The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Chapter 96

But of course, time does pass, and we do eventually stop kissing when things again get heated. Because what Jackson said before really was the truth this is not the time or the place for it.

–

Somehow we separate ourselves from each other, though we’re never really more than an inch apart, and we take a moment to get comfortable, organizing our supplies and taking inventory before Jackson passes an apple to me.

“Here,” he murmurs. “Eat, please. And then you should probably get some sleep.”

I take the apple but laugh at the suggestion that I’m going to get any sleep. I mean, I just confessed my deepest secret to my mate what, does he think I’m going to just curl up and take a nap?

–

“I’m serious,” he growls, though I wave a hand at him, dismissing the implied danger in his voice that probably makes other men quail. We’re both well aware that he’d never hurt me. “You should rest, Ari.”

“Well, so should you!” I protest. But when I look up into his smirking face I scowl, shaking my head. “You seriously just don’t need it?”

“Nah,” he says, shaking his head and reaching for the canteen. “The water I need, we have to share that. But food and sleep that’s all for you. I’ll keep watch.”

–

“I’ll rest,” I say, hesitant. “But Jackson….there’s still a lot we need to talk about. And I’m not going to be able to sleep until we…come to terms with some stuff.”

“Okay,” he murmurs, wrapping an arm around me and pulling me tight to his side. I smile up at him, pleased that he’s not fighting me on it, but then I realize that he’s….well, he’s got a ton of questions, doesn’t he?

But before he gets to those…I have to start.

“Jackson,” I murmur, turning more fully to him now and taking his face seriously in my hands, gazing at him. “I am so…so sorry that I’ve had to keep this from you.”

Emergency calls onlyDOOM &

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forgive, his broad hand coming up and wrapping around my

smile takes my lips as I shake m easily, Jacks. You were tortured by

and forth. “You shouldn’t forgive me so

the corner of his mouth turning up in a smirk. “But now that it all makes sense – why I could catch whiffs of my mate’s sense all over the castle, why her trail always seemed to lead to you. I

Slowly he nods, believing me. “Again, Jacks, I hope you can forgive me for it, over time. It wasn’t easy but…I didn’t have a lot of choice, not if I

okay,” he says, giving an easy shrug, already over it. “I don’t care. I didn’t mind waiting, Ari – I just wanted to know that you were safe.”

should care,” I say, smiling at him but still feeling a little guilty. Luca’s response in some ways made more sense he punished me, a little, and rightfully so. I lied to him for weeks. But Jacks he’s so

–

as he presses a kiss to my hair. “It’s all worth it. I don’t want to make myself feel mad just because I should. I have you now, don’t I? It’s all that matters.”

for a second beneath his chin, cozy and warm despite the chill in the night air. Because…maybe he should be mad. There is…there is more coming, after all, that he’s not going to

–

turn, even though none of it is my choice either,

for Jackson’s heart, in the trials to

are, my wolf growls,

immediately agreeing. Jackson

–

calls only

Chapter 96

beneath it all,

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as it sounds, Jackson is a bit more desperate for love and affection than I’d like him to be. He’s willing to

too good, to pure and sweet. I press my eyes shut, begging the Goddess for

me with his nose, and I realize that

my face to look into his. “Just…thinking about a thousand things.”

not.

at him, unable to stop myself as I reach up to stroke his hair, tucking it back behind his ear over and over again. “Jacks,” I murmur, as he looks down at me with such tenderness in his face, his expression. A tenderness that is…not totally unfamiliar, if I’m being honest because he has looked at me that way before, even if he thought I was a boy. “Did you really not know?”