The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy novel Chapter 286

“Children!?” I gasp, “who else is out?” I peer back over my shoulder at my mom as I head down the stairs.

“None of your business,” mom says, very lofty, giving me a secretive smirk. “I’m not going to rat on my own children, after all.”

“Is it Rafe!?” I ask, eager and a little scandalized, glancing back at Jackson too, who listens with interest.

“Not my meatball!” mom says, laughing and continuing to escort us down. “My perfect little meatball, who’s never done anything wrong in his entire life!?”

“It was Rafe,” Jackson murmurs to me with a wink, pressing a hand to the small of my back as we get to the bottom of the stairs and mom walks ahead. “Your mom put me in his room, like she put Daphne in yours, but he snuck out even before I did.”

“Rafe,” I sigh, shaking my head. “God, I wonder where he went…”

I look up at Jackson curiously, wondering if he knows.

But, dead serious, Jackson just shakes his head at me. “Even if I knew,” he says, his voice low with the gravity of his charge, “I wouldn’t tell. I have been sworn to secrecy, and I take my charge quite seriously.”

I scowl at him, mumbling discontentedly about how mates aren’t supposed to have secrets from each other, but he just laughs like that’s quite rich coming from me.

And I laugh too, realizing that he’s right.

But when I get back into my room, and cast my eyes over Daphne, I see that she’s wearing a little pair of pink slippers that she certainly wasn’t wearing when I left the room.

And that her eyes are pressed shut…a little tighter than I think they need to be for a girl deep in sleep.

But I don’t say anything, letting my friend keep her secrets. I just climb into bed, pulling my blankets up with a contented sigh, and let sleep find me.

All of my determination to let Daphne keep her secrets ends, however, the moment she wakes up. “Sooo,” she says, still groggy, waking up and rubbing her eye as she grins at me. “Someone was a bad little princess last night, sneaking out!”

My mouth falls open for a second at her gall, but I snap it shut with a grin.