The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

"Just five minutes, then you can talk to your dad!" Ella calls cheerfully to Ariel as she slips back into the bedroom, pulling the door carefully shut behind her. But the moment she turns back to Cora, all kindness slips away from her face.noveldrama

"I'm going to murder that stupid boxer."

"Oh no," Cora sighs, her shoulders slumping.

"Ella, can you please come over here?" Dominic sighs. "It's very hard to hear you -"

Ella sighs and storms over to the bed, sitting down hard next to her sister. "You were right, Roger."

"Usually my four favorite words," Roger sighs, shaking his head. "Though not today."

"Tell me," Dominic orders, stern.

"I looked," Ella says. "Her bond with Jackson is quite strong - bright and shining. But next to it, the one

with Luca - it's still there. Not broken, not disappeared. Just ragged as all hell and stretching out towards him, wherever he is in the world."

Dominic groans, devastated by the news, and ducks his face into his hands.

"Oh, Luca's in the city," Cora murmurs innocently.

Ella glances at her with a frown but turns back to the tablet when Roger speaks.

"Is it not better, in some ways?" Roger asks, hesitant. "She's not broken by this - she's not ill like Dominic was. I'm not trying to downplay what she's been through, I'm just saying

"No, I'm glad she's not going through what I want through," Dominic says, raising his head. "I just...I hate that that smug little bastard still has a claim on her. He's going to keep doing this to her - reeling her in, making his demands, and hurting her when he doesn't get what he wants. It's despicable for a man to tell the woman he loves that she's rejected, to shred the bond almost to the snapping point, and then to leave it intact."

"And Ariel's so sweet," Ella murmurs, worried. "That if she has a chance to try again, to renew the bond - she'll probably take it. The boy means a lot to her. She loves him, I'm sure of it, and she's generous of heart enough to see his good attributes when she should worry about the bad."

"It would have been...hard on her," Dominic sighs, softly shaking his head. "But in the long run, a clean break would have been better. It would have killed me to see her in that kind of pain, but I'd have taken that choice if it meant a clean break from him. I never regretted breaking from Lydia. But to use rejection as a punishment, and then to keep the bond..."

Dominic shakes his head, disgusted.

"We should have him arrested," Roger murmurs, nodding.

"What?" Cora breathes. "Roger, it's not illegal -"

"Well, it should be," he growls,

glaring hard at the screen, though his anger is, of course, all for one tall dimpled playboy and not his wife

"We could have him court

marshalled for dropping out orel

school in a time of war. Desertion. Lock him up in a dungeon, let the rats gnaw at his toes -"

"We don't have a dungeon, Rog," Dominic sighs.

"Should have built one when I told you to twenty years ago," Roger murmurs, looking rather superiorly down at the desk. "Would come in handy right now, wouldn't it?"

"I'm not worried about Luca. Or his toes," Dominic says, frowning and glancing to his brother like it's weird that they got on that subject in the first place. "We need to think about what's best for Ariel."

"Well, Ariel thinks the bond is broken, right?" Cora says, glancing at Ella, who nods. "She's not aware that it's intact. She thinks that she's been rejected, that it's done."

"Perhaps we should leave it that way," Dominic says, his face grim. "Let her recover. Let it be a clean break, at least on her side."

"Dominic, to just lie to the girl," Roger murmurs, frowning at his brother, hesitating at the idea. "When she's already been through so much...'

“No, I agree,” Ella sighs, crossing her

arms and looking seriously at the screen. "Not for forever. But...just for now. Whether or not the boy broke the bond, he rejected her - broke up with her. want her to have the space to mourn him and then start to move on. Plus, if Rafe and Jesse hear that the bond is intact they night react strongly. If everyone is simply under the impression, for the next few days, that it's ended...perhaps that's best. Ariel needs to start living a life without Luca Grant - adjusting to that reality. We'll tell her – just...not today."

"And she won't figure it out on her own?" Cora asks.

"I don't think so," Ella says on a sigh. "The bond is so tenuous, so ragged...I think it will take a great deal

of healing until she feels it again, if ever. Again, we'll tell her. Soon. Just...not today. Are we agreed on this?" She looks around at her family, genuinely wanting their advice.