I glanced at Eli, and he nodded at me encouragingly. I took a stance like Reese, and he lunged. I stayed out of his arms for most of the time though I realized he was going easy on me. He turned, and I took the opportunity to stick my foot out and kick his legs out from under him.
He landed on the ground with a bang, and his breath was knocked out of him. Eli laughed loudly and clapped his hands. I took a big bow and wiped the sweat from my forehead.
“Very nice,” Theo’s booming voice called as he exited the house. “I’m kind of worried that my own brother can’t protect himself from the wrath of this little minx.”
“Oh, give it a rest,” Reese grumbled, standing up and walking towards Eli, who wiped an imaginary tear from his cheek.
“I wonder if you’d like to test your skills against someone a little more, qualified.” Theo smiled as he walked towards me, rubbing his hands together.
“Oh, no,” I backed up, shaking my head. “I’m not going to fight you.”
“Why?” His smile was kind compared to the threat behind his joking words. “Afraid to be knocked on your cute, little, butt, just like Reese?”
“Yes.” I looked away and frowned. Theo came closer and grabbed my arms, which were crossed over my chest.
“I promise I’ll be gentle,” he whispered huskily.
Reese let out a loud noise of disgust.
“Come on, Theo, she’s not going to be humiliated in front of her mate’s family,” Eli said, his words irked me, and I uncrossed my arms.
“I am not going to be humiliated,” I promised. “Let’s do this.”
“Alright,” Reese clapped his hands and hollered.
Theo smiled at me and backed up; I followed him. He took the same sort of stance that Reese did and flexed his arm muscles. I rolled my eyes and walked toward him casually. He narrowed his eyes and stood up straight. I stepped behind him and launched myself, jumping on his back childishly.
He grabbed onto my legs and laughed.
“Do you really think this is going to work?” he chuckled, turning his head to look at me.
“Isn’t it?” I joked, wrapping my arms tighter around his neck.
“I could literally have you on the ground in seconds, little one.”
“Oh, please-”
Before I could even finish my sentence, Theo had grabbed my arms and flipped my body over his shoulder. I was flat on my back with Theo above me, eyes twinkling, mouth pursed.
“Looks like I win,” he poked. I laughed and brought his face even closer to mine, pressing a firm kiss to his lips. He groaned and lowered himself until he was resting on his elbows. I lifted my legs and wrapped them around his waist.
“Ew, guys, stop,” Eli called.
Without warning, I torqued my body and flipped Theo onto his back. He released my lips, stunned, and moved his hands to my hips as I sat on top of him.
“I’ll have you know that I am a very deadly werewolf now,” I teased, leaning down to lay one more kiss on his lips. “It’s going to be harder to take me down now.”
Theo sat up, forcing me to lean back, but he wrapped his arms around my waist.
“That was the first time you’ve called yourself a wolf,” he breathed happily. I looked down and tried to fight the grin that was trying to come on my face.
“Yeah, well,” I mumbled non-committedly.
“Margo, you don’t know how happy that just made me.” His voice was serious. I peeked back, and Eli and Reese, who were trying their best to look like they weren’t eavesdropping.
“I’m still getting used to it, but...” I shrugged my shoulders.
“I know you are, and you’re doing great.”
He moved me off his body, and we stood up, grabbing each other’s hands before walking towards Eli and Reese.
“I think we’ll just be going right about now,” Reese badgered us, talking large steps backward, hitting Eli’s shoulder to follow him. “Leave you two to your hanky-panky nonsense.”
“Reese,” I yelped. He wiggled his eyebrows and skipped away. Eli followed him with half the enthusiasm.
“Come on.” Theo put his hand on the small of my back, and we went back inside. Theo had already picked up dinner from Emily’s bakery. There were a few sandwiches on the table along with raspberry scones, the same thing I ordered when we first went.
I beamed and bounced over to the table.
“I thought you might be hungry,” Theo said. “I didn’t want you to have to cook.”
“Thank you,” I said through the bite of sandwich I had just bitten off. Theo sat next to me, not eating, just watching me devour my food. I stopped and looked over at him, awkwardly with a piece of lettuce poking out of my mouth. “Aren’t you going to eat?”
“I’m not really hungry for that,” he mused, crinkling the wax wrapper from my sandwich.
“Then why did you get it, you should’ve gotten something else,” I told him guiltily. I set my food down, noticing I had already eaten half of the large portion.
“I’m hungry for something else.” His eyes were lowered.
“What it is? We can go pick something else up, I can take this in the car with us,” I insisted, beginning to wrap the wax paper around my food. He chuckled and pinched his nose between his eyes.
“Margo,” he relented. “I’m not hungry for food.”
I was confused for a moment until I saw the dark glint in his eyes. He continued to stare at me as realization coated my features, and I blushed a dark crimson.
“Oh,” I said stupidly and let my food sit on the table.
“God, you don’t even know what you do to me,” he groaned, pulling the base of my chair towards him. I jumped a little in surprise. “How hungry I am for you, I’ve been trying to hold myself off, to give you time to adjust, but I don’t know how much longer I can wait. Now that you’ve turned, it’s like my
