"You never rescinded Leah's guard rotation," Zhiolas said, sounding absolutely gleeful. "Did you forget? She's supposed to have two guards assigned to her at all times."

"You are the Commander of a battalion, and Alluin is the General of an army." My soulmate's voice approached murderous.

I only laced my fingers behind my head and grinned at our friends, very amused.

"Which makes us both soldiers, and qualified for guard duty," Alluin replied. He slung an arm across Zhiolas' shoulders, and received a kiss for his trouble. "The hot springs are lovely, and I'm fairly sure you're the only one who's going to want to go sit in the first pool, so you might as well go sprawl in it."

Dain's ears laid back against his skull, his tails snapping through the air hard enough to make the wind whistle through his fur. "If you think—"

I cut him off with a hand across his mouth before he could say something that would be difficult to work around, and received a hot glare for my trouble. "They're right about the guard thing, which is our own fault, and it'll be fun to have them here," I said, smiling up at my Dain. "Besides, it's not like we haven't heard them having sex before. Might as well return the favor."

He made a disgusted sound, but kissed my fingers before taking them away from his mouth. "Fine. They can stay."

Zhiolas wolf-whistled at that, which made Dain pin him with another glare that did absolutely nothing to dampen his cheerfulness.

With a growl, Dain stalked over to the first pool, which steamed in a way that suggested I would not want to set foot in it, and started stripping. Shaking my head with a smile, I pattered down the rest of the stairs to where my friends waited, and started getting naked, myself. Both of them watched me until Dain snarled viciously, after which point Alluin covered Zhiolas' eyes with one hand while I laughed.

"Pretty sure Zhiolas' interests are elsewhere," I said to Dain, folding up my shirt.

Dain dropped into the first pool, sending hot water cascading down to where our friends soaked. He rolled over onto his stomach and lay on his crossed arms, looking up at me. "He still doesn't need to admire you so thoroughly," Dain said, with an edge to the words.

I looked at him thoughtfully, searching his face, and saw the tension around his eyes. I remembered his reaction to me admiring Zhiolas in the staging rooms of the fighting courts, and the thought that Dain struggled with always coming out poorly in the comparison with his friend, who was beautiful even among the fae. "My interests are elsewhere, as well," I said, holding his wolf gaze with my own soft brown eyes. "You're the one I want."