The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Chapter 0384

And by the tension in his shoulders, I can tell that he's working very, very hard to embody that.

"Come here, Ariel," he murmurs, standing by the door and beckoning with one hand, the other resting on his hip.

I send one last desperate glance at Daphne before walking to stand in front of my father.

When I stand about a foot in front of him he takes a deep breath in through his nose and reaches out to brush my hair back over my shoulder. "Well, baby trouble," he murmurs. "You smell...different."

The amount of deliberate understatement in that last word makes me fight back a groan.

I bite my lip, tucking my hands behind my back. "Is it bad?" I whisper.

"No, baby," he sighs, shaking his head at me and giving me a small smile, stroking his broad hand over my hair." It's not bad, not at all. Just...not as easy for a dad. Which is something Rafe and Mark might understand one day, but fortunately for you, you never will."

pitch forward that last foot between us and wrap my arms around my dad's waist, crushing myself against his chest. "I'm sorry," I whisper, meaning it desperately, "I

arms wrapping around me and hugging me close. "I'm just... adjusting. You're my little girl, and now someone else

I murmur, shutting

have to kill me before I did that," he

over at Daphne, giving her a brief nod of acknowledgement and

little

not sure yet," dad says, turning back to me and starting to unbutton one of the cuffs on his wrist. He looks at me seriously. "But the

and wipes his wrist against my neck and then down over my hair, just as Jesse did every morning and after every shower at the academy. Almost a knee jerk reaction, I hold

this for?" I ask,

feels about that, "but it should be enough to confuse the

ask, completely willing to do

we want you smelling like a Sinclair. The Atalaxians don't need to know about your double-mate situation, and with Luca in the room too they'll

that this morning. Then I look up at my dad out of the comer of