The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 127

My breath is all swept from my chest as my butt hits the floor, my hand going instantly to my nose. I gasp, my eyes smarting as I wonder whether or not I’m bleeding –

“Oh my god,” a voice says, “what the hell are you doing!?”

My eyes instantly snap up because obviously, obviously it’s not a piece of granite in the hall.

It’s just my damn gigantic mate.

Jackson crouches in front of me, his eyes frantically scanning my face.

“Is it bleeding?” I ask, taking my hand away from my face. I mean, there’s no blood on my hand, but I can’t really feel anything but rampant pain in my face right now.

“No,” Jackson murmurs, studying me closely, taking my chin between his thumb and his finger to turn my face back and forth, studying it. “You’re an idiot for running through the halls like that, but there doesn’t seem to be any real damage.”

“It would have been fine if you weren’t just lurking in the doorway,” I sigh, putting my hands on the ground to push myself up.

“What the –“ Rafe’s voice booms behind me, instantly livid. “What the hell did you do to him!?”

Jackson’s eyes go wide as he stands up in a flash, putting his hands up in front of him. “Clark did this to himself,” he insists. “I am not responsible for any of this.”

“He’s right,” I sigh, pushing to my feet and nodding to my brother. “I ran into him - I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

“You didn’t see…Ari, how did you miss him!?” Rafe sputters, gesturing to my mate, who is as big as my brother, if not even half an inch taller.

“I don’t know,” I moan, being kind of a baby about it because I know Rafe will let me off the hook. “My face hurts, be nice to me.” I rub my nose, scowling.

Rafe turns to Jackson, sighing and rolling his eyes but letting him know that he’s off the hook.

“Actually,” Jackson says, turning his attention to me again. “I was looking for you.”

Rafe’s shoulders go tense. I look up at Jackson with interest.

“You have an hour before class, right? And I have Friday mornings free. Do you want to get that magic homework in now?”

“Oh,” I say, my eyebrows going up. “Actually, yeah,” I say, my wolf spinning in an eager circle in my soul. “That’s a great idea.”

“Ari,” Rafe protests, shaking his head. “Even if he has off, I don’t –“

“What does that have to do with anything?” Jackson asks, frowning.

“Well he can’t –“ Rafe says, but then he snaps his mouth shut, realizing that…it will be very weird if he tells Jackson that I can’t go anywhere alone with him without my big cousin to chaperone. Rafe sighs and crosses his arms. “It’s dangerous,” he says.

“What?” Jackson says, smirking at him. “You think I can’t protect him?” He gestures to me like it’s it’ll be the easiest thing in the world.

Rafe narrows his eyes, because that is obviously not what he’s worried about.

“It’s an hour,” Jackson says, looking Rafe up and down like he’s being ridiculous. “I’ll walk him to class and everything after. It’ll be fine.”

Rafe’s mouth gapes open for a second as he searches for a reason to protest, but when he comes up with nothing Jackson just shifts his gaze to me and jerks his head towards the long hall. “Come on, let’s go outside and see if you can blow up the sun or something.”

“This is a bad idea!” Rafe calls as I hurry to Jackson’s side and start to walk with him.

“It’ll be fine!” I shout back to him, excited. But as I turn to smile at my brother, to let him see that I really do think that I’m going to be okay under my mate’s protection, my smile falters a little when I see Luca and Jesse standing at the door, staring after us.

Jesse nods and waves to me as Rafe mutters something to him about homework, but Luca?

Luca’s jaw falls open in shock, and then he snaps it shut, crossing his arms and glowering at me.

My wolf yips victoriously inside of me and I have to laugh a little, because quite frankly, he deserves to be jealous. If he won’t meet me in the dream state or talk to me about this thing between us?

Well, here’s my other mate, who very much is willing to make time in his day to spend a few minutes alone with me.

I grin, and subtly take a step closer to Jackson, turning my face up to smile at him. And he smiles right back.

And so I walk out of the castle into the open air at my mate’s side, going for what I can only think of in my mind as…kind of a first date.