Page 115 of Resurgent

Which means we have privacy…which has proven to be the best and worst decision when we’re supposed to be training.

Back on the mat, Hunter circles me slowly, his hands loose at his sides while he wears that infuriating half-smile that tells me he already has a plan and thinks he knows exactly how this will go.

“Your left foot,” Tyr mutters inside my head. “You're giving him an opening.”

“I know...It’s intentional.”

“He keeps beating you as soon as you do it, so maybe you should stop.”

“I’d like to see you come out here and fight him,” I laugh back, instantly picturing him on the mat fumbling over his own legs.

“Don’t insult me,” he grumbles. “And I don’t need to fight like a human. I have fire, fangs, and camouflage.”

“One more time!” Hunter barks, and I instantly roll my shoulders.

“You said one more the last time.”

“And then you got distracted.”

“I was not.”

“You were staring at my arms.”

“I was evaluating weaknesses.”

His eyebrow lifts in question, and I can’t keep my straight face anymore.

“What? You know they’re my weakness,” I add.

He laughs under his breath. “I’m pretty sure telling your opponent your weakness makes the top five list of things you aren’t supposed to do in a fight.”

“Maybe…but telling my boyfriend doesn’t sound so bad.”

“No,” he admits as his eyes look me over—the exact moment I’ve been waiting for presenting itself.

Lunging, I reach for his shoulders, intending to go for a leg sweep, but he catches my wrist before I can connect, twisting and using my own momentum to send me stumbling past him. I recover quickly, pivoting on my heel and throwing an elbow toward his ribs, but he blocks it.

“Too wide,” Tyr says immediately. “And you're dropping your shoulder before every strike.”

“Since when did you become an expert on fighting?”

“I’ve had hundreds of years watching you all squirm around. You don’t think I’ve learned a thing or two?”

“You’re moving too slow, and your eyes are giving you away.”

I move instantly, going for a hip throw, but this time, he catches both my wrists and pulls me close to him. For half a second, we're chest to chest, neither of us moving.

His gaze drops to my mouth.

“This is where you're supposed to let go,” I murmur, stepping into him.

“I know,” he whispers, seconds before his lips are on mine and I’m leaning into him.

There is a long, horrified silence in my head.

“Absolutely disgusting.”

I almost laugh against Hunter's mouth.