Ch. 866..870: The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 866-870

Chapter 0866

"Highness!" the voice commands. "Please, highness! Are you all right!?"

"It's been three minutes," Jackson growls.

Gabriel groans and pushes himself up straight, looking into my eyes one last time, devastated. Silently he nods, giving me permission to go.

I smile back at him even as I reach for Jackson's hand. He pulls me shakily to my feet and sniffs my hair, starting back a step and frowning down at me. "Did you..."

"Let's go, Jacks," I say, exhausted and shaky after breaking the bond with my mate.

"Oh my god, Ariel," Jackson murmurs, frustrated. He shakes his head even as he wraps me up in his arms. My eyes are on Gabriel for one last moment as Jackson and I tilt away to the Land of Darkness, leaving the Prince - now King - alone with the corpse of his uncle to face whatever fate awaits him. A fate of his own making, after all.

The Land of Darkness is surprisingly quiet when we arrive. I look around in

surprise, searching for the soldiers I saw before. But the only thing I can see is the shadowy enclosure that still holds the God of Darkness - though it shudders once from the inside, clearly starting to weaken.

"Where...is everyone?" I whisper.

"Soldiers went away," Jackson says, heaving an easy shrug, his eyes on me. Softly he pushes back my hair, inspecting my neck. "Well? Where is it?"

"Where's what?" I ask, turning my head to look up at him.

Jackson just raises one eyebrow at me, willing me to remember.

"Oh," I say, laughing and holding out my arm, which continues to ache, looking down at Gabriel's mark still raw and bloody on my wrist. "Sorry, Jacks."

He takes my arm in his hand and glances at my face once before returning his eyes to the wrist. "Did you want it?"

"I asked him for it."

Jackson takes a deep breath and fixes his eyes on mine. "You know what I'm asking you, Ariel."

I smile and pull my arm from his hands, letting it fall to my side as I reach my other arm up, cupping the soft skin of Jackson's neck in my palm. "I wanted the magic, Jacks wanted to collect his mark, as my grandmother told me was my birthright. But the only mark really want is yours. This one?" glance down at the mark. "When it heals? It will already be faded. Yours I will carry forever."

Jackson snarls, possessive, and pulls me close, looking intently down into my face. "Ariel," he sighs, shaking his head as he stares at like I'm the great mystery and

frustration and love of his life

beam back at him, sending all of my love down our bond in a heavy swell. "Can we go home, please?"

"Yes," I say, smiling up into his face, blissfully happy even though we're no where

near out of trouble. "But, um...can you carry me?"

He looks at me with concern, his eyes scanning all over me, looking for a problem. "Why?"

"Because I just rejected my mate, Jacks," I say, laughing and standing on my toes, reaching up, wanting him close. "And I'm all sick and exhausted."

"Oh god, Ariel," Jackson sighs, scooping me up into his arms and holding me close. "Of course I'll carry you." He presses a kiss to my forehead and nuzzling against

warm and generous and kind net

as

always is, even if I now have a second mark that's not his. My

—

Jacks always so good to me.

he

"I love you, Jacks," I whisper, pressing a kiss to his shirt as I rest my head against

his shoulder.

"I love you too, Ariel,” he replies, striding through the land of Darkness, clearly

already knowing where he's headed.

"Where are we going?" I ask with a little frown.

"To my tent," he says with a sigh. "To get my backpack and my ATV. And then we're out of here."

I blink up at him, surprised and confused. "You have a tent?"

Chapter 0867

"Mids," Jesse sighs, putting his hands on his hips and shaking his head at Midnight, exhausted and frustrated. He peeks over the top of the separating screen that Juniper gave them, well aware that the tent full of ambassadors and Atalaxian royals is listening to their heated conversation and casually pretending that they're not.

"I don't want to go," Midnight growls, curled in a ball at his feet, her face tucked tight against her knees and her hands sunk deep in her hair. "You can't make me!"

"I can't make you," Jesse agrees through his teeth, crouching down next to her. "But if we stay here, we're all going to get killed."

"We won't get killed," she hisses, whipping her face up to glare at him. "I will negotiate with Darkness when he breaks out of that stupid egg! I will assure him that we are still his humble servants! He'll just kill all of them!" She jerks her head towards everyone else in the tent.

One of the eavesdropping ambassadors groans in fear. Another hisses at him to shut up.

"Oh, Midnight," Jesse sighs, falling back on his ass and reaching out to stroke Midnight's back. This conversation has been going on for...far too long. And every moment that passes gets a lot closer to that reality - to Darkness getting free, and coming here, and destroying them all.

Except, unlike Midnight, Jesse has no intention of declaring his fealty to evil or watching his countrymen die.

"What are you really scared of, Mids?" he asks, continuing to softly stroke her back. "What's stopping you from letting me take you home and give you a wonderful life?"

She just shakes her head and tucks her face back against her knees, as she's been doing this entire time.

"I mean, everyone's going to be really nice to you," Jesse says softly. "I'm sure they can't wait to meet you. You're going to have a fantastic life in Moon Valley."

"They'll make me be a whore," she moans.

Jesse can't help laughing, just a little. "M ight, I promise, no one will make you be a whore."

She goes silent and Jesse lets her have a moment to think.

When she speaks again, Midnight's voice is softer than before, and laced with fear. "She's going to take my magic from me," she whispers.

"Who is?" Jesse asks, his shoulders straightening in surprise.

"The blonde rat!" Midnight moans, devastated at the idea.

Jesse frowns at his mate for a second, confused, and then bursts into a smile. "You mean Ariel?"

Midnight lifts her head and nods vehemently. But when she realizes that Jesse is laughing, she smacks at him, hard, with her tiny hand.

"It's not funny!"

"I mean, calling Ariel a blonde rat is very funny," Jesse says, scooting closer to Midnight and tugging her close. "But why would you think she would take your magic away?"

"Because she took that Prince's magic away," Midnight murmurs, leaning against him. "And now he's all weak and useless."

"And healthy," Jesse adds. "And not corrupted. That darkness was making him horrible, Mids. He punched Ariel and...probably did all sorts of other awful stuff that the corruption made him do."

Midnight turns her face up to Jesse's, her eyes wide and sad and shining. "If you think the corruption makes people horrible," she whispers. "Do you think I'm horrible?"

"I think you're magnificent," Jesse

replies, stroking a hand over her hair, speaking his honest truth. "I think that whatever that darkness does to people you've somehow managed

to resist it for years. I think you're a miracle."

Her little mouth begins to tremble and Jesse's whole heart aches.

"I have to admit, though," he adds, soft. "It breaks my heart to see your little wolf sunk in the Darkness like that. I want to see her running free. And you too."

Jesse's wolf howls in his soul, standing at the edge and peering over at Midnight's long-suffering wolf, sunk deep in the dark oil, panting hard, her eyes lit with a maniacal glow.

Midnight just slowly shakes her head. "Jesse, I don't know who I am without the Darkness," she says quietly. "I...I don't remember agreeing to the bargain. I don't remember...who I am."

"You'll still be you," he whispers.

"What if I'm not?" she asks, tears slipping down her cheeks. "What if darkness is too much of who I am? What if I'm...gone?"

Jesse sighs, completely without an answer for that concern. Because Midnight is right. Gabriel - his whole personality shifted when the darkness left him. Midnight - would

—

she fose herself completelow

Become someone else?

His wolf snarls at the idea, hating it. Because as strange as this little person is, she's already become so incredibly important to him.

"I promise you, Midnight,” Jesse says, pressing his hand to his heart. "No one will force you to give up your magic or your darkness unless you ask it. I promise."

She looks away, clearly considering it.

"But Midnight, we've got to go," he

says. "Darkness - he doesn't love

you in the way you think he does. He doesn't care. He'll kill you along with the rest of us - I seriously think that's true. He thinks that you

—

betrayed him - he'll take you out as a threat"

Midnight considers for a moment longer, beginning to rock back and forth, clearly

torn and not handling this big decision well.

Chapter 0868

"Do you...just want to go back to be with the whore?" she whispers.

Jesse grits his teeth against a sigh because...well. Because he does want to see Daphne again. Very, very badly. "Mids, I promise that I want to go back to keep us safe."

"Are you going to go to her?" she snaps, turning to him with a frown.

"You are my first priority," he says, assured, leaning close to her. "I actually want you two to meet -"

She snarls, turning away, and Jesse grimaces, realizing he may have said the wrong thing.

"Midnight," he sighs, dropping his head into his hands. "Please."

"I don't want to leave my house," she says, quite mournful.

"You'll have a new house - a whole palace -"

"No," she snarls, starting to cry. "I want...this is my home, Jesse. It's the only home I've ever had."

He sighs and looks up at her again, realizing that his offer was callous. "Then we'll take it with us."

"What?" she says, turning towards him in surprise.

"We'll take it, the whole thing,” he says with a shrug. "Whatever you want, Mids. We'll do it."

"You're not just saying that?" she whispers. "To make me go?"

"Midnight, I love you very much," Jesse says, putting both of his hands on her shoulders. "I want you to have everything that you want and need. If that is this yurt, then hell yeah we're taking it to Moon Valley."

She looks to the side, her mouth twisting. "And I can decide...who comes in and out of the yurt?"

"Of course," he says, his heart lifting.

She turns back just a little to glare at him from the corner of her dark eye. "So...I can have a rule? No whores in my yurt?"

Jesse works hard to fight his smile and fails. "Not a single whore in the yurt, Midnight. I promise."

She exhales slowly with her eyes closed.

Jesse waits, barely breathing.

"Fine," Midnight snaps, suddenly jumping to her feet. "But we have to go now."

"All right!” Jesse says, jumping to his

feet and very nearly knocking the screen down in his hurry to get everything sorted. "I need all hands dismantling this yurt, and everything inside it, into as small a package as possible! Everyone hold a little bit if you have to!"

The entire group just stares at Jesse for a long moment of shock.

And then at once, they leap to the task, hope humming through the room.

Midnight stands at Jesse's side, watching everyone dismantle her home, tears in her eyes.

Mark and Rafe stand on the palace roof, watching as the helicopter comes in for the landing.

"Did we seriously have to come up here?" Mark sighs, shaking his head and glancing at his brother. "It's not like Hank doesn't know how to get inside."

"Mom asked us to greet her friend," Rafe bites out, glaring at his little brother. "So, we're doing it."

"Ariel's in Atalaxia, Juniper's in the freaking underworld, both of them facing death and negotiating wolf and cosmic power matches," Mark mutters, scuffing the toe of his boot. "And we're here saying hi to a delinquent."

"Oh, be polite," Rafe says, unable to help laughing a little as he gives Mark a little shove. "I'm sure even you can take a little human delinquent on. She can't be that tough."

"Mom said she got kicked out of school for trying to set it on fire," Mark murmurs.

Rafe laughs and shakes his head, focusing on the helicopter as it begins to land. "She was suspended for being incendiary and rallying her fellow students to protest. That's...very different."

Mark mutters further discontent but Rafe ignores him, straightening his shoulders and preparing to meet Hank and his delinquent daughter with as much grace as he can muster. Hank called earlier, letting Ella know he had to bring his daughter along with him on the trip as there was no one to stay home with her and ensure that she didn't get into any further trouble. Ella had, of course, been enthusiastic about the addition – but Rafe? He wasn't so sure. She sounds like a handful and he doesn't really want any further trouble right now, not with his life already falling apart.

-

Both Rafe and Mark watch closely as Hank steps out of the helicopter and waves

to them before turning back to the door and getting in an argument with whoever

is still inside.

Rafe grimaces a little as the argument continues for way longer than it should, until Hank has to reach bodily into the helicopter and yank his daughter forward.

The moment she appears - tall and slim, in baggy jeans and an oversized hoodie, a disgruntled sneer pasted over her mouth - Rafe's expression drops from his face.

His wolf goes still in his soul, staring forward at her.

Rafe's heart basically stops beating as Hank and his daughter come forward, Hank arm wrapped forcefully around her elbow, obliging her to come along, clearly against her will.

But no...it's impossible...Hank's daughter, she's...human...

"Hey Mark, Rafe," Hank says, perfectly amiable, apparently missing the fact that Rafe is frozen to the spot and not breathing. "You remember my daughter, right? Say hello, Maryam."

Maryam just sneers at the princes, clearly refusing to obey.

Rafe's wolf howls in delight.

Chapter 0869

The Land of Darkness hums in peaceful silence beneath its trio of moons. A dark weasel sets his little rump on the ground and sighs contentedly, raising his nose to the sky, sniffing in the cool night air. Or day air. It doesn't really know - it's all the same here. It begins to wonder if there's any wild cabbage growing close by

WHAM.

-

The weasel screeches and turns on its tail, dashing away from the twenty-four people that suddenly appeared from absolutely nowhere, each with their arms full of a piece of yurt or a treasured possession.

"Are they all here?" Midnight gasps, dropping Jesse's hand and running around to check, her favorite little stuffed penguin still clutched to her chest.

“Um,” Elias says, standing on his toes and using his superior height to look around at all the ambassadors. "Yes, I'm counting twenty, and then all of us – I think we all made it -"

"Not all the people - I don't care about them -" Midnight snaps, glaring at Elias. "I'm talking about all the pieces of my house!"

"I'm sure it's all here," Pippa says very soothingly, reaching out a hand to pat Midnight on the shoulder while Ben fights to keep his face straight, avoiding the urge to laugh. "We know how important it is to you, Midnight - we've all been very careful to make sure we got it all." Midnight growls and flashes her teeth at Pippa, not trusting her. Not yet.

"Where...where is here?" Jesse asks, turning in a circle and peering around with a frown on his face. Honestly, it all looks...exactly the same as the place they just left. Just hills and waste in the darkness. Midnight promised that she'd vanish them all away to somewhere that lined up with Moon Valley but...god, how does she know?

"Can't you see my map?" Midnight says, turning away from the quiet and wide- eyed ambassadors who keep their respective yurt pieces held tight in their arms, awaiting further instruction and praying not to die.

"Map?" Jesse asks, frowning.

Midnight nods and points around at the ground. "See? All etched into the dirt. It's the map of your stupid Alpha castle with all the big boys running around in it.”

Jesse's eyes go wide as he sees what she's talking about - that Midnight has, indeed, painstakingly drawn out a map of Alpha Academy on the ground, presumably so that she could more effectively spy on him for Darkness.

"So...you..." he exhales sharply, hardly able to believe that it's so close that this whole insane journey is so nearly finished. "That's where we are? One more vanish and we're...in Alpha Academy?"

"Well, that's what you wanted, isn't it?" Midnight snaps, turning to him and putting one hand on her hip. "That's what you made me give up my entire life for, and destroy my house, and betray the Dark God -"

"We're very grateful, Mids," Jesse says, stepping forward and ending the harangue before Midnight can have a melt down and second guess herself yet again. “And trust me – it's right. But you can't take us to the palace? In the capital?"

Her little shoulders slump as she looks at him, tired and afraid. "I don't know where that is. I – it took a long time to find your stupid boy school."

Jesse smiles at the description, stroking a hand over her hair, looking with a great deal of love at her dark eyes, her sad little face. "The Academy will do perfectly, Mids. Thank you so much. We're ready when you are, okay?"

He looks up around at all of the collected people, each of whom looks hopeful and excited, except perhaps Elias, who looks worriedly at Pippa, and Pippa herself, who stands with her eyes closed, her arm looped around her Alpha, her other balancing a basket full of Midnight's kitchen supplies.

"Where in the castle do you want to go?" Midnight whispers, looking up at Jesse with a great deal of faith in her eyes.

"Um, maybe to our room?" he offers, wanting someplace safe and secure for her to land.

"Okay, this way!" Midnight says, turning and striding off to another part of her little map. Jesse blinks when he recognizes the space that she walks over to - where Midnight has carefully detailed the shape of the room he shares with Rafe and Ariel, including the details of the location of their couch, their beds...

Damn, how much did she spy on them?

"Everyone stay in the lines!" Midnight calls as the entire group begins to step within the threshold of the map. "If you don't, you'll shift to Moon Valley inside a wall and then you'll be dead!"

Jesse spins to her with his eyes wide. "Is that true!?"

"No," she grumbles as the gathered crowd gasps and presses in close to each other fastidiously avoiding the lines that demarcate the sides of the room It will just be easier if we're all together. If they're scared they'll listen to me."

Chapter 0870

Jesse stares at his little mate for a moment and then huffs out a laugh, shaking his head and taking her hand. "All right, Mids. Do your work."

Everyone else again shuffles around and holds hands or otherwise makes contact with their neighbor so they can all travel together, quietly waiting, expectant.

Jesse watches closely as Midnight exhales a long breath, looking around at the Land of Darkness as if she's saying goodbye to it. Jesse squeezes her hand and she looks up at him.

"You promise?" she whispers, a great deal of trepidation in her voice.

He gives her a soft smile in return, leaning close to press a kiss to her hair, knowing that she's asking if he means it - everything he promised her. That his family will be kind, that Ariel won't take her magic away unless Midnight asks, that she will have a wonderful life.

“I promise, Mids,” he says, nearly a whisper. "Every word."

Midnight exhales slowly and the entire crowd of twenty-four instantly disappears, nothing but their footprints left behind.

The Land of Darkness returns to its eternal state. Quiet, and dark, and peaceful beneath the sky lit by three moons.

I rest my cheek against the expanse of Jackson's back, feeling mildly miserable physically, even if my wolf sings for joy in my soul. The ATV rumbles as Jackson drives it through the darkness of the Atalaxian night. My body moves and shifts along with it, jolting this way and that as we go, Jackson's backpack shifting distractingly on my back as well. But even if I am not in the most comfortable sleeping position, I doze.

I slip in and out of sleep, my body exhausted from whipping from the extreme of a new mark to the rejection of a mate. All the while my left arm throbs, pain radiating from my wrist. Not for the first time in the past week I wish for my mother. God, having a magical healer in the family sure didn't inculcate a very strong sense of pain tolerance in me, did it?

I lift my head slightly when the ATV begins to slow, blinking back to the present.

Jackson has been all business from the moment he started striding out of those cages in the Land of Darkness, me in his arms. There wasn't a great deal of small talk or conversation as he carried me across that wasteland and far enough outside the cages that when he shifted us back to our world we couldn't be seen from the Castle. Instead, Jackson concentrated singularly on finding his little campsite again, getting that packed up in under two minutes and then driving us hastily away.

"How are you?" he murmurs, bringing the ATV to a stop and then turning to me from his spot ahead of me, his long legs straddled on either side of the machine.

I give him a tentative smile. "I'm stiff and tired. But otherwise I'm great!"

"Great," he grumbles, shaking his head a little and huffing a doubtful laugh. "Ariel, you're always gorgeous, but for heaven's sake you look like you're going to fall off this thing."

"I do not," I murmur, frowning at him and sitting up a little. I immediately betray my over-confident assertion by tilting slightly to the side and losing my balance - just a bit.

Jacks laughs and flashes out a hand, catching me by the arm and setting me up right.

"Why'd we stop?" I ask as Jackson

cups my cheek in his palm and passes me a little energy. "You stop

that," I snarl, smacking his hand

away You're running low, Jackson

-

even if you pretend you're not.

You'll be a skeleton by the time we

get home."

"I've been lower than this," he murmurs, giving me a smug little smirk and

swinging his leg over the seat before standing straight. "And we're camping here for the night."

"What!?" I squeak, looking around at

the seemingly random field, all tall green grass situated next to a pretty little stream. "Why!? Can't we go home Can't we just...call my mom and make her send a

helicopter!?"

Jackson laughs and shakes his head, taking a cell phone from its place in a little saddle bag on the side of the ATV. "Lost charge days ago."

"And you didn't bring a charger!?"

"Where would I plug it in?" Jacks asks, leaning down a bit to grin at me.

I scowl up at him, sighing a little with

disappointment because....well, I really did want to get home to see all my family. And to just rest. "What's the point of a being a Princess if you can't call a helicopter up at will?" I grumble, crossing my arms over my chest with a pout.

"Poor baby," Jackson coos, a bit dry.

I laugh, looking up at my gorgeous mate, framed as he is against the star-lit sky above...

And I consider that...well. There are worse things than camping alone with your mate in the middle of nowhere, aren't there?