The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy
Chapter 0416

When mom tries to come over with more presents, I give her a little frown and shake my head, mouthing "give us a minute." When she sees my reason why I think it takes mom every bit of strength she's got to not come rushing to Jackson's side and fuss over him. But, knowing that would be too much, she moves away to fuss over someone else.

After about a minute, Jackson raises his head and nods solidly. "Okay," he says, his voice steely like a soldier about to go on a mission. "Where do I start?"

"Right there at the corner," I say, pointing to where the paper is loose. "Just...rip away, McClintock. Really show it what you're made of."

Jacks nods seriously and then does as I say, ripping into his gifts. After a joyful couple of hours of mom going around delivering more and more gifts to every single member of her family, and then Cora doing the same, and then Grandpa, Jackson and I sit cozy by the fire absolutely surrounded by our loot.

It's mostly clothes, of course - mom can't resist - but Jackson also got a gym bag from Rafe, a very fancy set of water bottles from Jesse, a stack of romance novels from Juniper, a set of colored pencils from Mark (though the reason behind that one's a mystery to me). My gift is coming to him later, but the real coup is a stuffed tiger gifted from Seraphina.

"I think that one is regifted," I murmur, noting that my cousin gave it to him crumpled up in already-ripped paper.

"I treasure it all the more," Jackson murmurs, seating the soft stuffed toy by his side with its little face towards the room, like a real pet. And I wonder suddenly if...well, if Jackson's ever had a toy before. And my heart breaks, thinking that Seraphina was the only one who realized that he might want one.

"Stop that," Jackson says when he hears my little squeak of adoring pity, turning towards me with a laugh. He smacks at my hands, clutched to my chest in agony.

"I cannnn't," I groan, pitching myself hard against his side. "You just break my heart sometimes, Jacks! I want to give you everything - let's go to the toy store, you can have whatever you want! You can have all of them!"

"I don't want all of them," he says, giving me a squeeze and then, adorably, reaching out and patting his little tiger on the head. "I have this one, and it's perfect."

I groan again at the unbearable sweetness of my gigantic, terrifying puppy mate, burying my face into his shoulder. He laughs harder and just hugs me closer, pressing a kiss to my hair and then my cheek. "Thank you," he murmurs. "Today is amazing."

I sniff a little, lifting my head with a sigh and relaxing against him. "What are you going to name it?" I ask, glancing down at the fierce little stuffed animal, complete with felt fangs.

"I have to name it?" Jackson asks, hesitating like it's a horrible burden he's not sure he wants.

I grin at him. "Of course. It has a face. It needs a name." I shrug like it's obvious.

He narrows his eyes for a moment, studying it. "Fine. Then I name it... Tiger."

I laugh, my head falling back on my neck. "You're terrible at this, McClintock," I say, delighted anyway, despite my words.

"No, I'm not," he murmurs, taking full advantage of my bared neck and pressing a quick kiss there. "Tiger is perfect. Descriptive, concise."

"Very Jackson logic," I sigh, raising my head and cupping his cheek in my palm. "But you're right. Tiger is perfect."

"If you two are done being horrible," Juniper says, and we both turn to see her standing over us, her arms crossed, her habitual glare in her eyes.

I grin, curling closer to my mate, who doesn't move an inch, just looks curiously up at Junie like he doesn't understand what on earth she's talking about.

"Then it is time to go play the awful traditional sports game," my sister sighs, gesturing towards the door where my family - still in their pajamas - is filtering out, heading for the roof. "Oh, fun!" I shout, getting up to my feet.

"What's this?" Jackson asks, anxiety in his voice at every new turn of midwinter events. "What are we playing?"

"You're playing football," I say, grinning at him as I stoke the fire with a couple of extra logs so it won't go out while we're upstairs. "The girls are just drinking white wine."