The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy novel Chapter 685

The next morning I can barely run, I’m laughing so hard.

“Jesse!” I shout, tripping over my own feet as I try to keep a bead on him with my paintball rifle. “Quit doing that!”

“No way, you’re getting too good!” He shouts back, laughing himself and disappearing again into a cloud of shadows before darting off between the trees. He found out this morning, when we were messing around in our run, that he can cast the shadows over himself, making them cling tightly to his form so that he, in essence, becomes a shadow himself.

It doesn’t make him invisible – not really – but in the shade it does make him basically indistinguishable from the shadows cast by the trees. And damn, does it make him hard to shoot.

“Jess!” I growl before I dart off after him, still laughing. “This is so unfair!”

“You’re the one with the damn gun, Ari!”

Left, Jackson says, directly into my mind. He’s ahead of me, of course, with those long Alpha legs. See where he’s running through the leaves and shaking them? Shoot there.

I grin, loving that I have my own magical advantage via the connection to my mate, and I stop short, casting my vision to my left as instructed and taking aim, even as my heart pounds and my breath shudders in my chest. I take in one deep gasp of breath and then see it – the disturbance amongst the branches – and shoot.

A very satisfying gasp of pain sounds out in the trees, and a moment later Rafe’s loud shout of laughter follows.

Grinning wildly, I send a pulse of thanks and love Jacksons way and sprint in the direction Jesse went. I find him almost immediately, mostly because Rafe’s standing over him, his hands on his hips, cracking up at the sight of Jesse sprawled in a puddle, a bright splash of blue paint right between his shoulder blades.

“How did you do that, Ari?” Jesse growls, sitting up and glaring at me, brushing mud from the front of his shirt just as Jackson comes into the clearing too, beaming at me.

“Oh, I had some intel,” I say, laughing and reaching a hand for Jacks. He gives his usual snarl of delight when he takes my hand, pulling me close to his side.