The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy novel Chapter 643

I have to admit, when it’s just me and Jesse on the run with the paintball gun, it’s way better. Rafe and Jackson concentrate a great deal on training, on pushing, on ensuring that we reach new goals and strengthen our bodies. But with Jesse?

It’s just fun.

“I got you!” I shout, dashing after him up that final hill to the Castle, my heart pounding and my breath short – but I ignore all of that, snarling and reaching for him. “You’re such a brat – I totally got you –“

“You didn’t!” he insists, laughing hard and dodging away from me, not letting me grab and turn him around so that I can see the purple paint that we both know is streaking across the back of his uniform. “You lie, baby trouble – you missed – or you hit some other incredibly handsome man in the woods, which is inconsiderate of you –“

“I did,” I snarl, and then I make a final leap for him, and he lets me catch him and spin him around, laughing at me as I tilt back my head and release my howl of victory to the sky. “I win!” I pant after a moment, slumping against the Castle and letting my lungs fill with air. “You owe me a lifetime of servitude and your first born, as promised.”

“Good,” he says, leaning back on the Castle himself and taking a long sip of water. “I didn’t want to win. I didn’t want your stupid first born.”

I gape at him, appalled. “My first born is going to be super cute.”

“Your first born,” he says, smirking and narrowing his eyes at me, “is going to be a big dork.”

I snarl, and smack him, but we’re both laughing. We take a moment to catch our breath then, sipping at our water bottles, looking out over the morning that stretches beautifully before us, thinking our own private thoughts.

But I find that even when I try to wonder how Luca is doing this morning, and how the draft is going, and what magic class this afternoon with mom and Cora is going to entail…

My mind just keeps turning back to one thing.

“Hey Jess?” I say quietly, turning to him, unable to suppress my smile. “Did you really stay out all night with Daphne?”

Jesse sighs and fights his own smile, looking down at his feet. “Don’t ask me about that, Ari.”

“Why?” I whisper, my smile falling, wondering if…if something went wrong.