Chapter 455

Cristof seems to move in slow motion, grasping the handle to the car door, pulling it open. Jackson’s body moves without him, stumbling after Cristof, bending low to see inside as the door swings wide.

Jackson blinks into the darkness, his eyes adjusting.

And then he sees her, the little girl.

Asleep, curled up in some ragged towels and blankets, her dark hair spread all around her in a wild tangle.

Jackson’s wolf howls as soon as he sees her.

Ours, Jackson’s wolf snarls. Grab her, take her – she is ours –

But Jackson can’t move, not…not believing it.

A child.

Hank said – Hank said that there were no children born that autumn in the Community –

She – she would have been on the record –

But, if Tasha had run away…

Jackson groans, stepping towards the open door, and he trips over his own feet, falling hard against the side of the car as soon as her tiny little girl scent hits him. Because even if his wolf knew it upon sight, her scent –

Pine and winter, and flowers and sun – half him – his.

His child. His…daughter.

Jackson just stares into the car, his entire world unraveling around him, with this new tiny creature at the center of it all.

“How…” he whispers, unable to take his eyes away.

“Her name is Marigold,” Cristof whispers, his voice thick with tears.

“What the fuck…”

Jackson half hears Rafe’s awed whisper, but he can’t take his eyes away from the little girl in the back seat of the car. His little girl in the back seat of the car. Marigold.

“She’s a good kid,” Cristof says, starting forward suddenly, his brisk movement surprising Jackson into sucking in a deep breath. “You’ll like her – and she’s easy – she won’t give you any trouble -”

“Wait, what?” Jackson whispers, his entire body starting to shake as Cristof bends into the car, gathering the tiny little girl into his arms. Her face scrunches and Jackson watches in awe as she moves – as her eyes open, bleary and looking around.

He stills again, his heart stopping when he realizes that her eyes are…blue.

A dark, pretty blue.

God, they’re just like his.

“She doesn’t talk much,” Cristof says, straightening with the girl in his arms, frowning at her a bit and pushing her hair back. “But – I haven’t been able to figure out if that’s because she’s…stupid. Or if just doesn’t like to.”

“She’s not stupid,” Jackson growls.

Cristof looks over at him with a shrug, talking fast. “I didn’t think she was, honestly. She watches everything, all quiet, and she listens a lot – she understands everything I say. It could just be that she was alone with her dead mother for like, days, Jacks – that probably does weird shit to a kid –“

Jackson groans, his arms reaching for the girl without him realizing what he’s doing.

“But I think if you feed her up, she’ll be fine,” Cristof says, passing the child over into her father’s arms.

Jackson stares down at the girl, shocked by the sudden weight and reality of her in her arms. He stops breathing again as the little girl looks up into his face and just…stares back at him.

The pair look at each other in complete silence for a long, long moment before the little girl’s face crumples, and she tilts her head back, and bursts into screaming tears.

“Oh, yeah. And she does…that.” Cristof says, putting his hands on his hips and grimacing a little. “More regularly than I’d like.”

The little girl shouts wordlessly, her voice somehow at once tiny and light and maddeningly loud as she turns in Jackson’s arms and reaches for the man she knows. Jackson gasps, nearly dropping her, snapping his gaze to his friend.

“It’s all right, Marigold!” Cristof says, stepping forward and smiling at the girl, stroking a hand over her hair. “You’re with your father now! This is where you should be! He’s – he’s going to be nice to you!”

She screams louder, reaching for Cristof, wriggling harder in Jackson’s arms. He curses lightly, working hard to keep hold of her.

“You’re going to be nice to her, right?” Cristof asks, snapping his eyes up to Jackson’s with a frown.

“Of course I’m going to be fucking nice to her, Cristof,” Jackson growls, his eyes darting between the wriggling child and his friend. He hoists the little girl up, pressing her to his chest, one hand flat on her back while the other supports her little rump. She continues to wail, panicked, her head tilting back so that the sound rings out to the sky.

Jackson stares at her for a moment, shocked that such a little person can make that much noise.

Then his eyes flash to Cristof as he moves for the front of the car.

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going,” Jackson snarls, closing the distance between them as Cristof slams the back door and reaches for the driver’s handle, yanking it open.

“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 –“

“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 life. 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.