The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Chapter 42

“What, is your subconscious homophobic?” I ask, continuing to be frustrated and a little annoyed at him for not believing me even though I’m telling him the truth and spilling a serious secret for his own good.

Because honestly! I could make out with him here! And I would be the only one who knew that it was real!

I’m doing this for him, to be fair, and yet he persists in not believing me! It’s very rude.

“It might be,” Luca says with a shrug, still looking down at me. “I wouldn’t think that it was, but here you are, still not kissing me, even though I keep trying. Honestly, Ari, being shut down by the figment of my own imagination is very annoying –”

“I’m real!” I insist again, this time through my teeth.

“Prove it,” he says, shrugging.

“Ask me anything!”

“That won’t work,” he says, turning his head to the side. “Anything you say is something I already know or think I know. No way to verify that it’s true.

“Fine,” I say, crossing my arms and lifting my chin. “Ask me something tomorrow, in real life – something impossible, that you’d never predict. I’ll give you the same answer here as I do then.”

Luca turns his head a little, considering. “That could work,” he murmurs, but then he turns back to me with a sly smile. “But in the meantime, you and I could, you know, fool around a little…”

In the distance, my wolf howls with delight.

“Whoa,” Luca says, turning to look for her. “What was that?”

“It was my wolf,” I sigh.

“Really?” he asks, and then the turns back to me, smirking. “Your wolf does…not sound adverse to the idea.” He leans more fully against the tree now, bringing his body closer to mine and kind of pinning me back against the trunk in a way that…

12:49 Sun, 10 Mar

Chapter 42

That I do not mind at all.

“Luca,” I sigh, and honestly I have to close my eyes as I turn my face away from him, because if I spend even a moment longer looking up at the shadows his long lashes cast against his cheeks…I am definitely going to do something I regret.

“What?” he asks softly, cupping my cheek in his palm and turning my face back to his, his hand and his voice both impossibly gentle. “What do you want, Ari?”

And his question…I know instinctually that there are layers to it. That he’s asking me what I want, but also what I like –

want to be

him to

or not I want him to pull me tight against him as he presses his mouth hard to mine – which I

way that feels….god, it feels fucking amazing, his

darkly and my eyes fly open, already glaring. “Not that kind of question,” I growl, and he laughs again.

my game even as he strokes his thumb along the skin of my cheek. “Real–Ari had my nan’s coffee cake tonight,

I answer immediately, “with

through me – because I stand by what I decided last time. It is not fair to be in this dream

very

both going to know that

I mean, it is a very girly desert. “Of course sprinkles,” I murmur, sighing as I take one last

a deep breath, savoring his scent and the press of his muscled torso against me for one last second. I hesitate, but then I lift my hands, and let my palms press against his sides, feeling the lines of his obliques as I slowly slide my hands

myself imagine what his

shudder passes through

it, Ari,” he growls,

my eyes shut, and will the dream to end.

bed and I clench my teeth with a groan, turning and burying my face

cursing myself vehemently for having a sense of ethics and the willpower to

it I

of his imagination that looks like me so he can figure out how he’s

screaming from

least I think he will. I sigh, curling up in my pillows and wrapping myself up in my soft white duvet, considering it. Because Luca – he still thinks I’m a boy, and as much as

just unfairly confusing him because I’m his mate underneath

this, because Ben revealed today how tenuous my secret already is. And as much as I’m fine with Ben knowing… Luca? My mate? It’s a different story – an unpredictable level of exposure that I’m just not ready

hiding my gender at this school, because failing to do

Chapter 12

just gotten hold of the thing I never knew I always wanted: a

not at all ready to give that up with Luca Grant.

even for the chance to make

over again in my blankets, and I close my eyes and force myself to try and go back to sleep – a state which feels very, very far away right now.

early, some kind of Alpha alarm clock that I was not

‘em, little cousin!” Jesse shouts, throwing a pillow into the open curtain of my nook. I jump and shrick when it hits me right in the head.

of sleep,” I growl, pulling the blankets over myself and

breakfast, they don’t,” Rafe says, laughing and yanking my away,

duvet

just come up in the dumbwaiter?” I ask, sitting up finally when I

Jesse says around his toothbrush as he walks out of the bathroom, brushing as he strides around the room in

and looking around for my boots. Rafe tosses one in my direction as he takes Jesse’s place in the bathroom. I sigh and grab it, yawning so wide my jaw cracks. As I pull my boot on I hope that there’s coffee with breakfast – because while dream states do happen while you’re dreaming, I’m not sure that I’d say they