The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

The next two hours are…an education in boy world. I sit perched up on my bunk, staring around in awe. This room has more than a hundred boys in it right now, and we’ll all be sleeping in here together through candidacy. When that’s done, if we make it, we’ll move up to the castle to more private dorms.

But seriously? Until then? I’m kind of…thrilled.

The atmosphere here – it’s totally different than anything I’ve ever experienced. There’s a great deal of shouting and laughter, and two fist fights have already broken out, along with quite a few arm-wrestling matches.

Girls? We’d all be simpering and sizing each other up. Guys? They just clasp hands and smack each other on the back, instant friends.

But then a boy walks by in his underwear – which I’m not complaining about in itself – but my eyes go wide with shock when he just blatantly, casually dips a hand into his boxers and scratches his balls –

“So, what do you think, cousin,” Jesse says, making me jump as he pops up at my side, standing on Rafe’s bunk and using the leverage to hook his arms over the edge of mine, grinning at me. “Regretting your choices yet?”

“Boys are…” I whisper, still looking around with awe, “a completely different species.”

“I think our prim little Princess likes it,” Jesse says with a laugh, observing my fascination.

I laugh too and lift a finger to my lips. “Don’t tell Rafe,” I whisper, knowing my brother – like my dad – is crazy over-protective.

“Your secret is safe with me,” Jesse whispers back, giving me a wink. “Just…try to look more boyish, all right? You’re sitting up there like a pretty little barn owl, staring around with those big eyes.”

I gasp a little, realizing that he’s probably right. I hunch my back a little, unfolding my legs so that I’m not so prim. “Is this better?” I murmur, pitching my voice lower and laughing because I feel ridiculous.

“Just scratch your ass a little more around people,” Jesse suggests with a grin, “let people see you burp.”

I glare at him. “Absolutely

and then holds out his arm to me, wrist up. “Here,” he

tapping at his closed fingers, thinking he has some

says, laughing, and then he beckons me closer. I lean towards him and, lightening quick, Jesse wipes his wrist across both sides of my neck

that for?” I

replies in a whisper. “Sometimes you smell like a girl. This will disguise it a little, make it not

like

“We’re cousins,” he replies. “No

jumps down and goes to talk to a light-haired boy who has just come to introduce himself to Rafe. I didn’t even think about smelling like a girl – what else is going to

about anything else besides watching them, studying how they move so I can move like that and start to blend in. I can’t even really keep track of which one is which as they all move around the room, unpacking their personal items and introducing themselves to their neighbors.

is so incredibly disconcerting when I find my head

swear, I just smelled…the most amazing scent that has ever

leaps inside me, which is itself shocking – she’s usually so calm that I sometimes forget

go find it – you

out. But then I lift my nose and almost moan aloud when I smell it again – that incredible, amazing scent – the sharp bite of citrus, bergamot and wet pavement baking under the summer sun, apricots

an almost physical twist that redirects everything in me – all of my goals, all of my dreams – just wipes them away in the singular pursuit of it,

her nose to the sky and singing the word, her feet dancing. Go! Get up! Go and find him

pillows because I know it now – know it for certain

as I look around, frantic, something…something

pillows. I have to press my eyes shut against the leather and whiskey scent of him – red hot cinders and the sharp bite of pine on a night

my horror, something else snaps within me, shaking me to the core, so much so that my

there – and this one too

calling to me, urging me

gravity reorients itself in two directions, trying to point both north and

my temples and give