The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 120

Time at the Academy presents neat little patterns for us, and Rafe, Jesse, and I fall gratefully into them. Because life? It is busy. Every morning Jesse gets me up early, making me go for a run with him even before we go to breakfast. I’d enjoy these moments with my favorite cousin more if I wasn’t so damn tired every day.

“Can we get a coffee maker in the suite,” I pant, my breath puffing in little clouds in the damp and foggy air. “I can’t go for these runs without the aid of caffeine.”

“Come on, Scrimpy!” Jesse laughs, putting on a burst of speed and swatting me on the shoulder as he pulls ahead, obliging me to keep up. “Let your zest for life wake you in the morning! Not caffeine!”

“Life would be much more zesty with a little espresso,” I growl, sighing and speeding up to keep pace. “With a side of biscotti!”

After our run, we hastily get dressed and go to breakfast with our group. Luca, to my chagrin and agony, continues to ice me out. He sits with me at every meal, and at dinner he jokes with me and the rest of our group like nothing’s changed. But not once does he try to pull me aside, to make a moment to talk about what happened between us in the birch forest.

What he maybe, probably now knows - the incredible secret he’s carrying, that I’m trusting him with.

Breakfast, of course, wouldn’t be the best time to talk about anything, gathered as we are around our little round table, but still – I’m dying to talk about what happened, to learn what he figured out about my secret, and he just…won’t let me.

“Luca,” I growl the next morning when Rafe and Jesse get up to go speak to some other warrior candidates about a group project they’re working on and Ben obligingly tucks his nose into a book. “What are –“

“No here, Shrimp,” Luca replies, his voice low. “This is a way bigger conversation that we’re not having in the Hall.”

“Well then why won’t you meet me in the…” I hesitate, glancing Ben’s way, because I almost said dream. Ben just turns his page, looking for all the world like he’s completely lost in his textbook. “Forest,” I conclude, the word pressed between my teeth.

Luca narrows his eyes at me. “Oh, you want to meet in the forest?” he says, his lips turning up with the irony of it. “The one you can just make disappear whenever you’re done talking? Come on, Shrimp. You haven’t played fair for weeks, and you’re still not. I need…more than that.”

My mouth falls at his stubbornness and I realize, quite suddenly, that Luca – whatever he has figured out – is not at all freaked out.

He’s mad at me.

And my heart sinks as he sips his coffee, turning his eyes back to his textbook – we all pretty much read at breakfast today, trying to cram everything in while we can – because…Luca is right. I have not been fair, and while I’m not sure that I’d have made any different choices…

I’ve really made my mate take the brunt of it, haven’t I?

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, looking down at my plate, feeling forlorn.

“We’re good,” Luca says, his voice still soft so only he and I can hear. I snap my head up, looking at him with wide eyes. “Don’t worry about it,” he says, glancing over at me. “Just…not here. Not at dinner, either. We need a space where it’s just us, and a long time to chat.”

“So when…”

“I don’t know, Ari,” he says, a little exasperated, lifting his eyes to meet mine. “Considering how your cousins never let you out of their sight, that’s going to be a little difficult, isn’t it?”

I blush at the way that he emphasizes the word cousins, wondering if that means…

But before I can consider anything, Rafe and Jesse return to the table. “Ready?” Rafe asks, looking towards Luca as he lifts his coffee to his lips and swigs it down in one go.

“Yup!” Luca says, cheerfulness immediately returning to his expression as he gets to his feet.

“You’ll get Ari to Chemistry?” Rafe asks Ben as Luca and Jesse collect their things.

Ben shoots a thumbs-up over his shoulder, still concentrating on his book, as the Warrior-track boys start to head towards their early class. As he leaves, Luca brushes his arm against mine – casual enough that it could be accidental.

But lingering enough that, when I look up at him, and see him looking down at me, his eyes warm?

God damn it, but it makes me want to jump right back into his arms, my legs wrapped around his waist.

I sigh, returning to my own textbook, forcing my mind onto Chemistry, because I know that Neumann is going to quiz us hard today to see who has been able to keep up with the insane amount of homework he has assigned.