The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Chapter 69

“Fine.” I say, yawning into my wine. “Just for you, Daphne. I’ll bite the bullet and make out with Luca Grant someday and tell you all about it.”

She laughs with me, but…well, my wolf turns in an eager circle in my soul, desperately hoping that I do.

“Thank you, what a martyr you

what a martyr you are,” she says, sarcastic, but then she sighs and glances at the clock. “I think it’s time to get you back, though.”

My jaw drops open as I look up at her clock too. “That’s impossible,” I murmur, shaking my head.

“Deeply unfair,” she agrees, putting her wine down and reaching for mine, which I hand to her. “Will you help me make some deliveries on the way up?” she asks, gesturing towards some boxes by the door. I murmur that of course I will – I’m a gentleman cadet, after all and she laughs as we both fill our arms with boxes.

Daphne leads me through the back corridors of the castle and, true to her word, we don’t meet a single soul. I’m fascinated by the passages, which are so different from the ones I traverse every day – much darker, smaller, and more secret. We take a freight elevator upwards and I’m a little surprised when the door opens directly into the corridor where the majority of the cadet dorms are. Ben, I think, is somewhere on this floor.

“Oh,” I say, surprised as we step out of the elevator and the doors close, blending seamlessly with the stone wall. I run my fingers over the place where the door just was, fascinated. “God, you’d never know it was there…”

“I know,” she says. “Cool, right? Come on,” she nods towards the boys‘ doors and we quietly walk along, dropping boxes outside of doors and giving a little knock before we move away. to the next one. Calls of thanks follow us down the hall but Daphne moves quickly so that there’s no time to respond.

When our boxes run low towards the center of the corridor, though, Daphne curses lightly under her breath, looking down at the one in her hands.

“What?” I ask.

“I brought the wrong one,” she sighs, looking up at me and then back towards the elevator. “Do you mind? We have to go back and get it

“That’s okay.” I say, smiling at her. “You go on – I’ll drop off these two,” I say, nodding to the ones in my hand, “and then continue upstairs.”

Daphne bites her lip, looking over at me, clearly remembering her promise to Rafe.

“I’m two flights of stairs away from my room, Daph,” I say, grinning at her. “I think I can take the risk.”

laughs a little and nods. “Okay. But if his Highness asks, I walked you all the way to the

her a quick hug before she scurries back towards the

thinking over the night with a great deal of joy as I drop the last two packages off, giving little knocks on the door as I go. God, it was just so great to be able to talk freely to someone. I mean, I can talk to Jesse and Rafe, but not the way you would

“Hey!”

spin in the hall towards the voice behind

see Alan Wright standing over the package that I just dropped at his door, glaring daggers

the hell are you doing with my uniform!?” he snaps, stomping

I protest, stumbling a few steps back. “I just dropped it off-”

the hell are you dropping

just helping! I

in his fist, yanking me closer to him. I gasp in surprise and then grab his wrists, baring my teeth and

hauling me forward so I don’t have the room to get

you alone,

my face. “I’m glad I finally got you

shout, choking a little and scrabbling at his wrist, scratching and smacking at it, trying to hurt him

hard this time that I my head snaps back on my neck. “You’re the reason my brother

truly concentrating on getting the fuck away

the obstacle course! You and god damn McClintock what did

didn’t do

DID!” Alan

faces popping out as Wright shoves me away from him and raises his fist like he’s going to beat me to a pulp. “You cheated, and you weaseled your way into this Academy, and you took

flinch back as Wright moves towards me, because this man – he’s strong, as big as Jesse at least, and powerful

drawing his arm back now as I turn to run.

–

my mind is telling me to run. I turn just in time to see Lucal grabbing Wright by the arm, hauling him back as Wright begins to throw the punch that would have connected with the side of my head, probably sending me

the fuck off of

hard, so that

fight, “these god damn royals getting whatever they want, bringing

advancing on Wright now, “carned