Ch. 786..790: The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 786-790

Chapter 0786

"Princess," Elias says with a sad little sigh. "I'm sure there are a great many questions that you -" But a clatter interrupts Elias's words and he jumps a little as the little carafe of cream goes soaring to the ground.

"Oh, Ellie," Pippa says, giving him a half-hearted little glare along with a laugh. "You're impossible." She drops a kiss to his cheek even as she goes to her knees with a napkin, quickly wiping up the spilled

cream.

"Pip, please let me," Elias murmurs, starting out of his chair.

But she just waves a hand at him, murmuring that he should entertain their guest, and continues her work. "She's right," Elias says with a sigh, returning his eyes to me, his face serious. "I really am impossible. I'd be a complete disaster without Pippa to keep me in order."

I nod cheerfully even as I watch his face, kind of...baffled. Because these two - it actually is impossible, right? If he's mated to Ben then he's...he's gay, or at least queer or bisexual, yes? Which I know, here, is illegal at best and more accurately a death sentence. But his relationship with Pippa...it just seems so... real

"Pips, love, would you mind?" Elias says, turning to her as she stands up with the empty carafe and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Poor Ariel didn't even get a drop of cream before I destroyed everything. Would you go and get some more?"

Pippa starts to say a quick yes but then hesitates, looking at me. I intuit her thoughts - that she doesn't want to leave me alone with a man who is a stranger, either because of tradition or law or even merely because it would make me uncomfortable.

"It's okay, Pippa," I say, nodding to her and giving her a happy smile as I nod to her Alpha. "You've got one of the nice ones, haven't you? I don't mind at all."

Her face bursts into a wide and happy grin. "Well, I suppose it's okay," she says, folding the tiny carafe into her hands. "You'll be family within the week, after all. I won't be five minutes on this!"

She waves happily over her shoulder as she scurries for the door. Elias waves goodbye to her, even for a short trip, and then turns to me with a sigh.

"Pippa," he says, shaking his head, meeting my eyes as Pippa closes the door behind her. I watch carefully, observing that there is a great deal of sadness in his expression that wasn't there before. "She really is the best of us."

"Family?" I ask, my voice a little tremulous. "I'll be family?"

"Yes," he says on another sigh, looking down into his black cup of coffee before taking a sip. "You have the dubious honor of being mated to my horrible brother, Gabriel."

My eyebrows shoot up at this, as the pieces begin to click into place. Gabriel - Elias's brother. Which means he is the son of Prince Calvin, my mother's friend, and...

"Prince...Prince Gabriel of Atalaxia?" I whisper, suddenly shocked to my core as the family tree comes flying back to my memory. "Second in line to the throne?"

"First in line, if his ambitions have anything to do with it," Elias murmurs, lifting his blue eyes to meet mine again and giving a sorry shake of his head. "Which means that you, Ariel Sinclair, will be his Queen along with his prize. And his weapon, if he can find a way to

control you."

I just stare at Elias, shocked. And then I set my shoulders and remember my role, murmuring something about always wanting to be a queen -

But Elias waves a hand, dismissing it all, looking at me quite solemnly. "It's all right, Ariel," he says, shaking his head. "You can drop the act. I know that you're more fire goddess than you are simpering princess. We can speak plainly here, at least he glances towards the door, "at least while Pippa is gone."

My eyes flick to the door and then back to his face as I try to keep my expression as plain as possible, trying to decide whether or not to believe him. And even though my. wolf yips and urges me to, Faiza's teachings ring in my head. Trust no one. They, too, are trying to lull you into security. Hold your cards tight- always.

"You're too kind, Elias," I say with a pretty smile, tilting my head to the side like he's given me a great compliment that can't possibly be true. "But honestly, anything you've heard about my magical abilities must be much exaggerated."

"Fair," he says with a shrug, his eyes returning to his cup of coffee. But then he clears his throat, dropping his voice low. "Please," he begs, not looking at me, his words hardly more than breath. "Is...is he okay? Is he all right?"

"Who?" I ask, lowering my voice as well as I lean forward.

Elias's eyes dart up to mine. "I don't know his name, Ariel. But I know you know who I mean. Please, just tell me..." he sighs, shaking his head, his hand tight on the handle of his cup. "Is he okay?"

Chapter 0787

I allow a tiny smile to find my lips as my eyes move over Elias's tense face. He holds my gaze, determined and afraid, and I decide suddenly that he's...either an excellent actor or very, very earnest. "He's fine," I whisper, nodding quietly to this Atalaxian prince. Immediately, the tension goes out of his shoulders and he exhales a long breath. "He's fine, Elias. Totally fine."

He nods, sharp, and looks down at the table as color flushes in his cheeks. "Please. How do you know he's fine?"

"Because I saw him yesterday," I say quietly, still studying him. "His name is Ben. He's one of my best friends.

A shudder passes through Elias's shoulders and he raises a hand to his face, covering his eyes. As Elias takes a moment to compose himself I try to think like Faiza, try to understand the stakes here. Because on one hand, Elias could be a man who just shoved a pitcher of cream off the table so his Luna would leave the room, so he could ask me the burning questions he's had about his mate for...months. On the other hand, if the Atlaxians are clever - and they are clever, no matter how much I despise the men who control this nation - then couldn't they put this man here? With this very sad story, just to gain my trust? To play the role of the unhappily married man whose mate is in Moon Valley, just to tug on my heart strings, to see him as my ally? I tilt my head, considering this, considering Elias, wondering - really - what is his stake in this conversation?

Still, my wolf nudges me inside. Except, she urges, we know that Ben is his mate. He can't fake that. You know how you feel about your mates - the connection...it trumps all else.

But allegiance to a nation? Would it...would it trump that? Would my allegiance to Jackson be stronger than my dedication to Moon Valley?

My wolf whines, uneasy and unsure.

I sigh briefly through my nose, confused. But there's hardly any time to think on it as Elias again raises his head. "Thank you, Ariel," he says, quite soft, meeting my eyes. "I am eternally grateful to you for telling me that. It has been...a strain on my heart. You didn't have to tell me anything at all – especially considering the horrible way that Gabriel snatched you away from everyone you love - and yet you're kind enough to assure me that my mate is well. You're a kind person."

I blink passively at Elias, determined to continue playing dumb and pretty, pretending most of that went over my head. But still, I need information, and Elias - he seems like he knows a great deal about what's going on here.

"Why...why did they take me away from my family?" I ask quietly, shaking my head at him. "I mean, I am grateful to meet my mate -"

Elias smirks, either seeing through the lie or quietly suggesting that I patently should not be.

"- but surely there were other ways to do it? Especially if...he is determined to make me his Luna?" Softly, I shake my head. "My father isn't going to respond lightly on a man who did not ask for his permission." Elias sighs and shakes his head. "You can ask more blandly than you are, Ariel," he says, looking seriously into my eyes. "This naïve Princess act - it will be good for the rest of the court, but I promise - you don't need to do it with me. I'm well aware of who you are - and Gabriel is too. Your cousin's mate made sure of that."

"My cousin's mate?" I snap out, leaning forward, narrowing my eyes. "Do you - do you know something..."

Elias shakes his head, reading the panic in my words. "If something happened to Jesse, I don't know what it is. What I meant is...well, I don't know if you know this, but

mate is a creature of Darkness e

She's@very proficient shadow mage who has been using her skills to spy on, all of you for weeks. Whatever she knows, Gabriel knows too. Which is how we know that those flames in this battle and the last were yours, and no one else's."

Inwardly I scowl, but outwardly I keep my face plain, giving nothing away.

Elias smirks at me. "You'll be glad to

know," he says quietly, taking another sip of his coffee, "that

you've really pissed off my uncle and my cousin - the King, and his heir. You completely wiped out our air force with that final blaze - so well done on that. They're scrambling, nów, to figure out how to continue the assault on Moon Valley without one."

Chapter 0788

I can't help but huff a little laugh and shake my head. "Why are you telling me this, Elias?" I wonder, passively, if it's a lie. But...why tell me lies? It's not like I'm going to be able to go home and report on them. Simply to further my trust in him? "Whose side are you on?"

"I," Elias says, quietly putting his coffee back down on the table, "am on whatever side gets me the hell out of this place, Ariel. Although I should more properly say 'us,' because I'm not leaving without Pippa or our child."

My eyes widen in surprise as Elias looks over at the door.

"Pippa is the only good thing in this entire damned place," he says, quite soft, almost as if watching for her. "She is purely good, in every sense of the term, but I can't stand to see - every day - how this world crushes down her spirit, obliges her to be smaller to serve the needs of the men in her life. Me included. And our child," he sighs, turning back to me and locking his eyes with mine. "Is a girl."

Instantly, I understand. Because I'm not a mother - and honestly, I've never given a lot of thought about whether or not I want to be. But the idea of raising a little girl in this horrible world? Where she can't even shake hands with a man and will be bought and sold through marriage?

No. Absolutely not.

But even as I understand everything Elias has said, I keep my face smooth and calm, blinking at him like a very simple deer who only understands every fourth word that he said.

Elias smirks at me. "I hope you'll learn to trust me at some point," he murmurs, tracing the edge of his coffee cup with the tip of his finger. "But I understand now why you don't. But I promise, you, Ariel - I'm on your side. I've done a great deal of work to ensure that Gabriel trusts me, but the moment I get a chance to run? I'm leaving. And...I hope you'll help me with that. For Pippa, if not for me. She's my best friend - has been since we were little children."

I stay very still, my heart aching for this poor man who I hope very much is telling the truth. I want more than anything to lean forward and take his hand, to promise him that I'll do everything I can to help. But even as my wolf howls, I just...don't have enough information yet. I don't know if I can trust him.

The door's handle clicks and Pippa saves me, slipping back into the room with another little jug of cream neatly balanced on her hand. "Back!" she says, smiling cheerfully at both of us and slipping the pitcher onto the table. "I hope I wasn't too long. Did you get on okay?"

"Yes," I say, smiling up at her, which is easy. "Elias was just telling me that you met as children."

"Oh," she says, glancing at me and blushing a little before straightening up and smoothing a hand over her baby bump. "Yes, and now we've got one of our own on the way. Such an exciting time."

She smiles prettily at me and takes her seat next to Elias, leaning happily against him. And as I look between the two I wonder...well, I wonder actually how much of it is a façade between them. Is the love between them quite real? Is it a friendship, a marriage of convenience? Or has Elias been lying to Pippa the whole time, ruthlessly using her as his beard in a world where he desperately needs one to survive?

My wolf nips me internally, almost making me jump. Not Ben's mate, she says, her teeth flashing a bit. Someone mated to our Benny couldn't possibly be that cruel.

But as the door creeks open again and my eyes dart towards it, finding a very cruel man indeed standing there, leaning against the door frame, leering at me like he can't wait to tear me to shreds...

I wonder if that can be true.

Because here's a man that I'm mated to - unequivocally. And he is...absolutely horrible. Does this mean that...some part of me his horrible too?

Or is something else going on?

Chapter 0789

"Get out of here, Elias," Gabriel snaps, keeping his eyes on me. "I need a moment alone with my Luna." I go stiff and so does Pippa, both of us staring at the cruel, blue-eyed prince leaning against the door. My eyes flash between him and Elias, noting their remarkable similarities, though Gabriel is...broader, a bit, and more muscled. And with none of the mobile kindness of a face used to smiling.

"Sorry," Elias says, light, ignoring his brother's command. "I'm not finished my breakfast." Casually, he reaches for a bread roll.

"Out," Gabriel snarls, taking three steps forward and kicking Elias's chair.

"Highness," Pippa says, her voice softer and more tentative than it was before. She hangs her head slightly, not meeting Gabriel's eyes. "It's not appropriate for you to be alone with the Princess -"

"Oh, shut up, Pippa," Gabriel snaps, vicious. "No one asked you." Pippa's face colors and her head dips more.

"Watch yourself," Elias snaps, spinning to his brother, a very real threat in his voice. "Don't you ever speak to her like that. Besides, she's right, as usual."

"Sanctimonious frauds, both of you," Gabriel says, rolling his eyes before turning them back to me and giving me a lurid little smile. "Besides, I'm just trying to play things on Moon Valley's terms. Where women are alone with men they're not married to all the time. To do...whatever they wish.'

His eyes snap with precise deliberation immediately to Luca's mark on my neck. I flush but fight, hard, the urge to cover the mark with my hand. I don't say a word, just staring up at my mate, wondering how the hell I'm supposed to manage this.

Because I believe Elias when he said that Gabriel knows things about me - from Jesse's mate turned spy, apparently. So, playing dumb isn't going to help me here, is it?

But perhaps playing afraid...

I immediately give into the impulse, my wolf huffing her agreement, and cringe away from Gabriel in my chair, looking up at him with wide and vulnerable eyes.

A slow smile grows on Gabriel's face and I wonder, again, just how this horrible man can be my mate. What the hell did my grandmother see in him?

"I won't ask you again, Elias," Gabriel says, not looking at his brother. "Take your little pet pigeon and get out of here.'

"Good thing you're done asking,"

Elias murmurs, beginning to pour a cup of coffee and adding cream and sugar, pushing it my way across the table. "Because I'm finished telling you that I'm not going anywhere. If you want to have breakfast with us, take a seat. If not, continue lurking in the doorway like some ridiculous vampire who hasn't been invited in yet."

My eyes dart to Pippa when I see her shoulders twitch with a laugh, see her flick her eyes to Elias, who

gives her a calm wink. And to my surprise, Elias's quiet composure...works.

Gabriel scowls but he moves into the room and shuts the door behind him. And then he moves to take the little chair next to me, effectively joining our party.

Avoiding the very real impulse to

shift into my wolf and bite his stupid face, I turn slightly towards this new mate, still shrinking away from him a bit, playing up my fear. Because, after all, I need information above all else right now. And I have a better chance of getting it if he doesn't see me as a snarling threat.

"What, Ariel?" Gabriel says, smirking at me as he lounges back in his chair, crossing his leg casually and resting his ankle on his knee. "Trying to burn me up with your pretty flames? Finding that a little difficult at the moment?"

I force my eyes to go wider, as if the idea is terrible to me. Even though I'd do precisely that if I had access to my powers and any way out of the Atalaxian palace alive.

If, even, that's where I am.

"Where...where has my magic gone?" I ask, my voice tremulous. "I feel so...naked without it."

Pippa blushes at my phrasing but Elias just continues to eat, buttering his bread, staying steadily at the table and letting me work.

Gabriel's dirty little smile grows. "I took it away." He waves a hand around at us. "I'm in complete control here, Ariel. Control of you, of your magic. Of everyone's magic."

 

Chapter 0790

"How do you do that?" I speak as if in great wonder, even though I'm a little surprised that he's spilling so much detail so easily. Is it just arrogance? Or a true desire to let me know precisely how captive I am, and him with all the power?

"It is my gift," he says, shrugging. "From Darkness himself." Gabriel flicks his wrist, a glowing blue light sparking there, trembling within his hand like lightning held there, or electricity. My eyes go wide at it because...well. That's very interesting, isn't it?

"Yes," Elias murmurs, dry, dusting crumbs off of his hands and onto his place. "Very convenient for the rest of us, to have any of our own magic negated because Gabe needs to have complete control. Explain to me again how your manic need to control everything in the entire court doesn't amount to a rather insane level of hysterical anxiety, big brother?"

"It has nothing to do with anxiety," Gabriel snaps. Inwardly, my wolf exaults a bit to see him discomposed by his brother. "My gift is a protectant, a forcefield over this entire court, keeping all other magics that could harm us out -"

"Except those gifted by Darkness," Elias drawls, lifting his eyes to his brother's with a smirk. "Convenient for you."

"Yes," Gabriel returns, his teeth clenched. "It is. So if you're finished being jealous and demonstrating your uncertain wit - the only dubious claim you have to talent at all – perhaps I could return to my discussion with my mate?"

Elias shrugs like that doesn't bother him at all and then leans towards Pippa, perfectly calm, murmuring a question in her ear about whether or not she'd like one of the sweet pastries. As he does, I watch Elias closely - because even if Gabriel has marked Elias as only dubiously clever, he really has given me a great deal of information here.

My magic - that given by the Goddess - it's not working because Gabriel is blocking it. And he's not blocking Darkness's gifts - or can't - which is the reason why I can still go to that other realm. But...why all the cages?

"You will attend to me, Ariel," Gabriel says, low and slow.

I snap my eyes up to him, realizing that I really was lost in my thoughts. I frown a little, not knowing precisely what he means.

"Your attention will be on me, at all times," he says, leaning forward towards me, holding my gaze. "Like a proper Atalaxian woman and Luna."

Even as my wolf rankles in me to be so ordered what nonsense, that a woman's attention should always be on a man I straighten my

man

shoulders and turn towards him,

willing fear back into my expression and my voice. "Yes, Alpha,"

a," say

quietly, ducking my head a bit. "As you will it."

He considers me for a moment and then smirks. know that you are faking your obedience, Princess," he says, leaning forward and capturing my chin again, as he did before. It takes a great deal of effort to not clench my jaw, to keep my canines from elongating. Just... letting him do it. “But that is all right. It will all be real soon enough."

Slowly, I shake my head. "Truly, I am grateful," I say quietly, attempting hard to be earnest. "I...I wish to be with my mate, of course."

"Yes," he drawls, studying my face. "But which one?" He drops my chin as if done with it, a bit disgusted, and then leans back hard in his chair.

Inwardly I scowl, because I didn't

know he knew about Luca and Jackson. Of course, with the mark on my neck clearly I've had interactions with men before, but wouldn't be the only girl in Moon Valley to have been marked by their lover before they met their mate. Still, clearly he knows - but how much? Does he simply know that they exist, or does he know the details of their stories, their identities?

"How...how do you know about him?" I ask, seeking more information, my hand drifting up to cover the mark on my neck.

"Them," you mean," he drawls, smirking at me. "Luca Grant and Jackson McClintock? My intel is good, Ariel. My spy the best."