The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Chapter 100

It takes me a long time to fall asleep, overwhelmed as I am by my new bond, the closeness of my mate, the secrets that we’ve passed between us that still ring through my mind. But as the minutes pass I feel my eyelids getting heavier and heavier, encouraged by the steady movement of Jackson’s hand over my hair.

When I do finally fall asleep, my head pillowed against Jackso sleep of one who feels both weary and completely safe.

chest, it’s the deep, true

I sleep so deeply that when my eyelids flutter open in the morning, I have…no idea where I am. Even though I am…completely comfortable.

I frown, not understanding, and curl into the warmth of what I assume is my mattress, though it’s a little…firmer than I remember? I’m not sure.

There’s a light chuckle, though, that makes me look up, and my frown deepens as I stare into Jackson’s face before I realize that…

“Oh!” I murmur, sitting up a little. He smiles at me, his hand pressing into my back, encouraging me to lean my head back down against his chest.

“It’s okay,” he murmurs, “take a second to wake up. There’s time.”

I lay my head back down against him, blushing a little as I realize that what I assumed was my mattress is just his body that I’m curled up in his lap, kind of sprawled over his torso, my face tucked against his pectoral –

God, is he really that big, that I can basically use his body as a bed?

Or am I just that small?

I peer up at him again, more awake now, taking a deep breath and raising a hand to rub at

my eye.

Slowly, a smile overtakes his mouth.

“What?” I mutter, shaking my head a little to clear it, a smile pulling at my lips as well

Emergency calls only (m¿

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because…..well, because he’s just staring at me. And it’s kind of nice.

“You’re just so pretty, he whispers, his voice a little awed as he traces his knuckles down the soft skin of my cheek.

I can’t help it then I burst into a brilliant smile.

Because my mate thinks I’m pretty.

him close and pressing probably a dozen kisses to his check and

respond, just puts a hand beneath my chin after a moment and tilts my face up to his, bringing his mouth to mine and kissing me

obviously, I kiss

–

the light of the morning than we were last night. There was something freeing about

there’s light by which we can see?

it’s time to

I say after Jackson breaks our kiss. I stay close, speaking softly as I run a hand. through his messy hair, tucking it back behind his ear,

and I can tell that he’s pleased. “Little rose–colored

that?” I ask, my eyes

I met her,” he murmurs, his finger curling in a tendril of my

I tilt

my

into a smile as the truth hits me. All

only

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cliffs with another

a dream,

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to that right now. “The only problem is,” I say, looking around the forest, “that my wolf is very obviously a

with him, setting me on my feet only when he’s fully standing. “We’ll only shift if we

think…” I bite my lip, looking up at him. “I mean, are we going

mountain and been able to climb it in the night would have been…well, the best of Warrior Track. So, maybe Jesse

and crossing my arms, “what you’re saying is….if I hadn’t been. weighting you down, you’d

grins at me, not denying it, but scooping me up in his arms instead and turning met in a slow circle

nudge my nose with his before I kick and wriggle, begging to be put down. Jackson laughs, but he puts me back on his feet and we begin to assess our plan and our few possessions. We quickly share the water, though I insist Jackson drink

need this?” I ask quietly. “If we’re going

–

he says, shrugging and making a snap decision as he likewise tosses his backpack into the brush. “We need to move fast now any extra weight is a detriment. Besides,” he bends over, scooping my discarded hat out of the dust where we left it last night and holding it out

only

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the smile from my lips as I wind the majority of my hair onto my head and plop the hat over top of it.

the last strands of my hair beneath the brim. “Where on earth did my mate go? Now there’s only her boyish twin, Ari Clark, marksman and chemical mastermind…”

powerful sorcerer,” I say, lofty, as we both turn away from the plateau, and

“melter of very tiny

shoulder, but I focus on my steps on the narrow path ahead of me, which is barely a path and more of a lucky outcropping of rock. I marvel again at Jackson’s sense of balance, as well as the fact that he

the bridge surrounded by cadets. I wonder, passively, whether those guarding it have crossed already? Or they’re still biding

check,” Jackson says, looking forward through the woods. “You wait here.”

I say, turning towards the