Ch. 631..635: The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 631-635
Chapter 0631
I hold my wrist up towards Luca like it's evidence as my mate's mouth drops open in surprise.
Then he scowls, looking down at the ground, clearly pissed and disappointed in himself. “I'm sorry," he says after a long moment as we walk, looking down at the ground. "I...I guess I got more distracted than I thought I did."
I forgive him instantly, hating to see him sad and stepping a little closer to his side. After all, no harm was done – not really. "I guess...I didn't really think about what it would mean for you to come down to Newtown. That you'd be recognized and that it could cause trouble for you."
Luca sighs, looking up at the sky and shaking his head. “It's not a big deal – it's not like I haven't dealt with that sort of thing before. Girls just...they have an idea about what you owe them, when you're a celebrity." He shrugs. "She won't do anything. I really am sorry, Ariel - I...should have been concentrating on you more."
I just shrug, looking up at him, my brows knitting together a bit. "Why weren't you, though? I mean, when I sat down you were all concern. But then some girls come over to you and you've got no more eyes for me?"
He smirks a little but shakes his head. "It's not like that at all, Ariel. You're the only one I care about. I just..." he sighs and looks down at his feet. "I guess I liked the attention, is all. I think...I fed on it more than I thought I did, before I came to the Academy. Women liking me, telling me how great I am all the time."
"Luca," I gasp, stepping closer and slipping my hand into his. "I tell you how great you are all the time!"
“And it means everything," he murmurs, lifting my hand in his and pressing a kiss to the back of it. “Again, I'm sorry - I'm really surprised at myself and I feel absolutely awful."
"It's okay," I sigh, taking my hand from his and slipping my arm around his waist, leaning hard against his side. "I forgive. Just...next time please pay attention more."
"This is just going to be more reason for Tony to not like me, isn't it?" Luca asks, dry, grimacing a little as he looks ahead onto the path.
"Does Tony not like you?" I ask, peering up at him, confused. "What's the deal with you two?"
"I've got nothing against the guy," Luca says, shrugging and looking down at me. "There's a weird vibe between us, but it's all from him."
I hum consideringly in the back of my throat, turning that over, wondering if Tony would say the same thing.
"Hey," Luca says after a few more steps, and I turn my head up towards him in the dark. "It was very sexy," he says, smirking at me, "when you came up and told those girls off."
I burst into a grin, shaking my head. "No it wasn't."
net
"It was!" he insists, laughing and tugging me closer to his side. "You should have seen yourself. When she told you to go away and you just...smiled at her? Like you were going to enjoy it when you ripped her throat out?" A palpable shiver runs through Luca, making me laugh.
"Oh please," I say, ducking my head and blushing a little. "It was nothing like that -"
"No, it was," he says, stopping in his tracks and turning towards me, using the arm around me to pull my stomach flat against his. "Honestly, Ari, you weren't playing a role there. That was the vicious little fire goddess coming through. And it
was...very badass and very cool."
I grin up at him, desperately pleased. "Oh yeah? You like my fire goddess side now, do you?"
"I like all sides of you," he murmurs,
quickly bending his knees and
Ket
dropping his hands to my thighs and pulling me with him as he sharply stands up. I laugh in surprise as Luca pulls my legs up around his
waist and then wraps one arm around my back, his other hand
drifting lower. "Especially this side."
“Hmm,” I say, giving him a nudge with my nose. "The red-headed fire goddess side? Honestly, Luca, I thought you liked me innocent and blonde and sweet."
“Oh, I like that during the day," he murmurs, and I bite my lip as his hand moves slowly over the curve of my ass. "But at night.....”
He doesn't have a chance to finish his sentence as I quickly lean forward, pressing my mouth to his. Luca groans, holding me tight against him as he stumbles back into a copse of trees where we're alone in the dark.
Chapter 0632
Things get heated fast between Luca and I as he pulls me back between the trees, moving quickly to the ground and taking me with him. I moan into Luca's mouth as he kisses me hard and fast, as his hand slips beneath Daphne's little jacket, finding the skin of my back as his other hand wraps around the back of my neck pulling me close.
I get more and more lost in him with every fervid kiss, my hands moving first through his hair and then fumbling at the buttons of his shirt as I pant against his lips, pressing myself closer to him. And as my fingers work at the top button of his shirt, and then the second, wanting to slide my palms against his body, I realize that Luca and I - we haven't done this in a long, long time.
That we just haven't had the time - that I've been wrapped up in Jackson, and also that midwinter and school have truly kept us apart.
But now that we have this moment here, in the woods? And I can taste him, feel again the way his mouth moves hot on mine?
God, but I want him. Very, very badly.
Luca groans, dropping his hand from my neck and pulling hastily at my skirt to find the bottom. When he finally finds his way through the folds of fabric, his hand sliding first up my calf and then up my thigh, the intensity of it makes me break away - makes my head fall back on my neck as his fingers skirt the edge of my panties, wrapping around them, wanting desperately to rip them off.
I lift my head back up, a little dizzy with the intensity of it, shifting my hips in his lap until I can feel the hard length of him pressed against me. Luca moans, and shudders, and presses a kiss to my neck. Then he opens his mouth and I can feel him press his canines, already extended, against the soft skin there. A hard shudder goes through me at that and my wolf howls, desperate and anxious at once, pressing at the edge of our bond.
I turn towards her, not understanding as she darts back and forth in my soul, a whine in her throat because - what? Why is she -
But then I frown, realizing that...
"Luca," I say, pulling back from him a little, my hand moving to cup his cheek, my thumb tracing over his bottom lip.
He looks up at me, his eyes half lidded with his want. He doesn't say anything, just stares at me and then leans forward, wanting my mouth again on his. But I pull back and shake my head, my frown deepening. "Luca, where is your wolf?"
"What?" he asks, blinking back to himself and frowning at me in turn. "What are you talking about?"
I shift away from him, turning my head, trying to remember back, but...
Was there...ever a time? When our wolves connected, as Jackson's and mine do every night?
"The bond," I murmur, terribly confused and suddenly a little afraid, "my wolf is looking for yours - where...where is he?"
Luca starts and then just stares at me, the mood shifting in an instant. "What are you talking about?"
"Luca," I whisper, leaning forward, a
smile flickering on my mouth - thought it doesn't stay long as worry becomes my primary emotion. "My wolf just wants to connect with yours when we're...together. Why are you holding back?"
S
"Why do you want to do that?" he asks, looking at me like I'm crazy.
I go still, worry and a little shame rushing through me because...I don't know, because Luca's looking at me like I said something...dirty. “What are you talking about?" I whisper. "Why wouldn't I want that?
Luca shifts then, lifting me off of his lap and setting me next to him on the ground, even as he turns to face
me. "You want our wolves to like meet? Across the bond
n
"Well, yeah," I say, biting my lip, completely confused. "Why - I mean why haven't they? Are you...holding back?"
His face turns then, his mouth pressing into a stern like. “Why? Is that what you do with him?"
"What?" my eyes go wide with the accusation in his voice, the jealous fear.
"With Jackson," Luca snaps, his mouth turning down. "Do you guys like, connect across your souls, wolf-to-wolf or something?"
Chapter 0633
I straighten, frowning at Luca in turn, still completely shocked that the mood has changed so completely within the past thirty seconds and not liking at all where this is going. I straighten my shoulders, narrowing my eyes at my mate. "This isn't about what I do with Jackson," I snap, looking at him evenly. "I'm asking you about you. About your wolf."
Luca scowls, looking away from me and curling his shoulders inward, looking for all things...lost, and self-conscious. "Can we just...leave my wolf out of this?" he murmurs.
"Why?" I ask, barely a whisper.
"Because I asked you to," Luca snaps, glaring at me from the corner of his eye.
I sit even straighter, staring at my mate, completely unused to being iced out like this. But as I watch him, I realize that Luca is being nasty to me right now because he's...hiding something. Because he's hurt, or afraid.
I tuck my own anger away, making a mental point to talk about this particular method of confrontation at a later time, and instead turning to the real problem at hand: the fact that I'm not sure I've...ever met Luca's wolf. Except that one time when he completely lost his cool the day he found out I have another mate - when he shifted, and he and Jacks attacked each other.
I stare at my mate, trying to figure it out as he stares moodily into the trees, working hard to control his breathing. As he does I concentrate on our bond, on my little rose-gold wolf whom I love so much, who is such a friend to me, as she nudges the bond with her nose, forcing it to become a bridge between our souls.
It's so much...harder than it is with Jackson, who has always been so open to me.
Luca flinches, turning to glare at me a little bit harder. "What are you doing?" he snarls.
I don't answer as my wolf moves slowly across the bond bridge to his side, nudging at the wall she finds there.
"Would you stop that?" he snaps.
I just turn my head and peer at him, totally confused and utterly curious. "Luca," I whisper, leaning forward and putting a hand on his arm. "She won't go any further if you don't want her to but...you should let us in."
swne
Luca snarls, looking away from us again, and to my shock tears start at the edges of his eyes. My wolf whines deep in her throat and curls up at the other edge of our bond, her body pressed warm against the wall in his soul. And I move closer to Luca, doing the same, lining my body up with his as close as he'll let me and putting my head on his shoulder, just...being near. Being close to my mate, who I love, but who I'm just now realizing has maybe never let me all the way in.
We stay that way for a long, long time, with me pressed warm against Luca's side. I can feel his chest hitching with held-back tears, can hear him sniffing, but I let him have his space, not acknowledging it.
"Look," Luca says when his breathing his calmer, though his voice is still choked. "I'm sorry - it's not your fault, okay? And it's not that I don't want to be close to you like that. I just...I can't."
"Okay," I whisper, doing my best to understand as my wolf turns again towards the wall and prods it with her nose But even as she does, we can feel that the wall is Luca's that he put it up. That he strengthens and weakens it at will to decide which emotions to pass me, and which words.
And right now, it's adamantine - stone and iron, with nothing coming through.
But still, it's his. So it's not that he can't...it's that he won't.
“I just...” Luca murmurs, shaking his head and hanging it low. "My wolf isn't like other people's wolves, okay? He's not...safe.”
"What do you mean?" I whisper, scared for his sake.
Luca looses a long breath, tears again slipping from his eyes. My wolf lets out a little howl, calling to his over and through the wall, desperate for him to hear it.
But I don't say a word, letting Luca have the air.
I straighten, frowning at Luca in turn, still completely shocked that the mood has changed so completely within the past thirty seconds and not liking at all where this is going. I straighten my shoulders, narrowing my eyes at my mate. "This isn't about what I do with Jackson," I snap, looking at him evenly. "I'm asking you about you. About your wolf."
Luca scowls, looking away from me and curling his shoulders inward, looking for all things...lost, and self-conscious. "Can we just...leave my wolf out of this?" he murmurs.
"Why?" I ask, barely a whisper.
"Because I asked you to," Luca snaps, glaring at me from the corner of his eye.
I sit even straighter, staring at my mate, completely unused to being iced out like this. But as I watch him, I realize that Luca is being nasty to me right now because he's...hiding something. Because he's hurt, or afraid.
I tuck my own anger away, making a mental point to talk about this particular method of confrontation at a later time, and instead turning to the real problem at hand: the fact that I'm not sure I've...ever met Luca's wolf. Except that one time when he completely lost his cool the day he found out I have another mate - when he shifted, and he and Jacks attacked each other.
I stare at my mate, trying to figure it out as he stares moodily into the trees, working hard to control his breathing. As he does I concentrate on our bond, on my little rose-gold wolf whom I love so much, who is such a friend to me, as she nudges the bond with her nose, forcing it to become a bridge between our souls.
It's so much...harder than it is with Jackson, who has always been so open to me.
Luca flinches, turning to glare at me a little bit harder. "What are you doing?" he snarls.
I don't answer as my wolf moves slowly across the bond bridge to his side, nudging at the wall she finds there.
"Would you stop that?" he snaps.
I just turn my head and peer at him, totally confused and utterly curious. "Luca," I whisper, leaning forward and putting a hand on his arm. "She won't go any further if you don't want her to but...you should let us in."
swne
Luca snarls, looking away from us again, and to my shock tears start at the edges of his eyes. My wolf whines deep in her throat and curls up at the other edge of our bond, her body pressed warm against the wall in his soul. And I move closer to Luca, doing the same, lining my body up with his as close as he'll let me and putting my head on his shoulder, just...being near. Being close to my mate, who I love, but who I'm just now realizing has maybe never let me all the way in.
We stay that way for a long, long time, with me pressed warm against Luca's side. I can feel his chest hitching with held-back tears, can hear him sniffing, but I let him have his space, not acknowledging it.
"Look," Luca says when his breathing his calmer, though his voice is still choked. "I'm sorry - it's not your fault, okay? And it's not that I don't want to be close to you like that. I just...I can't."
"Okay," I whisper, doing my best to understand as my wolf turns again towards the wall and prods it with her nose But even as she does, we can feel that the wall is Luca's that he put it up. That he strengthens and weakens it at will to decide which emotions to pass me, and which words.
And right now, it's adamantine - stone and iron, with nothing coming through.
But still, it's his. So it's not that he can't...it's that he won't.
“I just...” Luca murmurs, shaking his head and hanging it low. "My wolf isn't like other people's wolves, okay? He's not...safe.”
"What do you mean?" I whisper, scared for his sake.
Luca looses a long breath, tears again slipping from his eyes. My wolf lets out a little howl, calling to his over and through the wall, desperate for him to hear it.
But I don't say a word, letting Luca have the air.
Chapter 0634
"When I was a kid," Luca whispers, still not looking at me. "My wolf was...wild. Completely out of control."
My hand tightens around his arm in what I hope is an encouraging gesture.
"He would just...flip out," Luca whispers. "Make me do all sorts of insane things. Like I would just...shift. In the kindergarten classroom." He glances over at me, I think embarrassed to say it. "And just run around tearing things to pieces. When I could hold back the shift - which was rare - he would just constantly howl in my mind and distract me and do all sorts of ridiculous stuff. It was...horrible. And everyone knew."
I think back, as Luca takes a moment to collect his thoughts, to all the times when Luca has told me about his troubled childhood, how angry he was after his dad left, how alone and trouble he felt. But I hadn't realized that his wolf had been part of it.
"My uncle helped me," Luca said, sniffing hard and raising a hand to wipe at his face. "It was the only thing that worked, and it was way too late," he shakes his head. "A strict regimen. Working out so much before and after school that I didn't have the energy to shift. And then keeping a strict, strict leash on my wolf," he says, turning to me, his eyes sad, almost as if he knows what I'm thinking when he says that.
Because a leash on my wolf...god, the thought of it. I mean, I know wolves need discipline so that we can live normal lives but...leashed? My wolf shakes her fur at the thought of it and I run a mental hand over her sweet face, down her neck.
Never, never, I whisper to her. And she licks my hand once before turning back to the wall, licking that too.
"You don't understand," Luca murmurs, hanging his head again, shaking it. "I'm...I'm chaos, without my wolf under strict control. And I'm not letting him out around you."
"Out from where?" I whisper, desperate to know.
"From...deep down," Luca murmurs, frowning at the words as he says them. "Where I...keep him."
Something horrible pangs in me as I realize that that's how Luca's been containing his wolf since childhood. That he didn't go to a therapist, as my brother Mark did when his own wolf was rambunctious and disruptive, learning how to talk and negotiate and understand his wolf's needs, balancing them with his own. That instead Luca just...shoved his wolf down by force. Made him submit.
“Luca,” I say, lifting my head to look him steadily in the eyes. "Take down the wall."
"Ariel,” he growls, shaking his head vehemently. "I can't -"
"Take it down, say, soft. And when he doesn't move, I reach for him, cupping his cheek in my palm, leaning close. "You're my mate," whisper. "You're mine, which means he's mine too. Take down the wall."
Luca pauses, not even breathing.
And then, with a long and shuddering breath, the wall at the other end of my bond with Luca crumbles to the ground. My wolf rises to her feet and softly pads forward, her head low, searching.
But fortunately, it doesn't take long to find him - despite Luca's insistence that his wolf is tucked away, deep down...the poor darling wants to be found.
My wolf head turns instantly when she hears his soft whine, her eyes narrowing as she peers into the darkness towards the sound. When the whine sounds again and she trots forward, sniffing hard, searching.
And it's only when her paw lands on soft fur that she looks down and realizes that he's...right there. As we peer into the darkness, Luca's breath catches in his throat as two rich brown eyes open in his soul and his wolf peers up at mine, frightened.
“Oh, Luca,” I sigh, reaching for him, climbing into his lap as my wolf lowers her muzzle and nudges his wolf, just behind the ear, encouraging him to stand up.
“Don't, Ari,” Luca whispers, shaking his head even as he wraps his arms tight around me, frightened. “He's going to hurt her."
"Oh, don't worry about my wolf," I murmur, raising my head and running my fingers through his soft hair. "She's made of tough stuff." "Still -"
“Shh," I say, continuing to scratch his scalp softly with my nails but resting my head against his and closing my eyes, concentrating on our wolves.
Slowly, Luca's wolf gets to his feet and my wolf peers curiously at him as he stumbles a few steps, like he hasn't gotten up in a long time, and then shakes himself. My wolf steps back a bit, surprised to see that he's he's covered in mud, op whatever the equivalent of that in Luca's soul is. She steps forward, sniffing, giving him a little nudge.
Chapter 0635
But Luca's wolf snarls, turning to snap at her, and Luca goes tense beside me. I just shush softly to him as my own wolf snaps back, narrowing her eyes and telling him with her body language to back the hell off. Luca's wolf goes still, I think fascinated by mine, not used to being stood up to and not punished in the same breath.
My wolf trots around Luca's, then, taking in the colors of his sandy brown fur, which is lank and matted, noting the awkward way that he stands, like he hasn't run or gamboled or played in years. And then she gets back to where she started, right in front of him.
"So what have you been doing, Luca?" I whisper quietly, stroking his hair. "Just...tucking him away? Living as human a life as you can?"
"I let him out when I box," Luca murmurs, leaning into my fingers. "When I need the rage. But keeping him contained - Ariel, you've only me calm, collected, even-tempered Luca."
I pull back a bit, raising an eyebrow at him, which makes grin a little, though there's a great deal of shame in it. "Yeah," he murmurs, leaning close. “So...just imagine what I'm like when my wolf's not under control."
Luca's wolf stands stark still as mine slowly raises her snout and then, very carefully, presses the tip of her nose to his. Luca's wolf stops breathing, and then so does Luca, as my wolf takes a very deliberate step forward and presses her face against his neck, nuzzling warm against him and using her snout to knock free some of the dirt that's matted in his fur.
Luca's arms tense around me as his wolf growls at mine, not knowing what to do, not knowing how to respond except to warn her off, tell her to get away. But she ignores him, continuing her work, pressing herself cozily against his side and getting her scent all over him, knocking some of that dust loose. Even when he lowers his snout and nips at her rear, she just responds in kind and doesn't back away, letting him know that she's not afraid.
In my arms, Luca begins to cry.
And in our souls, the wolves connect. My wolf nudges Luca teasingly with her nose and then darts away, falling into a play stance with her front half low to the ground while her tail twitches in the air. His wolf huffs a laugh and takes a few gamboling steps towards her - but he stops, and hesitates, looking around, knowing it's not allowed. Waiting to be pushed back down, to be shoved away.
“Let them,” I whisper, my voice ringing softly with joy to see Luca's wolf free.
And then my wolf gives a daring yip and spins, dashing off into the darkness, bidding him follow. And Luca's wolf can't resist, letting out a shaking howl and then setting off after her into the woods that form for them, space for them to run.
I recognize the woods, almost
instantly, as those of our
dreamscape The place where our wolves should play together, and in which they never have. I press my mouth together, incredibly sorry that I neve noticed - but Luca and, we found each other first, before I ever met Jackson in our cliffside space and realized that it was as much a space for our wolves as it is for us. But of course it is - what else is a magical dream state for, except to connect in our souls?
"I'm sorry," I whisper, lifting my head and looking into Luca's face as our wolves dash through the forest, as the mud and dirt starts to shed itself from his wolf's fur. "I should have noticed sooner."
But he just shakes his head, and leans forward, bringing his mouth again to mine.
And as he kisses me, all I can feel
down the bond is gratitude -
et
gratitude for seeing him, for believing in a different way to treat one's soul, for not being afraid. But also his fear - that now that he's wolf's unleashed that....bad things are going to happen.
I just kiss him back, letting him feel my love, my warmth, my affection. The confidence that we can do this together.
How could I be afraid of you, I murmur to him, mind-to-mind. You're mine. You're me - us. And I'll never let you go.
Luca just sighs, and wraps his arms tighter, holding me close to his chest and tucking me beneath his chin as our wolves continue to run themselves out, nipping and playing as they go. And as we sit quietly in the woods, just holding each other – I have to admit that with this breakthrough, I've never felt closer to him.