The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 31

“Well?” Jackson says, his voice low, and I flinch again – god, that’s getting annoying – as I snap my head up to look at him. He gestures towards the head table. “Hand in your test.”

“Um,” I say, and then another chair scrapes in the room. Someone else is finished too, and headed this way. “You take it,” I say, making a snap decision and nodding towards it.

“You finished first,” he growls, taking a menacing step towards me.

I shock myself by holding my ground. “Just turn in your test, Jackson,” I growl, looking up into his eyes, starting to get pissed. Because if one of us doesn’t do it, whoever finished next certainly will.

Jackson comes to the same conclusion that I do at the same moment, seeing the next candidate walking towards us. He snaps his gaze to me for a moment and then turns, expressionless, and places his test face-down on the table. I follow, doing the same, fully aware that if Jackson did as well as I did on this exam he just took first.

Which…well, it doesn’t really make much of a difference to our rankings, not really. But at least, to me, it feels like we’re more even now.

He gave up one for me, even if he didn’t mean to. And now? I’ve given one back.

As far as I’m concerned, we’re square.

And as I walk about ten feet behind him towards the barracks, doing my very best to turn my face away so that I don’t catch any spare sniffs of his scent, I very much hope that that’s the end of any interaction that me and Jackson McClintock get to have for my entire time at the academy.

Or, at least that’s what I tell myself.

My wolf, who lifts her head in the air and eagerly sniffs at his scent, her eyes half-lidded, her tongue lolling from her mouth?

She, clearly, has other ideas.

Get ahold of yourself, I growl to her.

No way, she says, shaking her fur out as a shiver passes through her. Do you remember the way he pinned our wrists above our head? Imagine what he could do in bed –

“Oh my god,” I murmur aloud, clenching my fists and storming past Jackson as we both walk through the door, locking down my mind and not letting any more of my wolf’s ridiculous thoughts in.

Because the last thing I need to be thinking about now is…

Anything close to that.

I climb up into my bed and lay down on top of my blankets, tucking my cap low over my eyes before I close them, waiting for Jesse and Rafe to come back so that we can take our showers and end this crazy day.

Luckily, I don’t have long to wait. They’re not stupid, after all.

“Cousin!” Jesse says, popping up by the side of my bed and making me gasp a little in surprise. He laughs as he reaches out to shake my shoulder. “Nicely done! I saw you get up first.”

“Maybe you’d have been done a little faster,” I say, raising an eyebrow at him as I sit up, “if you’d kept your eyes on the exam, instead of worrying about how everyone else was ranking.”

“How could I do that,” he says, rolling his eyes, “when the exam was so boring.”

“Not everything is fun, Jesse,” I say, sighing and hopping down from my bunk, starting to gather my bath stuff.

“Nope,” Rafe says, walking up and putting out a hand out to stop me. “Not yet. We’re not done today.”

“What?” I ask, looking between them. I mean, the day is done – there is nothing else scheduled, and frankly I am beat. So what…

“Come on,” Jesse says, slinging an arm around my shoulders and leading me away. “We’ve got a surprise for you.”

I groan, but Jesse grins and Rafe is solemn as they walk me through the barracks and back towards the door. I have a bad feeling that whatever this is? It’s not going to be fun. But before we can get to the door, Rafe pauses, peering into one of the bunks.

“Ternicki,” he says, and I turn curiously to see Ben’s head snap up, confused. “Come on,” Rafe continues, nodding to the door.

“Where?” Ben says, a line of confusion forming between his brows.

“Does it matter?” Rafe asks, dry, and Ben laughs a little, shrugging and getting out of bed, slipping his boots on and starting after us without tying them. He catches up fast, looking between us all curiously but not asking any questions. I shrug at him, letting him know that I don’t know either, and we both sigh as Rafe and Jesse lead us back into the gym.