The King's Prey

Chapter 27 | Routines & Repeats

Heterize • [het-er-ize]
To make other or different; to transform.

꧁ ꧂

~ Anastasia ~

Gravity and exhaustion might just decide to kill me. Or this male, but either possibility looks very probable at this point.

I can't recall the last time I felt this tired, but Killian has been working me down to the very bone since we began going through the various PT exercises he assigned me to get done by the end of this week.

Though I wasn't well acquainted with the wolf prior to these private sessions, I've definitely seen his face before. I recognize him from my first night here and beyond then.

I've learned several things about him since we started working together on Monday. Firstly, he has a strong dislike for complaining and has forced me to keep it to a minimum. And secondly, despite being so young-looking, he's had over a dozen years of battle training experience so he knows more than just how the body fights to overcome an obstacle but also the mental power one needs in order to be a successful warrior. Mylithia, from my recollection, never truly emphasized the importance of having a mental balance with yourself. So when Samuel dropped me off in the open training room located on the ground floor of Phantomridge's hospital on day one to meet with Killian, I definitely hadn't expected our first exercise to be silent meditation.

Everyday that's what our sessions begin with—sitting in the center of the PT room where the mats are spread out and working through silent breathing exercises for ten minutes. Despite the strangeness of it, the clarity it creates is equally shocking and new. So maybe Killian knows what he's talking about. Or he's got some kind of secret werewolf powers I'm not aware of yet.

Who knows.

Following the meditation, the routine is usually the same. Killian unwraps the bandages on my legs to check for any changes with my scarring and stitches, always stressing how my leg is in the part of recovery where it's beginning to reform important muscle groups and that I should keep strengthening them with a handful of at-home exercises he lists off to do before bed. Then, after cleaning and rewrapping my wound, we work through various segments.

The beginning of the week started off easy. I began with adjusting to stretching and pulling my healing muscles. An hour later, we amped it up a notch with resistance bands so I could practice working against the achy nerve pains that still encompass most of my shin and calf area. By Tuesday, we were going through a series of complex stretches I hadn't done since my early years of basic training with Mylithia's regime. The sessions didn't begin to lengthen until Thursday when our weight-bearing exercises began. That was when I started embarrassing myself on the barre just to practice half-limping, half-walking across the mats, the work so ridiculously strenuous that I was eventually forced to tie my long hair back at one point or another when it began sticking to my damp face.

But now, halfway through Friday's session, everything is hitting me like a fucking train. Especially the exhaustion from this past week. Who knew relearning to walk on a busted leg could take such a toll on your energy?

"You're still doing it wrong," Killian comments as I attempt another rep. He stands there, arms crossed like an asshole, as his dark eyes mock the way I use the ankle weight strapped around my foot.

I don't hide the frown that forms on my face. "I'd prefer it if you actually helped me do it right than just stood there and criticized me again."