Ch. 791..795: The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 791-795

Chapter 0791

My wolf growls and turns in my soul, worried, wishing I'd had more time to ask Elias about Jesse's mate, this apparent master spy.

"Luca Grant rejected me," I say, shrugging and looking down at my plate, willing myself to look sad and contrite about it. "And Jackson McClintock is nothing. A brute. A commoner. I don't know why the Goddess saw fit to assign me to him."

It pains me to even say the words and inwardly I shout that each one is untrue, that Jackson is the best thing in my life, the best man I've ever met, and I endeavor to deserve him every day.

Gabriel simply laughs softly and leans towards me, drawing my eyes back up to him. "Your relationships to your past mates are nothing to me, Ariel. Especially considering they'll both be dead in a month."

I pale at his words, my eyes flashing, even as I work hard to keep my expression plain.

But Gabriel just laughs and begins to push himself up from the chair. "Prepare yourself, Luna, he snaps out. "Tonight I present you to the court and then our mating ceremony will be in a week." He leans down towards me, wrapping a possessive hand around the side of my neck, his palm pressed flat to Luca's mark. "And then I'll mark you myself, and wipe any memory of those pathetic wolves from your mind." His hand on my neck tightens as Gabriel pulls me towards him, slamming his mouth on mine, crude and vulgar, a claiming more than a kiss.

Laughing, he breaks away. "And if you do anything to displease me," he seethes, glaring hard into my eyes. "I'll pick either Jesse or Juniper from the dungeons, and bring them to your room, and cut their throat before your eyes. In fact, I'll make you pick which one dies first."

Without another word Gabriel strides for the door, yanking it open and stepping out into the hall without even looking back. I watch him in horror, my mind racing even as my wolf howls at the idea. Juniper - Jesse - do they do they really have them both? In the dungeons? Where are those?

"I'm sorry, Ariel," Elias says a long moment after Gabriel has slammed the door shut. Horrified, I shift my eyes to him. He just shakes his head, sorrow in every line of his face.

"Um," Pippa says, a bit frantic, looking between us, for some way to make this better. "Maybe we should

"Could I..." I murmur, looking down into my lap, fighting my tears. "Just...have a moment alone? Please?" "Of course, darling," Pippa says, standing from her chair and coming close to press a soft kiss to my hair. "Of course. As much time as you like."

Jesse groans when he wakes up, every single muscle in his body seeming to ache with discomfort. He presses his eyes shut as he turns his face into the scratchy straw mat, a hand going to his lower back to massage the twinge there. God, god does he miss his big fluffy bed in the castle, with its dozens of pillows and mountains of nice soft blankets...

"I told you to sleep on the mat with me, where you belong," Midnight says, smug. "Then you wouldn't be so achy."

Jesse sighs and opens his eyes, turning towards where his strange little mate is crouched at the center of the yurt, stirring a pot over a small fire, the steam and smoke rising to disappear from a hole right at the center of the roof.

"But I just met you, Mids," Jesse murmurs, laying flat on his back and smacking his hands dejectedly on his belly. "What would my mother say, if she heard I spent the night in your bed on the same day we met?" "She would be happy," Midnight replies, quite cheerful as she stirs. "Because then we would give her a grandpup, which would be the light of her life -"

Jesse laughs, he can't help it, and shakes his head. "Mom doesn't want grandkids right now, Midnight. My youngest sister is four. It would be too confusing for little Fifs, to have a niece who was so close to her age."

Midnight lifts her head and wrinkles her nose at him. "What kind of name is Fifs for a little girl?"

"Are you seriously asking me this?" Jesse asks, dry. "Midnight?"

She stares at him like he's speaking gibberish and then shrugs, moving on and turning her attention back to the pot. "Are you hungry, mate-boy?"

Jesse sighs and sits up, staring at the pot like he's worried about the consequences of his answer. "I am. What're you cooking?"

"Galushka!" she says, waving a hand over the pot like it's a magic cauldron.

"What the hell is that?" Jesse asks, dubious. Honestly, he's not sure he wants to know, because the answer isn't going to be anything good. When Midnight had brought him to the tent – the yurt, really – last night, he'd been horrified to see that this is her home. The entire thing is so worn, and bare, and patched - it's like she's utterly homeless here, and not even with the resources of someone who can seek some sort of assistance or beg for spare change.

 

Chapter 0792

But the way she'd ushered him inside and showed him her home...he'd hadn't had the heart to do anything but tell her how comfortable and lovely the place was. But it was a lie, blatant and boldfaced. The entire yurt contains one small sleeping mat, her "kitchen" - which is just a couple of baskets filled with the bare necessities of cooking supplies and several small, grey potatoes - and the saddest little collection of children's books that he's ever seen, alongside a single half-burned candle and a pack of matches.

"Galushka," Midnight says, spooning some out onto a tin plate and setting it aside at her "table" - a worn red rug spread across a plank of wood next to the fire - before patting the floor, a clear invitation to come sit. "Is my own recipe. It's shadow cabbage all cooked down until it's nice and burney. The burning gives it the flavor."

"What's shadow cabbage?" Jesse murmurs, crawling across the floor and taking his place at the table, feeling of all things like he's at one of his siblings' imaginary tea parties.

"I don't know," Midnight murmurs, giving him a little glare. "It's...that," she says, nodding her head towards his plate as she dishes out her own. "It's a vegetable. It grows here. That's what it's called."

Jesse nods and picks up his plate, grimacing inwardly at the sad grey vegetable on his plate and picking up his fork, digging in. His wolf snarls and scratches at his soul. You'd better pretend that's the most delicious cabbage you ever ate, his wolf orders. You'd better be nice to that poor girl. Jesse nods and sighs again, silently agreeing to it. Quite cheerful, Midnight settles down across from him and begins to dig into her breakfast.

"So, Mids," Jesse says, forcing himself to forget about the tasteless lump of vegetable in his mouth as he chews. "What's your favorite food?"

She goes still with her fork halfway to her mouth. "What are you talking about?"

He grins, looking at her, not understanding why this is a difficult question. "Of all the things you eat," he says, quietly trying to figure out how to be clear about this, "which one do you like the most? Or look forward to?"

She stays still for a moment, staring at him as she considers the question, before she shrugs. "It all pretty much tastes the same."

Inwardly Jesse groans because...well, because he's a Sinclair. He loves food and was basically raised on take-out and his aunt Ella's rather indulgent tendency to pack all the kids in the family full with whatever sweets they like. "It's all the same?"

"It's all...potatoes and cabbage. And like, shadow carrots," Midnight says with a shrug, continuing to eat with gusto. "So, there's no favorites. It's just all...that."

"So...you've never had meat?" Jesse asks, his stomach grumbling at the thought of a nice juicy steak. Or, god, all of the bacon they have at the Academy for breakfast - just mountains of it.

His wolf nips him. Eat your galushka.

Easy for you to say, Jesse grumbles to his wolf. Considering you're incorporeal at the moment.

But Jesse does as he's told, continuing to clear his plate.

"Of course I've had meat," Midnight says, rolling her eyes elaborately at him, like it's the stupidest thing to ask.

Jesse grins. "Okay, well, if everything is carrots and cabbage, how did you have meat?"

"I had it at the Fancy House," Midnight murmurs, eating her last forkful of cabbage and the scraping the plate with the fork, trying to get all the bits and juices.

"Fancy House," Jesse says, sitting up a bit. "What's that?"

Midnight goes still and doesn't look at him. "I don't know. I didn't say that."

Jesse smiles, shaking his head. "Yes, you did."

"No, I didn't. You imagined it. The wind came in and whispered lies in your ear."

Jesse frowns for a moment at that

strange idea but then moves on from Midnight's very poor job of lying. He leans forward a bit, ducking his head low, trying to look her in the eye. "You're not in trouble, Mids," he says softly, shaking his head. "I'm not...I'm not trying to pin yo down or anything. I'm just trying to learn

about your life."

"You are?" she asks, lifting her head, her eyes wide as she stares up into her mate's face. "Why?"

"Because," he says, giving a little

shrug. "You're my mate. And you're interesting and I like you. I... want to learn how to be your friend. Friends talk about each other's lives.

en

Midnight stares at Jesse for a long second. And then her face slowly spreads in the loveliest, happiest

smile - sobright and excited that et

Jesse can't help but smile back. "Really?" Midnight whispers, eager. "You...you want to get to know me?”

Chapter 0793

"Of course I want to know get to know you, Midnight," Jesse says, smiling at the girl, meaning it even if his heart and mind are still consumed with thoughts of Daphne and incredibly confused about what on earth is happening between the three of them. "My grandmother picked us for each other, after all. It makes sense that I'm interested."

"Yes," Midnight says, putting her plate down and her slapping hands on her thighs, leaning forward towards him. "Yes, first we can get to know each other, and then we will have the pups, and then -"

Jesse laughs, shaking his head at her as he holds a hand out, palm flat. "Midnight, you've got to drop the whole pups things. It's not happening."

She squeaks in dismay, sitting up rigidly, staring at him. "Why not!?"

"Why do you want pups so bad?" he asks, utterly confused.

"Because we're supposed to," she says, huffy, a bite of a whine in her voice. "It's the whole point!"

"Who told you that?" Jesse asks, frowning at her.

"Darkness," she says, pouting at him. "As many pups as we can get, and all dedicated to him. They will be so good at the shadow magic because they will get it from both of us!"

"Well, that's a double no, then," Jesse says, frowning at his little mate. "I'm not dedicating any pups to Darkness."

"What is the point of this yurt!?" Midnight asks, casting her hands dramatically out to encompass the entire yurt. "If not to fill it with children!?"

"Really?" Jesse says, his face screwing up in confusion. "You see a yurt and your first instinct is...to put have infant in it? Or eighteen of them?"

Midnight narrows her eyes at Jesse before looking away to the door, anger and confusion all over her face. "I don't know why you won't love me," she says, shaking her head. "They told me you would. That you had to."

"Hey Midnight?" Jesse says, seeing that he's honestly worried her. She gives a little grunt of confirmation, inviting him to go on, even if she doesn't look at him. "Can we just...slow down?"

She turns back to him now.

"Look, we barely know each other," he says quietly. "And neither of us really know what's going on. Can we just...chill out? Put all the pup and the love talk on extreme hold? Just...spend some time getting to know one another on a much more basic level?"

A small smile comes to her lips and Jesse honestly thinks she's a little relieved. "Okay," Midnight says, nodding lightly. "Um, what do we do?"

"We hang out," he says, shrugging. "Talk. Go for...walks. Play cards."

"What are cards?" she asks, turning her head to the side.

"All right," he says, laughing a little. "We'll...make cards. And I'll teach you how to play. But in the

meantime maybe we just...ask each other questions."

Midnight considers this for a second and then shrugs like she can't think of anything else. "Okay. You go first."

"I already asked you what your favorite food was."

Her shoulders slump. "But I don't know any questions."

"All right," Jesse says, laughing a little and starting to gather their plates up, wondering where on earth she washes these. "I'll go again, then. What's the Fancy House?"

She shakes her head, vehement. "Nope," she says. "Not allowed. Ask something else."

"All right," he says, slow, trying to hide his smile. "Where do you go when you spy on the Atalaxians?" "Jesse!" she groans, slumping to the side. "That's not fair! You know I'm not supposed to tell you that stuff!"

He laughs and stands, holding out a hand to her. "All right, then, come on. Show me where to wash these plates and while we go there, tell me which of those books over there is your favorite."

Midnight perks up, taking his hand and getting to her feet, beginning to chatter eagerly about each of the books and what she likes about them as she leads Jesse out the door and to a surprisingly clear little stream not far away.

As Midnight chatters and Jesse

cleans the plates, he only half listens, his mind wandering to the big important questions of his life at the moment. How to get home. How to get to Daphne again, to see how she is, to try to figure out what the het is going on. How to find a way to explain to her that he has a mate, but that it doesn't change a single thing about how he feels towards her.

But even as he thinks of Daphne, his wolf turns towards Midnight too. We have to protect her, he says, standing on straight and stalwart legs, ready to leap into action. She's just a poor, abused little girl who has had nothing - probably for her whole life. And she's ours, Solidly, Jesse agrees, as determined on that point as his wolf. Because even as he tried to keep his distance from her emotionally, Midnight - she's grown on him. She's bizarre and strange, but sweet and earnest and so eager to do what's right. He wonders, passively, what she'd have been like if she had been raised in his world. Bright and passionate, surely, and clever, and funny.

But here? She's just...so alone. Just a little girl, even if she is physically grown, her emotional growth

stunted by neglect. A beautiful girl, but-

Hey! His wolf snaps, biting him hard and giving him a hearty scratch in his soul. Don't you dare even think about her beauty. No funny business with this poor girl - that would take advantage of her -

 

Chapter 0794

Oh, would you lay off, Jesse growls, swatting his wolf away. Obviously, I would never.

"Hey, are you listening to me?" Midnight snaps. Jesse whips his head up to see her with her hands on her hips, glaring down at him. He smiles, laughing a bit.

"I'm sorry, Midnight, will you start again? I got lost in my thoughts."

She frowns for a minute but then slowly her expression turns into a smile. "I like it when you apologize," she says, quiet. "It's nice."

"Then I'll keep doing it," Jesse says, smiling back. "But please, continue."

She does, and Jesse does his best to truly listen. But just before he gives Midnight his full attention, Jesse reaffirms to himself and his wolf the very real truth in his mind: that even if she is his mate, Midnight is off limits, physically and romantically. To cross that line with someone so damaged would be a sincere violation. And he would never do that not to her, not to anyone.

And so Jesse determines, instead, to be Midnight's best friend - her protector and her buddy, by her side whenever she needs him.

Because mate or not, everyone deserves someone like that. And Midnight's never had it.

So, Jesse steps up to the task, determined to keep Midnight by his side even as he tries to get back home to his family and the people he loves.

At the meeting, Jackson just stares at the floor, clenching and unclenching his fist - the one that held Ariel's hand. The one she was ripped from. The one that failed her.

He knows that he's supposed to be paying attention but...god damn it, he doesn't want to fucking be here. He doesn't understand why he's here - just standing at Rafe's side - listening to people debate what the hell they're going to do.

Why - why isn't anyone taking any action!? Why isn't he racing from the room -

"Hey," Rafe murmurs, lightly knocking his shoulder into Jackson's. "Are you okay, man?" Jackson looks over at his friend, his mate's brother, with a solemn frown. Ben, on Rafe's other side, looks at Jackson with worry too.

Unwilling to answer that question, because he knows they want a yes and he's not going to bother to lie, Jackson just tersely turns his gaze on the King and the Duke at the front of the room. Dominic and Roger listen closely to advisors who tell them vital information about the state of Atalaxia's military and anything they know at all about Jesse or Juniper or Ariel.

But after the good news about the fact that Ariel basically obliterated Atalaxia's entire air force in one go stupid of them to send them all out at once - the rest of this meeting has been useless gibberish. The kind of bureaucratic hemming and hawing that makes Jackson want to tear his hair out. Despite himself, Jackson lets his eyes drop again to the floor, lost in his thoughts.

This morning, he'd woken up in his old bedroom at the Palace with Ella in a chair at his bedside. She'd looked worn and exhausted as she explained that she had healed his palm, on which Ariel had left third-degree burns. And then Ellá had held Jackson as he sobbed after she told him what happened – that Roger injected him with something to knock him out, and that they took him from the battlefield, and that Ariel is gone.

—

Gone, completely gone - snatched right out of his hands by someone that intelligence had identified as a fucking Atalaxian prince.

Where.., Where the hell had he taken her? Jackson understands completely why they'd want her and why they'd want her off that battlefield. She had been absolutely obliterating them and was about to burn herself out letting loose more hell on their armies.

But...where? Where the fuck is she now?

The question gnaws at him. Because despite Moon Valley's apparently extensive resources, no one seems to fucking know.

"All right," Dominic Sinclair says, snapping Jackon's head back up. "So that's the plan for now. We marshal our intelligence units, we send queries and ambassadors, and we...hope. Hope that we get some information soon."

Jackson turns away from the room

the moment the meeting breaks up, disgust filling him. Rafe calls after him, grabbing for his arm, but Jacks he doesn't want to hurt his friend, but god, he's just got to get out of here. He's got to make a plan, he's got to -

The moment he steps out of the door, though, someone grabs him by the hand, startling and nearly

knocking him off balance. Jackson growls, whipping his head to whoever, his teeth bared -

But he gasps and reels it all in the moment he realizes that it's the Queen.

"I'm sorry," Jackson stumbles out, shaking his head, horrified. "I'm so sorry, Ella -"

"It doesn't matter," Ella snaps, her hand still tight on his, looking up into his face. "Jackson, you have to go

to get her. You know that, right? This is - this is all taking too long."

Jackson's vicious snarl is all the confirmation Ella needs.

"Good," Ella says, giving him a steady nod. "Then I'll help you. Let's go."

Side by side, the two start off down the hall.

 

Chapter 0795

I groan, my hands locked firm on the wooden bed post, as Pippa tugs hard on the strings of my corset. "Pippa," I pant, trying hard to look at her over my shoulder, "are you sure this is necessary? I've already got a pretty small waist..."

"I'm so sorry, Ariel," Pippa says, the strings so tight in her hands that her fingers are laced red and white. "Gabriel's orders. He said he wants you turned out in the height of fashion and..." she shrugs, looking down at my elaborate undergarment, implying that this is indeed necessary.

I sigh and nod, knowing it's not her fault, and turn around, letting Pippa continue.

When she finally ties off the strings and I stand straight, running my hands down over the corset, I'm kind of...appalled at the bizarre new shape my body has been morphed into. My waist is so small, and there's all sorts of ridiculous padding sewn in over my breasts and my booty. God, I look like...some weird fantasy of a woman all covered in fabric. Not a real girl at all.

Which, I suppose, is the point.

"Ready?" Pippa asks, panting a little herself as she hefts yards and yards of grey-blue silk over towards

me.

"All of that?" I ask, pointing at it with wide eyes. "Is one dress!?"

She laughs a little, grinning at me, and nods.

"Oh goodness," I mutter, ducking obligingly and letting Pippa lift the entire assortment over my head to drape over my body. Then she gets to work with all the buttons and zippers and ties and ribbons, getting me all prettied up.

I look at myself in the mirror as she does, wondering at myself, the change my life has taken. I've been dressing as a boy for months now, Ari becoming part of my identity. And neither Jackson nor Luca had complained once to see me without makeup, and in slacks, my hair messily tucked up beneath a black cap all day.

I mean, they'd liked me equally dressed as a girl too. But I got the impression with both that...it just never really mattered what I looked like.

But with Gabriel? Clearly...he cares.

"How are you, love?" Pippa asks, her voice soft. "I know you were in bed all day. Are you...okay? Do you have any questions I can answer, maybe to make things better?" I turn my head to look into her face, not really surprised to see true concern there. Whatever his motives, I don't think that Elias truly lied about Pippa

being the essence of goodness. She

seems at all times to be genuinely

kind.

I sigh, shrugging a bit, hesitating. But then I let myself ask, truly curious and needing information. "Is he always like that?" I whisper.

Pippa instantly intuits who I'm

talking about, "He didn't used to be,"

ife

she whispers with a grimace, as she's aware that that news doesn't do anything to soften the meaning implicit in her words: that yes he's like that all the time.

I sigh, settling myself into the knowledge that my newset mate is kind of a nightmare.

"Well," I ask, my face screwing up in confusion. "When did he...start being like that? And why?"

"It all started four or five years ago," Pippa murmurs, working hard at the line of buttons that trail down my

back. I watch her in the mirror, paying close attention to her expression. "When he..."

She sighs, though, and shakes her head, as if deciding that's not the right place to start.

"When we were children," Pippa says, beginning again, "the three of us were very close. Our mothers were best friends, which explains the rather uncommon instance of a younger girl being so often in the company of two older boys."

"How much younger are you?" I murmur, curious.

"About three years younger than Elias," she says, almost passive as she concentrates on my dress.

I blink in surprise when I realize that that makes Pippa just about Juniper's age. God, Juniper, pregnant... but she's just a baby. It's a ridiculous thought.

"I'm about five years younger than

Gabriel," Pippa continues. "But it didn't seem to matter that I was a girl and a baby - the three of us just got along so well. Gabriel - he was always so funny. He was full of pranks and energy. Elias and are more restrained and...bookish, I guess is the right word. But Gabriel - he really got us to go on adventures, brought such spirit to our lives."