counters, her eyes half shut and her tongue lolling from her mouth. I swat her little rump, correcting her, because Luca is one hell of a kisser too.

 

 

So…what is different?

 

 

Has Luca just done all the hard work and Jackson’s here to reap the benefits? A little guilt twists in me at the idea.

 

 

Or, my wolf suggests, lifting her head a little, curious, maybe you just have…a more sexual connection with this mate. They don’t have to be the same. Luca brings his own particular set of appealing characteristics to the table.

 

 

But as I consider that…well, that doesn’t quite fit either, does it? Because it’s not like Jackson’s just some piece of meat with no personality, and it’s not like Luca doesn’t get me going.

 

 

They’re just…different.

 

 

I sigh, taking another bite of my apple, studying it, confused but…well, letting myself be confused, I guess.

 

 

Nobody I know has ever done this whole two-mate thing before, at least not that I know of. This is new territory for everyone involved, and I suppose I’m bound to feel this way.

 

 

Confusion wipes away, though, the moment Jackson walks quietly back onto our little plateau, apparently having gotten control of myself.

 

 

Unfortunately, my confusion is replaced by an immediate and undeniable sense of lust. God, has he seen himself? Does he know how insanely hot he is when he just…walks? The way his shoulders shift, the grace with which he moves -

 

 

“Ari,” Jackson moans, stopping a few feet from me and dragging his hand down the length of his face. “You have…you have got to stop doing that.”

 

 

I burst out laughing, suddenly terribly embarrassed, because I just sent every one of those emotions right down the bond, didn’t I?

 

 

“Okay, okay,” I say, turning suddenly so that my back is to him now. “Here, this is better, I can’t see you anymore –“

 

 

He laughs, coming to sit next to me again. “We have to be able to look at each other –“

 

 

“No, we don’t!” I squeak, turning away again as he tries to peer at my face, leaning my shoulders back against him and facing the stone wall at the back of the tiny plateau. “I’ll just…stare at these rocks. And pretend that you’re…very, very ugly.”

 

 

“Well, don’t tell yourself lies, Ari,” Jackson murmurs, wrapping an arm around me and tilting me back so that when I open my eyes I can see his gorgeous face again, just…a little upside down now. “Honesty with one’s self is really important –“

 

 

I burst out laughing, shaking my head and turning back to him, letting him wrap an arm around me as I press my cheek to his chest. “You are very handsome,” I murmur, nuzzling a little and working hard to scold my wolf when she urges me to climb back into his lap.

 

 

“I know,” he murmurs, kissing the top of my head. “You’re so lucky to be mated to such a looker, Ari, honestly –“

 

 

I squeak in protest, whipping my head up at his vanity, but he’s ready for me, cupping my cheek in his broad palm and pressing a sweet, chaste kiss to my mouth.

 

 

“Not as lucky as me, though,” he murmurs, shaking his head. “You’re the most precious thing in the whole world. Do you know that?”

 

 

Everything in me just…melts at the insane sweetness of my big, scary Alpha mate. And I smile at him, a little dazed.

 

 

“Now, will you please try to sleep?” he pleads, stroking my cheekbone with his thumb.

 

 

“How can I sleep?” I ask, shaking my head at him, baffled at the thought, “when I just got you?”

 

 

“I’ll just be really boring,” he murmurs with a shrug, making me grin.

 

 

“Impossible,” I say, but I lower my head to his chest, wanting to please him and, honestly, feeling a little weak and tired after the insane day I’ve had, however short.

 

 

“Oh, very possible,” he replies, his voice soft and easy as he strokes his hand over my hair again and again, comforting and steady. “If you want, I’ll recount the hundreds of ancient battles they made us memorize for warrior track – that should put you out –“

 

 

I groan, shuddering at the prospect, which makes him huff a little laugh.

 

 

“Fine,” he sighs, continuing to pet me, his hand drifting over my shoulders, too, when it reaches the ends of my hair. “Let’s just sit here and…be quiet.”

 

 

“You’ll wake me?” I whisper, feeling my eyes drift shut despite myself. “The moment the sun comes up?”

 

 

“I will,” he promises. “The moment there’s light to see by, Ari, I’ll wake you. We have a lot to do tomorrow. We need an early start.”

 

 

And so I shut my eyes, letting myself rest a little, trusting my mate to keep me warm and safe through the short hours left in the night.

 

 

Chapter 0201

 

 

It takes me a long time to fall asleep, overwhelmed as I am by my new bond, the closeness of my mate, the secrets that we’ve passed between us that still ring through my mind. But as the minutes pass I feel my eyelids getting heavier and heavier, encouraged by the steady movement of Jackson’s hand over my hair.

 

 

When I do finally fall asleep, my head pillowed against Jackson’s chest, it’s the deep, true sleep of one who feels both weary and completely safe.

 

 

I sleep so deeply that when my eyelids flutter open in the morning, I have…no idea where I am. Even though I am…completely comfortable.

 

 

I frown, not understanding, and curl into the warmth of what I assume is my mattress, though it’s a little…firmer than I remember? I’m not sure.

 

 

There’s a light chuckle, though, that makes me look up, and my frown deepens as I stare into Jackson’s face before I realize that…

 

 

“Oh!” I murmur, sitting up a little. He smiles at me, his hand pressing into my back, encouraging me to lean my head back down against his chest.

 

 

“It’s okay,” he murmurs, “take a second to wake up. There’s time.”

 

 

I lay my head back down against him, blushing a little as I realize that what I assumed was my mattress is just his body – that I’m curled up in his lap, kind of sprawled over his torso, my face tucked against his pectoral –

 

 

God, is he really that big, that I can basically use his body as a bed?

 

 

Or am I just that small?

 

 

I peer up at him again, more awake now, taking a deep breath and raising a hand to rub at my eye.

 

 

Slowly, a smile overtakes his mouth.

 

 

“What?” I mutter, shaking my head a little to clear it, a smile pulling at my lips as well because… well, because he’s just staring at me. And it’s…kind of nice.

 

 

“You’re just so pretty,” he whispers, his voice a little awed as he traces his knuckles down the soft skin of my cheek.

 

 

I can’t help it then – I burst into a brilliant smile.

 

 

Because my mate thinks I’m pretty.

 

 

His own smile widens, matching mine, and I squeak with happiness, reaching up and winding my arms around Jackson’s neck, pulling him close and pressing probably a dozen kisses to his cheek and neck. “Morning,” I murmur, after the fourth or fifth.

 

 

He doesn’t respond, just puts a hand beneath my chin after a moment and tilts my face up to his, bringing his mouth to mine and kissing me like he’s been waiting for hours to do it, like he can’t wait for it anymore.

 

 

And, obviously, I kiss him right back.

 

 

But we’re both more contained, now, in the light of the morning than we were last night. There was something freeing about the darkness – about knowing that as long as it persisted, there was nothing we could do except explore each other.

 

 

Now that there’s light by which we can see?

 

 

We’re both aware that it’s time to move.

 

 

“Um, so,” I say after Jackson breaks our kiss. I stay close, speaking softly as I run a hand through his messy hair, tucking it back behind his ear, “I lied to you yesterday. I can shift.”

 

 

“Really,” he says, his eyebrows going up, and I can tell that he’s pleased. “Little rose-colored wolf, by any chance?”

 

 

“How did you know that?” I ask, my eyes going wide.

 

 

“I think I met her,” he murmurs, his finger curling in a tendril of my hair, “a couple times. Dreaming.”

 

 

I tilt my head for a second and then burst into a smile as the truth hits me. All those nights, running along the cliffs with another wolf at my side -

 

 

Wasn’t just a dream, was it?

 

 

But there’s no time to tend to that right now. “The only problem is,” I say, looking around the forest, “that my wolf is very obviously a girl wolf, and anyone who sees and smells me will figure it out.”

 

 

“We’ll keep the plan the same, then,” Jackson says, starting to stand up and ridiculously bringing me with him, setting me on my feet only when he’s fully standing. “We’ll only shift if we run out of time, yeah?”

 

 

“Do you think…” I bite my lip, looking up at him. “I mean, are we going to be too late?”

 

 

“Nah,” Jackson says, turning to look north. “The only people who would have made it to the mountain and been able to climb it in the night would have been…well, the best of Warrior Track. So, maybe Jesse and Rafe. But still, I think there’s plenty of reason to assume that there’s time left for us to make it.”

 

 

“So,” I say, smiling up at him and crossing my arms, “what you’re saying is…if I hadn’t been weighting you down, you’d already be across the finish line?”

 

 

Chapter 0202

 

 

Jackson grins at me, not denying it, but scooping me up in his arms instead and turning me in a slow circle as he presses one last kiss to my mouth. “You can slow me down anytime you want, tiny.”

 

 

I bite my lip, grinning at him, and I nudge my nose with his before I kick and wriggle, begging to be put down. Jackson laughs, but he puts me back on his feet and we begin to assess our plan and our few possessions. We quickly share the water, though I insist Jackson drink the majority of it – I got some liquids out of the fruit, after all – and then I lift my crossbow, twisting my lips at it.

 

 

“Do you think I need this?” I ask quietly. “If we’re going to rush, and climb…”

 

 

“Leave it,” he says, shrugging and making a snap decision as he likewise tosses his backpack into the brush. “We need to move fast now – any extra weight is a detriment. Besides,” he bends over, scooping my discarded hat out of the dust where we left it last night and holding it out to me, “I’m your weapon now.”

 

 

I snatch my hat from him, unable to keep the smile from my lips as I wind the majority of my hair onto my head and plop the hat over top of it. Because I quite like the idea of Jackson as my weapon.

 

 

Jackson smirks, helping me tuck the last strands of my hair beneath the brim. “Where on earth did my mate go? Now there’s only her boyish twin, Ari Clark, marksman and chemical mastermind…”

 

 

“Don’t forget powerful sorcerer,” I say, lofty, as we both turn away from the plateau, and start out in the blue light of the morning.

 

 

“Oh, how could I forget,” he murmurs behind me, “melter of very tiny pieces of glass…such raw power…”

 

 

I laugh, shooting a little glare over my shoulder, but I focus on my steps on the narrow path ahead of me, which is barely a path and more of a lucky outcropping of rock. I marvel again at Jackson’s sense of balance, as well as the fact that he found this in the dark.

 

 

When we get to the bottom of the cliff face, a little forest stretches out in front of us, beyond which I know is the bridge surrounded by cadets. I wonder, passively, whether those guarding it have crossed already? Or they’re still biding their time, hoping to take out more of their “enemies” before they shift and make their run for the mountain?

 

 

“I’m going to go check,” Jackson says, looking forward through the woods. “You…wait here.”

 

 

“Okay,” I say, turning towards the forest.

 

 

“Here,” Jackson says, frowning and grabbing my arm. “Wait here, Ari.”

 

 

“Um, I don’t know if not going to the bathroom is part of your supernatural prowess, McClintock?” I say, looking a little awkwardly up at my mate. “But it is…not part of mine.”

 

 

He stares at me for a second before laughing, shaking his head. Then he stills, looking around into the forest around us, clearly casting out his hearing to see if anyone is close by. “Yeah, okay. Whatever. Just…don’t go far, and return right here, yeah?”

 

 

I nod, ready to obey, trusting his senses more than my own.

 

 

He stoops closer, pressing a kiss to my mouth, and then as silently as a forest animal himself Jackson moves through the trees, heading for the edge of the forest so he can better see the bridge.

 

 

I wait until I can’t see him anymore before I move a few trees away, ducking behind a particularly big one and relieving myself in a hurry, silently cursing men – or maybe just men’s fashion – for making this so much easier for men to do than women. But I finish up pretty quickly, quietly

 

 

mourning the lack of toilet paper, before refastening my pants and heading back to the little spot where Jackson left me.

 

 

I grin as I see a black-clad form coming through the trees.

 

 

“That was fast,” I say quietly, smiling, my head dipping so that I don’t trip over any roots.

 

 

“Oh, did you miss me?”

 

 

I freeze and my head flies up as I recognize that voice.

 

 

A dark, sour voice – and certainly not my mate’s.

 

 

My eyes focus instantly on Alan Wrights, on the ugly sneer on his face. “Because I certainly didn’t miss you.”

 

 

I stumble backwards, frantic, seeking a way out –

 

 

But as he raises his hand, and I see my crossbow held steady there.

 

 

And I know that…this is the end.

 

 

I open my mouth and scream even before Wright’s finger tightens on the trigger -

 

 

Even before the bolt flies from the crossbow, lodging itself deep in my thigh.

 

Chapter 0203

 

 

My scream only intensifies, combining with my moan of pain as I grab my leg and fall to the forest floor. I’m panting with agony as I lay in the dirt and the leaves, my eyes pressed shut for a moment before I glance down at my leg, my hands quickly coating in my own blood as they go directly to the wound –

 

 

Trying to do something, to end the pain, to apply pressure, something –

 

 

But there’s nothing – god, I think the bolt hit bone, I think it cracked it –

 

 

I’m still moaning horribly when a shadow falls over me, and I look frantically up to see Wright standing above me, drawing back the crossbow’s string, that ugly sneer still on his face, though mixed with victory now.

 

 

“You deserve this,” he snarls, glaring down at me. “Every inch of pain – laying in the dirt, finally recognizing your failure – you’re nothing but a dirty cheat –“

 

 

“Please,” I beg, gasping for breath as he loads another bolt and raises the crossbow towards me. “Please, don’t –“

 

 

“Save it,” he snaps, pointing the crossbow directly at me, and then without another word he pulls the trigger again, sending a bolt directly into my gut.

 

 

The pain is…blinding this time.

 

 

I scream again, but I must pass out from it –

 

 

Honestly, did I die? I might have died, a little bit –

 

 

But when I open my eyes again, the forest is fuzzy above me, and there’s a dark form looming over me, shouting my name.

 

 

I flinch away, screaming again, and a hand goes fast over my mouth before a hand slips under my head, cradling it.

 

 

“Who did this to you!?”

 

 

I blink, trying to clear my head as I recognize Jackson’s voice, but then I moan and let my head fall back – because the clearer my mind gets, the more I feel the pain.

 

 

“Ari!” Jackson shouts, and suddenly he’s on the ground next to me, pulling me into his lap. “Ari, who did this!?”

 

 

I almost scream again as the movement jostles my stomach, and my hand moves to the bolt of wood that’s protruding from my gut, that aches with every movement.

 

 

“I’m sorry,” Jackson murmurs, and I blink again, trying to focus, trying to look up into his face. His voice – it’s so tight, so full of pain. Did he – did he get shot too? But as my eyes focus on his face I see that his pain is all desperate agony for me. “Ari,” he murmurs, his hand shaking as he cups my cheek. “Who did it?”

 

 

“Wright,” I murmur, shaking my head.

 

 

Jackson growls, his head snapping up, sniffing the air – like he’d go after him right now, like he’ll tear him to shreds.

 

 

“Jacks!” I gasp, shaking my head, my hands fisted in his shirt. Because – I mean, if Wright’s not here anymore, then what’s the point?

 

 

I don’t need –

 

 

God, my head spins, the pain making everything dizzy –

 

 

But I do know that I don’t need revenge right now. If by some miracle I’m going to survive, I need a healer.

 

 

“Please,” I beg, shaking my head up at him. “Please, we have to get…out…”

 

 

Jackson nods, his whole body trembling as he quickly assesses the situation, as he looks at the blood pouring from my leg and my stomach, as he glances over his left shoulder towards where the bridge likely is.

 

 

“I’m going to get you out of this, Ari,” he whispers, his voice thick with his vow. “Okay? Just…you just hold on, yeah?”

 

 

I nod, fervent, either believing him or…or not wanting him to believe that I’m going to die –

 

 

Even as I feel my consciousness fading –

 

 

“Ari!” Jackson snaps, and I blink, looking back up into his face as I realize that I almost passed out again. “Hey!”

 

 

“Hey,” I reply, frowning a little, not understanding.

 

 

Then, to my surprise, Jackson rips open the top button of my shirt and presses his hand flat to my chest. Then, he pushes.

 

 

Not – not with his body, not with his hand. But with his…his magic.

 

 

I feel it, quite suddenly, filling me – a great deal of energy, and strength, and a glowing, rich sort of power. I gasp, my eyes flying open, and then I bat his hand away – suddenly feeling replete – like I can’t take anymore.

 

 

It doesn’t do anything for the pain, but it sure as hell wakes me up. I stare up at him, confused, not getting it.

 

 

“How’s your healing?” he asks, his voice sharper than it was before. “Your…your wolf healing. It’s good, yeah?”

 

 

“Um,” I say, glancing down at myself, knowing that even though wolf healing is fast it’s not fast enough for this. “It’s…it’s good.”

 

 

Chapter 0204

 

 

“I’ll keep you going,” Jackson says, nodding sharply to me. “I’ll give you my magic, Ari – as much of it as you can hold. I think – I think with the connection between our magic, it will help speed your own magic, the healing included. And hopefully it will be enough to…”

 

 

He hesitates, not wanting to say it.

 

 

But I know precisely what he means. Enough to keep me alive.

 

 

And then, again to my shock, Jackson stands, pulling me up with him in his arms. I moan again, almost a scream, as he does. But he continues, staring down at me as I pant through the pain, eventually opening my eyes to look up into him. “I’m getting you out, okay?” he whispers, his whole heart in his eyes.

 

 

And I can feel everything down the bond – all his worry, all his grief that he just found me, that he could lose me so soon. But, above all, his sheer determination to make me live – even if it means killing himself in the process.

 

 

“Yeah,” I reply, pathetically simple, nodding to him, letting him feel my faith.

 

 

Because, despite the odds, I believe him.

 

 

Jackson nods once, sharply, and then turns in the forest, striding off through the trees. He doesn’t bother, anymore, to be quiet, instead stomping and moving swiftly, letting everyone hear him come.

 

 

And even as my mind passes from state to state, concentrating on the pain and then concentrating on the world, I see that this, actually, was precisely his plan.

 

 

By the time we get to the bridge, every single one of the cadets who was waiting there has turned to us, their eyes wide. I look around at all of them through half-lidded eyes, my arms curled around Jackson’s neck – when did I do that? – as he holds me high against his chest.

 

 

By their shock and their awe, I can tell that the two of us make rather an impressive sight – or, at least, a terrible one.

 

 

The gigantic Alpha, the strongest Cadet in the Academy, especially enraged like this, covered in blood, his tiny charge curled in his arms.

 

 

“We’re crossing this bridge,” Jackson growls, his voice loud enough that he’s shouting even though his words hum with anger. As I glance up I can see Jackson’s canines sharpening to points, can feel his fingers lengthening to claws as he looks around at every single man standing there. “Does anyone want to stop me!?”

 

 

Jackson roars his final words, glaring around at every single cadet, a challenge in every line of him.

 

 

And, wisely, every single one of the cadets slowly backs away from the bridge. Because though in any normal moment an Alpha carried a wounded wolf would be a tempting target…

 

 

Jackson McClintock in a killing rage, the lifeblood of his mate dripping on the forest floor?

 

 

I mean, even if they don’t know I’m his mate…

 

 

Nobody’s fucking with us right now.

 

 

Jackson releases a final growl, glaring around. “Any of you who give any aid to Alan Wright,” he snarls, “even a kind word or a glance…you will answer to me, on the other side.”

 

 

Nobody says anything, but they’d be fools not to take him seriously.

 

 

And with that, Jackson strides across the bridge, not even looking back to see if anyone takes a shot from behind.

 

 

Because none of them – none are that stupid.

 

 

I whimper, slightly, when I feel Jackson’s footsteps transition from wood to dirt and grass. Because now that that is finished…the hard part, it’s coming now, isn’t it?

 

 

And the pain –

 

 

God, fuck, I’d do anything to end it, the way it radiates through me…

 

 

“Hold on,” Jackson murmurs, his voice breaking as he slips a hand beneath my still-loose shirt, apparently needing the skin-to-skin contact to pass his magic to me. It comes in a flood and my head tilts back – because while it does nothing to stop the pain I…I do feel stronger, after the infusion.

 

 

My eyes flutter open again as I look up into his face, and from the fear I see there I know I must be ghostly pale, looking as on the edge of death as I currently feel.

 

 

“You hold on, okay?” he whispers, lifting me higher as he strides away from the bridge and towards the foot of the mountain before us. He presses a series of quick kisses to my face. “You’ll hold on?”

 

 

“I will,” I whisper, nodding to him, trying to steel myself for what’s to come, even though I know it’s impossible.

 

 

“Okay,” he whispers, and then as my eyes shut I feel Jackson take a deep, deep breath.

 

 

And then, he starts to run.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 0205

 

Time moves strangely after that, at once standing completely still in my agony and, somehow, passing so fast that I barely understand it when the sun reaches its zenith, and then passes beyond it, and then starts to sink towards the horizon.

 

 

How…how have hours past?

 

 

God, how have I survived them?

 

 

Though it all, Jackson and my pain have kept a steady pace. I do my best to curl myself against him, to make myself small and inconsequential, to not be a bother to this man who is running miles and miles across the countryside with me balanced in his arms.

 

 

The pain is…god, it drives me a little insane, I think, gnawing at my stomach and my leg. I can feel the blood dripping from me, at once agonizing and, somehow, a balm against the raw flesh of my wounds. I think I pass out…a lot, but regular infusions of Jackson’s magic keeps bringing me back, filling me with energy, making my eyes flutter open.

 

 

Always, always he’s glancing down into my face, checking to make sure that I’m okay –

 

 

But, I mean, we’re both aware that I’m not okay.

 

 

But, somehow, I am alive.

 

 

And, somehow, he…keeps running.

 

 

I’m vaguely aware, as the hours pass, that this part of the Examination was meant to be done in wolf form – that he should have shifted by now and crossed this field at his top speed as his gigantic wolf. But even in his human body, carrying me? Frankly, Jackson’s faster than most cadet’s wolves. Only a few of them pass us, sending us side-long glances and not bothering to interrupt, knowing that Jackson would end them if they did.

 

 

Jackson’s breath only starts to flag when I feel his pace change. I lift my head, curious despite my haze of pain, wondering desperately if we’re at the end –

 

 

If there will be a healer, here –

 

 

Surely there has to be – surely the Academy has medical staff waiting, knowing as they do that this is a violent Examination in which they’ve encouraged us to maim each other, to get to the end.

 

 

I scowl a little, my mind wandering strangely as I make a mental note to have a deep conversation with my father and my uncle about this particular aspect of Academy life.

 

 

Because, quite frankly, I’m not sure I agree with these methods.

 

 

But…will I ever live to see them again, to have that conversation?

 

 

Suddenly terrified, I sob, my hand clenching in Jackson’s shirt as I turn my face into him. I don’t have any tears, though – all my liquids are probably depleted, after all, from all the blood dropping from me…

 

 

“It’s all right,” Jackson murmurs, pulling me closer against his chest. “We’re almost there.”

 

 

I pause, looking up at him, a little baffled. “Really?” I whisper, and I’m startled by the cracked sound of my own voice, the way my eyes struggle to focus on his beautiful face.

 

 

“Well,” he grimaces, glancing upwards. “Well, no.”

 

 

I groan, putting my head back against his chest. Not that it’s his fault – I just…god, I want it to end. All of it, the pain, the movement –

 

 

I just want to sleep, curl up somewhere soft and comfortable.

 

 

“Come on,” he says, shaking me a little, making me look back up at him, his voice cracking in a way that breaks my heart. “Don’t give up on me now, Ari!”

 

 

I lift my head, forcing my eyes to focus, forcing my head to nod. But it’s all – it’s all really hard, maybe too much. “Jacks,” I moan, shaking my head.

 

 

“Don’t you do it,” he growls, his arms tightening around me. “I did not drag you for miles across that field for you to give up now, Ari –“

 

 

I laugh – a sad, croaked sound, half baffled and half tickled that he’s mad at me. But something about it brings me back to myself, a little bit more. “Okay,” I whisper, nodding my head seriously now. “I won’t give up.”

 

 

“Good,” he mutters, a little mad, again pressing his hand to my back and giving me more of his power, his energy, his magic. I feel the difference instantly, the boost, but all it does is allow me to focus more on his grimace. “I need to…to change positions, Ari,” he murmurs. “I’m going to need both of my hands.”

 

 

“What?” I ask, confused.

 

 

“Just…don’t hate me, okay?” He stares into my face and I nod, promising it.

 

 

But I instantly regret that promise when he lifts me, bodily, and slings me over his shoulder. The moan that rips from me instantly turns into a yell, if not a guttural scream. Jackson murmurs over and over again that he’s sorry, but then he moves forward, even as I cry ceaselessly into his back.

 

 

My body is twisted over his shoulder, somehow, so that the weight of me isn’t on the wound. Instead, that faces inward, bumping awkwardly against Jackson’s head and sometimes his cheek as he begins to climb. Most of the time he keeps one arm wrapped tightly around the back of my thighs, and my legs go blissfully numb, meaning I can’t feel the arrow in my thigh anymore.