The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Just past midnight, Rafe stands with his adult family on the roof of the palace, everyone's face turned up to the sky and towards the steady pounding of chopper blades they can barely hear in the distance. A steady hum of excitement runs between them all. Roger and Cora in particular stand with their expressions rapt, his arms around her shoulders, her leaning against his chest.

But still, despite his excitement to see his cousin - his best friend - Rafe's wolf keeps nipping at him inside, urging him to go back downstairs, to find the human girl, to grab her and mark her immediately.

Rafe growls a little, the sound rumbling in his throat, frustrated with his wolf for being so ridiculous and impractical. Ariel said it was like this but god – he didn't realize how annoying it would be.

"You okay, baby?" Ella asks, reaching up and brushing her fingertips against her eldest son's short dark hair. "You haven't been...yourself today."

Rafe glances to the side to see his mother looking at him curiously. His dad stands on Ella's other side, listening but pretending he is not. Rafe smirks even as he sighs, appreciating their concern, even if he's not ready to tell anyone at all what he discovered.

After all, Maryam herself doesn't know. He watched her all day for some sort of sign, but she either ignored him or treated him with disdain. But how could she know? She doesn't have a wolf.

"I'm okay," Rafe says, turning his face back up to the sky where the chopper is quickly approaching. "Just...lots of changes, right? Jesse coming back from another world, with a mate of all things. We didn't leave things on the best terms but...god, I hope he knows that none of that matters anymore. And Ariel is still missing, Junie too. It's..." he shakes his head. “A lot."

"I know, sugar," Ella says, leaning against her son and resting her head against his arm. "But...piece by piece, we'll figure it all out. We always do."

Rafe nods down to his mother and gives her a tense smile and then, like the rest of the family, watches as the helicopter begins to land.noveldrama

The phone call with Jesse had been short and strange. Rafe had been disappointed when Roger had hung up with his son before Rafe or even Cora got a chance to talk with him - but apparently, Jesse had been in a rush to get everything settled.

And then the strange demands that he made - to send a train to the Academy to pick up twenty ambassadors as well as a helicopter for Jesse, Ben, and three rather anonymous guests, one of which is the mate who kidnapped Jesse and swiped Daphne across the face with her claws?

And his request that all of his siblings be left at home for a few hours, just until they got settled? I mean, they had complied with it all and Mark is at Cora and Roger's house babysitting the ducklings, but...

What...what are they all in for tonight? What the hell is inside that helicopter that needs that kind of preparation?

The helicopter finally settles down, the blades beginning to slow, and Rafe takes a step forward, eager to have a reason to turn his thoughts away from Maryam and desperate to know who the hell is inside.

The door opens and Rafe's face

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breaks into a smile when Ben steps out first. Ben's face bursts into a grin and he waves before putting a hand up to help a very pretty, very pregnant young woman step out. Rafe's eyebrows go up at this, taking in her rich but very conservative gown, realizing that she's an

Atalaxian and likely a high-ranking one.

The answer of her identity comes a moment later when she's followed out of the helicopter by a dark-haried Alpha who Rafe knows from Midwinter, when he was here. Elias - Prince of Atalaxia and now the heir to the throne, if rumors and Jesse's report are to be believed.

The Atalaxian Prince bows deeply to

the King and Queen of Moon Valley and then takes his Luna's hand-or at least, that's what Rafe assumes she is and leads her forward, Rafe frowns a little to see Ben moving ...when

closely at their side because....

the hell did he have time to get close to Atalaxian royalty?

But there's no time to consider it when another tall figure appears at the door of the helicopter, stepping out of it with a cheerful smile deliberately pasted to his face. But Rafe has no time to truly consider Jesse's expression, his eyes moving immediately to the little figure bundled up in his arms and balanced on one hip, shadows streaming off of her like dry ice as she tucks her face tight against Jesse's shoulder.