The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Chapter 34

I gape a little as we walk down the long, dark tunnel towards…

I mean, I don’t even know what we’re walking towards.

“Where are we going?” I ask Rafe, a little breathless with intrigue and excitement.

“Into the Academy,” he hisses back, like it’s a secret, but I know he’s kidding even before I glare up at him.

“Uniforms,” Jesse says smoothly, running a hand through his hair like he’s very suave. “We’ve got to get fitted, because Academy cadets always look good.”

“What?” I say, a little confused. “Honestly, that can’t be first –”

“His dad,” Rafe says, “the vainest man in the world –”

“Um, justifiably,” Jesse counters, grinning.

“Yeah, whatever,” Rafe says, grinning, “anyway, Uncle Roger really did decide that all of the cadets enrolled here need to look their best at all times. So, yeah,” he shrugs, “first thing is fittings for uniforms.”

“Whoa,” I say, and my awe is not simply for Uncle Roger’s semi–predictable flare for looking good, but also for the cavernous room we walk into next. Because, I mean, the tunnel was literally just that a tunnel, with rough walls and low lighting.

But this?

“Damn,” Luca says, a smirk on his face as he comes up next to Jesse. “Looks like this city boy has finally made it, haven’t I?‘

I nod as I stare around the room, with its three–story arching stone ceilings and polished floors. And I mean, this is the bottom of the castle, where I assumed the dungeons were. If this is here, what the hell is upstairs?

“This way,” Rafe says, tugging me along towards a line of professors waiting at a set of tables ahead of us, a set of boxes in front of them.

“Ah, Cadet Sinclair,” one of the professors says, smiling at Rafe as he steps forward. “Naturally we thought you’d be one of the first to appear, but now I see that you

Chapter 34

for…” he peers beyond Rafe and blinks a little at Ben and 1, clearly

blandly, smiling at the professor and putting on his best Prince

a box into Rafe’s arms, “sized according to your candidate apparel. Also within the box is your dorm information and key, the Cadet Handbook, and a map of the parts of the castle which you’ll need to find

Rafe, listening interestedly, and I jump a

name.

I move eagerly towards him, seeing he has what I

hesitate because…I mean, he’s just staring at me

to seeing much, much

look forward to seeing me again, but my reaction just makes his own smile deepen. And suddenly,

him I realize that I am on much shakier ground here, and under a great deal more scrutiny, as a

straightening my shoulders, doing my best to be, I don’t know, masculine. “Thank you, sir,” I say seriously. “I’ll look forward to you seeing

little, clearly pleased and entertained, and nods

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I scowl, turning away as Luca, Ben, and Jesse accept their own boxes, my mind

already rifling through his box as we step into the next room, which is smaller and has walls covered in mirrors. I look around passively, my mind

brown–haired professor teach? They’re so different – I can’t imagine, at all, that they’d teach something

go very still in shock before I

asks, coming to

say, grinning at myself as I turn a little, observing my plain face with no makeup, my hair tucked expertly up below my cap, my baggy fatigues. “That’s

a second and then looks across the room like I’m doing, his face bursting into a grin as he sees my reflection there too. He laughs. “Yup! You look good, Shrimpy!”

I do look like a boy, but I’m

she laughs a little too and waves me forward. I mean, it’s not like I recognize the voice

says. “I’ll take your measurements, and we’ll have you looking dashing in a custom

hesitate, realizing suddenly that this young

wants to

the precise dimensions of my form. And while my baggy candidate uniform conceals everything about my

SUN, LU Mar

Chapter 21

some details I don’t want anyone

“No worries, if you’re shy, I