The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy



“Fatigues aside,” Jesse sighs, coming over and picking up my body armor. "This is...not going to work. This is going to hang down to your knees." I laugh, shaking my head and pressing my hands to my cheeks. “God, what are we going to do?"

Rafe curses lightly, glancing towards the door, clearly trying to come up with a solution fast because dad ordered him, Jesse, and Jacks back to the tent to discuss strategy as soon as they get changed.

"It's cool," Tony says, coming around the corner from the little latrine already changed and buttoning up the front of his fatigues. "I'll take you down to the requisition point to see if they have anything smaller. You can't be the only Shrimp in the army."

Luca nods, pulling off his Cadet shirt and starting to shake out his new grey fatigues. "Wait two minutes, I'll come too."

As I take a moment to quietly ogle my shirtless mate from the side of my eye, Rafe and Jackson look at each other and simultaneously give a nod, agreeing to the plan.

"I, the person in question and the ultimate decider, also agree to this plan!" I say loudly as I snap my attention back to them, not-so-tacitly reminding them that I'm in charge of my own life and decisions.

Rafe, Jesse, and Jackson both just look at me like I'm crazy for a second and then move on. "Cool!" Rafe says, pointing a finger seriously in Luca and Tony's faces. "Protect her with your life."

"Yes sir,” Tony says, giving him a half-assed salute as Luca just sits down on his bed, tugging off his boots and nodding. I mean, that command is nothing new to him he's heard it a thousand times.

I sigh, giving into it and gathering the useless uniform up into my arms as the boys finish getting changed and Jacks, Jesse, and Rafe all head out. When Luca is likewise suitably disguised as a military grunt instead of an elite Cadets, he and Tony duck out of the tent with me. We head down the dirt path between the tents, looking around for where the supplies might be kept.

"Wait here a second," Luca murmurs, quickening his pace and stopping a soldier in the path ahead to ask for information about where to go for this sort of problem.

As I watch him speaking to the tall soldier, whose handsome face sports a familiarly straight nose, I gasp and spin back towards the main tent, cursing under my breath.

"What?" Tony asks, straightening at my side and looking around with concern for any threats.

"No, it's nothing," I sigh, reaching out and putting a hand on his arm. "Sorry. I just...crap, I forgot to ask Rafe again about Blythe."

"What about him?" Tony asks, frowning down at me.

I sigh, dropping my hand and stepping close to my friend. "He just...said something in the Game. About Juniper. Just something in passing -" "About your sister?" Tony asks, shocked, his eyebrows flying up.

"Yeah," I say, pursing my lips. "It...I mean, it was just an off-handed comment, but it sounded like he'd talked to her -"

"You need to shut that down right

now, Ari," Tony snaps, looking down at me, his face perhaps more serious than I've ever seen it. "That guy-gon't trust him. He's a sycophant and a parasite - he'll do anything he can to climb the ranks."

"How do you know that?" I ask, frowning up at Tony, concerned.

"I've just been watching him," Tony says quietly, frowning and looking down the dirt road between the tents. "The way he moves - he

doesn't have like...friends. He ju

moves towards the richest or most powerful person in a group and sucks up to them until he sees

someone else he can glom on to."

"Wait, seriously?" I ask, staring up at Tony. "How do you - how do you know all that?"

“Because I'm a keen observer of humanity," Tony says, turning back to me with a shrug. “Or, more precisely, because I'm nosy."

I laugh, shaking my head a little and glancing over at Luca, who turns away from the soldier and starts to walk back towards us. “Good to know. How come you didn't tell me this before?"

"I told Rafe about it," Tony says with a shrug, "but he already knew. But if Blythe is saying something about Juniper, I think you need to make a bigger deal about it. She's only eighteen, right?"

I frown at Tony, turning my head to the side. "Junie is seventeen."

“Not anymore,” Tony says, smirking and shaking his head at me as Luca comes up. “Juniper Sinclair is famously a Capricorn. Did someone miss her little sister's birthday?"noveldrama

I gape at Tony, appalled at myself when I realize that he's right.