The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Chapter 62

Alvez smirks at me and lets me know that he’ll send word about time and place, and then we’re released.

Jackson nods to me, grabbing his bag. “I’ll send word too,” he says, standing up from his desk and looking towards the door.

“Wait,” I say, reaching towards him, wanting him to stop and talk for a minute. Not because I have anything to really say, I realize. Just because… I want to talk to him. “Won’t you just come to dinner, like you did before?”

“You’re already a packed house for dinner,” Jackson says, smirking at me. “Maybe we can… go outside for once. Try to talk to those birds.”

And I smile up at him, my spirit twisting a little with excitement. Because even though it was kind of a disaster the last time I met Jackson alone outside, this time? Well. I think I’d kind of like it.

But before I can express any of that, he’s already gone – striding for the door with no hint of a farewell. I laugh, watching him go.

“Sullen,” Rafe says, coming to my side with his books in his arms, frowning after Jackson.

“Nah, just…not prone to formality,” I sigh, nodding. Because I get it – and now I’m suddenly desperately intrigued to know more about him. What kind of world did Jackson grow up in where he never learned, or was encouraged to eschew, the polite lines of society?

And why did my grandmother the Goddess match him up with me, someone who learned social graces from the cradle as part of my role as the nation’s Princess?

“Come on,” Rafe sighs, wrapping an arm around my shoulder and tugging me with him. “Like I said before – mooning happens in the room, in private.”

“Oh, leave me be,” I mutter, smacking him on the chest, my mind still on my mate as we walk from the room, our cousin at our side.

The rest of the week goes remarkably fast, probably because I’m either being hauled on a

Chapter 62

workout or have my nose stuck in a book for the rest of it. Even our dinners, while congenial and full of laughs, usually end with a book in each of our laps, studying. It’s grueling work, but each of us know the stakes of it – and we’re all determined to pass our courses as well as the Examination.

“I don’t know what the Examination is,” Ben replies to me one night when I sit next to him on the floor for dinner. He passively cats a roll as he reads through some dense political theory. “No one does.”

“What?” I say, looking up towards Rafe and Jesse in their usual chairs. Luca, stretched out on the couch, looks up too. “Even you two don’t know what’s coming up in the Examination?”

–

who have gone through it – both passed and failed are sworn to a great deal of secrecy, even legally. It’s pretty much the only secret truly kept about the Academy. The only thing we know is

to the side as I lean back on my palms, my plate of food forgotten on the coffee table in front of me. “Is it like…another obstacle course?”

longer. What candidates have figured out and posted online is that it takes at least forty–eight

fascinated

really worth the effort to speculate and worry about it,” Rafe says, returning his attention back to his book. “You’re

you to say,” I mutter, glaring at my gigantic, powerful brother.

of us,” Rafe

control that.”

little twist to his lips,

though – I spent my childhood half in

Chapter 62

that I played with all throughout the day.

curse,” he murmurs. “Not

my Chemistry text as silence retakes the room, the only sound the merry crackle of the fire. Despite my interest in the material, though, my eyes drift to Luca, who lounges

but

And stubborn.

myself out along his side, resting my head on his chest. I want to feel, again, his body against mine. I want to feel his breath

And he seems quite a bit more content than me to just…wait for an opportunity to

–

too much control in the

this? This isn’t

a stalemate, and one of us is going to crack. I am

on the secret and everyone simply accept the fact that he’s an important part of my life. But considering that Rafe knows that Jackson is my mate? And Jesse does not?

sigh through my nose, shutting my eyes, wishing desperately that I could just…concentrate on school. I wish that my handsome mate wasn’t lounging on my couch

irresistible, smelling

meeting Laica’s, which are already on me. He

better if he’d just talk to me.

he just smirks, and gives me a devastating wink, and drops his attention