I winced in sympathy. Not regret, though, because Cair bending me over his desk had been an out-of-this-world experience. But I still felt kinda bad that Tee had to deal with all that before his takeover.

Alex decided to stop eye-fucking his mate long enough to chime in. “And all those times you limped around looking like you’d been mauled by a vampire and fucked with a baseball bat.”

My cheeks grew hot, and I wanted the ground to swallow me up. “Touché.”

“Leave my mate be,” Cair said, slotting his huge body in behind me, the rumble of his gruff laugh vibrating against my back. “It’s not his fault he’s utterly irresistible.”

Alex made a face that said ‘see, there’s another point to us’ and I couldn’t disagree. There was no denying that we were all sickeningly in love with our mates. It was unavoidable.

“I’m feeling very attacked.” I pouted.

Cair hummed. “Shall we go before you’re subjected to further ridicule, my heart?”

“Oh, don’t let us keep you,” Alex said. “I’ve been thinking about blowing Teighan behind the bar since you got here, and I might lose my mind if I have to wait much longer.”

I groaned, scrubbing at my face in exasperation. “For fuck’s sake Al, time and place.”

“What? Would you rather I lie to you?”

“Yes.”

He shrugged, leaning on the bar to sip his cocktail. “Then I wouldn’t be me.”

“And the world would be an awful place for it, bird,” Tee cooed, nuzzling Alex’s hair, a smirk on his face that said he was trying to get a reaction out of me.

I swear, they were both just as bad as each other. A perfect match.

After saying our goodbyes, we left the club. We didn’t rush our walk back to Cair’s penthouse. Kor had offered to teleport us there instead, but since we’d woken up early that morning and sprinted over to the club to tell Tee his news, I hadn’t really had the chance to appreciate being back.

As we were on the Fae side of the city, the scenery and decor were similar to the Otherworld, but modernized. It was an ode to both worlds—the high-rise buildings instead of medieval architecture, an abundance of trees and flowers instead of cars and buses. There was magic and there was machinery, and I still felt an overwhelming sense of giddiness at being allowed to experience it.

My thoughts drifted to Alex, as they often did whenever I strolled through these bright and lively streets. It was a shame that even though he now lived on this side of the border with Teighan, he couldn’t see its beauty. He was an artist, and he’d always been fascinated by the monster world. It felt cruel that he was denied it.