The Hidden Princess At All-Boys Alpha Academy
Chapter 0507

"I am," Luca says seriously, pushing up from the floor as he intuits that the lesson is done. "Well that taught her."

then," Blaze says, looking at him for a long second and then shifting his eyes to me. "Perhaps you can put our Ariel through a different set of paces. See if her dodging skills adapt well to a different fighting style, or if she's only able to dodge me because I'm the one My eyes go wide a bit as I start to understand Blaze's proposal. "Wait, you want me to fight Luca? Do you - do you know who he is? What he can do with those fists!?"

"You said he is your creature," Blaze says, shrugging, I think a bit pleased with himself as he turns quietly and heads towards the other door in the room - though I don't know where it leads. "I doubt he will punch you very hard, Ariel. See you tomorrow!" And with a little wave, Blaze disappears through the door.

"What do you say, gorgeous," Luca says, grinning at me and moving to the center of the room. "Wanna fight me?"

"Um, no!" I say, even though I follow him to the spot at the center of the room where I always start with Blaze. When I get there, Luca raises his fist into his boxer's stance, his muscles smoothly settling into it in a way that suggests he's done it a hundred thousand times before. Which, of course, he has. "Oh, come," Luca says, smirking and giving me a cheeky wink. "I won't hit hard."

I groan a little even as I fold my hands behind my back, taking up my own much less threatening stance. "Don't hit me in the face, okay?" I say with half a sigh, looking up into his brown eyes, my own pleading. "I want to stay cute."

"You looked pretty with a black eye too, when we first met," he says. "But, sure. Body blows it is." Luca shifts his fists almost imperceptibly lower, but then suddenly he's moving - starting to swing. I gasp a little, taking my first step back, but Luca's fist and long arm is already there, coming from my right. I gasp a little as his fist takes me in the arm, knocking me to the side so that I stumble a few steps.

But, as promised, he was gentle. Or at least, as gentle as a six-foot-something Alpha can be with fists the size of small melons. Still, it was light enough that there's no chance that I'll even bruise - except, obviously, my pride.

"Gotcha," Luca says, still grinning at me, I think kind of loving this. "That was easy - honestly, Ari, is he teaching you anything?"

"No fair!" I whine, starting to get pissed. "I wasn't ready. Set up again."

Luca does as I ask, taking a step back to the center and raising his fists again. I bend my knees, getting ready, and then we're off again. I duck under Luca's fist this time but Blaze was right - I was getting used to his method of fighting. With Luca, I have to completely adjust. He gets me on the second blow and I bare my teeth at him, making him laugh, and then I shove him backwards, making him start again.

We go on for a further thirty minutes and I fall completely into the practice, concentrating hard and finding new ways to predict the blows, moving back faster than I do with Blaze to stay out of Luca's reach, dodging lower and feinting different directions to confuse him. The result, I'm pleased to see, is that I finally make it to the back of the mat without him touching me.

I give a shriek of victory when I get there, throwing my hands up, but Luca - scoundrel he is - snarls roughly and dodges forward, wrapping his arms around me and yanking me up into the air. I shriek with laughter, pounding my fists against him, shouting about how he's a cheat and needs to put me down immediately.

"I made it!" I pant, still smacking at him a little, "admit it! I made it, I won!"