Chapter 48: Willa

Once we were alone again, I turned to Ferrin. “Well, still think I’m not more trouble than I’m worth?”

“Please, having someone worship at your feet is the least troublesome thing we’ve dealt with,” Ferrin said with a sly smile.

I still took a deep breath, resting my face in my hand as I leaned on the bar.

“Hey,” he said, wrapping his arms around my waist behind me, “don’t worry too much. It’s probably nothing.”

“Yeah, but it does kind of put a damper on the whole day.”

“Maybe, or maybe not. Arlo is back. You could always start your training today,” Ferrin said.

I sat up straighter. A good sparring session did sound like a fantastic idea.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Ferrin laughed. “Come on. We have some private practice rooms downstairs.”

I went and changed real quick and followed Ferrin down a floor. The room he brought us to had a couple large mats and various tools and equipment, mostly for hand-to-hand combat training. I went to one of the shelves to find a pair of gloves or some wraps for my hands.

“So,” Ferrin said behind me, “where did you learn to fight?”

“My dad taught us,” I said. “Growing up a rogue himself, he had to learn to fight at a young age. Some things he learned from watching Pack training when he could get close enough. Other stuff he kind of discovered on his own. When he was with my mom and part of the pack, he helped train the new recruits.”

“So, if you stick with the werewolf division, you’ll kind of be following in his footsteps.”

“Yeah, I guess I kind of would,” I said with a smile.

I turned around, and Ferrin was walking to the middle of a mat. He had taken his shirt off and was just finishing wrapping his hands.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

He grinned as he stretched his arms to loosen up. “Arlo won’t be here for about twenty more minutes. I thought you could show me what you got.”

I chuckled. “Oh, but baby, didn’t I just spend three days showing you what I’ve got?” I winked as I joined him on the mat.

“I think we could make it a little more interesting.” He began to circle me.

I put my hand on my chest, mocking pain. “Ow, that hurt.”

“Yeah? What are you going to do about it?” he teased.

Truthfully, I was pretty sure he could knock me on my ass in about five seconds, but I knew the whole point was to test my skills. And I wasn’t about to undermine them by striking first.

“I’m not going to attack when you’re on your guard, that’s for sure,” I replied, moving in sync with him. “But there are other forms of punishment. And since I’m so boring, I guess you don’t want me in your bed anymore.”

He growled as he subtly closed the distance between us.

“Nah, withholding mating is a bit manipulative. I know, I could have everyone at our apartment, like all the time. You're not likely to get bored if it’s not just you and me.”

“If you think that will stop me from having you, you haven’t figured me out quite yet, babe.” Another step closer.

“Oh, yeah?” I asked. “Then what’s stopping you right now?”

I knew he was fast, but I could anticipate the lunge. I dodged as he tried to grab my throat, getting in a good punch to his ribs. He pivoted easily, a wicked grin on his face. He struck out with his palm, but I blocked it, spinning in to elbow him in the stomach, dropping him down a few inches so I could kiss his cheek before slamming my foot into his. I twisted the arm I was still holding, giving me leverage to step away to put distance between us.

“Come on, baby. Is that all you got? I thought we were making it interesting?” At this point, I was just enjoying the shit talk.

His eyes flashed yellow. He was enjoying this. A few more maneuvers later and he managed to get me on my back, knocking the wind out of me briefly as I hit the mat. He extended a hand to help me up. I gripped it but swung my leg into his, jerking them out from under him. I was straddling him in a fraction of a second.

“I may not be the best fighter, but I definitely try to keep it interesting,” I laughed.

“You are absolutely that, my love,” Ferrin said, yanking me down on him, kissing me hard and greedily.

“Oh, come on. Really?” Arlo’s voice echoed through the room.

We didn’t even try to contain our laughter. I climbed off Ferrin and stood to greet Arlo.

“Sorry, big guy. But in my defense, it wasn’t my fault this time,” I said.

“And who was on top of whom?” Ferrin teased.

“Okay, okay,” Arlo said. “Ferrin, get yer arse out of here. Austin needs ya, and you’ve got a mountain o’ paperwork on your desk. I don’t need any of this mate energy while I’m training.”