The Alpha King's Human Mate by HC Dolores

The Alpha King’s Human Mate

Chapter 68 Chapter 68

“Pain was the body’s way of telling them they’d pushed themselves to their limits — which was exactly where they were

supposed to be.”

Richard Marcinko

True to his word, my first training session with Ivan began later that week. Although I knew he was going to teach me

self-defense, I had no real idea what that entailed. I’d never taken private lessons before, and certainly not with anyone of

Ivan’s caliber. Would he be a harsh teacher? He had seemed pretty strict the first time I stumbled upon him yelling at a

room of young wolves.

Griffin did threaten him pretty heavily though.

Ivan had only given me two instructions for our first session: dress comfortably and have one of the guards to escort me

to the second training room in the East Wing at 3PM sharp.

His directions were easy to follow. I’d dressed in sweats that didn’t restrict my movement and had asked one of the

guards stationed outside of Griffin’s suite to escort me.

When we arrived at the open wooden door, the guard didn’t linger. He simply nodded at Ivan, bowed his head to me,

and left. Chapter 68

Ivan stood in the center of the room, standing tall with his arms behind his back. “Please come in, Your Majesty.” The way

he addressed me was completely different than it was the first time we met. He had been nothing but mockery and

arrogance the first time we met.

Today, he was stiff and respectful — like he was afraid that looking at

me wrong might cost him his life. (7 Unfortunately, it wasn’t a completely irrational fear.

I strolled into the room, the door banging shut behind me. My eyes roamed over my surroundings – this training room

was much smaller than the one I’d first seen him in. It was still spacious with big mats covering the floor and large

windows that filtered natural light into the

room. “This room is designated for private lessons,” Ivan told me. “Do you do a lot of private lessons?”

“Not often,” he said. He still looked stiff and uncomfortable, and I

noticed that he avoided eye contact with me.

“I don’t know what your typical teaching style is,” I said, “But you don’t have to look so…uneasy. I’m not going to turn

you into Griffin if | end

up with a paper cut.”

but the sharp angles of

he finally said, clearing his throat. He stood up even straighter

| made a few observations that I’d like to test

we testing these

to see if you can land a hit on me,” he explained. “You don’t have to worry about me striking you at

Your

that I wouldn’t need to worry about dodging a hit was a relief, although

an easy target

managed to land on him had been a fluke – and

time.

to the center of the large mat. Once we’d positioned ourselves a couple of feet apart, Ivan

put a lot of thought into my attack. I simply dove for him,

It didn’t.

past him instead. I

still flushed with embarrassment.

“Try again.”

I tried to land the

“Try again.”

two more attempts ~ both failures. By the time he’d dodged the fourth attack, I was even more embarrassed

breathing heavily.

“You proved my observation.” “And what observation is that?” “That you

what you’re doing.”

a water bottle and I took

have any

said, “I did attend a bunch of warrior training classes back home.

training, just not good training

narrowed, and it looked like he was mulling this new

“Although it does make sense.” Chapter 68

a wolf,” he explained, “Not a very well-trained

think that’s supposed to

strong and as fast as a wolf,” Ivan continued, “Those attacks

not a wolf. You’re a human and you need to fight

don’t know what fighting ‘like a human’ means. That’s kind of what I thought

a feeling he would’ve been yelling if he didn’t

said, “You’ll always be at a disadvantage when you’re fighting

always be bigger and stronger. You can’t rely

are other ways you

“Like

back the water bottle and Ivan placed it aside. “I thought ‘fighting dirty’ was frowned upon.

etiquette or Chapter 68

whatever.”

boxing matches,

first sparring match? When you kicked

nodded, smiling sheepishly. I certainly remembered kicking Ivan right between the

of fighting dirty,” he said, “And it worked too. For a moment. You surprised me. Had you been more of a

kick a guy between

it’s an option, you should take it.

body. There are other pressure

me, Ivan placed his hand on his abdomen. “Hit me here. Aim your hit

a friendly reminder that if you’re not reading this book on n𝘰𝚟el5s.com, you

story. Head over there to dive into the next

for a moment, but when he didn’t move away, I shot my fist out. Ivan didn’t even stumble but he did

“Is where the kidney is – right below