The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

"I'm going back -" Cristof shouts, throwing a hand out towards the North. "I can't just leave them, Jackson -"

"You can't - you can't -" Jackson looks frantically down at his sobbing daughter and then back at his friend. "You're just leaving me like this!?"

"It's what you did," Cristof says, bitter, his lips turning down in a horrible frown.

Jackson's face falls, devastated, and he just stares at his friend, knowing that he's right.

"I'm sorry," Cristof says, dropping his gaze to the ground. "I - I love you, Jackson, and I missed you, and I wanted you to be there. We're all alone, and it's so crazy, and I – I think I hated you? For getting a better life and not even thinking of us?”

"I thought about you every day," Jackson whispers, shaking his head.

"I know," Cristof says, nodding, still looking down. "I just...I was jealous, all right? But - she's going to have a better life here." He points to the little girl, his head flashing up. "You'd better give her a good life, Jackson! She's...she's a good kid! She's really cute, and she tries, and she's good. And... Tasha tried really hard to get her out! So you get her out, all right? For Tasha and for Marigold! And for me!"

"Stay," Jackson begs, stepping closer to Cristof, his voice breaking alongside his heart. "Just stay, Cristof - we can help you, you can have a good life too -"

"I gotta go back for Zachary," Cristof murmurs, looking again to the north. "I can't...leave him there."

"We'll send for him -"noveldrama

"I gotta go," Cristof says, sitting down hard in the driver's seat. Marigold wails anew, seeing her friend leaving, realizing that she's being abandoned here with strangers.

"Cristof!" Jackson barks out, grabbing the door, trying to hold it open, desperate for his friend to stay.

"God damn it, Jackson," Cristof says, starting the car and glaring hard at the bigger Alpha. "You let me go now, or I'll run you the fuck over. I have to go - if they find out I'm here, if there are - are pictures of me in one of your magazines - they watch the media, man! If they know what I did they'll - they'll kill Zachary - they'll -"

"Cristof!" Jackson barks out, seeing that it's happening – that his friend really is going

-

But Cristof just snarls and grabs the door, yanking it, trying hard to pull it shut. Jackson gasps, pulled off balance by his grip on the door, and he only flashes his hand out of the way at the last moment before his fingers get slammed between the metal.

"I love you," Cristof says, between his teeth, glaring at Jackson from inside the car, his hands gripping the wheel. "You give that girl a good fife. And fucking don't come back, Jacks - they'll suck you back in. Just...live a good life."

He turns then, slamming his foot on the gas pedal and peeling away.

Jackson stares after his friend as guards rush down the palace steps, sensing the disturbance.

"Highness!" one of the guards calls out. "What's happening!? Do you want that car pursued?"

Rafe holds up a hand, stopping the guards in their tracks, and Jackson slowly turns his head to face the Prince. He shakes it, ever so subtly, as the little girl continues to scream in his arms.

“No,” Rafe says, turning to the guard, Alpha authority in his voice. "Let him go. It's...just let him go, okay? Don't tell anyone about this. No report. This is an internal matter that we have to address as a family."

"As you wish, sir," the guard says, bowing slightly and looking anxiously at

Jackson and the little girl before moving back up the steps.

Everyone - except Marigold - is incredibly quiet for a long few moments, just... staring at each other.

Rafe and Jesse watch Jackson

—

closely watch the shock pass

again and again over his face, watch his eyes glaze over as he panics, trying to come up with a plan. Watch as he blinks back to the moment, and raises his eyes to his friends.

Watch as he swallows hard, moving his eyes again to the little girl wailing in his

arms.

“Um," Jackson says, quiet, still looking at the girl – at his daughter. “I think...I think we need... Ella."

"Yeah," Rafe says on a whisper. And then he shakes himself, moving close to Jackson's side. "Yeah, let's...let's go get mom. She'll know what to do."

The other boys move as Rafe slips an arm around Jackson's shoulders and turns him towards the palace entrance Jesse moves to Jackson's other side while Ben moves ahead towards the door. Mark falls behind, looking around for any surprises, his wolf instincts on high alert.

As a group, the five Alphas escort the sobbing little girl into the place, held high on

her father's arm.