The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy

"And is - is his face all bruised?" Ariel asks, looking closer at a rare picture in which he's not wearing sunglasses. "Do we have any idea where that came from?"

"We don't," Ella sighs, looking steadily at her daughter, watching her reaction. "But I don't have to make a ton of guesses, considering your line of supporters who would leap at the chance to give him a good punch.'

"And why is he all...wet all the time?" Ariel asks, frowning, leaning closer. "No one else is..." "That...might be me," Cora says, quite innocent.

The other three go silent and then turn to her, shocked.

"What, I'm your godmother," she says, shrugging, fighting a smug smile. "If you didn't want me to have a tiny rain cloud chasing your douchebag ex around the city wherever he goes, you should have said so in the first place."

Ariel lets out a sputtering little laugh as Ella and Daphne look at her anxiously. But when Ariel's shock fades and it turns into real, true laughter, everyone joins in to the point where they're all wiping tears from their cheeks, leaning against each other for support.

"Cora," Ariel laughs, hugging her aunt and resting her head on her shoulder. "Please take it away - it's so mean -"

"No way," Cora sighs, pressing a kiss to her niece's head. "He gets at least a few more days of that. Luca pissed off the wrong girl's family - he's paying for it -"

"All right," Ariel sighs. "But no lightening."

"No more lightening, you mean," Cora coos, grinning. "What!?"

"Oh, come on," she sighs. "I had to zap his ass a few times to send a message. Don't mess with the Sinclairs - we'll make your life miserable.

Ariel doesn't say anything else, just looks around the room at the three women who are her family now, grateful to the depths of herself to have them on her side. "You guys are the best," she whispers, breaking into tears again and moving to Daphne to hug next.

"Oh geeze," Daphne says, wrapping her friend up in a hug. "Who knew, all we had to do was zap Luca with a little magical lightening and you'd feel better. It would have saved us a great deal of expense in spa treatments if we'd known that little secret from the start."

"No, I want more spa treatments too," Ariel murmurs into Daphne's shoulder. "Also, ice cream."noveldrama

"Well, that we can do, trouble," Ella says with a happy smile, moving for the freezer. "That we can do."

A few hours later, massaged so that

my muscles feel like butter and filled to the brim with every single desert that room service could think to create, trest curled up at my mom's side while Cora and Daphne sing karaoke in front of the TV, matching glasses of wine in their hands.

I smile, so pleased to be here but...knowing that the time is nearly up. That this has given me enough strength to face my life.

Mom and I spent a long time this

afternoon going over it all. I tell her everything what the Goddess said about needing all of my mates' marks, and me deciding not to tell Luca and Jacks so the marks could be freely given. And about sleeping with Jackson first and how right it felt, and how sorry I was when he didn't mark me, but how much sense it made when he explained it. And then what it felt like to lose Tony, and how good Luca was to save me.

And then how everything happened in his room, with the wine and the whiskey and the sex the mark the rejection, all so fast. How it all feels like it was my fault, and how if I'd just managed it all a little differently, it would all be...fine.

"You have to forgive yourself, angel,"

mom murmurs, curled up at my side, as I sniff again, going over it all

in my head for the thousandth time. She presses a kiss to my hair. "You're very young and you've never done any of this before. I'm not sure anyone has. You tried, you may have made mistakes, but you can learn from them. That's how it works. But forgiveness first - the regrets...they help us grow. But you can't live with them on your shoulders. Too heavy.”

I nod, hearing her, truly listening. And honestly, I do feel lighter seeing it from that perspective. She's right. I do like to be perfect, I hate to do things wrong. And I did a lot of things wrong. But there's no changing it now - only moving forward.

"I think I want to go back to school tomorrow, ma," I whisper, resting my head on her shoulder, my own wine glass balanced in my hand.

"Are you sure, baby?" she asks, turning to me slightly, going a bit rigid. "We can stay longer - we can -" "No, I'm sure," I say on a sigh. "I...I miss Jackson. And I need to talk to him."