The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy
Chapter 0600

Tony smirks at me and sketches out a deep bow. "Your highness," he murmurs. "Your utter shock is both offensive and gratifying at once. I thank you for it."

I laugh and stumble towards him, throwing my arms around his neck and giving him a big hug. "That is amazing!" I gasp. "How did you do that!?"

Tony wraps his arms tight around me for a moment and gives me a quick, laughing spin before putting me back on my feet.

"Oh, you know," Tony says with a casual shrug, ignoring the fact that Luca reaches for me when I'm back on the ground, wrapping a hand around my upper arm and giving me a jealous little tug towards him. I grin up at my mate, wrinkling my nose, liking him jealous but knowing that it's totally unnecessary. "Just...clever footwork," Tony continues, "Right place at the right time. That sort of stuff."

"Oh, whatever," Rafe says, coming over to us while Jesse and Daphne head to the dumbwaiter. Ben passes out copies of the ranking list and we all bend our heads over it. "Seriously, Tony, you killed...1/3 of the people on the field! How the fuck did you manage that?" "And Ariel basically got another third," Tony says, grinning at me and evading the question as he taps at my name on the list in my hand, showing me that it's listed just below his with a very gratifying gold medal printed next to it. "Well done, princess." "Thank you," I say, glancing up at him and preening. But then I cock my head to the side. "But why did I get the gold medal and not you? And why does yours say..." I lean closer, peering at the tiny print, "DQ-FF?"

"Because," Luca says, slipping an arm around my shoulders and turning me away towards the living room, smirking at Tony as he does. "What he's not telling you is that he wantonly murdered our nearly our entire team the second we set foot on the ground." A delicious gasp bursts through the room and Tony's face bursts into a wild, self-pleased grin as we all walk over to the living room area, where Jesse and Daphne are laying out a series of delicious-smelling trays.

"Oh my god," Jesse says, standing straight and beaming at Tony, clearly delighted, "that's why there was no one in Wright's camp when I got there!"

"I didn't kill everyone," Tony says, standing in front of the coffee table and running a bashful hand through his hair. "A couple escaped, and I let Luca survive."

"You killed me!" Ben says, laughing.

"Yeah, you were an accident," Tony says, turning towards him with a little grimace. "I got a little trigger happy. Sorry man." Ben gives him a smile and a little shrug, showing him that there's no harm done.

"No seriously, though," Luca says, looking Tony up and down with a slight air of reverence. "You guys should have seen it - it was...impressive. I've never seen someone rapid fire like that - half the team was dead before anyone even knew what was going on."

"But why?" I ask, mildly breathless,

sinking down onto the couch next to Daphne as Luca settles himself on the arm next to me and Jesse and Rafe move to their armchairs. Ben and Jackson sit on the floor on the other side of the coffee table and Tony follows suit. I toss him a throw pillow, wanting our newest guest to

be comfortable.

"Because," Tony says, catching the pillow and sending me a wink before tucking it beneath him, "a certain Princess said she'd owe me a favor if I killed Wright. I figured I'd just take out the entire team, see if I could get two."

"You did it for me!?" I squeak, delighted, pressing my hands to my chest as I beam at my friend, a huge smile spreading across my face.

"Oh, come on," Tony says, giving me a smirk and leaning back on his hands, "men have done a lot more for a smile like that."

I burst out laughing as Luca growls, letting Tony know to back off the charm a little bit. Next to Tony Jackson just smirks, not caring if Tony pretends to hit on me. There's nothing there romantically between us and we all know it. Luca, I'm sure, will catch up in time.

"Wait, then who took you out in the end?" Jesse asks, shaking his head in a bit of awe.

"Suicide, baby!" Tony says, pointing at himself and laughing. "I wasn't sticking around waiting for one of you three hunt me down - I came back to the Castle and spent the afternoon relaxing." He looks down at his arms and begins to roll up one of his sleeves. "Laid out in the sun, worked on my tan."

I nod appreciatively, noting that he does look like he got some sun. Luca narrows his eyes at me, not liking at all that I'm looking. I just laugh and smack him on the knee.

"Seriously," Rafe says, leaning forward towards Tony with a grin. "Beyond just being nice to Ariel - why'd you do it?"

"Because Wright's a dick!" Tony

says, smirking and snatching a big

chocolate chip cookie from the table. He focuses his eyes on me. "We all know what he did to you at the Examination, Ari- and trust me when I say that the vast majority of Cadets think he shouldn't have been allowed back. He deserves every bad thing that comes his way, big loser bully."