Ch. 366..370: The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 366-370

Chapter 0366

Wants to sink himself deep into me, and bite me, and mark me as his own, and fuck me for hours - because I can feel it down the bond - and I want that -

I want it right now, immediately-

My hand slips down between us, pushing hard at the waistband of his pajamas -

But then I go still, my mouth gaping, as Jackson groans and pulls away from me, whispering my name.

I go still, staring at him for a second, not knowing-

But when I see the apology, and the hesitance on his face...

And I realize that Jackson is not going to be fucking me today...

I groan, and cover my face with my hands, and tilt my head slightly away from him. "You. Are. Killing me, McClintock," I whisper.

"I know, and I'm sorry," he replies, laughing a little bit and shifting his hips away. My wolf howls, outraged, desperately unhappy, jumping up and nipping his wolf hard below the jaw. But his wolf just growls, and takes her ruff lightly between his teeth, giving her a little shake. She glares up at him, but complies, behaving, even as a growl rumbles in her chest.

I shift my hands down from my face, staring at him, still panting a little. And he's still there, mostly on top of me, staring down at me and smiling his apology. But the lower half of his body has been shifted away, which is not what I wanted at all.

But honestly, why?

I don't understand, and I shake my head, and I know he feels it - my plea for an explanation.

"Don't take it that way," he murmurs, reaching out and petting my cheek softly. "I want you too, Ariel. This is not at all one-sided."

"Um!" I snap, sitting up a little to stare into his face. "It's feeling a little one-sided at the moment, Jacks!"

He grins at me, I think a little pleased at how much I want him, but he nudges me down the bond and urges me to feel everything that he's feeling too - and as I do, I see that he does want me as badly as I want him - that he's just as consumed by lust.

He's just way, way better at controlling it.

*Stupid warriors," I murmur, falling back on the pillows with a sigh. "And your stupid discipline."

*Espionage is supposed to be disciplined too," he reminds me, pressing a kiss to my shoulder.

*Selectively! When they have to be!" I reach out for him then, taking his face in my hands, making him look at me. "Why, Jacks? When I want to, and you want to...why wait? What's the point?"

"I want it to be right, Ariel," he says softly.

And when he says it that way so sweet, so simple...

Gad, I feel like such a jerk.

"Stop!" he bursts out, laughing, smiling and shaking his head at me. "Stop feeling so guilty - I'm the one putting the brakes on things. I should be apologizing to you."

"Well, yes, obviously, you should," I growl, crossing my arms and giving him a glare I don't mean. He grins at me, and leans forward to press a kiss to my lips. "Jackson," I murmur, wiggling down on the mattress so that I'm closer to him, so that I can stare up into his face. "If I'm rushing you, and you want to wait, then of course I'm okay with that. But...can you help me understand?" I shake my head. "I don't get it."

"I just...don't want to move so fast," he murmurs, pressing a kiss to each of my cheeks. "We have time - plenty of it. And I could pose the same question to you. Why are you in such a rush to lose your virginity?"

I laugh a little, finding the question a bit ironic coming from him. "What, and you're not?"

Jackson hesitates for a second, staring at me.

And then I gasp, and go perfectly still for a second, staring up at my mate.

"Ariel..." he murmurs, tilting his head to the side, almost awkward.

"Oh my god!" I gasp again, sitting up fast and nearly banging my head against his in my scramble to press myself hard against the headrest of the bed as I stare at him, gathering the sheets up to my chest in my shock.

Jackson sits up too, giving me a little grimace and shrugging his shoulders, just slightly.

*Jackson..." I whisper, gaping at him. "Are you...are you not a virgin!?"

Chapter 0367

"Um..." Jackson says lightly, looking uncomfortably to the side - a move he stole from me, I don't fail to note

And I gasp, even louder now, just staring at him, completely agape. Then, I find myself.

*Jackson!" I sputter, leaning back to kick him with my foot. Not because I'm pissed - I just can't believe I didn't know this! "What the...!"

"What!?" he says, laughing and lifting his head to look at me again, snatching my foot out of the air as I attempt to land a second blow. "You can have another mate, but I can't have a past!?"

"Um, you can't have a sexual past, when your whole vibe is being Mr. Women Are So Scary and I can't even talk to them! Jackson!"

He bursts out laughing at my description of him, but I just continue to stare, flabbergasted.

*Seriously, you can't even talk to the waitresses at your job in the city, but you've had sex before!?" I shake my head, totally not getting it.

"Okay, okay," he says, still holding my foot in is hand as he leans forward and puts a hand on my shoulder. "I get it - this was...unexpected. But you knew I'd kissed someone before - that I knew a girl."

*Kissing and sex are very different, Jacks," I growl, tugging my foot out of his hand and tucking it beneath me.

He shrugs a little, like perhaps it's not, and I just stare at him, wondering if I know him at all. And then I sit up straight, my feelings hurt all of a sudden because -

I mean, because it would make a lot more sense to me if Jackson didn't want to have sex with me right now because he was a virgin - like me - and wanted to ease into it. But there was another girl whom he was willing to go that far with...

So...

Wait. Why...why won't he have sex with me?

Did he... oh my god, did he like her more?

Did he like her MORE!? Was she hotter than me!?

Oh my god. Was she funny? If she was funny...I'm going to flip out.

*Stop," Jackson says, tightening his hand on my shoulder, sensing all of my feelings down the bond. His face falls into serious lines as he stares at me, hard. "Stop all of that, right now. None of that's true, Ariel."

"Well..." I say softly, kind of adrift emotionally and starting to get upset. I tighten my fists around the fabric of the sheet, holding it closer to me. "What... what is true?"

"Come here," he whispers, opening his arms to me even as he twists so that his back is to the headrest too. I do as he urges, climbing into his lap and letting him wrap me up, trusting him completely even if I am confused and a little dismayed. "I'll tell you everything, if you want to hear it."

*Of course I want to hear it," I breathe, still staring at his face. God, am I even blinking anymore? Have I forgotten how to blink?

*Do you want to hear it?" he asks, grimacing a little. "You get...a little jealous, Ariel."

I scoff a little, thinking that that's a little bit of a baseless claim.

"The waitresses?" he urges, raising an eyebrow at me.

Instantly, my eyes narrow. "What, was she a waitress? Wait - did they make a move on you last night?" I snap, sitting up straighter. "Which one? Was she pretty? Where does she -*

But the way he smirks at me makes me stop mid-harangue. And I snap my mouth shut, and scowl, and lean back against his arm.

"Don't get me wrong, Clark, I like it when you get a little jealous," he murmurs, his smirk deepening as he rocks me a little. "But...you're not going to like some parts of this story. And it can wait, or...I don't have to tell you at all."

"Oh, you're telling me this story, sir," I say, snapping my eyes up to him, knowing that the mystery of it will keep me up at night if I don't know all of the details right now.

Chapter 368

"Okay," he says, his smirk softening to a smile. "But...I mean, are you mad? That I'm not a virgin, like you?"

"Wait, how do you know I'm a virgin?" I ask, narrowing my eyes.

He sniffs the air around me. "I can tell by your scent."

"What!?" I screech, eyes wide.

But he just laughs at me and shakes his head, and I shriek again and smack him on the chest when I realize that he's kidding.

*I just... put the pieces together, Ari. I think you've had a sheltered life and Jesse would have teased you about it in front of me if you'd had a serious boyfriend before. He wouldn't have been able to resist that bait. And I think if you'd slept with Luca...he'd have let me know."

I sigh, realizing that that's right. That Luca absolutely would have used it as leverage against Jackson - wouldn't have been able to resist it in the same way Jesse can't resist a good tease.

"So," Jackson continues, shrugging again. "Just...an educated guess. But...I mean, are you? Mad?"

"No, Jacks," I say instantly, suddenly sorry that my reaction made him think that. "I don't care that you've had a history. I'm just... surprised. When Daphne came into the room that time you were ready to bolt - and she didn't even want to sleep with you -*

"Yes she did," he murmurs, dry.

I burst out laughing and smack him again, not bothering to mention that she did think he was cute - second only to Rafe, in her estimation. "Shut up," I growl, jealousy rankling in me a little at the thought. "But seriously? How did this happen?"

"It was... at the Community," Jackson says quietly, getting started on the story. "Her name..." he hesitates, "Do you want to know her name?"

I consider it for a second, and then nod.

"Her name was Tasha," he continues, holding my gaze. "And it was all...really strange."

"Okay," I say, feeling oddly half tense and half calm. I lean back against his arm a little, still clutching the sheets to my chest so I have something to hold tight in my fists. "Tell me everything, Jacks."

"Okay," he murmurs, and then he leans forward to press a long kiss to my lips, passing all his love and assurance and adoration down the bond to me before he starts, letting me hold onto it while he speaks so that I know that the story itself changes nothing.

When he pulls away he looks at me curiously, asking if I'm ready for it. And I nod.

"It was....spring?" he says, taking a deep breath, his eyes going a little far off as he gets started. Jackson shakes his head at the memory. "About three years ago. That's...all I've got, time-wise. Time works differently in the Community than it does here. We don't have...calendars. No weeks, no months. Just days, following one after another, and then seasons of course. But even those aren't marked by holidays, so," he shrugs, blinking and focusing on me again. "It's... hard to tell when things happened, or what's coming up."

I nod, urging him to continue.

"When I got to the city," he says softly, musing, "I thought you all had such a ridiculous mania for tracking time. Like everyone's on the same clock, down the second?" he shakes his head, frowning. "I mean, why? I still think that, a little bit. But I also realized that... that perhaps the Community took away time as a further way to control us. You can't make plans to meet up with people, or to escape, if you've got no way to plan when that happens. Except the moon, but..."

He sighs, and hangs his head a bit, and I reach out to put my hand on his cheek.

And then raises his head to look into my eyes, his face a little sad, and he begins to tell me everything.

Chapter 369

"I knew it was spring," he murmurs, his head still hanging as he gets back on track, "because the riverbank was seriously muddy. Like, I kept slipping in it, couldn't keep my footing, annoying as hell. In winter, it's frozen solid. In summer, it's so dry that the dirt...puffs up in the air."

He sighs, raising his eyes to mine, and shrugs. And I smile a little, a small part of me really liking the idea that he told the passing of the year by how difficult it was not to slip and fall face-first into a river. But I don't say anything, just letting him continue.

*They sent us out, one day, to collect wood, of all things." His face screws up in confusion. "And you have to understand, Ari, like....we didn't collect wood - not me and the guys from my barracks. We were warriors at this point - not even in training anymore. Our jobs were to eat, and to... work out, and spar, for lack of better terms. And to keep the barracks clean. I was never given chores outside the barracks like collecting wood - not unless it was an emergency or something."

He continues, then, telling me about how the elders sent them out into the forest to collect firewood, instructed to bring back as much as they could carry.

*I was collecting by the stream," he murmurs, his eyes going distant as he remembers, "and I was getting...pissed, because all the wood was wet, because I knew it wasn't going to be any good in the fireplace. And then, suddenly... she was there."

*Tasha?" I ask, a little breathless.

His eyes focus again on me. "Yeah. She was just there, in the woods with me. Like she'd just appeared or something."

"What did you do?" I ask, my voice quiet like I'm trying not to spook him.

"I dropped...everything," he says, laughing, covering his face a little like he does when he's embarrassed. I grin, watching him, not able to help it. "I was just so shocked - everything I was holding went right to the ground. Scattered - into the mud. She...laughed at me."

Jealousy swells in me at this because....I mean, it's cute, isn't it? A girl and a boy meet in a forest, and my sweetheart Jacks reacts exactly as you thought he might.

*I tried to back off, to run, but she...she stopped me. Called out to me, told me to stay. Called me by my name. Called me Jackson."

I see something there, about how that means something to him. But I don't press.

*She came close then, and took my hand, and told me to stay with her for a little bit. But Ariel," he shakes his head now, and his voice grows low like he's still afraid. "When I said, before, that women were forbidden - I mean forbidden. I knew that this wasn't allowed. I knew that even talking to her was off-limits, and here she was, saying my name? She took my hand..."

He takes a deep breath like it's hard to tell, and I scootch closer to him, wanting him to feel my support. Because I can tell that this isn't easy for him and also, that he's never told anyone this before. Update first at NôvelDráma. Org.

"She was really, really nice to me, Ariel," he says softly, and I nod, because I believe him. I clench my teeth and close down the bond a little because I don't want him to see how incredibly sorry it makes me - that a girl was nice to him, and that it meant so much. It shouldn't... shouldn't have to be so hard.

"How was she nice?" I whisper, urging him to tell me more.

"We sat down by the river, and she held my hand, and asked me questions about my life. It got easier, because she kept laughing at me - but not like, in a bad way. Laughing like she thought I was cute, laughing at...how anxious I was. She told me to relax, that it was okay. And I started to believe her, and I got to ask her some questions too. She told me that she liked...cooking? And birds. And the color yellow."

He smiles at these details and I can't help it - I smile too. Because even if I am jealous - and I have to admit that

I am very, very jealous - I want Jackson to have held the hand of a girl who likes yellow, and birds, and cooking.

"It happened fast after that," he says, hanging his head a little, I think maybe liking this part less. "I...didn't understand it. She kissed me, and then...she moved my hands? To touch her. And I did. And then, faster than you'd think, our clothes were off, and.."

 

Chapter 370

He shrugs, stopping there, perhaps sensing that I don't want all the details. Or wanting to keep them for himself. But I don't begrudge him that.

I frown a little, though, at this phrasing. "So..." I say carefully, softly. "Did you not..."

*If you're asking if I wanted to," he murmurs, lifting his eyes to mine. "I did. That wasn't...the problem."

"Was there a problem?"

"No," he replies, earnest. "I mean, I liked it. I liked it a lot. We did it again, a couple more times after that day. They sent us out into the woods more often, and we'd collect wood, and sometimes she'd be there and sometimes she wouldn't. But when she was there, I was thrilled - and she was happy too, I could tell. We got closer, enjoyed each other's company, liked..." he sighs, and shakes his head a little like he doesn't know how to explain it. "We liked the physical stuff too I know we did."

"That's good, though," I murmur, reaching out a hand and lightly tracing my fingers through his hair. "Isn't it?"

"Yeah," he says. "I just...I mean, after...actually, I don't now how long it lasted. But it just stopped. They sent me out into the woods still, but I just gathered wood, and brought it back, and she wasn't there anymore. I never heard from her again, never...I mean, I don't know what happened to her."

My heart sinks, worried now. Because...what the hell is going on in his world, that his girl was able to find him for a season and then disappear? Was she some kind of magical fae? Some figment of his imagination?

I watch him carefully and we're both quiet for a long couple of moments.

"How do you feel about it?" I ask quietly, not knowing precisely how to feel myself and wanting his guidance. Because, on one hand, that sounds like....well, kind of like a perfectly lovely and acceptable way to lose your virginity. Two young people meeting in the woods, attracted to each other, not really knowing what they're doing and it just...happens. Update first at NôvelDráma. Org.

But somehow, I know that it's more complicated than that for Jacks.

*I feel really weird about it, Ari," he murmurs, looking down at his hands. "I feel torn. Because, on one hand, she's a really nice girl and I'm grateful to her for being so kind to me. Like, you can't understand what it was like - we didn't even know we were unhappy in the barracks, not really, because...we didn't have anything to compare it to. But those handful of hours, stolen with Tasha in the woods..." he looks up at me now, and the sheer emotion on his face almost bowls me over. "She made me to want more, Ariel. She taught me to want more."

I nod, letting him know that I understand - or that I'm starting to. I sense, though, that there are so many layers to this - a depth of complication and emotion that I can't even get to, because not even Jackson has gotten there yet.

"What's the other hand?" I murmur, continuing to run my fingers through his hair.

"The other hand," he says, his voice dropping a little in anger. "Is that... didn't even....know what was happening. I was so embarrassed when I found out."

I frown at him for a moment, not getting, and he inhales deeply, figuring out how to explain.

"I hadn't had sex before, obviously," he murmurs, staring off into the distance. "But I had done...stuff. To myself... you know. When I was alone."

A little blush creeps onto his cheeks, and I smile a bit, continuing to stroke my fingers through his hair, because it is weird to talk about masturbation with people. Such a personal thing - something we're taught to keep hidden away, Jackson probably more than anyone else.

"So," he continues, taking a breath and moving briskly on, "the sensations themselves weren't really a surprise. Though, sex is..." he puffs out a breath and raises his eyebrows, like sex is just a whole other world from getting yourself off alone in bed.

I sigh a little, because I wouldn't know, and Jackson smirks as he glances at me. "Sorry," he murmurs.

"No, don't be," I say, a little sarcastic. "I mean, I tried to find out this morning..."

He laughs and glances at me, but I murmur assurances that I'm just teasing him, and he nods, continuing, his spirit a bit brighter.

"What were you embarrassed about?" I prompt, wanting to know.

Jackson exhales a long breath.