The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy novel Chapter 824

“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.”

…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.”