The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy novel Chapter 638

She gives a desperate little cry, slipping her hands from around his neck to grip his shirt, like something might try to tear him away and she fucking dares it to try. Daphne yanks Jesse even tighter against her, making him stumble forward with the force of it, both of them laughing as Jesse catches his balance and then pulls her up into his arms, falling back against the stone wall and staring at her, awed.

“I love you too,” Daphne whispers, smiling recklessly as she rests her forehead against his, laughing even as tears start in her eyes. “I’m sorry – I’m so sorry it took me so long –“

But Jesse just shakes his head – denying categorically any need for apology now that he’s got her at last. He just pulls Daphne close, kissing her again and again.

Because this is it, as far as Jesse is concerned. A door shut, complete.

Jesse’s shadows swirl out around them, gossamer and fervid, shielding the pair of them from the rest of the world and creating their own private space – just for them, alone.

But there – in the corner of the hall, beyond the reach of his shadows.

Something darker lurks.

And is displeased.

I exhale slowly as I slip into our room, pressing the door shut quietly behind me and taking a second to lean against it and close my eyes. Because Jackson is waiting for me in my bed, and Luca is currently walking away down the hall, and I need a damn second to get my thoughts together…

So right here against the door is…kind of the only place to do it.

God, but that was intense. Luca – he makes so much more sense now, but honestly I’m a little freaked out by how much of his whole easy-going playboy persona was a façade – built to purposely conceal the deeply restrained person he is beneath. And, really, I’m shocked at how ably he hid that from me for months – me, his mate! I mean, I know I was naïve at the start and didn’t even think to look for his wolf until my wolf connected so easily with Jackson’s, but Luca really did a good job of keeping him tucked away. It explains a lot, honestly, about how Jackson and I were able to get so close so fast while Luca has, oddly, been the slower burn of my two relationships.

And god – god I could kill his uncle for making him muscle through that. Luca – he was clearly a kid with a ton of emotions who was told to just grit his teeth and force his way brutally through them, to express himself only in the ring, where his uncle recognized that he had the unique physicality and talents to be a champion. Where he –

“Ariel?”