The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

"Sorry," I murmur, untying my robe and letting it slip from my shoulders. "I got...distracted." Pippa turns slightly to give me some privacy I don't need - Moon Valley wolves don't tend to be shy about nakeness, even if Atalaxian ones do - as I slip into the bath.

When I slip under the water, opaque with bath salts and oils and bubbles and soap, Pippa turns back to me and sits on a stool at my side, handing me shampoos and conditioners and more soaps as I go through the process of bathing, keeping me company as much as she's helping me.

"Did you know," Pippa says, her voice a bit distracted and dreamy as she leans against the side of my tub, "what Gabriel meant, when he said he wants you to be the perfect picture of an Atalaxian Luna tonight?"

I shrug a little, looking at her with interest as I rinse shampoo from my hair. "I mean, I think I know. But... I'm not sure I do. Not really."

"I'm not sure he knows either," she says, turning to look at me, her face more serious than I've seen it before. "I'm not sure any of them do.

I stop moving my hands, letting them fall into the water. "What do you mean?"

"We spent a lot of time on a country estate when we were children," Pippa says, looking away again, surprising me with this turn in the story. "It belonged to my uncle - my mother's favorite brother. He never took a Luna." She shrugs. "Some don't. Perhaps there aren't enough perfect Luna's for all the Alphas who are left wanting."

She smiles a little and then scoots her stool back, taking a little cup off of the back of the tub and filling it. I tilt my head back as she pours the water over me, beginning to rinse the rest of the shampoo out of my hair like I'm a child.

"But we had a very idyllic childhood

there," she continues. "We spent a great deal of time wandering through the meadows, and making up stories in the mountains, and building forts up in trees or beneath them. There was a great deal of freedom to that life which think we all lost when we came back to the Castle for the winters. And when we started living here forever."

I listen carefully, still confused, as Pippa puts the cup back onto the edge of the tub and takes up the

conditioner, quietly beginning to massage it into my hair.

"My uncle, he never came with us tonoveldrama

the Castle," Pippa says quietly. "I think he would have missed the freedom too much. He had a very special friend there, you see - his gamekeeper. He raised my uncle's hounds, and tended his horses. He was a very nice man - always with a ready smile. I haven't seen him in years. Duck in, darling, and run your hands through your hair, please. It's

—

faster that way."

I glance at Pippa, wordless, and then does as she says, ducking under the water. As I float beneath the water, running my fingers through my hair, I wonder if...

...god, is Pippa telling me the story I think she's telling me? Or...

Breathless for want of information and, indeed, air, I resurface. She's waiting for me, a towel in hand, and

she gives me a gentle smile as she offers it to me so that I can pat my face dry.

"You see," Pippa says, quiet soft and

fond, "Gabriel doesn't understand

that that's the true role of an

Atalaxian Luna - seeing more than - they think we see, and keeping men's secrets to ourselves. Tucking them away to deep that they don't even know that we know. Elias - as good to me as he is...he doesn't know either. What it is Atalaxian

Lunas hold for our men. What we

know."