The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy novel Chapter 242

“Yeah,” Jesse says, considering, assessing. “Yeah, Ari, with all of it - I think you did as well as you could.”

“Really?” I ask, kind of shocked.

“Yeah, I agree,” Rafe says with a sigh. I turn my eyes to him. “I mean, you had to get to know them first to know if you even wanted to tell them you were their mate. And then you certainly couldn’t have told one before the other. And if you had told me, I definitely would have gone running off to mom and then dad would have pulled you out of school. The way you handled this was messy but…” he shrugs again. “I get it.”

“Oh god,” I mutter, putting my face into my tired hands with a shaky sigh. “That…that makes me feel so much better.”

“Maybe you could have used the dreamscape,” Jesse murmurs thoughtfully, “and pulled them both in. And then they couldn’t have hurt each other physically, just their dream bodies…”

“Well, in retrospect,” I say, crossing my arms and giving him a little glare, “sure, that sounds great, Jess.”

“For your next mate,” he says, waving a flippant hand. “Now you know.”

I smirk at him, but turn my head back to Rafe when he speaks next.

“Tomorrow’s going to be hard, Ari,” he says, peering at me thoughtfully. “They’re going to…they’re going to really lay into you for this. And I do think you owe them apologies and explanations but…I don’t think you should let them make you feel too horrible about it.”

“Really?” I ask as Jesse turns, propping himself up on his elbow to hear what Rafe has to say.

A deep well of warmth runs through me as I begin to smile, staring at my brother, who is so sweet, and so supportive. Tears again spring to my eyes.

“Oh geeze,” Rafe says with a sigh, reaching out and wiping at my cheeks with his thumb as the tears start to spill out. “What’s all this about? What did I say now?”

“Nothing,” I laugh, shaking my head and tilting it back while I sniff. “You’re just being really nice to me.”

“Of course we’re being nice to you, Ari,” Jesse says with a yawn, reaching out to ruffle my hair like he used to do when we were kids. “You’re our little baby trouble. We love you. We’d be bored without you.”

I grin at the two of them, resting my head against the couch and letting my eyes fall half-shut, so grateful to the two of them for their love and their friendship and their eternal support.