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?"

was all very far from what I had been instructed to think was important, what I could understand

a little,

eyes while he admits it. "Fine," he says, heaving a little sigh. "I thought

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

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 the academy with the pretty girl I'd

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

sitting up straighter and resolving to be good. "How'd you spend your time off? Did you hang out

to him talk for hours, spinning out