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

waiting for…” he peers beyond Rafe and blinks a little at Ben and

putting on his best Prince and

key, the Cadet Handbook, and

jump

name.

dark–haired professor again – the one who made us hold that strange orb this afternoon. I move eagerly towards him, seeing 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 as I take the box from his

you,” I say, and then I hesitate because…I mean,

forward to seeing much, much more of

look forward to seeing

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

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,

clearly pleased and entertained, and nods

Chapter 34

away as Luca, Ben, and Jesse accept their own boxes, my mind racing as I follow Rafe to the next step in

step into the next room, which is 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 going to see more

the hell do the Captain and this brown–haired professor teach? They’re so different – I can’t imagine, at all, that they’d teach

still in shock before I suddenly burst out laughing, realizing that I’m looking at

Jesse asks, coming to my side.

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?”

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

do look like a boy, but I’m sure that I’m the smallest, wimpiest, most pink–cheeked little guy that’s

I hear 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 when they see themselves for the first time in candidate

forward,” she says.

realizing suddenly that this young woman

wants to touch

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

SUN, LU Mar

Chapter 21

some details I don’t want

you’re shy, I can