Ch. 121..125: The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 121-125

Chapter 121

“Well, that’s enough of that,” my mother says with perfect calm, standing and catching Jackson’s eye. He freezes for a moment and then steps back, standing up straight again.

Mom, ever–charming, turns a smile on the professor and thanks him for the news, ensuring him that Sinclair and McClintock will follow in a few minutes to be transported back. When the professor leaves, mom turns back to Jacks with an eyebrow raised.

“You’re going to have to get better at that,” she says quietly, gesturing towards the door. ” If Ari is going to return to the Academy, you’re going to have to keep her secret, which means not acing all mate–y whenever someone comes to deliver perfectly normal news

“She’s not going back,” my dad says, stepping towards my mom with a glare.

Mom’s mouth pops open in surprise but then they begin to fight, the way they always do with a great deal of heat and talking over each other. But Rafe and I just look away from them and towards each other, used to it, because it all turns out right in the end.

“Oooookay,” Aunt Cora says, stepping away from the bed and coming over to us. “Why don’t I walk the two of you out,” she says, nodding to the big Alphas on either side of me.” Ariel will – ”

“I’m not leaving,” Jackson says, frowning at Cora and reaching a possessive hand for me.

“Oh, sweetheart,” she says, grinning up at him and reaching a hand out to pat him fondly on the cheek, an action which I think shocks Jackson to the core. He stands stock–still, staring at Cora as she beams at him. “Yes, baby,” she sighs, “you are. Kiss your mate and come along.”

She takes his hand then, tugging on it, and Jackson looks at me a bit helplessly – I think as shocked at being bossed by a woman as he is at having someone call him sweetheart and baby. I

step close, reaching for him, and Jacks quickly lowers his head, pressing a quick kiss to my mouth. “I don’t want to go,” he murmurs.

“I’ll be fine – I’ll see you tomorrow,” I nod at him, eager.

“Ari,” he says, hesitating, looking at me like I’m going to die or disappear if he leaves the

room.

“Jacks,” I say, taking his face in my hands, sending all the faith and assurance I can down our bond. “We have to be normal, all right? Just…just for a little bit? I’ll see you at school.”

He sighs, shaking his head, but Cora tugs his hand again and he goes along with her,

sending me looks over his shoulder as he heads for the door.

“Take care of him,” I say to Rafe, catching at his hand as he, too, goes.

Rafe nods his assurance to me, but as Jackson and Cora slip through the door dad calls out his name. “Where do you think you’re going?” he asks, crossing his arms over his chest, breaking the argument with my mother to apparently start one with Rafe.

“Um,” Rafe says, going stock–still in the middle of the room. “To…school?”

“Think again, young man,” my dad says, striding for the door and slamming it shut. “Royal dispensation – you, too, are staying overnight. Because we as a family?” he levels his gaze at both of us in turn. “We need to talk.”

Rafe heaves a big sigh, closing the door after Cora takes an unhappy Jackson away.

As the next few hours pass, I’m very willing to let Rafe take the majority of the blame as well as dad’s anger. Food is brought, which I eat ravenously, and Rafe sends me a few chagrined looks as

the interrogation passes, but overall I know he takes it willingly that he knows that I’m exhausted, and that it’s already been a lot for me, today, to stand up to dad and introduce him to my mate.

LL

 

Chapter 122

And so I just curl up against mom at the head of the bed, listening to my dad and my brother fight about whether or not I should be at the school, and what the hell Rafe was thinking taking me there, and how I’ve survived so far. I can hear Rafe supplying information that Jackson told when they were away at the shower, apparently, about the identity of the cadet who shot me with a crossbow and whether or not he has a further vendetta against me, but I quickly find myself slipping into sleep as I lean against mom.

“Come on, baby,” I hear mom murmur from my half daze. I blink into consciousness, realizing that dad and Rafe are still going at it, and then I look up at mom next to me. “Let’s get you cleaned up,” she says, unhooking me from the IV and tugging me away.

I nod, following her to the second door in the room, yawning as we pass through it and a few more doors before we enter a pretty utilitarian private bathing chamber. She helps me strip down and then I shower as mom fills me in, quietly and calmingly, on the gossip from home. Markie is fine he doesn’t like school, loves sports, wants a pet squirrel more than anything in the world. Juniper hates everything, apparently, and won’t wear anything but black dyed her hair black, too, in a fit of rebellion.

I smirk, thinking fondly of my taciturn little sister, missing her with a sudden intensity that surprises me. But I dry off with a scratchy towel and then pull on the supplied one–size–fits- all–Alpha pajamas – which, obviously, swim on me. But mom laughs and helps me pull the drawstring of the pants tight before leading me out into the hospital room again and back to the bed.

Dad and Rafe, I’m interested to see, have fallen silent and aren’t looking at each other.

“So,” mom says, overly cheerful. “Did we men come to any decisions about Ariel’s fate in the world without consulting her?”

Rafe balks a little bit, staring at my mom, because he has been fighting for me for the past few hours. She just winks at him, because the critique was mostly for my dad.

“Enough, Ella,” dad murmurs, massaging his temple with his left hand. “We decided to pick it up again tomorrow, after we’ve all slept on it. We’re not getting anything done here anyway.”

“Wow, you’re kidding me, I thought you were making such progress,” mom murmurs with over– cheerful sarcasm as she tucks me into bed. Dad just glares at her half–heartedly before turning to me, leaning down to give me a kiss on the cheek and then run his hand over my

hair.

“I love you, Ariel,” he says, and I look up at him, hoping he can see in my face all the love I

so much that it aches. His face falls a little then, and I smile, have for him in my heart because I think he sees it. “I just want what’s best for you.”

–

“I know, pops,” I murmur, reaching for him, wanting a hug. Dad obliges me, wrapping me up tight for a long, long moment. And then he lets me lay back down in the bed, standing up. As soon as my head hits the pillow, my eyes start to drift shut.

“We’ll see you for breakfast, baby,” mom whispers, also leaning down to give me a kiss. ” You just sleep tight for now.”

I murmur my assent, and then I’m asleep, the last thing I hear three sets of footsteps leaving the room, my brother’s whispered goodnight as he switches off the light.

Chapter 123

When I wake up the next morning or, at least, I think it’s morning – it’s not like this weird mountainous hospital room has windows – I smile, because I smell Jackson.

But then I frown, rubbing at my eyes, because…

I mean, I took a shower. His scent wouldn’t be all over me anymore, so why…

But then, when I follow my nose and peer over the side of my bed, I burst into a smile because I have my answer.

Jackson’s laying there, on a way–too–small mattress of all things, dead asleep. I grin, looking at him, wondering how the hell he got here and why he’s not back at the Academy yet, but…

Well, also, I just look at him. Because he’s so damn handsome, even with his mouth hanging open and his arm splayed out to the side, and so incredibly precious to me, even though we’ve only been bonded for less than two days.

Before I can stop myself, I crawl out of bed and drop down onto his mattress, curling up at his side with my head on his chest. Jackson jumps the moment I touch him, but he instantly calms when he realizes what happened. “Don’t scare me like that,” he murmurs, instantly wrapping his arms around me and pulling me tight.

I laugh. “Good morning to you too.”

“Yeah yeah,” he mutters, and I can almost feel him rolling his eyes at my insistence on a greeting. “How are you? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” I say, though my stomach instantly growls in response. “Starving, but fine.” Jackson frowns down at me and starts to sit up, like he’s going to go get me some food immediately, but I laugh and stop him with a hand on his chest. “Just stay still with me for a moment, Jacks,” I whisper, wanting nothing more than to have a peaceful few minutes with him before the rest of the world catches up with us.

My mate lays back down and exhales like he’s exhausted, but also like everything, in this moment, is…completely fine. Which, honestly, is precisely how I feel.

After a few long minutes of just holding each other, our breathing slowly coming to match, our heartbeats synching up, I raise my chin to look up at him. “Jacks,” I whisper, curious. ” Why aren’t you at school? And where did you get a mattress?”

He laughs a little. “I’m not at school because I refused to go.”

“What!?” I squeak, sitting up to stare at him. He tightens his arms, making me lay back down and relax.

“I wouldn’t go,” he says, as if it’s simple. “I wouldn’t leave without you. The professors got pissed, but what are they going to do, carry me? I’m bigger than they are.”

“Jackson,” I breathe, staring at him. “One night with me in the hospital is not worth getting

kicked out of school

“I’m not getting kicked out,” he says, his voice completely unworried. “I’m just getting at demerit on my record.”

“What’s a demerit?” I ask, fascinated, worried.

“Who knows. Who cares.” He peers at me for a second. “Ari, I’m like…very good at this military stuff. They’re not going to kick me out and lose everything I can offer just because I slept in the wrong facility one night. I haven’t done anything bad.”

“I don’t like you arrogant,” I murmur, giving him a little smack on his chest that makes him laugh. “You have to follow the rules, Jacks you don’t get a free pass just because you’re big and nobody can boss you around.”

–

“Oh, look who’s talking about rule breaking, little girl,” he mutters, his voice dry. And I go still but then burst out laughing.

“Okay, I’m properly shamed on that one,” I sigh, putting my head back on his chest. “But, where did you get the mattress?”

“Your mom did that,” he says, and I can hear the smile in his voice. “She found me curled up outside your locked door – ”

“Jackson!” I gasp. He just grins down at me.

“She pulled me to my feet and yelled at me a little-”

“Which you deserved –” I say, my brow furrowed.

“Yes, she looked just like that,” he murmurs, raising a hand–to cup my cheek and making me grin. “But then, while she yelled at me, she dragged me off to where they keep the spare furniture and helped me carry this in here. And then she left your clothes and your notes and she left.”

 

Chapter 124

He points to the end of my bed and I see my black Cadet uniform there, along with some folded pieces of paper. I grin, encouraged by the sight of my Academy Black, hoping to hell this means my dad will let me go.

I mean, I’m an adult now – my

my decisions are mine. But, if he really doesn’t want me to go he can absolutely blow my cover and just let the school know that I’m a girl. I scowl, hating it, but also trusting, deep down, that my dad will listen.

“Are you coming to breakfast?” I ask, looking down at Jackson.

“Hell no,” he says, shaking his head like I’m crazy. I laugh, grinning at him.

“One conversation with my dad was enough?”

“I need…a great deal of prep before the next time that I sit down with your father,” he murmurs, covering his face with his hand and taking a deep breath. “That was terrifying.”

“He was being nice to you!” I laugh.

“Ari,” Jackson murmurs, shaking his head even as he refuses to look at me, “I have a very different relationship with men in positions of authority- yesterday I almost had a heart attack when I saw you yell at the King. Where I come from, you’d have been killed for that –”

“But it’s my dad,” I say, frowning down at him.

“Yeah,” he says, taking his hand away with a sigh and looking up at me. “We don’t have those.”

“Oh, Jackson,” I sigh, lowering myself to his side and curling up with him again. “We’ll get Rafe to have some chats with you to teach you how to handle parents, and I’ll tell dad to be nice.”

“Tell the king to be nice,” he mutters, shaking his head in disbelief. “And he’ll just…listen to you.”

“Obey my orders, more like,” I mutter, smug, and he just laughs.

We lay still for a long time after that, chatting about nothing, when suddenly the door opens. I sit up straight with a gasp, but then relax when I see that it’s just my mom.

“Oh,” she says, coming around the bed and peering a us with her hands on her hips. “Well, this is very chaste. You’re just…laying next to each other. Honestly, Ariel, I’m a little

disappointed in you –”

“Mom!” I gasp, horrified at her implications that Jackson and I would be, like, tearing into

each other.

“Well, you’re my daughter, Ariel!” She says with a big sigh.

I shriek, covering my ears. “Far too much information, mother!” I shout, pressing my eyes shut, wishing to erase that information from my brain.

But before I can complete the task, my mom comes close and swats me on the head, laughing, before offering a hand out to Jackson.

“Come on, you,” she says, smiling at him, and when I look up at her I can see that she’s already welcomed Jacks into her heart completely and is deeply, deeply fond of my mate. ” King’s up. You have to run off to school before he finds out where you slept tonight.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Jackson says, taking her hand but not really using it to get up, instead pulling

himself to his own feet.

“Why aren’t the rest of you this polite?” mom asks, grinning at me as Jackson stands.

“Can you just yell at her or something?” I say to Jackson, turning my face up to his. “This is going to get old real fast.”

Jackson just looks at me, horrified at the idea. Mom laughs and stands on her toes to pat him on the cheek. “Off you go. Ariel will be along later today.”

–

Jackson says his goodbyes to my shock and after I get to my feet he leans down to kiss me chastely on the cheek before he goes from the room, again shooting looks over his shoulder at me like he desperately doesn’t want to leave my side.

“Seriously, Ari,” mom says when he closes the door behind him. “I kinda thought I’d be interrupting a major romantic scene this morning.”

“Well, you sort of were,” I sigh, looking over at her, and she smiles at me, tugging me close. “Just… the tamer sort.”

“Go on, baby trouble,” she murmurs, pressing a kiss to my other cheek. “Get dressed. We need to talk before breakfast, and we don’t have a lot of time.”

Chapter 125

As mom sits down on the bed with a bounce as I quickly read through my notes – one from Daphne, apologizing profusely for her betrayal, and the other from Luca – just a quick scrawl saying he’s glad I’m alive and he’ll see me soon. Smiling, grateful for both of them, I move towards my clothes.

“So!” Mom says, grinning devilishly at me. “Are you sleeping with both of your mates, or just Luca?”

I freeze, turning to her, shocked.

Mom bursts out laughing and I scowl, picking up the hat on the top of my clothing pile and throwing it at her. “Mom! Stop doing that just to shock me!”

“Oh, come on,” she sighs, laying back against my pillows. “What’s the point of having a daughter if you can’t embarrass her about her love life. So?” She raises her eyebrows at me, clearly wanting an answer.

And, well, because I have been wanting to talk to her about this, I sigh and nod. But I have trouble looking at her as we broach this awkward topic, so I concentrate, mostly, on getting dressed as we talk. Mom, perhaps sensing the delicate nature of this conversation, doesn’t give me any flack about it.

“I’m not sleeping with either of them,” I say quietly. “Though, with Luca, things are… progressing.”

“Oh realllly,” she says, dragging out the word with interest. “But not with Jackson?” “Well, considering that he’s known for like, thirty–six hours…” I say on a sigh, pulling on my pants. My mom laughs, understanding.

“But…” I hesitate as I buckle the button of my pants. “Things with Jackson are…intense.” “Intense?” my mom asks, “what does that mean?” Her voice is gossipy – I think to put me at ease. Because if

she were worried, or scolding, I’d definitely be too embarrassed to go on. “I mean like… I am very attracted to him, mom. And it’s not that I’m not into Luca much am. It’s just…different.” I look up at her before I turn my back, tugging off the pajama – I very shirt and reaching for the black sports bra that Daphne made me. I smirk, wondering how she arranged to send this all in secret.

“Well,” mom says, her voice considering, “I think that’s kind of…cool, honestly. It sounds like things are different between you and your mates because they’re very different people. I

spicy.

I scoff and turn to glare at my mom as I pull the sports bra down over my chest. “Oh, come on, mom, I sincerely doubt that the Goddess is paying attention, with all she has on her plate.”

“I wouldn’t doubt her,” mom says, raising her eyebrows and cocking her head. “But I think Cora was right – your dad is actually the one to be talking to about this.”

I groan, shaking my head. “Mom, I can’t talk to him about which of his fated mates he was more into physically.”

“Well,” she says, primly squaring her shoulders. “We already know the answer to that.”

I burst out laughing and she joins me.

“But seriously, baby,” she says, her face falling into more considered lines. “Your dad is more empathetic about this stuff than you give him credit for. You should try. He’ll have a better perspective than literally anyone else on earth.”

I sigh, nodding, and then look down at my feet as I bite my lip.

“Don’t worry,” mom says with a sigh. “I’ll tell him before you get home.”

I gasp, wondering if she, too, can read my mind. “You will!?”

“I’ll keep it secret through your finals so that he’ll let you stay to take them,” she says, pointing a warning finger at me. “But you bring those boys home for winter break, both of them. And your dad will be prepared to meet them. But you owe him that truth – especially after all this deception.”

I bite my lip, knowing that this conversation could go in two different directions, and not wanting to take either of them. Luckily, mom picks for me.

“Yes, Ari,” she says slowly. “This means you have to tell both of your mates too. I don’t know how you’ve been justifying it to yourself, keeping this secret all along. But it’s time to come out with it – to everyone you love.”

I nod, ashamed of myself, and my little wolf rubs herself up against my heart, warming it, supporting me. “I know,” I say, my voice soft. “It was just…very hard to find a time that made sense. But I’ll…I’ll tell them. And bring them home for winter break.”

“Both of them?”

“Well, Rafe might have to tie Jackson up and throw him on the train,” I say, lifting my head to meet her gaze. She grins, but holds back her laugh. “But, yes. I’ll get them there.”

“Good!” mom says, hopping up off the bed as I pull my shirt on and do up all the buttons.. She comes to my side and gives me a kiss on the cheek. “Now, let’s go to breakfast and break it do your dad that you’re going back to the murder school where you’ve almost died like three times.”