Page 65 of Mated By Twilight

They were getting reports from Skara on Leah’s first day of acting lessons and vocal training and, apparently, neither were going… well.

Corvidair ordered them to stay in their room and wait for her. He wanted a chance to get Leah to sing in front of him alone. If she couldn’t sing for an audience of one, she couldn’t sing for a large audience, and he felt having her mates there would soften the blow.

And according to Skara – who was lingering outside listening in by their request – she wasn’t able to do it. She had started a few times, then choked. Corvidair, in direct opposition to his usual personality, was being kind and encouraging, but Skara said thatLeah was getting more and more frustrated by her inability to justsing.

They knew she could do it. She’d sang for them. But they were her mates, and even if they had not bonded to her, she’d bonded to them in her human way. It was natural for her to be as comfortable around them as she was by herself.

Corvidair had been right, but it washardto sit back and do nothing.

So, they were going through fan messages. Hoping to distract themselves as they waited.

Most of them were pretty normal. Admiration of their skill, appreciation of them as people, excitement over future performances, love confessions. A lot of love confessions. They were mostly harmless. A few messages were rude, mean, or outright offensive, but they’d been doing this far too long to do anything more than skim and delete them. Not that they weren’t open to criticism, and there were some messages that were genuinely helpful if they had messed up a performance, but most of the time such comments were said more to be hurtful than helpful.

Biella had sent another message. Though it was nothing but loving, it fell into the category of ones they’d skim and delete. Even before they’d met Leah and seen her discomfort of Biella, they’d never held onto her messages. There were a few messages they kept because they were special, but none of Biella’s were among them.

Tillos almost deleted it outright before even skimming it, but Sollit’s curiosity, then ire, was piqued, prompting him to take a second look. It didn’t take long to find what had caught his attention.

Near the bottom of the message, Biella brought up Leah. She asked who she was. Why she was so close to them. Leah was the queen in their play, sure, but she wasn’t close enough to their characters that they should walk the room together like that. She said that the fan forums were already ablaze with rumors that they had mated her, and though Biella was doing her best to tell people that it wasn’t true, no one was listening to her.

‘We all know that I’m your mate. It’s so sad that we have to keep it secret from everyone for the sake of your careers. Especially if ugly whores are going to take my place in rumors. I know you both love me, but it still hurts. Can you make it clear that there’s nothing between you next time? And stop being around her. You can consider that a demand from your mate. In fact, if you can get her dismissed from the troupe, that would be best, right? I don’t like her. I’ll wait to see what you do. I love you both so much! I can’t wait until our relationship doesn’t have to be secret anymore.’

“When did our relationship become a salacious secret?” Sollit asked, confused.

“The delusion in her head gets more convoluted every day,” Tillos sighed sadly. At this point, he was considering tracking down her family to tell them to help her seek aid for it. She was harmless, so he wasn’t afraid, but it was best for her.

Before he could suggest as much to Sollit however, the door slid open. He deleted Biella’s crazed demands before standing with Sollit to face their mate.

“Oh, Leah…” Sollit rushed for her immediately, Tillos just a step behind him.

Leah looked so beaten down and discouraged. Her eyes were puffy and red while she was aggressively wiping at tears that stained her cheeks. She looked so sad and frustrated.

Sollit pulled her into his arms and Tillos took them both and led them to the bed where he could lay her down and they could cuddle her from either side. She latched onto them immediately, burying her face in their arms as she tried to hide.

“What happened?” Tillos asked, rubbing her back, like he hadn’t been getting reports from Skara.

“I can’t sing anymore!” She wailed, squeezing their arms like they were pillows. “I’ve lost my voice and I’m a failure.”

“You are not a failure,” Sollit kissed her head. “You had a very bad experience, and that fear has lingered in you. Fighting against it isnota failure.”

“And youcansing,aevea,” Tillos assured her as Sollit nuzzled her hair. “You’ve not lost your voice. We heard it ourselves. And it was beautiful.”

She sniffled, turning to face him. “It wasn’t the same as singing for you. I thought… I thought because Ihadsung for you, I could sing for others. But it was like my throat closed up and I just started panicking. Corvidair was sonice, but I just couldn’t do it!”

Tillos could have ripped her father’s throat out for instilling this fear in her. But that worthless male was far from him, and he could only try to fix the damage he’d left behind.

“We can’t end the day like this,” Sollit whispered in her ear. “Let’s leave today with a good memory. What do you want to do,aevea?”

“Huh?” She turned her head to face him instead.

Sollit smiled at her as Tillos kissed her head. “What do you want to do? We’ll do whatever you wish.”

“I, er…” She frowned, a strange look coming over her face.

Tillos continued kissing his way down her head, to her shoulder, to her upper back. Paying attention to her cues as he pressed further than she’d allowed them the last few days. She didn’t tense like she had before, but that might have been because she was too focused on today’s poor lessons.

Sollit only let her think until it became obvious that she was getting distressed about choosing. Then, he stepped in, giving her an option instead. “How about a date? Nothing fancy. We don’t have to go out. Let’s stay in and we can bring third meal here.”

“Erm… okay,” she mumbled, seeming like she wanted to say something else. But they gave her a moment to speak, and she said nothing else, just hid her head back against Tillos’ arm, allowing Sollit to pull his away.