The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy



But as soon as I begin to pull on my bond with Luca, I feel an immediate...stop. Or a plug, or a...dam or something.

I turn to my mate, frowning up at him. Luca, I say, directly into his mind, making him turn his eyes to me. Can you please open the bond? This is... important to me.

He clenches his teeth a little bit, looking deep into my eyes. This is all freaking me out, Ariel.

I glance around at everyone watching and then look back up at him. Please, Luca, I say, letting him hear my little wolf whine her tiny plea. I think it's important that we...know.

Luca sighs and looks away from me, but slowly I feel the wall drop, feel our bond open, as it was so much more often at the start of our relationship. I mean, it's not like it was that night in the woods, but it's better than a few moments ago. I send Luca a warm pulse of thanks and then turn my eyes back towards the little log, concentrating on it as I connect. As I start to pull, as I do with Jackson.

The heat within me engages, concentrating on the log, but to my utter shock something...else begins to stir as well.

And all through the little clearing, a slight wind begins to blow, warm like a summer breeze.

I gasp a little at the same moment that Luca does, and our eyes flash to each other as we both simultaneously remember the sensation that we used to notice when he touched me - that tingle across my skin, and across his - that tingle that's still there, but which we just...I don't know, got used to or something.

That tingle which I never, ever realized feels exactly like a breeze blowing across bare skin.

Feels exactly, precisely like this air moving around us right now.

"Holy shit," Luca whispers, staring down at me in shock.

My face bursts into a smile and I beam up at him. “Holy shit is right.”

Luca can't help it then, his own face breaks into a smile and he shakes his head in awe as he stares down at me.

"What?" Jesse asks, standing at his mom's side with the fire blanket in his hands, at the ready. "What's happening? I don't get it."

"This breeze,” I say, laughing a little as I turn my face towards them. "Um...I think...I think we're doing that."

"Really?" mom says, looking around, delight bursting on her face too. "This is you!?"

"Yeah," I say laughing.

"Experiment," Cora urges, taking an eager step towards me. "Can you...stop and start it?"noveldrama

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I do as I'm told, biting my lip and concentrating a little, playing with the bond and how much I can push and pull on it. First, I stop all together so that the breeze fades around us. Then I pull hard, and then harder, letting it whip through the air.

W

My smile returns as I look up at all of the trees, seeing it shake the leaves - a breeze kissed by the summer sun, just like Luca's warm summer scent - apricots and hot pavement and sea breeze.

"Ah!" Cora squeaks, stepping towards me, her expression thrilled as she looks around too. "Another little weather goddess in the family! Oh, Ariel, this is so great!"

"I'm not a weather goddess," I say, laughing. "I can just...make a little warm wind."

“Can you mess with the temperature?” Rafe urges from behind me. I glance over my shoulder at him and then shrug, trying it. But nothing happens — if anything, the wind just gets warmer.

"Okay okay," Gora says, holding out

her hand towards me, laughing. "You can stop the implications of this are stunning, actually I think the heat in the

—

in the air is from Ariel, but the movement - the wind - is from Luca himself, which kind of makes sense -"

“Actually,” Jackson says, stepping forward hesitantly. All of our eyes turn to him as the warm breeze continues to blow. "Um...can we...try something here?"

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His eyes turn to me and I stare at him, sensing@mmediately what he's thinking. My wolf leaps to her feet, some instinct urging her forward it did before when I knew to experiment with passing Jackson's magic to Rafe and Jesse. She pounces around in my soul like a fox in snow, incredibly excited.

And quite suddenly...I know that this is going to work.

Eagerly, I hold my hand out to him.