I unlocked the front door to my apartment, flipped on the light, and stepped back to let Calix enter first. He'd been pacing and growling behind me ever since I fished the keys out of my purse. Only after I assured him he could check the room out first did he calm down.

Hours had passed since our return from his dream, but his overprotectiveness remained at an all-time high. Any other time, I might have enjoyed it—or taken advantage of it—but dealing with the alpha male behavior from my mate and my father had quickly taken its toll on me.

"This is where you lived before you came to Faerie?" He asked me after completing a thorough investigation of the one-bedroom apartment.

I smiled fondly at the small space as I set down our shopping bags. Compared to the beauty and extravagance of fairytale castles and magic, it didn't look like much, but it had been my home.

"Yep." The keys clinked in the pottery bowl I tossed them into. "This is—was—home."

"It..." Calix worried his bottom lip as his brows pulled together. "It feels like you. Like you used to feel before you made the Change."

"Is that good or bad?"

"It's both. I love who you are now, but I miss who you used to be. Does that make sense?"

"What?" I put my hand on my chest and gasped dramatically. "It seems I recall our first interactions a lot differently. A lot of frustration and spanking threats."

A cocky smile played on his lips as he looked me over with promises of debauchery in his expression. "I felt frustrated that my brother could touch you, and I couldn't. The spanking was more for my benefit than anything else."

"Oh, no. I definitely got something out of the spanking when it finally happened."

Mist swirled around him, carrying him from across the room to my side in an instant. He pushed me against the wall, pinning me in with his arms as he kissed me breathless.

"Good. Because you've certainly earned another."

Indignation and lust warred within me. Indignation won out by a hair. "For what?"

Calix opened his mouth to answer, but a picture on the wall distracted. His mouth opened slightly, and he pulled it down, tracing the image through the glass.

"What is this? How are these people trapped inside?"

A giggle escaped me, earning a glare. "How is you live in a world of magic, but a photograph amazes you?"

"A photograph?"

I wracked my brain, trying to think of how heroines in my favorite books had explained this. "We have these things called cameras, and it can take the image it sees and recreate it with light. It's a lot more complicated than that, but that's all I've got."

He shook his head. "I've always admired what humans are capable of without magic. As a child, I listened to my mother's stories and read all the books she would bring me about the human realm. She promised me one day I would get to see the human realm. I just always thought it would be with her."

"Calix, I'm sorry," I said, touching his shoulder softly.

"Is this you?" He asked in a raspy voice, changing the subject abruptly.

"It is. That was me and my father on my eighth birthday."

"You're pretty cute without your two front teeth."

"I definitely pulled it off."

I flipped my hair back in mock arrogance, earning a grin from my mate, but as I stared at the photo, my mood sobered. After losing—or after I thought I lost my father—this photo had been my favorite.

We sat side by side with mud on our cheeks, our hair matted with sweat, and smiles so wide my face hurt just looking at us. Somehow, I had convinced my normally overly cautious father to take me trail riding. I'd been obsessed with horses my entire life, but the first half of the day went so poorly, I decided I never wanted to see another horse.

Then I fell off when we were crossing a creek because I leaned too far over to see a fish. My fat little pony stopped immediately, waiting for me to get up, and by the time my father reached us, his panic turned to laughter when he found me completely unharmed and drenched. At the end of our ride, he signed me up for lessons. I always wondered why the fall hadn't made him keep me away from horses, but I'd been too afraid he would change his mind if I asked.

Grabbing the photo, I flipped it face down and put it on a table. Calix frowned and turned it back over.

"I don't want to look at it."

"He's your father."

"When we win your crown back, are you going to keep paintings of Niamh around the palace?"

"Probably...though, it's different and you know it."

Fuming, I marched past him and went into my bedroom. No longer the least bit interested in our earlier flirtations, I shucked my clothes into a corner and pulled on my least flattering pajamas. An oversized t-shirt with dancing cows that I reserved for that time of the month.

"Let's go to bed," I said, ripping back the blankets and crawling between the sheets. "We have a lot to do if we're going to plan a wedding."

"Little moon..."

I sat up and threw a pillow at him. "Don't Little moon me. You two spent half the evening making dick measuring. I'm surprised you're on his side, since it didn't seem like you liked him very much."

"That wasn't dick measuring. At least not how you think it was. He had to make sure I was the right male to marry his daughter. I respect that."

He pulled off his shirt and threw it on top of my clothes. Teeth clenching from the sudden wave of desire, I rolled to my side, so I didn't have to look at him. Stupid, perfect abs and fae hormones. That was fighting dirty.

The mattress dipped as he climbed in beside me, and I went limp as he pulled me against his chest. "I'm not telling you that you can't be hurt because of what he did. I'm just telling you not to cut him out of your life because of it."

Turning over, I looked into his face, surprised by the intensity in his expression. "You don't understand. He broke my heart all in the name of protecting me."

Calix kissed me. A tender whisper against my lips, and then said, "I don't understand? I lost both of my parents. They chose to leave me for the greater good, and if they showed up tomorrow, I would get on my knees in gratitude. Don't throw away your second chance, little moon. Promise me you'll at least think about it?"

A ragged sigh escaped me, and I nodded. What a selfish jerk I'd been, not even considering what Calix had gone through with his own parents. "I'll...try."

"Good." Another kiss. This one was harder. "Now, about that spanking."