The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy



He kicks the door open when he gets there, snapping the lock and gritting his teeth when he realizes that he'll just have to replace it. Regret fills him fully then, both for the door and his harsh thoughts towards his sister, neither of which deserved his treatment.

But he's just so...pissed.

Rafe sighs, working hard to calm himself as he steps into the room. He looks down at his little sister in his arms, unconscious but breathing steadily, and knows he doesn't mean any of it. That he loves her, and is devastated for her, and just wants to fix the entire world so that things can just be easy for her sake, even if it means harder for his.

"But that's not your story, is it, trouble?" he murmurs, hefting her a bit in his arms, quite gentle, and carrying her over to her nook. There he settles her quite gently on the bed, taking a great deal of time to nestle her comfortably into the pillows and the blankets, ensuring that she has her favorite green one close by, pressed soft against her cheek. Then he lays several more warm blankets on top, tucking her in safe, terrified she'll be cold.

When Rafe stands, trembling a bit, and stares at her, he realizes again just how tiny she is, like a little rabbit.

So tiny, but so, so good - and so powerful - and so important.

"That fucking idiot," Rafe growls, running a frustrated hand through his hair as he grits his teeth. "Didn't even realize what he had." He sighs, putting his hands on his hips and staring at his sister who breathes peacefully. "What do you think, Ari, should we chop his head off? Or do you want to burn him to cinders?"

He waits. She doesn't say anything.

And Rafe's heart breaks for his little sister, who deserves so much better than this.noveldrama

"I'm...I'm going to go across the room," he whispers, leaning close to her, speaking soft around the knot in his throat. "To get the first aid kit, all right?" He points to it, as if that's going to help.

Then he laughs at himself even as tears sting his eyes, because obviously she doesn't hear him. Rafe turns and strides away to the shelf where they keep the little kit of gauze and ointment. He's back halfway across the room when someone slams into the door and gasps when it flies open.

Rafe turns snarling towards it, his hands gripping the first aid kit so tight it cracks, but he loosens his grip when Jesse comes stumbling into the room, gasping, his face as pale as a ghost.

"Wh-what-" he looks around, baffled, terrified.

"You were supposed to watch her," Rafe growls, taking two hard steps towards his cousin, who looks disheveled as hell. He stops in his tracks, Jooking Jesse over,

et

wondering why the fuck his shirt is mis-buttoned, his hair such a mess

But then the scent pasted all over Jesse hits him, and Rafe's eyes go wide.

"What happened!?" Jesse barks out, glaring at Rafe and then striding for Ariel in the bed. He cries out when he sees her lying there, unconscious, and crawls across the bed to her far side, leaning close, inspecting her. When he sees the mark on her neck Jesse gasps and covers his mouth, just...staring.

Rafe stares too - at the pair of them - his poor sister - and his cousin, who...who betrayed him.

Rafe's heart sinks deep, deep in his chest.

But he grits his teeth and pushes it aside because Ariel needs him right now. There are more important things to be done. The betrayal...

It can wait.

"Luca marked her and then rejected

her,” Rafe snaps, pulling the

shattered remains of his heart together and then striding over to the bed with the first aid kit. He sits down hard on the side of the bed. and opens the kit, pulling out some supplies with which to clean the mark. Of course, if Luca had done it properly, it wouldn't be an open wound like this - it would have started healing - but obviously, some sort of interruption occurred.

"Why?" Jesse gasps, looking up at Rafe and shaking his head, completely baffled. "Why the fuck would he do that? Why would that happen? A marking and then -"

"I don't know," Rafe growls, shaking his head. "I don't know anything about it - when I got there Ben was holding her naked on the floor -"

"What the fuck..." Jesse breathes, sitting up straight and running his hands through his hair, his canines flashing as he stares down at his cousin, horrified for her and terribly confused.

Both Jesse and Rafe turn with snarls towards the door when they hear it creak open across the room.