The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy novel Chapter 480

“It happened just how you described, Ari,” he murmurs, shaking his head as he recalls it. “Of all things, it seriously felt like someone threw a damn brick at my wolf.”

I smile a little, remembering telling him that metaphor at the club after Luca’s boxing victory but hating that it feels so accurate for my friend.

“It happened the first time at the boxing match. I knew he was there…instantly, as soon as he walked in.”

“Did you know who it was? Like, you could pick them out of the crows?” I ask, a little breathless with interest but not wanting to push him too far.

“I knew…the area…in the crowd. That something in me had suddenly turned to the Atalaxians. But I couldn’t pinpoint it at first.” Ben raises his hands to his temples and rubs them in soft, worried circles as he remembers. “But I wasn’t sure what precisely it was – my wolf insisted, of course, that my mate was there, but I mean – what the hell does he know.”

I smile a little as my wolf bristles inwardly, appalled that Ben would ever doubt his wolf. I smooth a hand over her fur and she turns to give my fingers a fond lick.

“So,” I say, hesitant. “What happened?”

“I felt…sick,” he says, raising his head and meeting my eyes. “Did you feel like that? Like…nauseous?”

“I didn’t feel nauseous,” I say, turning my head to the side. “But my center of balance was off. I couldn’t walk right – and it was just before we had to go have that first hand-to-hand fight.” I grin at the memory fondly, even though I wasn’t so happy at the time. “I think Rafe was worried I had a stroke because I couldn’t walk in a straight line.”

“God, no wonder you lost so spectacularly,” Ben says, laughing a little. “But it sounds about the same, though – both of our bodies responded almost as if we were seasick, like gravity and perception changed.”