Chapter 3

"I'm going to kill him" Sebastian growls and he takes one king step towards the door, clearly meaning to kill my fiancé. "I'm going to rip his head from his..."

"Sebastian!"Finn snaps, leaning forward and grabbing Sebastian's arm before he can say any further."Calm the hell down, you're a man".

"So, you run,"Sebastian says, pulling his hands away from his face and staring at me."You run and you leave his ass at the altar, and the press would paint him as the wounded party"

I nod moving my head up and down."Mom and dad can salvage the treaty this way, even without a marriage. But I…..I have to run away or disappear, or else the Prince will force me into it and…..I have too much leverage on him now"

"But where exactly the hell will you run to,Elara?"Sebastian asks,sitting up and shaking his head. "He's going to come after you! No matter where you are, he will find you!"

"Nope!"I hear Finn say. I turn my head towards him and my eyes fly open to see a wicked smirk on his face. "I never liked that guy anyways….he's such a dick! You deserve much more than this. Let's run"

"What?!"i gasp in shock, staring at my cousin.

"Where exactly?"

Finn just continues to smirk at me. "With Sebastian and I. We are enrolling tomorrow anyways….we'll just leave tonight and take you with us to Silverclaw Alpha Academy "

I stare at my cousin for a while in shock and then I suddenly burst out laughing a little frantically and throw my arms around his because this might just be the most perfect plan at this moment.

This plan will get me out of the palace and I'll be somewhere that no one…especially not even Prince Kieran ….will ever expect me to go.

A notoriously secretive all male military academy designed to weed out the weak Alphas and train the nation's strongest and baddest Alpha warriors.

Silverclaw Academy.

It was shockingly easy to smuggle me out of the palace once I got rid of my wedding dress and cut my hair. Finn just gave me some of the clothes he packed, and after I had rolled the hems of the pants about a dozen times and tied the waist with some ribbon torn off my gown…I can beat my chest to say that the clothes don't fit so bad.

"Okay," Sebastian murmurs, leaning back in the carriage, grimacing as he types out messages on his phone. " Mom and Dad are on board with us"

"Really?" I ask with my eyes wide open in awe and shock.

"I mean,"Sebastian says, flicking his eyes at me, "I didn't give them any deets about where we are or where we're going, and mom is completely flipping out about you being gone from the palace without a guard by your side for the first time in your life. But ….she gets it.And they both trust us."

We were inseparable. I didn't even figure out that I was a girl— or that being a girl means something different than being a boy, until I was around eight years old and I had to go to ballet class while Sebastian and Finn went to martial arts class. I was very devastated when I figured out that being different genders meant that we had different futures in store for us.

But , oh well!.

I figured out pretty quickly that being a princess means that I have my own responsibilities. Even though i loved running wild with Sebastian and Finn , I learned how to be pretty, sweet and modest because I knew that it would help Mom and Dad.

Sebastian and Finn had always secretly taught me everything they learned in their fighting lesson because they didn't want me to feel left out. But I'm not built for hand-to-hand combat the way Sebastian and Finn are because of my princess stature and looks, but things like ballet comes to me naturally. And while I thought I was eager to do my duties as a princess, to marry a prince to save our nations from war?

Honestly, I don't think that I have ever been this happy to run away, running from all those duties and hopping into a carriage with my two best friends. I'm so excited that I can barely catch my breath.

But of course, Sebastian being who he is cuts my joy short. "Okay, "he says ,sighing and tossing his phone into his backpack after he finished talking to Mum and Dad. "What the bell are we going to do with Kayla when we get to the Academy?"

"Seriously, why don't we just take her along with us?" Finn asks, wrapping his arms around my shoulder.

"What?!"Sebastian yells, frowning at him intensely. "You mean like, into Silverclaw Alpha Academy?"

"Yup!"Finn says , glancing over at me. "I made a promise..I mean, you promised our moms that we'd keep her safe,right? If we have to keep our eyes on her to keep her safe,what better way than keeping her by our sides?"

I gasp at the audacity of Finn's plan. I've be n hearing about that Silverclaw Academy all my life and always dreamed about going there….but of course, it only accepts make students. And while Sebastian and Finn will certainly take the warrior track, I fantasized about taking up some of the other things you can study; like healing, espionage or becoming a master poison maker. There's even a rumor that you can study battle magic if you have an affinity for it.

But honestly….no one really knows what goes on inside the Academy, it's all top secret and shrouded in mystery. But whenever one of the Alpha graduates came to the palace to consult with Dad or report on the amazing advances they made for our nations? They always had this aura that says I-can-take-on-the-world around them.

And damn, did I envy that.

Still,my dreams never got far. While we always knew that Sebastian and Finn would go, I had to make other plans. "Well , I'm definitely not letting her out of my sight" Sebastian grumbles as his voice grows deeper at the mere idea of it. He shifts his eyes on me, studying me.

I sigh a little, hanging my head, knowing it is impossible .

"It's not that I don't want you there, Kayla"Sebastian sighs feeling guilty. "It's just that it's not a safe place for girls…."

My head whips up and I open my mouth ready to protest that I can't take care of myself, but my brother is already waving his hands ,dismissing the idea.

"It's over hundred testosterone…fueled Alpha males in their early twenties " he says, frowning,"with no female attention for months, you'll get eaten alive. There are going to get guys there like Damon Grant...."

"Damon Grant is going to be there?!"i ask with my eyes opening wide as my head snaps up.

Grant is a minor celebrity—he's the junior heavyweight boxing champion of our nation as well as a notorious ladies' man"

"You see exactly why I think taking her with us might just be a bad idea? Her female hormones might start raging at the sight of six packs and some muscles " Sebastian says , noticing my glistening eyes after the mention of Damon Grant.

"Isn't it the simplest thing just to just keep plans the same?"Finn asks."Kayla just ....comes with us"

"You're being ridiculous right now,"Sebastian scoffs, glaring at Finn and starting to lose his temper a bit."What, we're just going to waltz into the candidate barracks filled with a bunch of hormonal Alphas like 'oh hey, we brought our little sister!Don't touch her! Hands off!'"

"No," Finn says, his eyes right and eager. "We don't waltz in with your sister," he says , pulling his backpack over and rustling around in it, pulls out a cap which was a standard issued cap for all Academy candidates. He plops it on my head palling it down."We waltz in with your brother."

"What?" Sebastian says, obviously appalled.

"No, it'll work!" Finn says, grinning now as he scoots next to me and begins to tuck my sleek brown hair into the cap. I grin right back at him, realizing where this is going.

"Sebastian," Finn says, turning to my brother with a wide grin."Meet Kyle, Kyle snow."

Sebastian's mouth drops open as I laugh and then rearrange my face, trying to look tough and do my best expression of a dude.

"Oh my God,"Sebastian exclaims, groaning and allowing himself fall back into the welcoming softness of the pillows in the carriage. "No,absolutely not….this will never work…"

"No, it will!"I insist,excited now."I will work, I can do it. I'm Kyle!."

"No, you're not,"Sebastian murmurs,his voice sounding further muffled by the hands still pressing over his face."You're Kayla….you do ballet and you arrange flowers, and you like making seating charts…."

"Not anymore,"I say, turning giggling at Finn, who nods eagerly at me."Now I'm Kyle , and I'm a boy!"