The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Chapter 80

“So, what was going on in there?” Jackson asks softly as we move through the quiet halls, glancing over his shoulder as we go.

“Don’t you know?” I ask, frowning up at him.

He just looks at me blankly, not answering.

“Well, then why did you interrupt?” I ask, confused. Because it’s one thing if Jackson interrupted because he knew that Alvez was going to be a creep, but quite another if he interrupted for…well, why else would he have interrupted?

“I don’t trust that guy,” Jackson sighs, the words slipping between clenched teeth. “Something’s…off about him.” He moves his eyes to me again, searching my face. “Was I wrong?” His words are tense.

I sigh, shaking my head. “No, you weren’t wrong, Jackson,” I say, looking forward as we climb into an elevator and Jackson presses the brass button, closing he doors. “I was…very uncomfortable in there.”

–

Jackson grunts in a self–satisfied way, pleased I think to have his instincts confirmed. “I

don’t like the way he looks at you,” he says, quite soft. “I knew it was going to be trouble when he gave me that note, asking you to come alone.”

“How did you know the note said to come alone?” I ask, looking up at him.

Jackson turns, instantly frowning down at me like the answer is obvious. “Because I read it.”

I burst out laughing, shaking my head at him. “Jackson, you can’t just read my mail.

“I was helping you!”

“That’s not an excuse!” but I’m smiling, and he smirks back at me, figuring out that I’m not actually mad. Because he really did help me – I’d have been in a very tricky situation, I think, had Jackson not come pounding on the door.

Jacksons murmurs as the elevator raises us up

or..or come get me.

to notice that I’m looking at him. And inwardly, I wonder how the hell he’s justifying

to me that Jackson is protective of me because some part of him knows, deep down, that I’m his mate or that I’m special to him, in some way. It’s happening, I think, on almost a bodily level he’s driven to ensure my safety by the same biological mechanism that makes a hen protect her chicks. But how…how the hell is he

—

back on her haunches and turning her head curiously in Jackson’s direction. He must have figured it out and he’s just…playing it cool.

but in some ways he’s so outside of our world, our culture. Would

willing to address his attraction to me, if he feels it? I’ve heard that Northern communities are much, much less progressive with things like homosexuality and gender fluidity. Even if Jackson did feel a stirring towards me, would he let himself go there, the way Luca was so willing

dormitory floor, shaking my head at my mate, wishing I

the elevator and turning his

I continue to look up at him, at the stark panes of his face. “I

almost stumbles a step as we walk down the quiet

actually do that. “Me?” he says in disbelief, gesturing

–

that I’m certainly the one keeping secrets. “You’ve got them too, you know,” I say quietly as we reach the stairs

begin to climb them up to

his head. “I’ll gladly tell you everything you want to know – every single

in me as we make our

hallway, from the silence bemehow, by the

own door, I know that I’m

one here that Jesse and Rafe are away, probably exercising. That Luca and

be so easy,

tell him everything…

at me to do it do it do it, I shake

the direction of my