Teddy pursed his lips. “I’ll text ahead, so they’ll be expecting you.”
He got up and dusted off his knees before walking over to Wren and urging him back out of the building with all his new friends with an arm around his back.
“You’re just going to let him off?” Wren asked, feet dragging and indignant.
“He’s just an idiot who doesn’t know better, Little Bird. But he still knowingly participated, so Cyrus will throw the book at him once he gets to Slatehollow. Mostly it buys us some time to move before the local PD here catch wind of it and try to block us again.”
Realization settled over Wren’s face. “Playing politics?”
“It’s a full-time job in this city. But don’t worry.” He gave Wren another roguish wink. “I’ll handle the bureaucracy. You just look after these cuties.”
Wren’s entire being changed, softening into pure love as he looked down at the creatures he was cradling. He held up the tarantula in his palm and cooed. “Isn’t she so beautiful?”
She was. She was because a long time ago Wren had taught him to view the world in such a wonderful way.
“Saint will be jealous.”
That seemed to make Wren even happier, and Teddy shook his head with a small chuckle, still completely in awe of him. He was an avenging angel. A warrior of mother earth. And apparently still a little petty.
They locked the animals safely away in the crates Wren had brought with them and sent messages Cyrus’s and Saint’s way, updating them respectively. That done, they were left in the bright daylight, Wren leaning back against the trunk while Teddy stood in front of him.
“Tired?” Teddy asked.
Wren nodded, the wind picking up and blowing his braid against his cheek, some strands catching his eyelashes.
“We need to find some time to sleep,” Teddy said. “We’ve been up for ages.”
“I’m used to it.” Wren shrugged. “This is more important than sleep.”
“You were great in there. Watching you work…” Teddy couldn’t put it into words properly, the mix of impressed andattracted and amazed he had been in equal measure. “It was really…cool.”
Wren burst into laughter. “Cool? That big vocabulary and you went with cool?”
Teddy kissed the laugh from his lips.
Wren’s gasp of surprise was a sharp inhale through his nose that broke on a small moan. Tiny, competent hands curled around Teddy’s neck and into the hair at his nape as a hungry tongue darted out to meet his.
Their mouths battled for space, neither wanting to let go of the other’s lips for long enough to trade spots before the other grew frustrated.
“You really did like seeing me work,” Wren said breathlessly as they broke for air.
Teddy couldn’t contain the affirmative groan, hands sneaking underneath the hoodie and finding all that smooth, scarred skin underneath the thin, cropped shirt. He urged Wren to walk with him backward, moving them away from the car and toward the side of the alley.
There he put his hands under Wren’s ass and picked him up, pressing him to the cold concrete right before he ducked back in for another devouring kiss. Their hips ground together, sending pulsing pleasure right to Teddy’s brain and making him remember every detail of what had just happened, how driven and determined his little bird had been as he flew into the room.
“You weren’t kidding when you said you knew how to throw a punch,” Teddy said between one kiss and the next.
Wren gave a breathy laugh, pupils blown out wide as he leaned in for another slow kiss. “I wasn’t.” Another peck. “Some people deserve punching.”
“Cool.” Kiss. “Cool.” Another kiss. He couldn’t stop. “Punch as many people as you want.”
Wren laughed against his mouth so his kisses hit his perfect teeth.
“What are you even saying?”
“I don’t know anymore. I’m stupid when we’re together,” Teddy admitted, kissing across his cheek and down his neck. “My brain falls out of my head so it can make room.”
“For what?” Wren murmured, tilting his head back to give him better access.
