Ch. 906..910: The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 906-910

Chapter 0906

A grumbling, groaning little half-sigh breaks from Daphne's lips as she stirs from her sleep. Because no, she does...not want to be awake right now.

Please, she begs her wolf, who is shaking out her fur, turning towards the door with interest. You're imagining it - you always are. It's not real - he's not here, he's not ever coming here again. Just...let's go back to sleep. It's better when we're not conscious.

But the little rap comes again and Daphne stills, realizing that...she didn't imagine it. That there is a knock at the door.

It's real, her wolf whispers, awed and a little afraid.

Daphne sniffs the air because...it's her boss, or one of her co-workers. Not... not...

But the scent on the air. She's not imagining that, is she? She can't. The hundred times she's tried to conjure it in her mind recently she's failed.

But there it is now in the air, undeniable.

"Daphne, please."

A squeaky little sob breaks from her as Daphne sits up and wraps her arms around her knees, staring at the door. Her shoulders start to tremble as she wars with herself, her gentle copper wolf whining and urging her forward, wanting desperately for her to open the door, to throw herself into his arms.

But...she knows better than to do that.

It's done. The whole thing is done, it's over.

And her life will be better if she just... lets it go. A clean break.

"Daphne, please!" he says, knocking hard on the door twice with his fist. His voice breaks on her name this time. "...please."

Daphne looks down and to her right, to the little grey shadow cat curled against her pillow, looking up at her with big sad eyes. The kitten who hasn't left her side for a moment, who always sleeps curled beneath her chin.

She sighs, knowing it's no good. That no matter what she knows is most logical, and safe, and healthy...that she hasn't let him go. That she won't. Can't.

"It's open,” she whispers, knowing he'll hear her, as she reaches out to stroke a hand over the cat's silky half-real fur.

Half real, like all his love for her could ever be. At least now, tied up as he is in a mating bond with another woman.

There's silence and then the door's handle clicks and it swings open.

Jesse stands there in the doorway, leaning against the frame, silhouetted in darkness. He sighs. "Why are you sleeping with your door unlocked, Daphne?"

She just shrugs, her eyes on the cat.

It wasn't something she'd planned. It just...doesn't seem to matter anymore keeping everything in order, the way she always liked to. Following the rules, keeping life ship-shape, making sure everything was as it should be...

Doing that is just...stupid now.

"Daphne," he says again.

She doesn't look up.

Daphne hears it when Jesse slowly crosses the room. She presses her eyes shut at the sound of his boots, his weight, real and substantial, against her floor. Not a dream, not a dream - not like the thousands of dreams she had of him coming back.

This time real. And so...so much worse for it.

"Daph," he whispers, and she hears the soft shush of him kneeling down in front of her, feels the soft press of his palm against her cheek. A barely audible whine breaks from her throat and she leans into that hand, just slightly. "Daph, sweetheart, are you all right?"

She opens her eyes at that, staring into his pretty brown ones, just inches from her face. And her heart breaks again, and her face crumples, and she starts to

cry.

"Oh, heavens, Daphne," Jesse murmurs, immediately climbing onto the bed with her and wrapping his arms around her, pulling her in tight to his chest, tucking her head in beneath his chin. "I'm so sorry. I'm so, so fucking sorry."

She continues to cry big heaving sobs, her wolf howling with joy at the sudden surprise closeness of him again - when she never expected it, never hoped for it. But then – the agony of knowing that this is a goodbye - that she can't keep him - God, but it just makes her cry harder. And she hates herself for it.

Jesse holds Daphne for a long time, letting her cry herself out, stroking his hand long and slow up and down her back. He shushes her, and hums to her, and only once fails to resist the temptation to duck his head close and take a long, slow sniff of her scent. Because... he knows it's not fair. That his wolf is thrilled, and joy pulses through him to have her close again, and that it's... it's just not even. It's not fair.

 

Chapter 0907

But eventually her tears subside, just a little. And she quiets and stills. And raises her head to look into his face.

His heart breaks to see the very real sadness there, and he lifts a hand, brushing at the tears on her cheek with his thumb, his eyes taking in the rough redness around her eyes, and the sweet, adorable freckles that dust her nose, and the lush, raw shape of her lips.

Jesse clenches his jaw as his wolf snarls, wanting her. Wanting her with a desperation that...

That is completely unfair. Inwardly Jesse snarls at his wolf, smacking him on his nose, forcing him to back down. His wolf grumbles but humbly obeys, working hard to deny his instinct to give Daphne the space she needs.

"Don't look at me," Daphne murmurs, embarrassed, raising an arm to wipe her nose and her cheeks on her sleeve.

"Please, don't ever ask that of me," Jesse whispers, running his hand over the tumbling auburn waves of her hair. "It would be the greatest regret of my life, to never look at you again."

But she flinches away, and he sighs, thinking...well, that it was the truth, but perhaps not the kindest thing he could say.

"I'm glad you're safe," she says softly, sitting straighter, putting some distance between them. "I was...worried about you. We all were."

"I'm fine," Jesse says, quiet. He reaches out, though, and takes her chin in his hand, turning her face to peer at her cheek where Midnight's claws cut her. "Ella patched you up?"

"Yes," Daphne says, straightening her shoulders and gently taking her chin from his hand. "Your whole family was very kind to me."

"Don't do that, Daph," Jesse whispers, shaking his head at her.

Her eyes flash a bit. "Do what?"

"Fall back on...politeness and courtesy," he says, giving a shrug. "We're - we're so much more than that. Please don't block me out."

She sets her jaw, moving back an inch or two, the little cat peeking out at Jesse from behind her. "Are we more than that, Jesse? I don't think we are. Not anymore."

"Of course we are -"

"I'm a seamstress at your school, Jess," Daphne snaps, saying the line she's rehearsed in case this day ever came. The thought she's said over and over to herself, to remind herself of her new place in his life. "You're a mated man. That is...our relationship now."

He huffs almost in disbelief. "Daphne," he says, leaning forward towards her. "That is...that is so not how I understand things."

She glares at him a little, her chin dimpling as her mouth turns down at the corners, and his wolf howls with regret to make her so sad, even for a moment - even though he knows she's endured so much more than moments of this.

"Stop," she demands, her shoulders set determinedly back. "It - a clean break is better, Jesse. Don't drag this out,t's impossible - however we felt before is impossible. And I don't think I can be your friend. I don't think I can...handle that. So. We can just end it there."

His wolf pants, desperate for that to not be true, and Jesse takes a deep breath, trying his best to stay cool.

"Daphne," he says quietly, anxious for her to hear him. "My situation is not what you think it is."

"Are you not mated?" she asks, tense and prim now, stern.

Jesse's wolf howls at how lovely she is when she's angry like that, but he works very hard and keeps his face completely serious.

"I have a mate," he says slowly. "But I have not accepted the bond."

She goes still, her eyes going wide. "Why not?"

“Because she's...it's very complicated Daphne. She's like a child - she's...a very traumatized person."

Daphne exhales slowly, closing her eyes. "So, does that mean you don't love her?"

He swallows hard, understanding that he's walking a very fine line here. "Midnight is very important to me. I care about her very, very much. But it is...not romantic."

Daphne stays still for a long moment and then nods once. "I think you should go."

Jesse sits up straight, appalled. "What!?" he nearly shouts. "Why!?"

She opens her eyes again, glaring hard, anger now the singular expression on her face. "Because you're about to ask me to be your mistress, Jesse Sinclair. And I might be poor, and unconnected, and uneducated - but I will not be insulted like that. Not ever, but especially not by you."

Jesse's mouth hangs open as he stares at the love of his life, completely shocked.

Chapter 0908

"Daphne, I am not asking you to be my mistress!" Jesse bites out, his teeth clenching.

"Did you come here with romantic intent?" she asks, prim and formal. "Desiring to continue, in some way, our relationship?"

"Yes," he says, working hard to reel his temper back in, ashamed at himself for losing it even for a moment. "I came to tell you that I love -"

"And do you still have a mate? With whom you have a relationship?"

He pauses, seeing the trap but knowing that she's got the truth on her side. "Yes," he says, short and cold.

"And you have no intention of rejecting that mate? Or she of you?"

Jesse takes a deep, long breath. "No, I have no intention of rejecting her."

"Then what else am I to conclude, Jesse,” she says, low and angry, leaning forward towards him. "But that you're asking me to be your mistress. So that you keep your mate as the priority in your life, but have me too? A bit on the side?"

He stares at her for a long moment in shock and then groans, trying to lay back on the bed but miscalculating the distance and banging his head against the wall, covering his face with his hands. Because she's right.

She's right.

He hadn't thought of it in those terms - of course he didn't. But she's right. What he came here hoping for - for some way of having Daphne in his life while he maintains his relationship with Midnight...

Essentially, she'd be his mistress, wouldn't she? Even if he loved Daphne dearly, while he still had his mate fully in his life, a part of the family? There's no way in which, to the rest of the world, Daphne wouldn't be his girl on the side.

“So yeah, Jesse,” Daphne says, cold and working hard to keep the tremble out of her voice. "I think you should go. And never speak to me again. I can't...I can't believe you came here tonight, after everything, and...asked me for that."

Jesse sighs but makes no move to get up, slipping his hands down from his face and taking a few long, deep breaths, trying to get his mind in order. When he opens his eyes he looks over and up to see Daphne staring at him, furious.

"Can you...can you please give me like, one inch of space on this?" he asks, shaking his head, feeling utterly pathetic and at the end of a very dark road.

"No," she says, cold, narrowing her eyes.

“Daphne,” he groans, sitting up and turning towards her on the bed, holding his hands out towards her, pleading. I understand. And if were any other jackass Alpha in any other situation, I would let you call me a jackass, and a pig, anda horrible, terrible misogynist. But could you please, please open your heart and remember that I am not a terrible person?"

He presses a hand to his heart, shaking his head at her, begging.

"I'm still me, and I'm in a really hard, terrible situation — and all I'm trying to do is see the girl I'm in love with after a long time apart, and tell her that I love her, and just...try to find a way through."

Daphne stares at him for a moment, her mouth trembling, her chin held high. But then she breaks, and exhales all her breath at once in a gushing sob, and hangs her head, her shoulders shaking.

"Don't ask too much of me, Jess," she whispers "Because...I'll give it. I just...need to protect myself in all of this, protect my heart, as much as can. And if you have a mate? There is...no room for me in your life. It's not fair to her and it's not fair to me."

"Okay," Jesse whispers, steeling himself to the promise. "I won't ask too much.

But is it...can I tell you what happened? How I feel?"

Daphne takes a deep breath and raises her head and then nods once.

And Jesse begins.

The story takes a long time to get through, and Jesse is very, very careful with his words - which is difficult, considering that he hasn't slept in nearly a day at this point. But he tells her everything, leaving nothing out. About Midnight and

how strange she is, and how funny

too, and their time in Darkness and the Underworld. Their journey to find Ariel, and then the trip home.

By the time Jesse is finished he's stretched out over Daphne's bed, his booted

feet hanging over the edge, and she's curled up amongst her pillows with the kitten in her lap. They're not touching, not even a hint of it - but the air in the room is...calmer. Easier.

"So, what do you think?" Jesse asks, sighing and looking over at his girl, letting

his eyes soak in as much of the sight of her as they can.

"I think she sounds really cool," Daphne murmurs, dry and bitter.

Jesse laughs a little. "She is. She...does not think the same of you."

Daphne whips her head up, smirking at Jesse. "What does she think of me?"

"She thinks you're a whore," he answers, equally dry.

Chapter 0909

And as he knew she would, Daphne tilts her head back and laughs – long and peeling. He smiles a little, watching her, relishing that. Daphne - she's not easily offended, and she has enough self-confidence not to let herself be hurt by such a deeply untrue judgment.

"Oh, god," Daphne says, still laughing and wiping a little beneath her eye. "Maybe...let's not introduce this one to my mother."

"No problem," he sighs.

Daphne smiles over at him, soft. "You've had some serious adventures, your Grace."

"You're avoiding the question, seamstress," he murmurs, his mouth turning up at the corners.

She raises an eyebrow in challenge.

"What do you think?" he asks, wanting to know her true opinion on the whole situation all of it.

"I think," she says with a little sigh, looking down at the kitten, understanding it all. "That...we had a good run, Jess. But I can't keep loving you if you have a mate, bond accepted or no."

"Are you in love with me now?" he asks, quietly.

She raises her eyes to his. "Please don't make me answer that."

He swallows rough around the lump in his throat. "But, given time -"

She shakes her head. "Jesse, given time, your strange traumatized little mate is going to become accustomed to the world. And she's going to want you, and you're going to want her. Even though you're not in love with her now, given time? You will be. And then where will I be?"

“Midnight is...never going to be normal in this world,” Jesse murmurs, covering his eyes with one hand.

"Do you think she's pretty?" Daphne asks, her voice deceptively calm.

He moves his hands from his eyes to look at her. "What?"

"Don't pretend you didn't hear me, Sinclair," she says, narrowing her eyes at him, making him smile.

He laughs a little but then sighs. "Yes, Midnight is pretty, Daphne."

"The Goddess picked her for you, Jess," Daphne whispers, leaning forward towards him with a smile, acting her heart out, pretending to be happy and peaceful and beatific about it all, while inside her wolf howls in agony to be letting him go. "She's your mate. It's going to happen someday - you'll love each other. I don't...want to be drug along for weeks or months or years just to be left at the end. Leave me now, in peace and...we'll have had a good run."

Jesse's heart breaks a thousand times as he stares at her, unable to believe it. Unable to accept it. He sits up, leaning close, looking steadily into her eyes. "You know that there's more to us than that, Daphne – than just a good run. That we have a connection that is deeper and that neither of us fully understand."

"You have a mate, Jesse," Daphne whispers, reaching out and cupping his cheek in her palm. "I can never, ever live up to that."

He closes his eyes and leans into her hand. "But I want you."

She rushes her thumb once over his cheek and slides her hand down and away,

her fingertips brushing the stubble that starts on his jaw. "You won't forever."

He opens his eyes, staring at her, thinking that she's wrong about that.

But also that...that there's no logic in the world that would support his conviction that Daphne is the girl he wants. Mates are it – end game. No other girl should be able to live up to it.

And Midnight...she deserves more than that. More than this even, him visiting

another girl, telling her that he loves her, that he wants her more.

Guilt sweeps through Jesse on both ends - for how he's treating Daphne and Midnight alike.

God, fuck, did he claim to be a good guy earlier tonight?

What a bald-faced lie. Selfish. He's being selfish, on both accounts.

"You should go," Daphne whispers, her voice trembling. When he lifts his head again he sees her working hard to put on a brave face. "Home to your girl, Jesse."

He clenches his jaw but he stands. His hand moves forward for a moment, wanting to pull her up and into a hug but...he pulls it back, knowing it's asking too much.

"I'll see you soon?" he asks, his heart aching. "Back at school, for the rest of the spring term?"

"Sure," Daphne says, giving him a smile. "Um, tell Ariel I said hi, please. And Rafe and Ben and..." she wrinkles her nose a bit and his wolf howls, falling hard to the ground of his soul. "Luca, I guess, if you see him."

Jesse smiles at her and nods, slipping his hands into his pockets. And then he turns, without a word, and walks out of the room, closing the door behind him.

In the darkness, Daphne reaches out a hand and strokes it over the little shadow kitten's head again and again. He purrs, pressing his face against her palm.

"I guess this is goodbye, Mittens," she whispers, tears streaking down her face, waiting for him to disappear.

But he doesn't.

And Daphne cries harder, laying herself down on the bed, gathering the precious little shard of Jesse's soul to her chest, stroking her fingers over the kitten's fur until she again falls asleep.

Chapter 0910

I wake up to the feeling of Jackson's broad hand stroking over my hair and I squeak, petulant, turning my face so that my other cheek is pressed to his chest. Then I nuzzle close, my eyes pressed determinedly shut, refusing to wake up.

"Ariel, it's nearly noon," Jackson murmurs, laughing a little.

"No, it's not, the clock is a filthy liar," I murmur, shaking my head, laying my hands flat on his lovely warm skin.

"Lazy wolf,” he whispers, far too cheerful and awake for my tastes. "What, you think just because you're all done saving the world that you can sleep all day?"

I just snarl and turn my head a bit to press my teeth to his skin, mock warning. "Shush or I will bite."

He snarls in return, his pleasure at the idea evident in the swell of desire that comes down the bond, and I can't help but laugh as he quickly shifts, snatching me up in his arms and rolling me to the side, pulling me up closer so that we're face-to-face and he can press a warm kiss to my mouth.

"Nooo," I moan, breaking the kiss and pretending to wriggle away. "Take me back - I want my pillow -"

"It's my body, Ariel, not your pillow -"

"Yes it is!" I whine, going limp in his arms like a kid having a temper tantrum. Jackson laughs harder, gathering me close and pressing kiss after kiss to my cheeks and neck and shoulder until I'm laughing too, and kissing him back, my fingers curling in his hair and over his soft beard, which he kept at my request.

"Mean to me," I murmur, opening my eyes a little, peering at his beautiful face as I press my belly to his.

He just snarls, hungry, letting me know that he can be a bit meaner to me if I want him to. I bite my lip, quite liking that idea, but a quiet knock comes at the door.

Jackson gasps, sitting up straight, spinning towards the door like he's getting caught doing something bad.

I laugh, looking up at him. "What?" I ask.

"Ariel, someone is here -"

"Duh," I say, rolling my eyes and sitting up with a sigh, snatching at the discarded pieces of the pajamas I barely wore last night. "I have a gigantic family packed into six tiny rooms in this royal suite. There's always someone here."

"But I'm " Jackson panics, looking down at his naked body, only covered by the blankets.

"So put something on!" I laugh, pulling my pajama pants up before I grab my top, tugging it on as I head for the door. "You've got like, eight seconds -"

Jackson gasps, grabbing for his pants as I laugh and reach for the door handle. I only open it a little bit, enjoying Jackson's panicked cursing as I peek outside. I grin to see my mom standing there.

"Hi, baby," she says, smiling at me, her eyes flicking towards the room. "Enjoying torturing your mate?"

"Yes, mommy," I say, leaning against the door frame and continuing to block her view as I hear Jackson hastily putting on his clothes. My eyes flash to the tray in her hand and the three wheeled trollies behind her all stacked with covered dishes. "What did you bring us?"

"Sustenance!" mom says with a happy sigh. "Jackson is too skinny."

I burst out laughing. "He's huge!"

“He lost a great deal of weight being all magical and pining for you,” mom says, laughing even as she narrows her eyes at me. "Come on, let me fatten him up.”

"Be my guest," I say, opening the door wide once I hear Jackson finish finding his clothes. When I turn I see him glaring at me, well aware of my tricks, but when he turns his eyes to my mom he smiles - because she's a great favorite of his, we're all well aware. And even if he's annoyed at me, he can't help but beam at her.

"Did you bring that for me?" Jackson asks, eager, looking at the tray in her hands.