The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Pippa and Elias argue quietly for a few moments at the center of the room as I quietly work my jaw back and forth, attempting to ease the pain as I go over my options in my mind. I pick up on about half of their words - Pippa's insistence that I absolutely cannot go to anything tonight since my confinement is started, Elias's counter that if I don't go, Gabriel will see it as subterfuge and find a way to punish me for it.

I only really snap back to the moment when Elias murmurs his farewells and storms from the room, pulling the door shut hard behind him.noveldrama

I look up to see Pippa standing with her hands on her cheeks, looking anxiously at the door after her Alpha.

"Is he okay?" I ask, dropping my hands to my lap. "Are...are you?"

Pippa quietly turns to me, her eyes moving slowly over me. "He's fine, he's just...worried." Her voice is soft, motherly, used to taking care. It doesn't pass me that she ignores my question regarding her own welfare as she moves to my side. "Are you all right, darling?"

"I'm fine," I say, taking her hand as she crawls onto the bed next to me. "I'm so sorry, Pippa, if I got you in trouble."

"Oh, they were fools to make me your jailer anyway," she says, smiling a little as she squeezes my hand looks at me with those pretty brown eyes. "I was never one to keep things caged. But Ariel - it's important to me that you know that whatever you've heard about Atalaxia and the way women live here...it's never okay for an Alpha to hit his Luna. That is...that is not all right."

My eyes fill a bit with tears - both at the pain in my face and the fact that this is what this sweet girl is worrying about right now.

"I'm glad that's true," I whisper.

She shakes her head, her eyes moving to my jaw, and she grimaces - which lets me know that a bruise is probably forming. "I hope you hit him back."

A little laugh bursts from me. "I didn't get the chance. Though trust me, if I could have, I would've."

Pippa gives me a smile and then, to my surprise, asks me if I'm up for another bath. When I ask her what on earth for just got out of the last one - she laughs and tells me that I rather ruined that by getting all covered in dirt from the Land of Darkness. "Plus," she adds with a sigh, "the confinement bath is all

lavender, which is supath is all

to be a message to anyone who happens to smell you to leave you alone. Because your month has...begun. So," she sighs. "We have to find a way to get you...un-lavendered, if Gabriel is going to insist on you being in public tonight."

“Oh goodness,” I sigh, pulling myself out of bed and following her to the bathroom. "If you say so, Pip."

She gives me a small smile that lets me know her worries aren't totally gone and gets to work again filling. the bath and moving to the wall of scented soaps and oils, picking out something that will sufficiently cover the lavender scent. She also pulls a bell rope on the wall, which I know orders up a tray of tea when pulled.

I just stand by the tub, letting her work, thinking that Atalaxians spend a great deal of time in the bath. My mind drifts, then, to the big tub in our Alpha Academy bathroom. And the rain shower next to it. And to being in that rain shower, with Jackson, his skin flush against mine...

"Ariel?"

I jump a little and then blush as I see Pippa peering at me curiously, the bathtub completely full.