The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 40

“Fine, Rafe,” I sigh, scowling and pulling away from him, knowing it’s logical but hating the way he pulls his big brother card and bosses me around. “Can we get to breakfast? Jesse’s going to start to freak out.”

“Fine,” Rafe growls, grabbing my jacket and tugging me close to his side.

“Let me go,” I groan, pulling away, but he doesn’t let me go.

“Like glue, Ariel,” he snaps, glaring down at me. “Glue.”

“Glue, Rafe,” I agree, rolling my eyes up at him. But when he lets my jacket go, I stay close, hardly a hand’s breadth between us as we walk the short distance back to the barracks and inside for breakfast.

As I predicted, Jesse is indeed freaking out. He’s watching the door like a hawk when we come in, Ben and Luca at the table with him. Jesse throws his hands up in the air like we can’t believe what we’ve cut it this close, but Rafe just waves a hand at him and pushes me over to the food line.

Overprotective barely begins to describe it as Rafe fills his own tray and mine with whatever’s left, a random assortment of cereal and breakfast meats and granola. When another candidate leans over me to grab a yogurt, Rafe literally growls and snaps his teeth at him, making both of us jump.

The candidate jumps almost out of his boots before muttering his apologies and darting away, wide-eyed.

“You need to cool it, Rafe,” I say, looking up at him in shock as I pick up my tray.

“Fucking mates,” Rafe growls, shoving me between the shoulder blades and making me stumble towards our table. I just heave a sigh and ignore him, sitting next to Ben when I get to the table – as far away from my other mate as I can get.

Because I absolutely do not need Rafe finding out the other half of my secret – not seeing how he reacted to the first bit.

“Where were you,” Jesse snaps, glaring at us. “I wake up and you’re both gone? And you almost missed breakfast!”

“Ari decided to go for a run on his own,” Rafe growls, glaring at me but not saying anything else.

Ben studies his breakfast and doesn’t get involved, but Luca lifts a spoonful of cereal to his mouth, blatantly watching our little cousin drama with interest.

“Ari,” Jesse breathes, staring at me. “You know you’re not allowed to –“

“Rafe already schooled me, all right?” I growl, flicking my eyes in Luca’s direction – an action he catches, of course, because he’s starting at me. Jesse looks over at Luca and realizes that he’s perhaps saying too much. “Just…let’s let it go.”

Jesse heaves a big sigh as Rafe starts to shovel food into his mouth and we all sit in stubborn silence. I pour some dry sugary cereal into my hand and shove it into my mouth, crunching on it, not having much stomach for anything else. Luca smirks at me, somehow entertained by that.

I glare at him. His smirk just deepens.

But before we can get any further, the Captain stands at the front of the room.

“All right,” he says, gathering everyone’s attention to him differently. “This year, we’re changing things up for the final few days of candidacy.”

Everyone sits up straight at this and Rafe looks around at all of us in surprise. Luca and Ben shrug, letting him know they have no idea what’s coming.

“Academy officials have reported a level of discontent with our candidates’ survival skills. Apparently, we’ve been sending them a bunch of cadets who can beat each other bloody but who fall apart after a single night in the wild. So, over the next forty-eight hours we’re splitting you up and sending you out into the woods in teams to test your survival skills as part of your candidacy ranking.”

He continues speaking, laying out the rules as our little group looks anxiously around at each other.Luca curses under his breath, tossing his spoon down on his tray.

“No survival skills?” Jesse asks him, a little pity in his voice – because he and Rafe, at least – and me, to an extent – have been camping with our dads for years.

“I’m a city kid,” Luca mutters, shaking his head.

“Same,” says Ben, his voice filled with dread.

“You’re staying with me,” Rafe mutters, glaring at me across the table and looking around. “I’ll find a way to pull some strings –“

“You can’t do that, Rafe,” I grumble, sitting back and crossing my arms.

“You are not going into the woods with that maniac,” he growls, glaring hard at me.

“What maniac?” Luca asks, frowning.

We all ignore him.

“No,” I say, my eyebrows going up as I look past my brother at the leadership board, which has changed now to show the groups with which we’ll be headed into the wild. I point at it. “I’m not going into the woods with him – but I’m not going with you either.”

Everyone’s head whips towards the board, Rafe going pale as he realizes that Jesse, Rafe and I have – for the first time – been completely split up. And I’m right – Jackson is in a totally different group as well.

But after he studies the board for a second, Luca turns to grin at me.

Because he and I?

Our names are on the same list.