Ch. 806..810: The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 806-810

Chapter 0806

Over the past week Midnight has proved herself to be hard working, and clever, and optimistic, and funny. Funny as hell - sometimes not even intending to be funny but leaving Jesse in stitches. And the conversation has just been great - Midnight listening with wide wonderous eyes as Jesse tells of the realities of his world, and then her eagerly stumbling over her words as she tells him of her own life. Yes, in the past week, Jesse has come to sort of...get it. Why the Goddess picked someone like Midnight for him. Because were she to have grown up in Moon Valley she'd have been spunky, and vivid, and fierce and sweet.

But, of course, she grew up here. And her poor little corrupted wolf...

Jesse sighs, picking up his cards and studying them, forcing himself away from the thought. Because Midnight hates it when he pities her, and any conversations about that wolf go again and again to why he won't accept the bond, and why he won't love her, and why they can't immediately have eighteen pups. "And here's the flop..." Midnight murmurs, setting out the first three cards on the floor of the yurt. Jesse smirks, loving how fast Midnight has picked up the lingo from his world, how much she delights in these simple things.

But even if so much about hanging out with Midnight has been great...she certainly has been a lock box regarding any information about this world.

Inwardly Jesse's wolf gives him a nudge, urging him forward. And he decides to put a little more on the table with this game than just a bundle of sticks.

"I'll raise you two sticks," Jesse murmurs, putting the required amount forward.

Midnight keeps her face perfectly still as she glances at her cards and then up into Jesse's face, studying his expression. His smirk deepens and she shakes her head at him.

"You're very bad at this, Jesse," she says with a sigh, putting forward her own two sticks to match his. "You say you can tell when I am lying but I know when you are bluffing.'

"Maybe you do maybe you don't," Jesse murmurs as Midnight turns over the next card for the turn. "But I do know that you're lying about that Fancy House you told me about before. With your friends in it. Where you ate meat and cake."

Midnight goes still, frowning as she looks up into his face. "I wasn't lying about that."

Jesse shrugs, pretending to consider his cards, even though honestly he's not really paying attention to the game. "All right, but even if you're not lying, it's clear that they don't exist. I mean, you spend a lot of time alone, Midnight, I guess you just made them up."

"I did not," she says, straightening her spine and looking at him aghast. "They exist!"

"Imaginary friends are great," Jesse says, lowering his cards a bit and looking at her with a bit of false pity. "You shouldn't be ashamed, Mids."

Midnight rankles at this, her eyes flying wide, and Jesse's wolf turns in an eager circle. Because honestly he does think that they exist, he just wants to know more. A great deal more.

This week Midnight has staunchly refused to take him to spy on the Atalaxians, but she has accidentally dropped some information about a dark palace on the other side of the world that she calls the Fancy House. And a Prince who lives there. And the cakes she gets to eat there once a year on the Day of Darkness, when she is allowed to go and mingle with everyone else.

"I'm not ashamed, Jesse," Midnight says, her voice low and dangerous as she stares at him, unblinking. Jesse fights his smile, because Midnight is very adorable when she gets all serious like this. "The people in the Fancy House are real

"If you say so, Mids," Jesse sighs, putting forward a few more sticks.

But Midnight ignores the sticks. "You'd better believe me, Jesse Sinclair," she snaps.

"I do believe you," he murmurs, gentle and condescending, the voice he uses when Seraphina tells him

that there's a monster under her bed. And like Seraphina, the tone just pisses Midnight off more.

"They exist," she hisses, shadows starting to leak from her, her eyes going dark.

But Jesse has dealt with Midnight's flares of temper enough this week to know to ignore it. He, too, has learned when she's bluffing. "Yeah well, I'll believe it when I see it."

"Fine," Midnight snaps, reaching out and grabbing his arm.

Jesse's eyes fly wide because...what? This is new.

"Let's go. Right now."

"What!?"

"You want to see that they're real? Let's go."

Darkness suddenly consumes the pair and Jesse gasps in fear, staring around him, searching

desperately for the world - the yurt - the damn reality -

But suddenly the world snaps back into place around them even though the yurt is...gone.

Jesse pants, staring around at the dark scene at the beautiful lake spread out in front of him, at the dark figures gathered in a beautiful little pavilion all laughing together. But is...one of them blue?

"See?" Midnight says. Jesse snaps his head back to her, his mouth falling open. She smirks at him, all trace of shadows gone. "Told you they were real."

 

Chapter 0807

I sigh, shifting my weight to my other foot, turning my face away from my reflection in the mirror. I'm sick of staring at it, even if this gown that they've created for the mating ceremony is incredible, all flowing blue silk embroidered with silver, flowing about ten feet behind me in an elaborate train.

"I'm sorry," Pippa murmurs, looking up at me with two pins pressed between her lips as she works steadfastly at the hem at the front of my dress, getting it to just the perfect length. She takes the pins out of her mouth hand hastily makes two more folds. "I know you've been standing there for hours, Ariel, but this really is the last bit."

I smile down at her and shake my head, because it's not her fault. "Honestly it's much harder on you, Pip,"

I say, reaching down to pat her head, which makes her laugh. "Trying to crouch down for hours while pregnant like that. Honestly, you should win a medal for balancing on the balls of your feet."

Pippa laugh a little and shakes her head. "Won't be long now anyway - Little Girl is getting uncomfortable. I'm sure she'll make her presence known soon."

"Do you have names picked out?"

"Oh, it will be Margaret, for Elias's mother," Pippa says with a bit of a sigh. "Not really any choice in that." "Really?" I ask, unable to help the bit of displeasure that comes into my voice.

Pippa tugs at the finished hem of my gown, checking its final length before looking up at me. "If a daughter comes before a son, she's always named after the paternal grandmother in Atalaxia," Pippa says, as if it's just a perfectly normal thing everyone knows. "As an apology to her for not producing a boy for her son. I'm guessing it's...not the same in Moon Valley?"

"No," I say softly, shaking my head at her. "I could name my first daughter Fizzgig Wellybottom if I wanted to."

Pippa stares at me with wide, shocked eyes for a second and then bursts into laughter when she figures out that I'm kidding. She pulls herself to her feet with a little groan and waves to me to step forward off the little tailor's step riser I had been standing on. I begin to walk back and forth so she can see how the dress moves.

"Really, Pippa," I say quietly as she curls a finger around her chin and observes me. "Do you wish the bay was a boy?"

"No," she murmurs quietly, shaking her head, her concentration on me. "Because then he'd be a prince and all wrapped up in the politics of this world. A daughter - she will be all mine, at least until she's married Elias feels the same." Pippa's eyes

flash up to me then, her hand,

anxiously to her side. "But please keep that between us. It is a Prince's consort's duty to provide baby

Princes for the court. It would be a great honor."

I nod to my friend, a bit sadly, letting her know that the secret is safe with me. But overall I understand -

honestly, it doesn't seem like a great deal to be born a boy or a girl royal in Atalaxia. The fate seems equally

dark for both.

I groan a little myself, pressing a hand to my lower back as a tell-tale cramp starts there - a monthly little

hint from the Moon Goddess that I'd better prepare myself.

"Are you okay?" Pippa asks, turning her head towards me, curious.

"Yes," I sigh, nodding to her. "Nothing

new. But..." Hook towards the bathroom. "Am I stocked in there? With...monthly products?" Somehow I know that calling them "period products" is going to make Pippa blush.

Pippa's silence makes me turn back to her, and I go still when I see that she's gaping at me, her complexion pale.

"Pippa, are you all right?" I ask, all in a rush, stepping towards her.

She shakes herself a little, coming out of her shock. "I'm fine. But you're...your bleeding has begun?" "No?" I say, turning my head to consider her, wondering at this reaction that feels bizarre to me. "But I can feel my cramps starting - it's on its way."

"Oh no," Pippa murmurs, shaking her head fervently and raising her fingers to her lips. "Oh, no no no. Oh, no, Ariel - the doctors guessed wrong - you weren't supposed to cycle until next week -"

"T-the doctors?" I stumble out with, frowning at her. "Pippa, what are you -"

But a loud knock comes at the door - the impatient pounding letting me know that it's very likely my horrible mate. I take a deep breath, preparing to shift to the other world, but Pippa gasps and puts a hand out on my arm.

Chapter 0808

"Oh please don't, Ariel, not in that dress -"

I groan a bit as the pounding continues.

"Everything you bring there just gets so filthy," she whispers, her anxiety increasing as she steps towards the door, "please, it's so beautiful, and it will be such work to get clean -"

I sigh and nod to her, letting her know that I'll stay. And with her in the room, Gabriel isn't likely to attack me. At least, I hope. When Pippa pulls open the door, I let out a sigh of relief to see that Elias is with him too, which means I'm safe.

Elias - he has been my protector this past week. The only one who can truly keep Gabriel in check. "Mate," Gabriel snarls, waving his hand at me the moment he comes into his room, the blue magical manacles immediately encircling my wrists. "Don't even think about going anywhere."

I resist the urge to roll my eyes. "Of course, mate," I say in reply, putting on my Princess Cupcake persona. "I have no desire to leave your esteemed company anyway."

Gabriel just glares at me as Elias follows him into the room and shuts the door, because all four of us know it's a lie. I go to the Land of Darkness whenever I can rather than spend time with him. Unfortunately, Gabriel has learned my trick and gotten quite fast at slapping these magic-canceling cuffs on me the moment he walks into a room so that I can't use my Dark magic as well as my Goddess gifts. Fortunately for me, he has to be in the room to make his magic work. So the moment he's gone, I usually shift away to go hang out in my little encaged nest of blankets and pillows in the Land of Darkness until he comes and shouts at me to come back to Atalaxia.

"Oh Elias," Pippa murmurs, going immediately to her Alpha and wrapping her hands around his arm, looking up into his eyes. "It's all gone wrong

"What's gone wrong?" He asks, frowning down into her face as Gabriel storms over to me.

"Ariel must begin her confinement - there's no way we'll be able to do a wedding tomorrow -"

"What?" I burst out, entirely shocked as I put the pieces together. I need to be confined? Because I'm about to start my period? Rage sweeps through me at the rules of this ridiculous place.

But there's no time for that as my mate storms over to me.

"Not like it matters," he growls, snarling down into my face. "Considering that her people have interrupted everything anyway. What part did you have in this!?" He grabs my arm, yanking me closer to him.

I resist, hard, the urge to snarl back, canines enlongated, and pull my hand from his arm. Instead, I force myself to be meek, to stumble and cry out, pretending that he hurt me.

"Gabriel!" Elias barks out, storming over to us. "For heaven's sake, you ass, do I have to repeat our mother's lessons about keeping our hands to ourselves!?" He smacks hard at Gabriel's arm. Gabriel snarls but

drops his hand, freeing me.

I make a little display of giving a mewing little gasp and rubbing my arm where he gripped me, which makes Pippa squeak with concern and Gabriel narrow his eyes. He knows he didn't hurt me.

But that doesn't mean I can't rub it in.

"I didn't do anything," I murmur, looking down at my arm, sniffing a little for effect. "I was just trying to get ready for my wedding, like a good Atalaxian Luna -"

"Oh cut it, Ariel, Gabriel snarls,

taking a step towards me. "You only stopped wallowing in the dirt this

morning because I threatened tone

kick you if you didn't come back and let Pippa fit the gown for the mating ceremony."

"Yes," I say, whipping my head up to glare at him, "and maybe if you'd stop threatening to kick me so often then maybe I'd be comfortable coming to stay in this world!"

Gabriel opens his mouth to shout

something else at me, but Elias steps between us. “Enough,” he says, exhausted, shaking his head "None of it matters anymore. And Pippa, honestly, the timing for Ariel's confinement actually works out well, because the Ceremony is being postponed."

I turn to Gabriel in shock because...wait, what!?

Chapter 0809

"The mating ceremony is...postponed?" Pippa gasps, looking up at her Alpha with wide eyes. "Yes," Gabriel drawls, crossing his arms and continuing to glare at me, looking me up and down like I planned this all even though I have no idea what's going on. "Apparently Ariel's people have sent a delegation. And that fool we call a King has accepted them into the palace for negotiation, completely ignoring my suggestion for how they should be treated."

"W-what was your suggestion?" I ask, my heart in my throat. Because I think I already know his answer. Gabriel just smirks back at me.

Elias sighs, rubbing a tired hand over his forehead. "My esteemed brother ordered that they all be beheaded at the door. Which, fortunately didn't happen."

Cold sweeps through my blood as I stare at this horrible man to whom I'm mated.

"Does...does that mean they're here?" I force myself to ask it, my throat tight. "The delegation - they're inside the palace?"

"Not yet," Elias says, drawing my gaze to him. "But they will be. Quite soon."

"Out out out," Pippa says, waving her hands at the brothers. "Ariel must be confined. No men can come in until her time passes.

"Don't be ridiculous," Gabriel growls, baring his teeth at his sister-in-law.

"No," I gasp, desperate for once for them to stay, even as Pippa herds Gabriel and Elias towards the door. "I need to know -"

Elias sends me a sad look over his shoulder as Pippa almost physically shoves them out the door. Honestly I am shocked that she was able to do it - because she's a very small person who certainly couldn't best either of them in terms of strength. But I suppose that Atalaxian ideals regarding women's rules run deep.

A delegation, I say to my wolf as I sit down hard on the side of the bed, rubbing my wrists where the manacles were, even though they don't hurt me. My wolf howls with excitement even as she turns in a tight, anxious circle. Because...what could that mean? A delegation? A postponement?

Dad sent it, my wolf says, panting a little with her excitement. He must have. He must have sent them to get us back. We can go home soon. We can -

But I put a hand on her fur, willing her to calm. Because as much as I hope that that's true - I mean...it can't be that easy, right?

Still, it is my best hope for contact with home. But - who came? Is anyone from my family here?

Is...

But I press my eyes shut against the hope. Because to have him here, in the palace...it would be so good, but so, so dangerous.

Jackson has to stay safe, my wolf says, pressing tenderly up against my heart. We want him safe more than we want him here.

I know, I whisper back to her, my fingers knotting in her hair.

And if he comes here, she says. They'll kill him for being your mate. So, he has to go away.

I nod, agreeing to it.

"Oh, darling," Pippa says, sighing as she comes to my side and puts her hands on my shoulders. "You look so troubled. I'm so sorry, my dear. Let's get you out of this dress and into the bath."

"A bath?" I ask, looking up at her like she's a little crazy.

"Yes," she murmurs, her hands lifting at my arms a little, urging me to stand up. "The purifying bath, to begin the ceremony of confinement. Come on."

"Oh, Pips," I sigh, giving her a dubious look as I stand and start to follow her to the bathroom. "You know that's ridiculous, right?"

"Ridiculous or not," she says with a

little shrug that lets me know that...yeah She kind of does know that it's stupid. "It is tradition. And above all things in Atalaxia,

traditions must be follo Sover?

I sigh and walk with my friend into the bathroom, thinking that Atalaxia could use a great deal less tradition

in its daily practice.

Jackson's stomach grumbles as he

stares at the castle fortress that

stretches before him, perhaps a mile away, built high on a hill. But he ignores his body. Biological signals haven't been as pressing to him since he was a little boy and discovered that his magic kind of négates bodily demands He hasn't eaten in days but...whatever. He doesn't need to.

Instead, all of his focus is on that fucking place.

That castle where they're keeping her - where they're keeping all of the Atalaxian royals. Or at least, where he thinks they're keeping her. They could, of course, have moved her by now but...

Why? Why do that, when this is the most protected place they have?

It's...impenetrable. Even from here t

Jackson can feel the magic

radiating off the place, though of course he can't see it. It is utterly protected, utterly controlled

 

Chapter 0810

Making it...utterly impossible to fulfill his mission. To go in there, and get his girl, and kill as many of them as necessary to get her back home where she'll be safe. To ensure they'll never come for her, ever again. Jackson sighs and hangs his head as he sinks to the ground in despair, wondering if he chose to sit down or if his knees just gave out. His butt hits hard, his long arms wrapping around his knees. Because he can intend to barge in there and grab her all he wants but...

God, he doesn't have any notion at all of how to do it. Now that he's finally here, staring at the fortress, his blood burning with the desire to tear it apart stone by stone to get in and grab Ariel and steal her back? He just...he has nothing.

Jackson hangs his head, dread running through him, wondering if this entire week of travel getting here has been a waste. Riding in the car with the guard to the border between Moon Valley and Atalaxia, where an ATV was waiting. And then climbing onto that ATV with only a backpack of supplies, setting out into the desert with nothing but determination to power him along the way. Barely sleeping, just riding, determined to get to her, to get here.

But now that he's here? Was it all a waste?

Probably. As much of a waste as he is.

God, he's so pathetic. He can't do anything to protect her - the one thing in the world that matters to him. At every turn, Jackson knows that he's failed her. He wasn't there when Gibson, of all pathetic people, very nearly cut her throat. And when Luca had marked her and left her trembling and bleeding, where had he been then?

And on the battlefield? When that creep had just appeared out of nowhere? What, Jackson couldn't get there fast enough?

He's failed her. Failed her, every time. Failed her. A failure.

Jackson's wolf howls softly, trotting an anxious circle around his heart, trying desperately to get him to see

it another way. Not your fault, his wolf huffs. You tried - you're trying -

But Jackson just roughly shakes his head, looking down at the Atalaxian soil, knowing that it's not true. That he can't protect her, and doesn't deserve her.

If only he could...get in. And try.

Jackson sighs, raising his head to glare at the castle, determination welling in him again. Because there has...there just has to be a way that he can do something. Anything.

Battling his frustration and guilt,

Jackson pushes himself to his feet, falling back on his lifelong training as a soldier when he has nothing else left. Quiet and precise, he goes through all of the supplies he packed with Ella, taking inventory. And then he sets up camp, putting up his little pup tent behind a hill where it can't be seen from anyone scrying from the castle's towers. He stashes away the little bag of food and supplies that Ella sent for Ariel once he gets her, and begins to roll out the tiny, compact sleeping bag that he'll use tonight when - Jackson gasps, his head spinning as he falls backwards out of the tent and scrambles to his feet. He's up in an instant, sprinting towards the top of the hill, desperate to see

en

Because the magic he's felt radiating protection and invulnerability - it's - it's suddenly gone - And he - he can feel her - she's here, she's close, she's in that fucking castle. He knows it.

Ariel! Jackson screams out in his

mind, his heart pounding in his chest as his fingers stumble for the

binoculars around his neck. I'm here! I'm coming! I'm going to

help

you

I'm going to get you out of there -

Even as he shouts the words out in his mind, desperate for them to reach her, he raises the binoculars to

his eyes, focusing on the front of the castle where

His eyes go wide to see men in Moon Valley colors moving forward towards the door.

What...what the hell is going on? He scans their faces, desperate to see if he knows any of them, but... they're too far, it's too hard to tell.

Ariel! He shouts again in his mind. Tiny, I'm -

But his thoughts go blank the moment her voice forms in his mind.