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

he peers beyond Rafe and blinks a little at Ben and

his best Prince and Heir persona. “Is there something here we need to collect?”

the box is your dorm information and key, the Cadet Handbook, and a map

around Rafe, listening interestedly, and I jump a little when I hear

name.

he has what I assume is my box in his hands. “Congratulations, Cadet.” he says, his voice dry and amused in a way that makes me look up into his eyes

then I hesitate because…I mean, he’s just staring

forward to seeing much, much more of you,

taught me to be sweet to anyone who says they look forward to seeing me again, but my reaction just makes his own smile

shakier ground here, and under a great deal more scrutiny, as

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 you, 100.”

pleased

Chapter 34

Luca, Ben, and Jesse accept their own boxes, my mind

smaller and has walls covered in mirrors. I look around passively, my mind still reeling from my interaction to the professor, who was the second person to tell me today that they’re

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

on a figure across the room and I go very still in shock before I suddenly burst out laughing, realizing that I’m looking at myself

coming to my side.

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 what I look like?”

frowns at me for a second and then looks across the room like I’m doing, his face bursting into a grin as he

one takes me seriously,” I murmur. Because honestly, I do look like a boy, but I’m sure that I’m the

it, turning towards it in shock as she laughs a little too and waves me forward. I mean, it’s not like I recognize the voice or anything – it’s just….a girl. “A lot of guys have that reaction

on a little ottoman. “Come forward,” she says. “I’ll take your measurements, and we’ll have you looking dashing in

that

to touch

form. And while my baggy candidate

SUN, LU Mar

Chapter 21

going to have access to some

shy, I can take someone else