The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy novel Chapter 490

Ariel doesn’t come up once the dinner is served and Rafe scowls at her portion, growing cold on its plate.

God damn sisters. Why does she have to be so…willful, always pushing forward on her instincts, blurting things out or taking insane actions just because it “feels” right?

And what even is going on with her sudden complete trust of Tony? What the hell -

Inwardly, his wolf pauses Rafe’s train of thoughts by giving his heart a lazy nudge with his snout. She’s very rarely wrong, his wolf says, taking a deep, calm breath and letting his eyes drift shut. Just like mom. Stop getting so worked up about it and just trust her.

Even though he knows his wolf is right – that he should just trust Ariel and calm down - Rafe grits his teeth against this advice. Because…she’s his little sister. If anything ever happened to her…

But he shakes the thought away, dismissing it, knowing it’s not useful.

It just…it makes it so hard to protect her when Ariel’s so chaotic – just flying by the seat of her pants. It was one thing last semester when Ari stuck close to him and Jesse, when they were able to take her under their wing a bit and make sure that she was safe. But now that she’s getting more independence? In her own classes, with her own tutors – one of which an insane woman, at that – walking around the castle by herself?

Rafe exhales a deep sigh through his teeth, letting his head fall back against the chair.

“You all right, man?” Ben asks, looking at Rafe a little askance from his place on the couch as he works on some notes for a speech he has to give in a few days.

“What?” Rafe asks, opening his eyes, his word snappier than he means it to be.

“Oh, nothing,” Ben says, looking at him levelly. “I just noticed that you were grinding your teeth so hard that they might just crack. Or be worn down into a find sand. Not very useful, for a wolf.”

Rafe stares at his friend for a second before huffing a laugh and dropping his forehead into his hand. “Am I that obvious?”

“Not to all. I am just…exceptionally perceptive and attuned to your every mood,” Ben murmurs, smirking and turning back to his notebook.

Rafe laughs at this too, shaking his head, looking over at where Jesse and Luca are sitting on the floor with some books spread around them, Jesse teaching Luca some methods for using multiple sources in one research paper.

“Seriously, what’s bugging you?” Ben murmurs, curious enough to invite conversation but passive enough to be brushed away if Rafe isn’t in the mood for it. Rafe smiles a little, glancing over at Ben, appreciating again just how good he is at social situations.