The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Dad starts to get up to answer the door when mom comes flying out of her room, waving a hand at dad. Cora follows soon after, pulling the door shut and nodding to Roger and Jacks to let them know that their daughters are asleep.

I turn my head to stare between Roger and Jackson, a little baffled, suddenly, when I realize that...these two men, from completely different generations, have daughters the same age.

"I know, right?" Jackson murmurs on a sigh, taking a big sip of his drink. I burst into laughter.

"Sit sit!" mom calls to us, grinning. "That's for me. Timing couldn't be better."

"Who is it?" Rafe asks with a frown.

"My crew!” Mom says, gleeful as she pulls open the door and waves in her favorite construction manager - a workman with whom she has had a relationship for years. “This way, this way!" she says, waving the foreman and all of his workers forward. My eyes go wide when I see that they're carrying quite a bit of wood and tools.

"What - what are you doing?" I ask, baffled.

"Oh, I wanted it to be a surprise," mom says, biting her lip and folding her hands behind her back. "But...Markie? Do you want to tell?"

All of our eyes turn to Mark, who sits next to me and blushes. "Well, Marigold needs a room, right?" he says.

I just stare at him for a second, blinking, before my eyes go wide. "Mark, no!"

He just laughs and shrugs. "Come on, I need to move out of my little kid room sometime. This way I get to move to swanky bachelor quarters down the hall and Marigold gets her own space. And since our rooms have an adjoining wall –“

"We're building a door!" mom squeaks, excited, unable to let Mark finish without bursting in. She clasps her hands excitedly beneath her chin, her eyes moving between me and Jacks, desperate to know what we think.

"Oh my god," I breathe, pressing a hand to my chest. "No way! Mark, that's too generous - that's been your room since you were a kid -"

"What - what is happening..." Jackson asks with a frown, still not getting it.

"I'm giving Marigold my room," Mark explains, smiling warmly at Jacks. "And since she's so little, mom is building a door between your rooms so you can check on her without having to use the hall."

Jackson gapes at Mark, and then at me, and then down at the baby monitor. And then he dips his head down into his palm, overwhelmed and touched.

All the women in the room bite back an instinctive coo at Jackson's overwhelmed state while the men smile warmly at him, understanding.

"And you don't have to live here, if you don't want to - though of course you're welcome to," mom says, coming and sitting close to

Jackson and me on the couch, net

putting a hand on his arm. "I

vél.

just...when you are here - which I hope will be often - you need more space. And Markie's right, he's growing out of his room -"

"I would like it stated," Rafe says, a bit dry, drawing all eyes to him as he raises a glass of whiskey alongside his declaration. "That some of us are not this generous and have nonoveldrama

intention of giving up their room

any future children. My room is my room, forever. In fact, in the many future generations of Sinetair children to come, I would like my room preserved in perpetuity, precisely as I leave it. And no one's

allowed to touch my stuff."

I burst out laughing at my brother, shaking my head at him, my whole family joining in as the crown prince finishes off his drink and gets up for another one, winking at us.

I turn my eyes back to Jacks, grateful for my brother, realizing that his joke made

a little space for Jackson to collect himself. I grin at Rafe, who nods to me and gives me a tiny little shrug.

“Thank you, Ella, and Mark,” Jackson says, looking at them seriously. Then, to my surprise, he turns his eyes to me. "What do you think?"

"I think it's a great idea," I say, nodding eagerly. "I mean, it will be so easy to check

on her next door - and we can make the room so cute, decorate it however she likes -"