The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy novel Chapter 198

I wait, trying to be patient, letting him decide what to tell.

“I was…sent to learn things,” he murmurs, hanging his head a little. “New fighting techniques, new technologies. And then, when I’ve decided that I learned enough, I’m supposed to…desert. To go back and teach the Community what I learned.”

I tense in his arms, my hands again taking fistfuls of his shirt, suddenly terrified by the idea that he’s going to leave and go back to that…that place.

But Jackson just laughs and shakes his head. “Don’t worry,” he murmurs, leaning forward and pressing a kiss to first one of my cheeks, and then the other. “I already decided that I’m not going back.”

“Oh,” I say, surprised, even as the tension lessens in my shocked muscles. “Why not?”

“Because,” he murmurs, “I learned…enough, in the few months that I lived in Capital, to understand that what they’re doing is…well, I mean, it’s a cult, right? They control people, give them no choice in their lives. They…take their children away.”

He sighs, shaking his head, and I press myself closer against him, wanting to fix it all – heal it all, instantly.

“I mean, I don’t know…anything about having a family,” he murmurs, raising his eyes to mine. “But I do know that if I had found you, somehow, when I lived there? They…they wouldn’t have let me keep you – wouldn’t even have let me see you. And there’s something wrong about that, Ari – wrong about all of it. It’s not right – I can’t go back. I can never go back.”

My eyes fill with tears as I study his face, as I see that his own heart is broken with the realization. And I’m overwhelmed, suddenly, with the strength it must have taken to come to that decision –

To decide to leave, forever, the world in which you were raised? Everyone you’ve ever loved, no matter how badly they’ve treated you?

And I can’t help it, then. Even though we’re supposed to be talking, even though there’s so much more I want to know, I kiss Jackson, wanting him to feel the promise in my words as well as hear it. Because he’s mine now, and I’m not letting him go, not for anything.

And as my mate kisses me back, I feel it happen – feel our perfect silver bond snap into place between us.

I can feel it, in my soul, shining just as pretty and bright as my other bond, that points…oddly in the other direction.

Towards Luca, wherever he is, out there in the night.

While I’m wrapped up here, in Jackson’s arms.