The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Neumann laughs at my inappropriate remark, shaking his head. "I was hard on you to push you, Clark. You work harder when you're terrified. Someone has to herd you along towards your potential, after all," he looks around the room now, glaring a bit at my friends and my family, who all beam at me. "These ones, I suspect, pet you a little too much."

"Thank you, sir," Rafe says formally, coming forward, but Neumann just waves a hand at him, turning his attention back to me. I grin, a little pleased to have a professor pay more attention to me than Rafe, who is usually the golden boy.

"Don't listen to what those other Cadets said at the final test, either," Neumann says, stern. "Do you hear me on that? Half of them failed anyway, so they don't know what they're talking about. You're very promising, and we're incredibly excited about your future in the department. Not every successful cadet needs to be a bastion of physical force in order to be useful to the nation's military. Understood?" I nod eagerly, tucking my hands behind my back and straightening my shoulders, bolstered by the fact that he believes in me. And, quite frankly, the fact that half my classmates failed out.

Jerks.

"And," Neumann says, leaning forward to speak softly to me now, conspiratorial, "if any King has any particular objections on the matter, you can tell him that I said that. And that if he has any questions about your aptitude and potential, that he can ask me directly. I want you here in the Spring, Cadet... Clark."

My mouth drops open a little as I realize that Neumann... knows. He has perhaps always known.

hall. "I wish you all a happy winter break!" he calls to us, "get

after him, shock

Alphas standing in the room, all quietly

up into the air,

as he spins me around, and then I'm passed from arms to arms as everyone hugs me, and kisses my cheeks, and

of it, when someone clears

Jackson standing there, frowning around at us. "What's going

the news," Jesse calls over to him, and I can hear in his voice that he's pleased

over Jackson's face. "What," he says, slowly, looking around at everyone. "And you guys

Jackson's completely unperturbed by the news - that he never, ever thought for a single second that

Clark," he growls, beckoning me with a wave of his hand. I laugh and suddenly my feet are flying across the room. I throw myself into Jackson's arms, where he wraps me up and lifts me off the floor, turning me