The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy



The Captain and I are locked into a stalemate for a long, long moment, neither of us given in. He glares down at me, baring his teeth just slightly, trying to get me to break.

But I just stare back up at him, impassive.

I've dealt with Alphas bigger than him all my life. If he thinks he can scare me, he's got a big surprise coming.

The Captain snaps his head to the side, looking in at the room of quiet Cadets just quietly watching us in a little bit of fearful awe.

"Perhaps you all do need to hear this," he growls, stepping into the room, pretending like it was his idea all along. I very carefully keep the smile off of my face as I press the door shut behind him and then move to stand before him, Rafe a few protective feet behind me, even as he lets me take the lead.

"I want to make it very clear," the Captain barks out, finishing his little survey of the room before returning his eyes to me. "That you all need to stop thinking that you have special privileges because of your connections to the throne. You are under my command here at the Academy and you will fall in line."

“Have we broken the rules, sir?" I ask, folding my hands behind my back, my fingers twisting tensely together.

"You have made a ridiculous request to re-form the draft pick from this morning, to bend the rules in your favor so that you can have the teams you want. It will not be done. The draft was fair and in accordance with the rules of the Game."

"Not the teams we want, sir," I say, holding his gaze. "The teams we need."

His growl deepens as he glares at me, not liking at all that I'm not simply folding under his command.

I stay silent, looking up at him.

"This is finished," the Captain growls, starting to turn to the door. "I came up here merely to remind you of the chain of command. Stop wasting my time by acting like spoiled royals - you've already had enough special concessions to last a lifetime."

As he reaches for the handle, I clear my throat. "If I may, sir?"

He turns towards me, a little appalled that I have anything to say.

But I just stay silent, staring at him, waiting for permission to speak.

He raises an eyebrow, the only invitation I'll get.

"Thank you," I say, giving a little half bow of thanks for his concession in hearing meg out. "But sir, we don't want to play in

the Gameser

1.n

simply because it gives us an advantage." I glance back at the group, fully aware that this

conversation that we were just

the

having. "But because it would be foolhardy to train us separate from

each other. We need to train in battlenoveldrama

situations together."

"Why?" he growls.

"Because," I say, giving a simple shrug. "We need to go into battle together. It's...just a fact."

My words set him off and the

Captain takes three steps closer to

me, snarling. Rafe closes the

distance too, just slightly, but enough to make the Captain move his eyes briefly to him, to see it. "You will all go into battle in whatever formations the military sees fit to assign you," he snaps, starting to lose his temper. "It has nothing to do with what your preferences or friendships are. You will go where

you are useful and that is the end of

the story."

"I understand, sir," I say quietly. "But we are most useful at each other's side. It is...frankly, sir, it is stupid to train us apart."

The Captain gives me a livid snarl and I swallow hard, thinking that...well, that perhaps that pushed it too far.

"Sir, if you could only see what we can do -"

"Enough, Cadet!"

"Please, sit, what we developed today in our magic class is incredible - the implications it can have for the war - if you could just see it you would understand why we shouldn't -"

"Enough!" he roars, his face turning bright red, leaning close enough to me that his spittle this my face. "You will fall inline! You will follow orders! You will stop asking for these concessions and play the Game in the order you were assigned!"

I purse my lips hard, an imaginary hand inwardly gripping my wolf's fur as I hold her back. "Please," I beg, between my teeth. "If you would simply allow us to demonstrate."

"You will obey, or you will be kicked out of this Academy, Cadet," the Captain snarls, truly at the end of his tether.