The Three Kings

Chapter 33

"I crave affection; and I run from it"

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Hanna
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King Xavier was standing at the foot of my bed when I woke up.

It caused a startled yelp out of me, and a ball of panic to settle in my chest. Unconsciously, I yanked my blanket up to cover my head.

Living with him, I was usually woken up in a similar way. Though, at this point he would pull the blanket away from me and drag me out of bed. The fact that I was still safely tucked under my blanket forced the ball to unravel and I slowly peaked my head out from the covers.

And there he was, standing with his arms crossed over his chest looking unamused.

"What time is it?" I croaked.

"Late." He said gruffly. "I do have other things to occupy my day with, Hanna. If you cannot show me the courtesy of showing up on time, then don't bother to show up at all."

I sighed, relaxing into the bed.

"I was up late last night. Am I not allowed a mistake or two?"

"A mistake in my work, Hanna, usually gets you killed."

"Well," I said, throwing the blanket off and sitting up to stare at him. "It's a good thing that I am not one of your soldiers then, isn't it?"

He was quiet for a minute before he turned and strode out of my room. "Five minutes!" He called. "If you aren't down there then we're done."

Rolling my eyes, I got up and hurriedly slipped on a baggy shirt, some shorts, and a pair of tennis shoes.

I practically sprinted down to the training room, stomach grumbling along the way, and by the time that I wrapped my wrists and put gloves on, it was about seven in the morning. Honestly, I was surprised that King Xavier let me sleep for as long as he did.

A few punches into our warm up round, he asked: "What was that? Upstairs?"

"Uh...you scolding me for being late?"

He gave me a deadpan stare. "Don't be obtuse."

Sighing, I let my hands drop. "Before Alpha John, my old Alpha use to wake me up by standing at the end of my bed like you did. The longer he stood without me waking up the more severe the...punishment. When I was younger, I would try and hide under the covers. At this point its just kinda a reflex."

"In potentially harmful situations, your first instinct is to hide--or freeze. I am going to train that out of you."

"What? Why?"

"I don't need you freezing up if you are in a dangerous situation. It'll get you killed. My plan is to," he paused for a minute. "No matter what your first instinct will be to freeze. That will always be your first instinct, but I can help you learn to unfreeze and run or fight if needed."

"Really? You can do that?"

"I've spent my life doing just that, Hanna. The only thing is that this won't be easy. I will have to scare you, I will have to force your body into its freeze response--which could be triggering. I will start creating a detailed document about what this will entail and have a few of my soldier who went through this meet with you to talk about their experiences. For now, we'll continue our session as normal."

I nodded. "Thank you."

"No need to thank me. Just doing my duty."

"Whatever," I scoffed. "I'm sure you could pass off my training on any of your soldier's. You don't have to personally train me." I put my hands up again, preparing for a punch, when King Xavier grabbed ahold of my wrist forcing my attention back to him.