The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

"I hate that," I murmur, working to press myself closer to him, even though that's not really possible. "I hate the idea of you scared, and alone, and talking to girls when I was just like...half a city away." "But you were engaged," he says, his voice strange - I think a little amused? I don't know. I can't quite parse it.

"You knew about that?" I ask, looking up at him wide-eyed.

"How could I not?" he asks, grinning at me. "You were all over the media - and it's all anyone would talk about, especially as it got close."

"Well," I say, smiling myself a little too and reaching up to stroke my fingers through his hair. "What did you think about it?"

I had been instructed to think was important, what I could understand - a royal wedding..." he shakes

a little, my smile deepening. "You must

me like he can't hold my eyes while he admits it. "Fine," he says, heaving a little sigh. "I thought you were...very pretty." "Pretty!?" I say, grinning and sitting up

mutters, still not looking at me, a faint blush on his cheeks. "I saw

tugging on his shirt, wanting him to look at me again. My mate, ever obliging, turns his head to smile at me. "Because you were a boy, Ariel - and you smelled like a boy, and I had no reason to equate the lowest-ranked Candidate at

me closer and bending me back a bit in a way that makes heat coil in my core. "You are pretty. Much prettier in person, and not dressed up in all that bride-y gauze." "Yes, all that bride stuff really was crap," I say with a sigh, staring up at him, starry-eyed and swept away by how wonderful he is - at once handsome, and powerful, and cute. God, how does he manage it? But there's still so much more I want to know, and

you spend your time off? Did you hang

in my mate's lap, listening to him talk for hours, spinning out the story of his