Ch. 621..625: The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 621-625

Chapter 0621

h, hey Jess!"

Jesse spins towards that voice he'd recognize in his sleep, his jaw dropping. "Wha-" he sputters, looking between the redhead before him with two bookbags slung over her shoulders and then back out the window at her double - even wearing her clothes - disappearing now into the darkness. "How what -"

"What's wrong?" Daphne asks, frowning at him, peering closer, her eyes going wide when she sees his extended teeth.

Jesse just huffs in confusion, stepping back from the window and taking a second to cover his mouth with his hand, forcing his canines back, before gesturing vehemently towards the window. "Would you please like to explain your doppelganger!?"

Daphne laughs, her face brightening with mischief as she hurries to the window, looking out of it. "Oh, can you see them from here? That's not very sneaky -"

"Daphne!" Jesse barks out, needing answers.

“Jess,” she says, turning to grin at him and tucking a loose strand of her hair behind her ear. "It's Ari! She's on like...a homework mission from Faiza. That's my handiwork, by the way," she says, gesturing out at his cousin as Jesse again peers from the window in shock. "I'll take your utter befuddlement as compliment that I've done my job well."

Jesse just stares as Luca and Ariel disappear from sight behind a hill. Then he turns to slump against the wall of the stairwell, staring at Daphne and shaking his head. "Luca is very lucky that you found me here, Daph," he says, staring at her and watching her grin deepen. "I was seriously about to tear him to pieces."

"So loyal to your cousin," Daphne says, hoisting one of the bookbags higher. "Though you know Luca would never cheat on her, and I'd never do that to her. You should have known something was up."

Jesse just stares at Daphne for a second too long before he pushes himself up off the wall. "Yeah," he says, working hard against his smile. "Angry for Ari's sake. I.....should have known Luca wouldn't do that." He clears his throat and looks down at the bags. "Where are you going with those?"

"Luca's room first, actually," she says, nodding to the bag on the left. "And then yours. Ariel sent a note." She fishes the little piece of paper out of her pocket and hands it off to Jesse, who quickly reads through it, a smirk taking his lips.

“Let me help you, then," Jesse says, smiling as he tucks the note away and holds out a hand. "Give me Ari's - I know it's heavier than Luca's.” "Damn right it is," Daphen groans, slipping it from her shoulder and handing it over. "For such a tiny person, Clark sure does heft around some big books."

Jesse nods in agreement, smiling at Daphne as he turns and the two head back up the stairs towards Luca's floor, side-by-side.

"So, what's this assignment she's on?" Jesse asks, still completely confused. Ariel's note didn't explain much - just that she was safe, and doing homework, and with Luca. "What's the rationale behind stealing your identity?"

"Learning how to become someone else,' apparently," Daphne says, shrugging and giving Jesse a happy grin. "Though I think she's looking forward to the chance to stretch her legs a bit get away from the stresses of war coming down the line."

Jesse nods, his face becoming more serious as they walk down the hall towards Luca's door. Daphne fishes a set of keys out of her pocket and uses one to pop Luca's door open, where they slip his bookbag inside. Daphne locks the door behind her before they start again down the hall, towards the staircases that will lead them up two flights to the level of the Sinclair suite. Content belongs

"What about you, Daph?" Jesse asks, catching her a little off guard as she gets lost in her thoughts. "Do you have work to do tonight, or are you likewise looking for a chance to stretch your legs?"

Daphne hesitates for a second as they hit the stairwell that curves upwards towards his room. She tilts her head to the side, considering it as they quickly climb, and then gives a shrug. "I always have work to do," she says. "But...I could be persuaded to leave it off for a little bit Cadets can go without fresh buttons for another day, right?"

 

Chapter 0622

Jesse grins at Daphne as they reach his floor. “Good. Do you want to hang out then?"

"Of course," she says, grinning at him and starting towards the familiar Sinclair doorway.

But Jesse reaches out a hand and puts it on her shoulder, stopping her. "Actually," he says, turning his head a little, a small smile quirking at the corners of his mouth. "Do you mind if it's...a smaller party tonight? Rafe and Jacks just found out they have a draft tomorrow and they want peace and quiet in the room - they're stressed as hell."

"Oh," Daphne says, her eyebrows going up as she looks at the door and then back at Jesse. "Um, sure. Did you have something else in mind?" A hesitant smile arches across her face.

"Yeah," he says, taking a step closer to her and dropping his hand from her shoulder. "I've got an idea of where we could go. You just...wait here, all right? For...fifteen seconds?"

"But I'll be all lonely," she says, twisting her face in mock disappointment.

Jesse laughs and raises a hand, a little shadow kitten forming in it immediately and making Daphne squeal with joy to see it. "Here, Mittens will keep you company," Jesse says, laughing and tipping the kitten into her arms.

Daphne laughs, petting the kitten's barely-there fur and peering down into its adorable face, completely distracted as Jesse moves towards his room. Distracted enough to miss the fact that Jesse stands at his door for a few seconds longer than he needs to before he opens it, just watching her, his eyes crinkled with joy. He only starts back into motion when his wolf gives his heart a sharp bite inside - telling him to hurry the hell up.

Jesse grins and presses open his door, moving fast towards his cousin and Jackson, sitting across from each other on the sofa and talking seriously about plans for the draft.

"Whoa," Rafe says, looking up at Jesse in surprise. "I thought you were going to the library?"

"Change of plans," Jesse says, dropping the note in Rafe's lap and Ariel's bookbag at Jackson's feet. Then he ignores their questions, heading immediately for his bed and reaching behind the headboard for the contraband hidden there.

“Okay, so,” Jesse says, ducking through the wide sixth-story window and stepping out onto the ledge. “Just come out here with me, and then –“

"Jesse,” Daphne groans, leaning away from the hand he extends to her. "I'm not - I don't want to jump out a window -"

"It's just a little jump!" he says, grinning at her and keeping that hand extended. "Honestly, just like, a mini leap. Barely a hop."

"Jesse," she sighs again, but

somehow her hand is already in his, and he tugs her out onto the wide ledge with him. When she sees the drop below them, though, Daphne gives a squeak of fear and slams her eyes shut, turning hard to bury her face in Jesse's shoulder. Thate this.

I hate you."

"No, you don't," he murmurs, wrapping a warm arm around her. "you're perfectly safe, Daph. And it'll be so worth it! Just...I do need you to open your eyes for the next bit."

"No," she groans, "I wish to meet my death blind."

"Daphne!"

"Respect my final wishes, Sinclair!"

Jesse bursts out laughing and raises a hand to her cheek, giving her a little pat. "We seriously have to take one step to the left. My dad took me here when I was a kid - before they had five replacements for met Do you think he would have risked me if it wasn't safe?"

"I don't know, Jess," Daphne says, looking up into his face with wide blue eyes. "I don't get the impression that you were the most likeable kid.”

He bursts out laughing again but

et

turns away from her, dropping his hand from her face and taking a single leap - a hop, really - down onto a balcony just a few inches away, holding onto her hand the whole time.

"All right, you next," he says, holding his hands up to her.

"I can't believe you left me up here," Daphne says, pressing her back to the outer wall of the stone castle, squeezing his fingers hard in her hand. "Just jump -"

"I hate you,” she whispers, but then she presses her eyes shut and turns towards him and gives a frightened little leap. Jesse catches her, of course, and easily sets her on her feet, smiling the whole time.

Chapter 0623

 

Daphne loosens a long breath when her feet are again on wide, steady ground, but Jesse keeps his hands on her waist holding her steady. A few moments later, she opens her eyes and lets out a long breath.

"Still hate me?" he asks, smirking.

"Yes," she replies, narrowing her eyes.

"How about now?" Jesse uses his hands on Daphne's waist to turn her around towards the incredible view spreading out before them - the incredible ends of the sunset still lingering in the sky, turning the horizon purple and blue with streaks of pink, stars just starting to peek out in the night. Daphne gasps a little, walking forward to the balustrade before her, spreading her hands out on the stone and peering into the distance.

"Wow," Daphne says, her voice soft with awe. "Why - why can't we see this in the castle? Why aren't there any windows that looked this way?" "Selfish king, apparently," Jesse says, coming to stand next to her and leaning against the balustrade himself. "Only wanted his balcony to take in this view. Kind of a dick move, if you ask me."

Daphne looks up at Jesse and then at the wide glass doors behind them. "Is that where we are? What used to be the King's suite?"

"Still kind of is," Jesse says with a shrug, following her gaze. "Uncle Dom and Aunt Ella use this room when they come to the Academy overnight." "Oh, so we're trespassing,” Daphne says, eyebrows raising as she turns her face back to him.

“Nah, I'm royalty too," Jesse says, giving her a wink and nodding over to a set of cushioned chairs at the corner of the balcony, a tiny table set between them.

“Royalty adjacent," Daphne says, deliberately casual, needling him.

Jesse, quite satisfyingly, gives her a bit of a glare as he sits down, pulling his backpack off. "If you're mean to me, no whiskey for you."

"You think I want whiskey?" she asks

with a laugh, sitting down in the

chair next to his and pointing back at the window ledge that they jumped

off of to get over here ne

"When I have to climb back up on upon

that to get back to my room

tonight?"

"Oh, we don't have to go back that way," Jesse says, giving her a wicked grin and pulling out a pack of cookies as well, placing them next to the whiskey bottle on the tiny table. "You have keys, don't you?"

.n

Daphne's mouth falls open as she realizes that that Jesse's right. That she does have a ring of keys in her pocket that get her into every residence room in the Castle in case she needs to make a clothes delivery including the royal suite.

“Oh, you rat,” she snarls, reaching out and snatching the whiskey bottle off the table, pulling at the cork. Jesse laughs again, pleased as sin, and opens the cookie pack, popping one in his mouth.

"Oh, come on, Daphne," he says, shaking his head at her and relaxing back in his chair. "Life's no fun without a little adventure."

"Yeah, well," she sighs, taking a long swig of the bottle before handing it over to him. "I'll choose the level of adventure next time. Maybe we'll go for a thrilling walk. Feed some spicy ducks by a haunted pond."

"If you're there, I'm in," Jesse murmurs, taking the bottle and holding it up to her in a toast. Then he raises it to his lips and takes a long drink.

Daphne watches as he does, her eyes drifting over the long length of his neck, the drift of his tawny lashes over his cheeks, the way his hair curls, just slightly, at the ends.

And as she watches, her stomach tightening, her wolf dodges from paw to paw in her soul, sniffing anxiously. But still, even when she doesn't find what she wants, the wolf sits back on her haunches and raises her snout to the air. I think it's him, she says, desperately confused. It has to be - who else could it be? He smells so nice.

But there's no bond? Daphne murmurs to her wolf, stroking an anxious hand over her fur.

I will find it, the wolf says, jumping again to her feet and turning in an eager circle. It has to be here - it has to be.

Chapter 0624

"Selfish," Daphne says a little later, laughing as she reaches out and snatches the cookie packet from Jesse's hand. "How many of these are you going to eat?"

“All of them, obviously," Jesse murmurs, lunging to grab them back but missing when Daphne laughs again and pulls them to her other side. "I have to eat them all - Ariel's more likely to notice that half a pack is missing than a whole one."

"You stole these from Ariel!?" Daphne's gasp is scandalized.

"They taste better when you steal them," Jesse says, grinning, "Especially from Ariel. She gets so mad."

Daphne laughs with him and takes a cookie herself before handing the pack back. "I never get you sibling-types," she says, taking a small bite and then curling up in her chair with her head resting on the back of it, gazing at bit at the boy next to her. "All the teasing - what's the point?"

"I don't really know," Jesse says, turning towards her as well, both of them blissfully ignoring the show that the sky is putting on, seemingly just for them. “Something about growing up in such close proximity just...makes you want to torture the crap out of someone, even if they're your favorite person on earth."

Daphne grins at him, a little whistful. "That kind of sounds...nice. Psychotic, but nice."

"Do you think you'd have liked it?” he asks, letting his eyes drift freely over her now in this stolen moment – over the gentle curve of her cheek, the way she curls up so neatly in the chair. "Having as many siblings and cousins as I've got?"

"I don't know," she whispers with a bit of a frown. "I think I'd be...a completely different person if I had. So it's like asking me if I want to be someone else."

“That's a no, then,” Jesse says, decided, reaching for the whiskey bottle. “Any world in which we lose you precisely as you are is a tragedy, so - definitely a no." He gives her a coy wink before taking a sip.

“Oh, you're just flattering," Daphne says with a sigh, accepting the bottle from his hand and taking her own long sip. Jesse smirks, knowing that he means every word of it. "What about you? Ever miss being an only child?"

"Never really was," he murmurs, looking steadily at her now. "Rafe and Ari were always around, riding the coattails of my glory -"

Daphne laughs, shaking her head at him and looking out over the landscape again. He grins and keeps his eyes on her.

The pair sit in quiet for a long moment, but none of it is awkward, none of it bad. Just...peaceful.

"Tell me what you're thinking, please," Jesse says, quiet.

ne

Daphne blinks out of her reverie and turns back to him, an embarrassed smile shaping her mouth. "Well," she says with a sigh, snuggling up against the cushion. "I was thinking about...how much nicer this year at the Academy is. Compared to the others that I've spent here."

Jesse's face breaks into its own smile. "And I assume I can take full credit for this improvement?"

"Conceited," Daphne says with a scowl, kicking out her foot to tap punishingly against his knee. His smile deepens. "Only partial credit. But really, she shrugs, "having you all here has been...so nice. I didn't have a lot of friends growing up - I was a solitary little creature and when I came here I never expected to make real friends. I'm very grateful that Ariel stepped onto my riser that day I think my life would be... very different if she hadn't."

Jesse smiles, looking down at the cookies in his lap, suddenly grateful for that little twist of fate too. "Wish I'd gotten you as my tailor that day as well," he murmurs, fliddling absently with the cookie packet.

"Oh yeah?" Daphne asks, soft. "Why?"

"Because," Jesse replies, looking over at her. "The guy I got was handsy."

"What!?" Daphne bursts out, laughing.

"He was!" Jesse insists, making her laugh harder. "Honestly, it doesn't take anyone that long to measure an inseam - he was thorough -"

“Jesse!” she protests, kicking him again. “You're such a liar –“

"I'm not!" he counters, laughing as well, pretending to flinch away from her kick. "It was like, intimate - at one point he made eye contact - I don't know, Daph, your co-workers..."

But soon they're both laughing too hard to continue, and Jesse quietly enjoys the sincere pleasure of making her laugh - the way her eyes crinkle up into half-moons, the way her laugher spills from that beautiful smile, her whole body shaking with joy.

God, if I could just have the chance to make her laugh like that every day - for the rest of his life...

But it fades after a moment, and Daphne's eyes open again, pleasure still shining there. "I never know what you're going to say, Jess," she sighs, shaking her head at him.

"That's what I'm here for," he murmurs, giving her a wink. "Keeping you on your toes."

et

She nods, glancing out over the landscape again. "Whole world seems to want to do that lately, though," she sighs, her joy fading from her a bit. "That's the other half of what I was thinking about before - how happy I am, and how Selfishly angry I am at Atalaxia for calling you all off to war and messing it all up."

Chapter 0625

"Yeah,” Jesse says, his stomach turning over with dread as he looks out over the landscape before them. “All of that is...no good."

“Are you...worried about it?" Daphne asks. Jesse turns back to towards her, curious to see her peering at him a bit through her lashes, a little frown on her lips.

He takes a minute to consider his reply.

"I'm worried about losing the people I love," Jesse says softly, heaving a tiny shrug like he doesn't even want to concede that much. "I know I play it... glib a lot, pretending I don't care, but there are many people in this world who I love so deeply that to lose them would just...crush me."

Jesse looks off towards the darkening sky, the corners of his mouth turning drastically down - an expression that makes Daphne's heart twist to see it on the face which she rarely sees without a smile.

Still, it's not like she didn't know about his depths. Jesse - he's not that good at keeping them a secret, at least to her. "You can't fool all of us, Jess," she says quietly, bringing his eyes back to her. "We know your still waters run deep." His mouth quirks into an embarrassed smile as he looks down into his lap. "All my pretense has failed me." "You've got a big heart, Jess," she says, nearly a whisper. "You should let more people see it. It's lovely. You're lovely."

He clenches his jaw against the words, his eyes fluttering shut. Jesse swallows hard and Daphne fights her own smile in return. He clears his throat. "What about you?" Jesse asks, lifting his eyes again to hers. "Are you worried about it? The war and stuff?"

"Nope."

His face bursts again into the smile. "No worries? Not a single one?"

"Nope," she says again, smiling back and shaking her head at him, delighting a bit in his surprise.

“Okay, girl," he says, laughing a little. "Reveal your secret to me. How can you be so sure it'll all work out?"

"Ruthless optimism," she says,

giving a little shrug and holding his gaze, almost unblinking. Then she bites her tip, clearly deciding how much more to disclose. But Jesse looks steadily back at her and sees the moment when her dam breaks. "The... the day my dad died was the worst day of my life," Daphne whispers quietly. "And I was really little."

Jesse's heart sinks all the way down, all smiles wiped from his face in an instant when he sees the pain of losing her father clear on her face, even all these years later.

"But," she continues, "I decided, right then and there, that it was going to be the worst day. That it couldn't get any worse than that, and that every single day after that was going to be better - even if I had to wrench the better out of it with my bare hands."

She holds her hands out to him then, almost as if she can show him her determination. He looks down at her perfect white palms, fascinated by the strength in her, strength he's not sure he can match.

"How do you manage it?" he whispers. "Living every day with such...hope? Aren't you exhausted?"

"Sure," she says, giving a shrug and

dropping her hands. "But it's worked for me so far Just...keep going, keep pushing, keep trying and the

net

universe turns with good things. mean, look what I got," she says, her smile deepening. "I have a job that pays well and lets me do what I love. I make enough money to help my mom. I'm designing clothes for a duchess. I have wonderful friends. I met you."

Jesse's heart rises again to see her list her blessings, to be counted among them.

But shame rises with it. Because Daphne, who started life with so little and with such tragedy, who has so much less than him...lives life free of the fear he carries around every day, so heavy in his chest. His wolf gives a heavy shake then, climbing to his feet, determined to be better.

“It's okay,” Daphne says, bringing his attention back to her. "I can be...hopeful for both of us, if you're not there yet."

"I'll take you up on that," Jesse says, impulsively holding out a hand to her in the dark. Quietly, she slips her palm against his and gives his hand a

squeeze when his fingers wrap light around hers. "Even as I try to be better, it might take me a minute to get there."

"Oh, I think you can do it, Jess," Daphne whispers, beaming at him. "I see great things happening for you."

He squeezes her hand back, his heart rising still, hoping to hell that he can live up to her expectations. Inwardly, his wolf sets himself to the task.