Their Clueless Alpha Princess Chapter 15

Their Clueless Alpha Princess Chapter 15

Soren’s POV

I saw the fangs before Thea could.

They were out – just barely, the tips pressing against his lower lip as he leaned toward her throat. Not her mouth. Her throat. The vampire wasn’t going to kiss her. He was going to feed.

I crossed the corridor in two strides and closed my hand around Vesper’s shoulder. I pulled him back hard enough that he stumbled.

Thea’s face went from dazed to furious in half a second. “What are you doing here?”

She was glaring at me. Not at the predator I’d just peeled off her neck.

Vesper recovered fast. His fangs were already retracted, his expression polished smooth. He straightened his collar with two fingers and looked at me the way you’d look at a fly on your plate.

“Perhaps Solvane doesn’t approve of me,” he said. His voice was light. Almost amused.

I didn’t trust myself to speak. Nox was snarling inside my skull, and my grip had left white marks on Vesper’s shirt.

Vesper turned to Thea with that rehearsed smile of his. “We should talk again soon. I enjoyed our conversation.”

He glanced at me once a look that said he knew what I was and what I couldn’t say – and walked away. Unhurried. Smooth. Like a man who had never been interrupted at all.

I couldn’t explain. The species treaty didn’t let me. No supernatural could expose another in the human world. I couldn’t tell Thea that the boy she’d been about to kiss was a vampire who’d been two seconds from puncturing her throat.

All I could give her was a line she’d already heard.

“I told you to stay away from him.”

“And I told you that’s none of your business.” She crossed her arms. Her jaw was set, her eyes hard. She looked like she wanted to hit me. “Stop showing up and ruining things.”

She stepped around me, her shoulder clipping mine without apology, and walked toward the gymnasium.

I watched her go. Her ponytail swung with each step, and she didn’t look back once.

“She’s pissed at you,” Nox observed.

I said nothing.

“You ripped a blood-drinker off her throat and she thinks you interrupted a love scene. Tough crowd.” He paused. “Also, you’re jealous.”

I didn’t answer.

Nox laughed.

Soren Solvane was the most infuriating person I had ever met.

I shoved through the gym doors and into the locker room. My face was hot – from the almost-kiss, from the interruption, from the look on Soren’s face when he’d planted himself between us like some kind of golden-eyed wall.

He had no right. He was my French project partner, not my father.

I splashed cold water on my face at the sink, changed into my PE uniform – an oversized school-issued T-shirt and faded black shorts that had been washed so many times the fabric was almost translucent and tied my sneakers harder than necessary.

Vesper had been about to kiss me. The thought hit me fully for the first time now that I was alone. He had leaned in, and his mouth had been close enough that I’d felt his breath, and if Soren hadn’t grabbed him-

My stomach did something warm and traitorous.

And Soren had ruined it. Again.

I yanked the locker shut and went outside.

Juno was already stretching near the track, her wild curls tied back with a scrunchie that matched nothing she was wearing.

“Okay.” She grabbed my elbow the second I was in range. “I saw you and Vesper. Walking together. Through the library window. Spill.”

“Nothing happened.”

“Your ears are red.”

“Nothing happened yet,” I said. Which was technically true.

Her eyes went huge. She opened her mouth to scream something.

“Don’t,” I warned.

She clamped her lips shut. Her entire body vibrated with the effort of staying quiet. We started jogging the track.

Two laps in, she cracked. “So I finished the script adaptation. For *L’Avare*.”

I was grateful for the subject change. “What did you do with it?”

Juno’s gaze slid toward the far end of the field where the boys were doing sprints. The Solvane twins were impossible to miss – half a head taller than anyone else, with shoulders and arms that made the other high school boys look like they were still waiting to grow into their bodies. Ash’s T-shirt rode up when he stretched, showing a strip of tanned stomach. Soren ran like he was bored, covering ground in long easy strides that shouldn’t have been possible at that speed.

I caught myself staring and looked away.

A week ago at the party, I’d confused Ash’s back for Vesper’s. In daylight, they didn’t look alike at all. Ash was all lazy smiles and careless movement. Vesper was still, precise, polished. The only thing the three of them had in common was that none of them belonged at a public school in this town.

“You’ll see tonight at rehearsal,” Juno said, grinning at the twins. “Trust me. It’s inspired.”

“Why does that scare me?”

“Because you have zero imagination.”

We jogged another lap. Juno chattered about costume ideas and blocking, and I let the rhythm of the run settle my nerves. The morning air was cool. My sneakers hit the track in a steady beat.

I was reaching for my water bottle when it happened.

A football shot across the field like a missile. Someone on the boys’ side had punted it wide, and it was screaming directly at my

skull.

I didn’t have time to duck. My hands came up on instinct, but the ball was already too close-

A hand caught it an inch from my temple.

Soren stood at my side. He held the football in one palm like it weighed nothing, his arm extended, his body angled between me and the field. His jaw was tight. Those gold eyes looked down at me, unblinking.

I hadn’t seen him move.

He’d been on the far side of the field a second ago. Fifty yards away. Running sprints with the boys class. And now he was here. close enough that I could feel the heat coming off his skin, close enough that I could smell something warm and sharp underneath the school-issued cotton – like cedar, like woodsmoke.

My mouth opened. Nothing came out.

Soren dropped the ball at my feet.

He turned and walked back across the field without a word. The other students were staring. Juno’s mouth hung open The PE teacher blew his whistle and shouted something about watching their aim.

I stood there with my heart pounding and my hands still raised.

He had appeared out of nowhere. Like a blur. Like something from a movie where they speed up the footage and the person just

materializes.

Nobody was that fast.

Nobody human.