The Heir and the General

Seven.

Reyna didn't wake at dawn.

All thoughts of being ready for a run at the day's first light escaped her the moment her head hit the pillow the night before.

Instead she remained in bed where her muscles ached and the sheets and blankets protected her naked body against the morning chill.

She thought about waking up as the sun's light began to peek over the mountaintops and through her bedroom window, but thought better of it and rolled over and fell back to sleep.

It wasn't until she heard the pounding of boots stomping up the stairs that she realized her absences was noticed.

Letting himself in, Thessan threw open the door of her bedroom, chest heaving and sweat making his shirt cling to his chest as though he'd still gone for the run without her. "Get your lazy, entitled ass out of bed. We have work to do."

He tore the blanket away before she could respond. "Hey!" she yelled, sitting up and grabbing the blanket back to cover her naked form. "It's freezing in here!"

The General only rolled his eyes before tossing the blanket back over her, doing well to not to look at her even though she swore she saw a deeper flush on his already heated cheeks. "Just get some gods-damned clothes on."

She started at him, but he did not turn to go. He waited as if he knew if he didn't, she'd bury herself within her blankets again.

He wasn't wrong.

Reyna was not lazy. When a task needed to be done, she would normally do it, do it willingly, and do it with passion. However, as to when that task would be done, she tended to want to run on her own schedule.

Not to mention, she was a glutton for a soft bed and warm blankets.

So when dawn came and went and she was nowhere to be seen, this should not have been a surprise to anyone, especially the male who barged into her cabin and attempted to disrupt her comfortable slumber.

And now that he insisted on remaining to ensure she did, in fact, wake for the day...

She gathered the blankets that had been unceremoniously returned to her and tossed them aside to reveal her naked body.

Another fact about Reyna the General seemed to want to forget or refused to acknowledge- nakedness never seemed to bother her.

It used to irritate her mother and aggravate her father all those years growing up in the palace as walked without a wrap on between the bathing room and her bedroom.

Once, when she first arrived at the camp, she walked the entire distance from her cabin to the lake on the other side and back, as naked as her name-day. A silent challenge to any male to look at her, a dare to try to touch her. She never used sex to her advantage, but she knew how much of a distraction being a female created within a war camp predominantly male.

Once her father heard about what she'd done, she didn't do it again.

And she also knew it was the male in front of her who informed her father of her brazen attempt at riling the recruits.

So, she rolled over in bed, knowing full well what she exposed to Thessan in doing so, and simple murmured against her pillow, "No."

"No?" the General echoed, bristling. "If you're not up by the count of five, I will drag you from that bed, naked or otherwise, and I will haul your ass down those stairs, throw you into the cold. We are going for that run, even if that means I have to tie a rope around your waist and drag you behind me while lead the way."

"I dare you," she taunted, still not looking at him. But if he did dare lay a hand on her, she was mentally prepared and physically ready to beat the shit out of him.