The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy Chapter 51

“Ari!” he shouts, starting after me, his steps frustrated, a little angry.

But I press my eyes shut, and beg the dream to end, and my wolf – understanding now, I think –lets me go.

And suddenly my eyes fly open. I’m in my bed, my heart pounding, my breath coming fast.

I stare at the ceiling, panting for a moment, and then my head twists, my eyes going immediately to Luca’s bunk.

The barracks are dark, quiet, no other groups coming in this late at night. As I watch, Luca sits up in his bed, slowly rubbing his head, the low lights of the room highlighting his naked stomach and chest.

My heart aches as he slowly turns, looking over at my bunk. But I don’t move, holding my breath, hoping to hell that he can’t see me awake, staring back at him. Because this…

This is maybe all moving too fast, getting too real. As much as my attraction to my mate is undeniable – maybe inevitable…

He still can’t know. Not yet – and I don’t know what the right time would be but…it’s not now, now when we’re candidates, not while we could still be cut.

I clench my teeth and press my eyes shut, cursing myself for the fool I am, for letting it go too far.

“Come on, Ariel,” I murmur to myself, “get yourself together.” And, despite myself, I spend the next hour or two wishing my big brother were here to keep me in line.

_________

I don’t know when I fell asleep after that, though it must have been late because I was up for hours trying to avoid slipping back into the dream state.

I do know when the hell I wake up though, because Jesse launches himself onto my bed shouting “Shrimp!” at the top of his lungs and punching me twice on the shoulder before wrapping me in a big hug. “You survived!”

I shriek at the start of his assault, but I start to rain blows on him when I figure out it’s just my cousin saying hello and not some kind of vicious midnight attack. “Get the hell off of me – you asshole –“

Jesse just laughs at me, because he knows he’s not doing me any harm. He sits back, grinning at me. “You smell like campfire. No time for a shower? When did you get back?”

“We got back in the middle of the night,” I murmur, looking around with a little bit of surprise to see that the barracks are three quarters full.

“Didn’t sleep out?” he asks, interested and a little concerned.

“Nope!” I say, looking around for Rafe.

“He’s in the bathroom,” Jesse explains, looking over his shoulder. “Apparently they had to tramp through swampland to get back – he’s gross.”

“Oh,” I say, interested. “Hey, how’d yours go?”

“Good!” he replies. “I’m glad we spent all those nights freezing with our dads in the wilderness, though. Made things easy. What about yours?”

“We did great,” Luca’s voice says from our side, and Jesse and I both start and turn to see Luca standing beside my bed. “We were first back.”

“Hey!” Jesse says, his face breaking into a broad grin as he leans forward to smack Luca’s raised hand in a high-five. “Glad you made it.”

“Shrimp did all the hard work,” Luca says, climbing up on the side of my bed like he did last night and smiling at Jesse. I note with anxiety that he studiously avoids looking me in the eye. “The fire and the boiling water thing.”

“He’s a shrimp of many talents,” Jesse says, turning to consider me with a mock seriousness.

“Get off of me, you big cow,” I growl, smacking at Jesse, who laughs and jumps down from the bed. Luca makes way, standing with Jesse on the floor as I climb down too. “I want a shower too, if Rafe’s getting one,” I say, looking at Jesse significantly, meaning he should take me.

“Same,” Jesse says, agreeing amiably and reaching into his bunk for his toothbrush kit. “Luca, you’re already cleaned up?”

“Yup,” he says, yawning and stretching his arms high over his head.

“Why are you so tired,” Jesse laughs, smacking Luca on his exposed stomach and making my mate laugh. “Didn’t you two get like twelve hours of sleep?”

“At least eight full,” Luca murmurs, still not looking at me and rubbing the back of his neck, contemplative. “But I had some…weird dreams.”

My cheeks instantly flush and I momentarily go still in the process of collecting a clean uniform from the compartment under the bunk.

“Really,” Jesse asks, his hands on his hips as he peers at Luca curiously. “I never remember my dreams. What was this one about?”

“Um,” Luca says, and as I stand up and turn – desperately curious – my eyes go wide to see that he’s blushing. “Nothing much. Just…weird.”

And, still awkwardly rubbing his neck and blushing furiously, Luca’s eyes quickly dart to me. Frowning, Jesse notes Luca’s strange disposition and follows his eyes to me – taking in my horrible blush as well. My eyes dart down to my feet and I stay…totally still.

But Jesse’s gasp is clear.

He’s put the pieces together. He’s finally, finally figured it out.

“Shower time!” I say, a little shrill, pushing past Luca and hurrying towards the bathroom, desperate to avoid this awkward conversation with my cousin.

Behind me, I hear Jesse’s hurried goodbye to Luca and then his footsteps pounding after me.