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A certain beauty lingered in them.

“Fine,” I sighed. “When do we start?”

His answer was immediate. “Now.”

I barely had time to brace myself before Wolf catapulted himself toward me, tackling me at the waist and rolling me to the ground. His hand behind my head broke my fall, but he didn’t even try to hold any of his weight back from crushing against me on the grassy ground.

“Seriously?” I barked.

“You have to be ready, Huntress. Always. Your enemies won’t wait for you in the Transcendent, and neither will I.”

He half-straddled me, bracing himself with an elbow. I tried not to think about how much of our bodies were touching, how much he could probably feel.

“Get off me,” I hissed.

His expression softened for a second before that same annoying smile played on his lips. “Make me.”

The constant weight of him pressed against my lungs, restricting their expansion. “Get off!” I said again, louder.

I tried to buck my hips, tried to rotate us to throw Wolf off his balance, but he slid his hands down my body and pinned my hips there, applying more than enough pressure to ensure I couldn’t move.

“I said, make me.”

This time, when I tried to wiggle beneath him, I didn’t move at all. I only pressed my body further into his, which resulted in a unique type of smile from him.

“I’m stronger than you. I’m much larger than you. I know you can get out of this, Huntress. Think.”

Fuck him.I could hardly think of anything that wasn’t his body pressed against mine, his legs pressed against my outer thighs, the warmth of him spreading across my torso as his hands held my hips with an unbreakable force.

What would Lord do? What would I do at Phantom?

Wolf was right. I would never get him off me with sheer force. I needed something else, something unexpected, something…

With Wolf’s hands on my hips, my own were free. I didn’t stop to think whether my plan was a good one. I just acted.

I wiggled both of my arms free before gripping his hair and pulling as hard as possible. He grunted as his head followed my motion, yanking him to the side.

And throwing off his balance.

He quickly tried to recover, but I sent my knee between his legs, completely throwing his weight off me and onto the grass beside me. With my body free, I rolled in the opposite direction, recovering in a fraction of a second and pulling my body to a squat.

He was still recovering on the ground beside me, grunting and cursing things I couldn’t make out, but I was sure I could guess.

“I thought you were going to train me,” I breathed, still fighting to catch my breath. “Not sit on top of me like some large brute.”

He laughed humorlessly as he found his way to his feet. “You’ve still got some fight in you. That’s good. I was worried you may have lost it all fighting with that soft fae of a boyfriend you had.”

I didn’t even wait for him to recover. I closed the distance between us and punched him in the stomach as hard as I could.

If he wanted me to fight, he would get a fight.

My fist connected with Wolf’s gut, but he was prepared. He grabbed my shoulders and shoved me backward without a flinch of pain.

“Again,” he said.

I came at him even faster, aiming a blow to the ribs.

He stopped me again, pushing me back even harder.