The Hidden Princess At All-boys Alpha Academy Preview

The Hidden Princess At All-boys Alpha Academy Preview

Chapter 1: – Runaway Bride

"You’ll just have to get Ariel pregnant immediately. That way she’ll be chained to you forever." my fiancé's father's voice is cold, calculating. “She knows her place.” my fiancé replies. “She’ll fall in line and become a proper wife in short time.” My heart sinks when I realize that they’re talking about me – and not as a soon-to-be newlywed Princess, but just as…as some kind of surrogate. All my life I’ve been the perfect Princess – learning manners, diplomacy, and always flashing the perfect smile for the camera. Today I’m going to take the biggest step I can towards helping my nation: I’m going to marry the Prince of Gangidor to build the military alliance. For one more extra rehearsal of our immediate wedding, I snuck into the prince's private suite and overheard the conversation that shocked me. The King, my Prince's father, chuckles darkly. "Don’t underestimate her, son. Her claws are too sharp now, you will have to nullify that part of her.” "Sharp claws or not, she's just a girl," my fiancé says, his voice thick with derision. "What’s the worst she can do? All she’s been trained for is taking pictures, buying jewelry, and decorating the house, just like mom." "Ariel Sinclair is not like your mother, who came to me ready to kneel,” his father replies. “This Princess has been over-indulged; her parents and brother have doted on her and allowed her to learn skills that women shouldn't touch. You’ll have to break her, son, and fast. The best path to that is to get her pregnant tonight." My jaw drops open in shock, my hand covering my mouth to hold back my appalled gasp. Never – not once has the Prince indicated that he felt this way about women! About me! "Ariel’s a prude," my fiancé says on a disappointed sigh, and my cheeks burn with embarrassment. "She barely lets me kiss her, so I don’t think knocking her up tonight is going to happen. " “There’s a great deal at stake in this, son,” the King snaps, and I silently peek around the door’s edge to see the two men standing in the middle of the room, their arms crossed in their wedding tuxedoes, casually discussing how to break me. Rage mixes with the disgust in the pit of my stomach, turning over and over until I feel sick. “You need this girl under your thumb,” the King continues. “Conquer her, and then all the resources of her kingdom will pass to us. If she won’t submit to you willingly tonight, you will force her.” “She’ll scream! Her guards will come running!” “She won’t,” the king growls. “It’s in the female nature to submit - women are animals, they obey the strong. Just show her that you are her Alpha – she’ll fall to her knees soon enough.” "And if she says no? Or tries to escape?" My Prince turns considering eyes on his father now, clearly encouraged and liking this plan. "There's no way she can escape from us,” the King growls. “In our Kingdom, we have complete control over women. Even if she will one day be the Queen, Edward, she belongs to you.” Both men’s lips turn upwards in greedy smiles. And me? I almost vomit with fear and disgust. I’m already out of the suite and dashing down the hall, tears streaking down my cheeks as I run away from the Great Hall where I’m supposed to be married. My mind reels with how much my world just fell apart. Too much is tied up in this wedding – and it’s all my fault. I’m the one who pushed for it, wanted to make the political ties that would give us the extra forces we need to end this war even though my mom told me to wait for love. And I want so much to run to her arms now – but if I do that? Then she’s going to tell my dad – Dominic Sinclair, the most powerful Alpha in the entire world – and he will rip that horrible Prince to shreds without thinking twice. And that will start a second war – I sob harder as I run, totally confused -And suddenly as I turn around a familiar corner, I know exactly where I’m going and where I want to be. I hurry my steps, dashing for the old brown door, shoving it open with all my might. The door bangs hard against the wall as I stumble into the room. My brother Rafe and cousin Jesse look up at me with wide, shocked eyes, both of their jaws falling open. “I can’t do it!” I gasp, falling back against the open door, my face a mess of tears. “Ariel!” Rafe gasps, springing to my side and pulling me away from the door, pushing it shut. “What the hell happened!?” Jesse stands and takes me by the hand, leading me over to the couch as I tell them everything in stuttering sobs. Jesse sits next to me, nodding and listening to every word, but Rafe stands at my side, a deep growl growing in his chest as my story progresses. By the time I finish, his whole body is tense and shaking. “I’m going to kill him,” Rafe growls, and he takes one long step towards the door, clearly meaning it. “I’m going to rip his head off –“ “Rafe!” Jesse snaps, leaning forward and grabbing Rafe’s arm before he can get any further. “Calm the hell down.”“So, you run,” Rafe says, pulling his hands away from his face and staring at me. “You leave he at the altar, and the press paint him as the wounded party.” I nod. “Mom and dad can salvage the treaty this way, even without a marriage. But I…I have to disappear, or else Prince will force me into it – I have too much leverage on him now.” “But where the hell will you go, Ariel?” Rafe asks, sitting up, shaking his head. “He’s going to come after you! No matter where you are, he will find you!” “Nah,” I hear Jesse say, and my eyes fly open to see a wicked smirk on his face. “I never liked that guy anyway – he’s a dick. You deserve more than this. Let’s run.” “What?” I gasp, staring at my cousin. “Where?” Jesse just continues to smirk at me. “With us. Rafe and I are enrolling tomorrow anyway – we’ll just leave tonight and take you along to Alpha Academy.” I stare at my cousin for a moment in shock, and then I let out a frantic little laugh and throw myself into his arms because – because that might actually be perfect. This plan gets me out of the palace and I’ll be somewhere that no one – especially not the Prince Edward – will ever expect me to go. A notoriously secretive all-male military academy designed to weed out and train the nation’s toughest Alpha warriors. Alpha Academy.

Chapter 2: – A Boy Named Ari

“You two,” Rafe mutters, and I glance over to see him pressing the bridge of his nose between his fingers, just like dad does. “This is going to cause a damn firestorm that I am going to have to sort out.” “But you’re the best at solving our problems!” Jesse points out, laughing. “Come on, cousin,” he says, giving Rafe a little punch in the arm. “It’s an adventure.” Two hours later we’re in the boxcar of a train headed east, towards the war front where the Academy is located. It was shockingly easy to smuggle me out of the palace once I got rid of the wedding gown. Jesse just gave me some of the clothes he had packed, and after I had rolled the hem of the pants about a dozen times and tied the waist with some ribbon torn off of my gown…honestly, the clothes don’t fit so bad. “Okay,” Rafe murmurs, leaning back into the hay that fills the boxcar, grimacing as he types out messages on his phone. “Mom and Dad are on board.” “They are?” I ask, wide-eyed with surprise. “I mean,” Rafe says, flicking his eyes at me, “I didn’t give them any details about where we are or where we’re going, and mom is completely flipping out about you being gone from the palace without a guard for the first time in your life. But…she gets it. And they trust us.” We were always inseparable. I didn’t even really figure out that I was a girl – or that being a girl meant something different than being a boy – until I was around eight years old and I had to go to ballet class when Rafe and Jesse went to martial arts. I was devastated when I figured out that being different genders meant we had different futures in store for us. But, well. I figured out pretty quickly that being a Princess means I have my own responsibilities. Even though I loved running wild with Rafe and Jesse, I learned how to be pretty, quaint, and sweet because I knew it would help mom and dad. Plus, it kind of came natural to me. Rafe and Jesse, they secretly taught me everything they learned in their fighting lessons because they didn’t want me to feel left out. But I’m mom’s tiny twin - petite with long rose-gold hair and a heart-shaped face. I’m not built for hand-to-hand combat the way Rafe and Jesse are, but things like ballet come naturally to me.And while I thought that I was eager to do my duties as a Princess, to marry a Prince to save our nation from war? Honestly, I don’t think my heart has ever been as happy as it is right now, running away from those duties and hopping a train with my two best friends. I’m so excited that I can barely catch my breath. Of course, Rafe throws a wet blanket on my excitement. “Okay,” he sighs, tossing his phone into his backpack, finished talking to mom and dad. “What the hell are we going to do with Ariel when we get to the Academy?”“Seriously, why don’t we just take her along with us?” Jesse asks, wrapping his arms around his knees. “What?” Rafe asks, frowning at him. “You mean like, into Alpha Academy?” “Sure,” Jesse says, glancing over at me. “I mean, you promised our moms that we’d keep her safe, right? If we have to keep an eye on her, what’s easier than keeping her by our side?” I gape at the audacity of Jesse’s plan. I’ve been hearing about Alpha Academy all my life and always dreamed about going – but, of course, it only accepts male students. And while Rafe and Jesse will certainly take the warrior track, I fantasized about taking up some of the other things you can study - like espionage, or becoming a master poison maker. There’s even a rumor that you can study battle magic if you have an affinity for it. But honestly – no one really knows what goes on inside of the Academy, it’s all top secret and shrouded in mystery. But whenever one of the Alpha graduates came to the palace to consult with dad or report on the amazing advances they made for our nation? They always had this air about them – like they could take on the world. And damn, did I envy that. Still – my dreams never got far. While we always knew Rafe and Jesse would go, I had to make other plans.“Well, I’m definitely not letting her out of our sight,” Rafe grumbles, his voice growing deeper at the mere idea of it. He shifts his eyes, studying me. I sigh a little, hanging my head, knowing it’s impossible. “It’s not that I don’t want you there, Ariel,” Rafe sighs, guilty. “It’s just not a safe place for girls –“ My head whips up and I open my mouth, ready to protest that I can take care of myself, but my brother is already waving a hand, dismissing the idea. “It’s over a hundred testosterone-fueled Alpha males in their early twenties, Ariel,” Rafe says, frowning, “with no female attention for months. You’ll get eaten alive. There are going to be guys there like Luca Grant –“ “Luca Grant’s going to be there?” I ask, my eyes going wide as my head snaps up. Grant’s a minor celebrity – he’s the junior heavyweight boxing champion of our nation as well as a rather notorious ladies’ man. But he just retired from boxing to join the military in a show of national pride. His story has been plastered all over the news. And it doesn’t hurt that he is…insanely good looking. He’s got these dimples that… Well. His dimples are beside the point. But I had no idea he was going to the Academy or that he’d be part of Rafe and Jesse’s class. “Isn’t the simplest thing just to just keep plans the same?” Jesse asks, interrupting my thoughts. “Ariel just…comes with us.” “You’re being ridiculous,” Rafe scoffs, glaring at Jesse and starting to lose his temper a bit. “What, we’re just going to waltz into the candidate barracks filled with a bunch of hormonal Alphas like ‘oh hey, we brought our little sister! Don’t touch her! Hands off!’” “No,” Jesse says, his eyes bright and eager. “We don’t waltz in with your sister,” he says, pulling his backpack over and rustling around in it, pulling out a grey camo-print patrol cap, standard issue for all Academy candidates. He plops it on my head. “We waltz in with your brother.” “What!?” Rafe seethes, appalled. “No, it’ll work!” Jesse says, grinning now as he scoots next to me and begins to tuck my rose-gold hair up under the cap. I grin right back at him, realizing where this is going. “Rafe,” Jesse says, turning to my brother with a wide grin, “meet Ari. Ari Sinclair.” Rafe’s mouth drops open as I laugh and then rearrange my face, trying to look tough and do my best impression of a dude. “Oh my god,” Rafe groans, allowing himself to fall back into the welcoming softness of the hay. “No, absolutely not – this will never work –“ “No, it will!” I insist, excited now. “It will work, I can do it! I’m Ari!” “No, you’re not,” Rafe mutters, his voice further muffled by the hands still pressed over his face. “You’re Ariel – you do ballet, and you arrange flowers, and you like making seating charts –“ “Not anymore,” I say, turning and grinning at Jesse, who nods eagerly at me. “Now, I’m Ari. And I’m a boy.”