The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

Ariel moves ahead of Jesse, quietly opening the bedroom door and then the front door, clearing the way. Jesse passively bids Jackson and Marigold goodnight as he goes, but his mind is distracted. He doesn't even see if Marigold is still awake.

Instead, he just keeps his eyes on the grass in front of him, aiming for Midnight's new little cabin, wondering what the hell he's supposed to do now - what he can say to convince his little mate to trust them, to free her wolf of the darkness.

"Oh!" says a surprised voice.

Jesse whips his head up and stops in his tracks, his eyes fastening on the red- headed young woman standing in the path before him, a basket over her arm.

Midnight opens her eyes, turning her gaze towards the girl, a growl sounding in her chest.

Jesse just...freezes. Completely without anything to say for one of the first times in his life.

“Um,” Daphne says, her worried eyes flicking between Jesse's face and the sad little demon in his arms. "I'm so sorry - I didn't mean to intrude - I was just... Cora asked me to leave some prototype designs in her new house so I...I'm...I'm so sorry..."

She blushes furiously, her shoulders going up around her ears as she looks down at her basket.

"Be gone, whore," Midnight snarls, her voice deep and vicious.

"Midnight!" Jesse gasps, coming back to himself, hoisting her higher in his arms and snapping his eyes down to see that she's gone full shadow ghoul again, with pits for eyes and that hollow of a mouth leaking clouds of shadow. "Apologize, right now! You're being so rude -"

Daphne gives a little squeak of terror and turns, rushing off for the castle.

"Hey!" Jesse barks out, glaring down at Midnight, his arms tightening around her. "You are not allowed to be mean to her -"

Midnight's shadows fade, her face turning back to normal, and she turns her grief- filled little face up to him. "But she's a whooore."

He glares down at her, livid. "She's lovely. And an employee of this Academy! You are not allowed to terrorize her just because you're -"

He cuts himself off abruptly, his wolf nipping him in his soul, angry in turn that he'd be so cruel to his tiny mate when she's having such a rough time already.

Midnight sighs, a few tears leaking from her eyes, and rests her head back against his chest. "I'm sorry," she whispers. "My instinct is to hate the whores."noveldrama

"She's not a whore," Jesse sighs,

shaking his head as he continues on the path to the little cottage, his wolf howling and sniffing the air,

searching for more traces of

Daphne. But still, he knows that even she'll be

if she was frightened that even

allright. Right now, he needs to get Midnight to bed. "At least we know your shadows still work, even when you've had a little of your corruption cleared."

"Oh," Midnight says, going a bit stiff with surprise in his arms, her eyes going wide. "I...I guess we do."

Midnight barely sleeps, tossing and turning in the bed, her wolf's sad and desperate little howls echoing in her mind. She groans, pressing the heels of her paths in against her eyes, wrapping her shadows around her for comfort as she's always done. Stiff, she doesn't allow herself to slam the mental door on her wolf's pain, forcing herself to witness it.

Her wolf sinks deeper and deeper in the corruption, devastated and afraid, her

pretty white fur soaking up the darkness like a feather in ink.

Midnight bites her lip at this, horrified because...

Well, because she never even knew her wolf had white fur. Always, always that fur has been black.

But...had she been born that way?

Or has she always been a beautiful cream-colored wolf, only stained with years and years of corruption in darkness?

Finally, after hours of tossing, when her wolf finally loses her last grip and sinks back into the oil, Midnight sits straight up in bed and whips the blanket off.

Jesse, asleep curled up in an arm chair in the corner with a pillow tucked beneath his head, gasps awake at the sudden noise. "What?" he asks, frantic, looking around. "What's wrong?"

"Jesse,” Midnight says, her voice trembling and scared. "I - we need to go to Ariel. Right now."

Jesse goes still for a moment but then reaches out his hand. "All right," he says, steady and serious. "Let's go."

A few minutes later, Jesse and

Midnight push open the door to Ariel and Jackson's new little house, the hinges creaking just a little. Jesse stands straight in surprise when he sees Jackson curled on the couch, Marigold sleeping peacefully tucked in next to him, a book open in his hands. "What the hell are you doing up?" Jesse asks, his brow wrinkling.

Jackson just looks at him with equal confusion. "What the hell are you doing here?"

Jesse just stares at him for a second and then nods down at Midnight. "She wants to see Ari."

"Ari's asleep," Jackson says, frowning a little and folding the book shut. Jesse smirks when he sees the upside down title: From Bond to Baby: A Month-by- Month Guide to Wolf Pregnancy. "Can it wait till morning? She needs more sleep now." Jackson taps the cover.