Ch. 251..255: The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 251-255

Chapter 0251

But also…what is it that I want? Do I actually want like…two boyfriends? How would that even work? And what does that look like in twenty years – do we all just…live in a house together? Would we…have kids?

God, this is so weird.

Jackson blushes deeply now that he’s been put on the spot, his mouth twisting as he looks down at the floor.

“Well?” Rafe asks. “Speak now, Jacks, this is your chance to say what you really want. Are you cool with Ariel dating Luca too? Or…”

“Fine, whatever,” Jackson snaps, unhappy to be pressed into telling his truth and not looking at me. “I want what Luca wants, if you really want to know. I want my mate to myself, I don’t want to share her with anyone.” He raises his eyes to glare at Luca a little, like it’s all his fault.

“All right,” Rafe says, sounding satisfied. I turn to him in confusion now, my hands spreading at my sides because…I mean, we didn’t decide anything –

“It looks like you’re going to have to choose, Ari,” Rafe says, his face even and his voice controlled.

My mouth pops open in horror.

“Well, they don’t want to be in an open relationship,” he says, gesturing towards my mates with my coffee mug.

“But we said -!”

“I know,” Rafe says, nodding, reading my mind. “And I still stand by that. You have a right to explore both of your mating bonds, which the Goddess gave you – a gift from our grandmother.”

“Wait, what?” Jackson asks, stepping forward a little, confused.

“We’ll explain that later,” Jesse murmurs, waving a hand at Jackson, his eyes trained on Rafe.

“But,” Rafe says, holding up a finger, “I don’t think that it’s fair for you to have unlimited time to explore those bonds. I think that, in deference to what your mates have stated they want…that you should take the time you need to make your decision, but that in the end…” he holds my eyes now, knowing that it’s breaking my heart, “you should choose one of them, Ariel. It’s…it’s not fair not to, if that’s not what they want.”

My mouth pops open as I stare at my brother and then over at my two mates, my heart breaking at the idea of not having one of them.

Because –

I mean –

They’re – they’re mine –

They’re both mine!

“Rafe,” I say, my voice thick with my grief at the idea, “I can’t…”

“Well, we can’t,” Luca says, folding his arms and staring at me, hard. I feel all of his sadness, all of his grief as he does. “I mean, I don’t speak for Jackson, but I can’t live like this. Not forever. For a little bit…” he sighs, hanging his head, thinking about it. “Maybe. Maybe, Ariel. Because I think I’m better for you than he is, your true mate, but because you might need time to figure that out? I think…I think I could live with it. For a while.”

Shocked, my eyes move to Jackson next.

But he doesn’t say a word, just holding my eyes.

And as I stare at him, I realize what the emotions are coming down my bond with him – just…a desperate desire, an open yes, absolute horror at the idea that he could lose me and a determination to keep me on any terms.

As I realize that that’s how my sweet mate is feeling – so desperate, so ready to say yes to whatever keeps me by his side no matter what the terms - I set my jaw and raise my chin, determined to do what’s right.

Because it’s not fair to Jacks. Even if he hasn’t said it aloud, he wants me so badly that he’s willing to take me however he can get me, even if that means sharing me with Luca, which is not what he wants to do. And Luca – he knows how to fight for himself, knows how to ask for what he wants, to insist upon it.

But Jackson…

And I can’t…suddenly, I can’t anymore. I can’t insist on both of them letting me have them forever, even if it’s what I want, because it’s just not fair. If it’s not what they want, not what they can give, then it’s not fair.

“Fine,” I say, my lip shaking and my eyes filling with tears as I raise my chin and move my eyes back to my brother. “Fine. I’ll…I’ll choose. If that’s what’s fair, then that’s what I’ll do.”

Chapter 0252

My brother, seeing the very real grief on my face, stands and moves to my side, pulling into a hug. “You’re getting the best end of this deal,” he murmurs after a moment. Then Rafe loosens his arms and stands between me and my mates, not letting them see the sadness written in every line of me because he knows I need to stand strong in this decision – that I need to make it myself, without them.

“I know,” I whisper, my heart breaking as my brother wipes the two tears that fall quickly off of my cheeks, not wanting them to see. “I get it…it’s just...god, Rafe, I can’t imagine…”

“I know,” he murmurs, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to my forehead. “But neither can they. I think it’s right, Ariel – or if not right, then the fairest. We can – we can talk to mom and Cora when we get home. Maybe talk to the Goddess? See…see if we can get a better perspective. But for right now, this makes peace.”

I take a deep breath, looking up into my brother’s face, and then I nod, working hard to steady myself. When he sees that I’m in control again, Rafe turns around, slipping a protective arm around my shoulders and looking between Luca and Jackson. “So, we’re good with this? We’re agreed?”

“Well, what’s the timeline?” Luca asks, frowning, his hand sunk into his pockets.

“No set timeline,” Rafe replies, looking down at me with a nod. “When Ari knows…she’ll know.”

“So what, we could do this for years?” Luca gasps, appalled.

“It’s enough, Luc,” Jesse snaps from the couch, glaring at him a little. “You’ve already asked her to choose one mate today, and it’s already breaking her heart. Stop trying to pin it down more. She’s given enough.”

Luca huffs a sigh, hanging his head, but after a moment he nods, giving in. “Fine.”

“Jacks?” Rafe asks. My mate doesn’t reply to him, just holding me with his dark-blue gaze. Then, just once, he nods.

“Wow,” Ben murmurs, I think not even realizing that he said it aloud as he looks between all of us. And I have to admit, I share his sentiment. It’s just all…a lot.

And we all stand very, very still, I think none of us having any idea, at all, what to do next.

Suddenly, we all give a collective flinch as the sound of bells peels out from somewhere in the castle.

“Shit,” Rafe gasps, turning towards the sound. “Shit, shit.”

“What is that?” I ask, turning my head almost as if I could see them, though obviously I can’t. “Since when does the castle have bells!? Since when do they ring them!?”

“It’s tradition!” Jesse shouts, jumping up from the couch and hopping over the back of it, darting for his bed. “End of term! Shit, the train is going to be here in like ten minutes, and we haven’t even packed!”

I gasp, suddenly realizing the gravity of this – I haven’t packed at all, not a stitch – and I spin towards my nook. But as I rip the velvet curtain back, I turn with a frown, because there are footsteps –

“Where are you going?” I call, seeing both of my mates heading for the door.

“To get our stuff!” Luca calls over his shoulder, worried. “I’ll meet you at the train, Ariel! It’s fine!”

Jackson doesn’t say a word. I bite my lip, glancing between my possessions and the door, and then decide that I don’t have anything here that I can’t reproduce at home except my homework. I grab

my textbook, tossing it to Ben who – already packed – sits casually at the coffee table, sipping from his mug. “Pack that for me!” I shout, darting for the door.

When I get to our open doorway I look left and right, a little grateful when I see that Luca and Jackson have taken different sets of stairs down to the single dorm floors. I bite my lip, shooting a glance in Luca’s direction before darting after Jacks.

“Jackson!” I call, starting down the spiral staircase after him. I’m moving so fast that I almost have to skid to a stop when I realize he stopped in the middle of the stairs, where I couldn’t see him.

“Whoa!” he says, catching me with an arm around my waist before I slam into him or careen down the steps and break my neck.

But there’s no time to think about any o fthat.

“Jacks,” I say, taking his face in my hands, worried. “You’re still coming, right? To the Palace? For break?”

Chapter 0253

Jackson hesitates, glancing away from me and looking down the stairs.

“Jacks!” I gasp, pulling his face back to look at mine, aghast at the idea that he wouldn’t come. “You said you! You told my mom!”

“Ariel,” he sighs, shaking his head and wrapping the arm around my waist tighter, pulling me closer so that my feet are barely on the stairs anymore, my weight all on him. “It’s just…it’s been a lot, okay? And I’m no good with this…people stuff, and there are going to be a lot of people there for winter break.”

Understatement of the year, but I don’t say anything that will encourage him on this ridiculous idea not to come.

“Maybe it’s better for me to not go?” Jackson says, soft, hesitant. “To just take the next two weeks to get my head together, and stay here where it’s quiet, and then I’ll see you when you get back?”

“Jackson,” I cry, my heart breaking at the idea. God, not seeing him, for two weeks? After everything we’ve been through in the past few days?

He groans, clenching his teeth at the sound I make. “Don’t ask me, Ari,” he whispers, shaking his head, his eyes exhausted and sad. “Don’t ask me for more today, because if you ask, you know I’ll give it – I can’t say no –“

“Baby,” I murmur, taking a hand from his cheek and running it through his hair, not knowing where the pet name came from, not worrying about that now. But Jackson closes his eyes at the sound of it, hardly able to bear it. And even though he’d probably die rather than let anyone hear me call him that…

…I know that he likes it. He likes it a lot.

“It will be good, Jacks,” I whisper, a promise in every word. “I promise it will be good, we won’t push you too far – we’ll…we’ll make sure you’re happy. All of us.”

Jackson opens his eyes, staring up at me, and the bells start to peel again.

Worried, he glances down the stairs, and I know he has to get to his room to get his things.

“Just meet us at the train,” I whisper, again turning his face back to me again before pressing a kiss to his mouth – fast, too short, not at all what I really want to do. I pull back, staring into his eyes. “Just meet us at the train, all right? Jackson?”

“I’ll try,” he whispers, looking up into my face. And I nod, knowing that’s the best I’m going to get right now, and that he means it. He will try, but if it’s too much…

Well, my mate has a tendency to run, doesn’t he?

Jackson kisses me again, just as swift as the last, before carefully putting me on my feet and letting me go. “Get back to your brother,” he growls, narrowing his eyes a little. “Don’t go wandering around this castle by yourself –“

“Oh, they’re ten feet away,” I snap, rolling my eyes and turning to dart up the stairs. “The train, Jacks!” I call over my shoulder. “I’ll see you there!”

But as I hurry up the stairs, he doesn’t call anything after me, and my heart sinks. I hope to the ends of me that he comes, but part of me knows…well, I know that if he was going to come, he would have told me so. He would have promised.

“Ari!” Rafe shouts as I reach the top of the stairs, frowning furiously at me. “Come on!”

I dash to his side, trying to get back into the room, but Jesse and Ben are already at the door, backpacks over their arms.

“I tried,” Ben says, apologetic as he hands me a woefully under-packed bag. “I don’t know which of your things you wanted –“

“It’s fine,” I say, trying my best to give him a smile and slinging the pack over my shoulder.

“Let’s go,” Rafe says, pressing me on the shoulder and turning me back towards the stairs. “We are not missing this train. We are getting home, tonight. To see our parents and our insane passel of siblings.”

“And to drink our faces off.” Jesse murmurs, shooting me a wink as I laugh and the four of us hurry down the stairs. “And get back in touch with all of Ariel’s friends –“

I gasp at that, but Ben laughs and gives me another little shove, making me move forward.

Forward to the train, where I’m supposed to meet my mates – both of them.

And bring them home to meet my family.

Chapter 0254

We basically have to sprint across the field where the candidate barracks are to get down to the train tracks in time. The sleek train is waiting there, puffing steam, filling with cadets all eager to get home for winter break. As we run I mentally thank my mother again for her healing powers – who would have thought that two days ago I was basically dead over Jackson’s shoulder, and now here I am dashing across a field with my best friends, a mostly-empty bag bouncing on my back?

When we get down to the tracks I see that the platform itself is getting sparse, pretty much all the cadets already having boarded, and I dart immediately for a door to the train, wanting to get in and get a seat. But before I can even grab the little handle to lift myself into the closest train car, Jesse grabs my arm.

“Ari, what are you doing!?”

I spin, stumbling a little as I look up at him. “I’m getting on the damn train, Jesse!”

My cousin just grins down at me and gestures down the tracks. “Come on,” he says, laughing. “Our seats are back here.”

“What?” I let myself be lead down the line, frowning the whole way, but then my face shifts quickly into surprise and delight when I see the bright red caboose attached to the end of the train.

Because of course. Of course mom and dad sent the royal car for us to take back to the city.

“Oh my god,” I murmur, my hands going to my cheeks, my embarrassment competing with my pleasure and losing immediately. “That’s…that’s so nice of them.”

“Whoa,” Luca says at my side, and I jump a little when I realize that it’s him standing there. And then I burst into a grin as he slips an arm around my waist and pulls me tight for a second before turning his gaze back to the train itself. I watch his eyebrows raise as he takes in the beautiful coach with its

cheerful, shiny red sides, its gilt details. “We are traveling in style today.” His voice is a little breathless.

“Wait till you see inside,” Rafe laughs, glancing at Luca and Ben, who is also staring at the coach, dazzled. But before we can get any further a group of guards step onto the platform in front of us, a handcuffed cadet between them.

And all of us simultaneously go still because…

Well, because it’s Wright.

And god, but he looks like shit.

Wright’s face lifts at the sudden silence before him and he flinches immediately back when he sees Rafe, Jesse, Luca, and Ben at my side – all of my Alphas, who bare their teeth and take defensive stances, ready to spring at him if he even takes one wrong stumbling step in my direction.

But when his eyes fall on me, Wright can’t help the cruel snarl that twists his face. He doesn’t say a word, but the hate radiates off him, nearly palpable in the air. As he stares at me I know without a doubt that he doesn’t regret a damn thing. In fact, if he had the chance? He would absolutely try to murder me again, his reasons for committing the crime now only compounded in his mind.

Still, despite his venom and his determination, something about this – about Wright shackled and beaten while I stand, healthy and hale, with my best friends and my family all around?

I realize, now, my power. That even if Wright can kill me with his bare hands…

Well, I’ve got much more than bare hands to defend myself with, don’t I?

“Hey, Wright,” I say, far too cheerful as I put on my best Princess smile and step forward to greet him, my hands innocently tucked behind my back. I purse my lips a little in mock pity as I look him

over, taking in each and every one of his bruises. “Did you have…a rough couple days?”

The snarl that rips from Wright’s mouth is vicious and deadly, but one of his guards just cuffs him over the back of the head and he stumbles forward, moving along.

“Have a nice winter break!” I call over my shoulder as my enemy walks away, a little gleeful at my victory over this terrible man. Luca, pleased, laughs and puts an arm around my shoulders giving me a squeeze.

“He’s going to have an absolute shit winter break,” Rafe murmurs, slipping his hands into his pockets and watching Wright go as Jesse and Ben climb up the little set of gilt stairs and into our train car. “He’s being incarcerated over the holidays, so he’ll be in a cell while we’re all celebrating. But his trial will be held after the holidays pass, but before we return to school.”

“So, even though he was accused – and he totally tried to murder me - he was allowed to take the candidate finals?” I ask, looking up at my brother, curious.

Rafe slowly nods, meeting my eyes. “It’s all still allegations at this point, Ari. If he is declared innocent, he’ll return to school. They had to let him take the tests to see if he’d pass.”

Chapter 0255

A little worry curls in me at this and I open my mouth to ask more questions, but suddenly the train emits a loud whistle that makes me leap nearly out of my boots.

“Come on!” Jesse calls, sticking his head out from inside the coach. “There’s champagne in here! I am not waiting for you! If it’s all gone by the time you get in here then you only have yourselves to blame!”

I laugh, moving eagerly forward, Rafe and Luca following close behind. But just as I put my foot up on the prettily-wrought golden stair, I hear someone shyly clear their throat behind me. I gasp, recognizing the sound somehow, and spin, my eyes wide.

“Daphne!” I shout, thrilled to see her standing there, a tiny suitcase anxiously clutched in her hands, her auburn hair curling prettily over her shoulders.

“Um,” she says, biting her lip, looking at me with sad and sorry eyes, her whole body tight with unease. “Is it okay? I mean…does my invitation to the Capital for midwinter still stand?”

“Daph!” I shout with a laugh, dashing away from the train car towards my friend and almost knocking her over in my eagerness as I hug her tight to me. She gasps a little at the force of me and then laughs too, wrapping one arm around me, her suitcase pressed between us. “Of course it stands! I’m so happy to see you! I’m so happy you came!”

“I’m so sorry, Ari,” she whispers, and I can tell by the tightness in her words that she’s on the edge of tears. The train emits another sharp whistle and starts to rumble. “I didn’t want to do it, but they made me – they said I wouldn’t be allowed to keep my job if I didn’t –“

“This is all very nice!” Luca shouts, and I jump a bit, turning to see him leaning from the edge of the gilt stairs, already boarded, a hand out towards us. “And I hate to interrupt a sentimental moment, but you two need to get on now, because this train is leaving!”

Almost as if Luca’s words themselves made the train move, it gives a sudden jolt and starts forward. I gasp, shoving Daphne in front of me, and she stumbles towards Luca’s hand, grasping it. Luca pulls Daphne upwards with ease as I start to run alongside the train, but my powerful mate handles the situation like he’s done it all his life. After Luca safely hands Daphne off to a waiting Jesse, who, beaming, helps her into the car, he reaches out for me.

I grab Luca’s hand he Luca laughs as he pulls me upwards, settling me against his chest as the train pulls away from the platform and picks up speed. I turn towards the carriage, eager to get inside, but he holds me still for a moment, smiling down into my face.

“Almost too late, Princess,” he purrs, putting a hand on my cheek and running his thumb over my lower lip just briefly, just once.

“Never too late,” I say, lifting my chin and shaking back my head in a way that would send my hair cascading over my shoulders if it weren’t tucked up under my cap – a very girlish, very Princess sort of gesture. “I am royalty, after all. This train leaves when I say it does.”

“Yeah right,” he mutters, laughing at me. “We almost left you crying on the tracks, and then you’d have had to run home -.”

But when I start to sputter a protest, pounding him ineffectually on the chest with my fists, Luca just laughs harder, and so I do, and he lowers his face to mine and presses a kiss to my mouth like he can’t help it. And I know I should care, should worry about who might see us kissing out in the open like this – but as the train begins to speed through the countryside, and the air whips around us, and my mate kisses me all alone – just the two of us – on the little platform on the caboose of the train taking us back to the Capital?

God, but I can’t bring myself to care. Because it’s just so perfect, and just so wonderful, to be here and wrapped in his arms.

But as we speed away, and I lose myself in Luca, my little wolf raises her snout in my soul and looses a tiny, mournful howl, sniffing the air.

Her little nose works hard, trying to find any trace of the scent of embers and pine, leather and whiskey and cold winter nights.

But sniff as she might, we both know it’s not there.

And she lets out another tiny, mournful noise.

And then tucks her head down against her paws.