Ch. 411..415: The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 411-415

Chapter 0411

Only twelve times, apparently, much to Rosie and Jesse's glee.

Mom, Dad, Cora and Roger stay in their own tight knit little group tonight, I think reminiscing about old times - one of their favorite hobbies - while grandpa Henry and the rest of the boys sit around the couch, joking and laughing about the usual boy stuff - sports, and fighting, and daring trials of masculinity or whatever. Jesse breaks away every few minutes to send the kids on another mission, or to tackle them, or to lift one up on his shoulders and spin them around.

I grin, watching him, loving how good of a brother he is.

Seraphina, to my delight, chooses to sit on my lap, over in the quiet corner where I'm sitting with Jackson and Juniper. Junie's reading a book - a nice, thick fantasy romance, I see, her favorite - but Jackson and I are just sitting quietly.

We were chatting quietly until Seraphina came over. But the minute she sank down in my lap Jackson fell a bit quiet, looking at my tiny cousin askance like he's a deer that's ready to run from the greatest predator of all time.

When I notice the tension in Jackson's body, I burst out laughing.

"What?" Sera asks, looking up at me with that mixture of joy, curiosity, and anger that only a four-year-old can manage. "What's so funny?"

“I don't know, Fifs!" I say, pointing at Jackson with my thumb. "You'll have to ask Jacks."

"Oh god," he groans, covering his face with his hand. "Please - don't draw its attention to me -"

"It!?" I gasp, cackling with laughter. Even Juniper looks up from her book, smirking.

"You tell me what's so funny, big boy!" Seraphina demands, turning in my lap to face Jackson and giving him a big shove on his shoulder. Juniper starts laughing too as my laughter deepens.

"Nothing's funny... Ser..fif...god, what's her name again?" Jackson looks desperately between Juniper and me. "Your family has so many nicknames for everyone I can't keep anything straight."

“SeraPHINA Liliana Sinclair!" my tiny cousin insists, glaring at my mate. "What is so funny!?"

"Nothing, I promise! Nothing's funny!" Jackson insists, leaning away from her tiny rage with his hands up. "Nothing's ever been funny, I'm sorry!" I cuddle Sera close to me, laughing and smiling down at her. "Go easy on him, Fifs, he's scared of little girls. He's never met one!" She looks up at me, shocked, and then over at Jackson like she can't believe it at all. "He's never met a little girl? Why?"

"Because," I sigh, shaking my head as I look pityingly at Jacks. "He's just been very, very unlucky not to have crossed paths with one before." Seraphina studies me and then Jackson for a long moment before she kneels on my lap and reaches out her hand, patting Jackson gently on the shoulder and giving him her best wide grin - which, I have to admit, is a little terrifying. "Don't be scared, big boy," Seraphina says, working hard to be gentle. "I will be nice to you."

Jackson thanks her very politely and she nods, climbing off of my lap and scurrying away.

"What is with you, Jacks?" Juniper asks, and we both turn to see her smirking at Jackson, a little delighted. "You're so weird."

"She's just so little," Jackson says, laughing at himself, spreading his hands out before him like it's obvious. "I have...no idea what she's thinking, or what she wants. And I feel like I'm always at risk of accidentally crushing her or something, which would make everyone here really mad -"

I burst out laughing at this, nodding at the understatement of the year, as Junie gives him a big grin before seeming to turn back to her book.

"Who knew," Juniper sighs. "That the one thing that strikes true fear into one of the world's strongest Alphas..."

“Was just a little girl,” I finish, sighing too and shifting so I can climb comfortably into Jackson's lap, my favorite spot. He immediately closes his arms in a circle around me, holding me close. "Perhaps this is the military secret that Moon Valley needs to capitalize on to defeat the Atalaxians. How can we incorporate Seraphina's terrifying girl energy into our military strategy?"

"I think we already have," Jackson murmurs, sighing and giving me a kiss on the cheek as he tightens his arms around me, drawing me even closer.

Chapter 0412

 

At midnight, we all stand around while I light the fire with great ceremony, and there are a good number of Ooohs and Ahhhs that go around the room - mostly from the kids, but also Jesse - even though it is a small, unremarkable fire - especially after the bonfire I saw this evening.

As soon as it's lit, though, people begin to turn in – hugging and kissing their loved ones before heading off to their respective rooms. Even Jesse's family will stay here tonight - there's no point in going home when we'll all be together again for breakfast.

Jackson frowns at me a little, though, when I stay in place.

"What," he asks, giving me a nudge with his elbow. "No bed for you?"

"Nah," I say, smiling at him and tilting my head towards the fire. "Ceremonial duties, after all. Has to keep burning. I'll sleep here," I say, lifting my chin towards the hearth. "I do it every year. Quite cozy and warm."

"None of us make her do this," my mom says, coming over and giving me a kiss on the cheek as she presses some pillows and blankets into my arms. "Her own insanity and superstition is all that keeps it going."

Jackson laughs but just nods, buying into it, letting me have my little tradition. But when the final door shuts, my last family member disappearing behind it, he's still here.

"What," I say, spreading my blankets out in front of the fire. "Your beds not calling you tonight?"

And I have to admit, I'm not really surprised when he grabs another pillow off the couch and comes to sit with me on the hard stone of the hearth. "Like I said, trouble," he murmurs, smirking at me in the firelight. "Where you sleep, I sleep. So if you're in front of the fire? So am I."

I grin and lean forward to kiss my mate, tugging off his suit jacket and letting him lay me out in front of the flames.

I wake up a few hours later in the very early light of dawn, blinking and sniffing. Groggy, I turn my head towards the fire and scowl when I see that it's smoldering low- that it hasn't quite gone out, but it's well on its way to doing that.

Sighing, I start to press myself up from my very cozy spot sprawled out over Jackson's chest, frowning with dismay when I realize that I drooled a bit on the black t-shirt he changed into to sleep in, but I go very, very still when I notice something...quite strange.

Jackson is sleeping flat on his back, as he always does, with one arm curved up over me. But his other arm, to my shock, is not flung out to the side as usual -

It is, instead, curled around a little tiny girl. I burst into a surprised and delighted grin when I realize that it's Seraphina - that she snuck in here and is now dead asleep, snuggled up to Jackson's side.

I mean, as one of the eldest cousins in a batch of ten kids, I'm no stranger to the kinds of sneaking from room to room that kids do at sleepover events. But this!? It's one for the books.

I go absolutely still as I look between the two of them, not wanting to wake either of them, because it's so cute -- the gigantic terrifying Alpha next to the tiny little baby girl.

But Jackson, as he always does, senses somehow that I'm awake. His eyes flutter open.

“Jackson," I whisper, my voice almost shaking with glee, "did you know about this?"

"Hmm?" he says, frowning at me, and then he looks down to where his arm is curled protectively around Sera. "Oh, yeah," he says, laughing a little. "You mean our midnight wraith? She who creeps in and stares at me until I wake up, scaring the crap out of me in the middle of the night? Honestly, I don't know how you slept through it, Ari."

Chapter 0413

 

I laugh lightly at his description, and he grins, beginning to slowly stroke my back.

"Yeah, she came in about three hours ago," he says with a sigh, glancing down at her. "She shushed me, and told me not to wake you, and then just...laid down and went to sleep. I...didn't want her to roll over and get burned or anything, so..." he shrugs and nods down at his arm, still protecting the little girl.

"You are so cute," I whisper, my eyes shining.

He frowns. "Why is that cute? It's...practical."

But I just laugh, and tuck my head down against his chest, and press a kiss there.

Seraphina gives a little mew and a yawn, stretching out and then lifting her head to frown at us. "Is it breakfast?” she asks, rubbing at her eye and speaking in a whisper like we are.

"No, Fifi, it's very early," I whisper, reaching out to drift a hand over her soft honey-brown hair. "Why are you here?"

“Because,” she murmurs, blinking the sleep away and pointing at Jacks. “I said I'd be nice to him. He is my big puppy dog and I have to take care of him."

I laugh, delighted, and snuggle closer to Jacks. He growls vaguely, clearly not as charmed by this description as I am.

"Why are we up?" Sera asks, yawning. "If it's not breakfast time?"

"I just woke up because the fire is going out," I reply, nodding towards it. "I have to get it going again."

Sera nods at me very seriously like she hears this sort of thing all the time. But then she turns her head to the side. "Well, maybe we can have a treat," she whispers, nodding wisely. "Before breakfast."

I laugh at her and nod, leaning close and whispering like it's a great secret. "Why don't you show Jackson where Aunt Ella keeps the snacks? He's tall enough to reach."

"Wait, why am I involved in this -" Jackson murmurs, going stiff with anxiety. But Seraphina and I ignore his protest and she grins at me, grabbing Jackson's hand as I slide off of him and tugging him hard towards the cab above the bar, where mom keeps all the best treats.

Jackson groans, sending me a terrified look over his shoulder, but he bends down so as not to take his hand from Sera's and follows the tiny duchess, ready to do her bidding.

I grin, shaking my head at my mate as I start to restack logs in the fire, yawning as I set them up on top of each other in the smoking embers, making a vague pyramid shape. Jacks and Seraphina come back over a few minutes later, their arms filled with treats, and they settle down next to me, Seraphina bosses Jacks, telling him which snack packages to open and how to lay them out on the blanket. Jackson does everything she says without complaint, opening way too much food. But I just smile and don't stop them, letting them have their fun. It's Midwinter, after all.

When I reach for the matches, though, Jackson reaches out a hand to stop me.

"What are you doing?" he asks, frowning. Sera, leaning against Jackson and stuffing gummy candies in her mouth, frowns too, instantly taking his side.

I narrow my eyes at my mate. "Jackson," I murmur, "Of all the things that I thought would need explanation today...the connection between matches and a live flame is not something I thought would crop up."

He smirks at me, and Sera looks up at him and then mimics his expression, smirking too. "Ariel, you're a goddess-blessed sorceress who can melt glass just by staring at it. And you don't think you can start a fire without matches?"

Chapter 0414

My jaw drops open and I huff a disbelieving little laugh. “Jackson, I can't make flames.”

"The flashpoint of wood is far lower than the temperature at which glass melts, Clark," Jackson replies, raising an eyebrow at me.

I narrow my eyes at my mate, not liking this smug new attitude. Or that he's right.

"What...what's happening?" Seraphina whispers, looking at me and then up at Jacks.

"Ariel is going to do magic," Jackson whispers back, ducking his head low in pretend secrecy. "Want to see?"

"Yah!" Sera exclaims, still in a whisper, looking at me eagerly.

I just sigh, and roll my eyes, and flop my hand out towards my mate, wanting to hold his. But all my bravado just covers up my anxiety. I mean...can I really do that? Jackson, all confidence, slides his hand into mine. And then I concentrate, breathing out slowly, working to fall into a meditative state like mom does when she accesses her gift.

And I think I hit it - though I don't know how I know - my eyes going half distant and half focused as I stare at the wood. I concentrate on it, breathing in the smoky, crisp, deliciously charred smell of the fire. And then I pull on something deep inside myself, exhaling long and slow. I'm concentrating so hard that I barely notice as a long stream of smoke begins to drift upwards from the log on which I'm concentrating.

Jackson's hand tightens on mine, excited -

And then all of a sudden - flame.

I gasp as the little red blaze sparks to life, and then I laugh, turning to Jackson, delighted. He laughs too, staring at me in awe, thrilled, as Seraphina throws her arms up with a big whoop. I shriek and throw myself into Jackson's arms, grabbing Sera into my own, gibbering nonsense in my excitement about how cool that was and how amazed I am and how now I'm going to set everything on fire all the time -

Jackson laughs with me and I can feel down the bond that he's as excited, thrilled, and fascinated as I am. "Little fire goddess," he murmurs, raising a hand to cup my cheek. And then he shakes his head like he can't believe I'm real and leans in for a kiss. I laugh, even as I kiss him back - probably a little too passionately, forgetting completely that my little cousin is there.

But she reminds us, of course.

"Ariii," she whines, smacking me hard on the arm with her little palms. "Let me go, let's do it again! What else can you melt!?"

I break away from Jackson, beaming at him before turning back to the smallest Sinclair. "I don't know, baby," I say, giggling in my excitement. "Let's find out! Where's all that chocolate you brought over?"

"There's my baby!" Cora calls about an hour later, coming into the living room a little swifter than she normally would. Which is normal, I suppose, when your youngest child disappeared from your room and could be wandering anywhere in the palace.

"Mama!" Sera calls, dashing towards her mom, her hands and her pajamas covered in streaks of melted chocolate.

"Whoa, baby!" Roger calls, coming in after Cora but moving fast to step in front of his wife, crouching and holding out a hand towards his youngest child. "What did we say about touching adults when our hands are sticky and disgusting?"

"We said do it!" she shouts, laughing like a little demon and running right for him, her hands stretched out.

"Defiance!" Roger growls playfully, snatching his baby girl around the waist and flipping her upside down. Jackson flinches a little at how loud Seraphina shrieks, looking at me with a worried glance. But then he settles, accepting it as an apparently normal part of child rearing when he sees me simply laugh and lick some melted chocolate off my finger.

"Clean that thing up," Cora says to Roger, waving at her daughter as she continues on her path towards Jackson and me, her cream-colored nightgown and robe floating around her rather majestically. Roger gives Cora a salute, tossing Seraphina over his shoulder as he heads out of the room to take her to clean up and get changed.

"Did she come in here and bother you?" Cora asks, hands on her hips, peering down and our scattered morning snacks with curiosity.

"No bother," I say, grinning up at my aunt. "She's so cute. Plus, it's always fun to see Jackson terrified."

"I'm not terrified," he protests, appalled, but Cora laughs and just pats him on the head.

"Seraphina's little puppy," she coos.

"This puppy thing is not sticking," Jackson grumbles, brushing Cora's hand away and making her laugh harder.

"Is it time!?" Mom asks, peeking her head out from her bedroom suite. "Is it Midwinter!? Can I come out!?"

Chapter 0415

 

"Yes, come out!" I call, the fire blazing cheerfully behind me.

Mom dashes into the room, coming over and giving us all Midwinter hugs and kisses as my dad, wearing pajamas for the one day a year when he actually lets anyone see him pajamas, comes out behind her. "I held her back as long as I could," he murmurs, sleepy. "You're worse than the kids, Ella."

"We just have lazy children and nieces and nephews," mom says. "But, I have a feeling that they'll start coming in now that they hear that we're up."

Mom's words are almost prophetic and the quickly room begins to fill both with people and noise. Everyone's in a good mood, of course, ready with kisses and hugs and Midwinter greetings. Mom bustles around, putting on soft holiday music, sending Rafe and Jesse down to the kitchens to collect the plates of prepared foods that the chefs have left for us, setting out stacks and stacks of presents.

Dad and Roger - when he comes back with a fresh and clean Seraphina - settle on the couch, glasses of whiskey already in their hands, shouting greetings to grandpa Henry when he rolls in and settles close to his boys, a blanket spread warm and cozy over his knees.

I stay by Jacks, the only place I really want to be, curled up in our blankets by the fire. Jackson wraps an arm around me and sits quietly, observing it all with fascination as the holiday gets started in full swing. Everyone eats - toast and jam, pastries, donuts, coffee - while mom starts to pass out gifts, setting a slow, leisurely place.

I keep half an eye on Jacks as I start on my second donut, a cup of coffee carefully tucked into the blankets next to me. He watches curiously as the presents go around and I grin at the way his eyes go wider and wider when he sees the seemingly never-ending stack of gifts that mom produces from her room. But his mouth pops open with an audible click when she comes over to us with two in her hands - one for me and, to his shock, one for him.

"What?" he whispers, looking up at her, kind of appalled.

"Happy Midwinter, Jackson," mom says, quite softly, pressing the gift into his hand and then dipping down to kiss him on the forehead before walking gracefully away.

Jackson just stares down at the gift, awed. I have to bite my lip, a little undone by the shock and emotion on his face. He looks up at me, just blinking. "This is for me?" he whispers.

"Mmhmm," I reply, holding back all the things I want to say and just...letting him have this moment.

Jackson slowly turns back to the gift, holding it reverently in his hands.

I let him take him take his time with his and open my present, cooing with delight when I see the set of three little silver bracelets that my mom picked out for me - each engraved with the initials of one of my siblings. I love it, instantly, and call my joy and appreciation over to her. Mom just winks and blows me a kiss.

But I frown when I look over at Jackson and see that his present is still just sitting in his hands, fully intact.

"Unwrap it," I urge, nudging him with my elbow and smiling.

"I don't want to," he murmurs. "It's...so good, just like this."

"Well, it's one of like, forty Jacks," I say with a little laugh. "And she's going to get mad if you don't open any of them."

He whips his head towards me, his eyes wide again. "Forty!?"

"Forty-one,” I say, closing one eye and holding up a finger. "If you count mine."

"Forty-two," Rafe says, coming over and tossing something into Jackson's lap that makes him jump. "Happy midwinter, puppy."

Jackson groans, even as he laughs, putting his head in his hands. "I didn't know about this!" he protests. "I didn't get anyone anything!"

I laugh, reaching out a hand to rub his back. "No one expected you to, Jackson! It's more fun this way. You're like...a little baby. First Midwinter. It's fun for us."

He raises his head, meeting my eyes with surprise, and then looks around the room where everyone is, indeed, watching him with a bit of glee. He groans again and buries his head again in his hands, I think completely overwhelmed.

I laugh and throw my arms around his shoulders, hugging him tight. "It's Midwinter, Jacks! It's family. We love you, let us show it."

But he just keeps his head tucked down for a second, his shoulders shaking a bit, and I let him have his time