Page 97 of Mated By Twilight

And maybe Sollit was yearning for something impossible. Maybe their genes would override Leah’s completely and any young they had would have white hair, but the idea made him all the more eager to sow their seed in her belly to find out.

Of course, even if they were all white haired, they’d still be the most beautiful avanava in the universe, but golden hair would certainly be unique.

“Now,that’sa thought,” Tillos grinned, sharing a glance with him. “Imagine if our young were born with golden hairanda golden caste to their scales?”

Sollit nearly groaned with amazement. Golden flecks didn't run in their family at all, but that didn't make the chance impossible. He was pretty sure a male cousin of his on their fathers’ side had been randomly born with them. Any family could, at random, have younglings with gold flecks. It was more likely if one or both parents had gold flecks, but it wasn’t impossible for it to just appear.

“Now, you two,” Father Netros chuckled, offering the females some crunchy greens. They were chatting away in Standard, unaware of the males and the direction their thoughts had roamed. “There’s no point in counting unhatched eggs. You should be grateful for any young and wish only for their health and wellbeing.”

“I can do both,” Tillos assured him, making them laugh.

“Greedy,” father Sorten chastised playfully. “Though, I admit,thatwould be a beautiful thing. Grandlings with your mother’s scales, our daughter’s hair, and golden flecks? Everyone in the neighborhood would justchokeon envy.”

“Ha!” Netros laughed derisively. “Can you imagine the look on Torsed and Desrot’s faces? Who would care about the state of their garden when such beautiful grandlings would be running around in ours? The flowers would wilt in comparison.”

Sorten chuckled, looking back at them. “You two should have seen their faces when we told them that our new daughter was ahuman. They were so bitter. When we show them pics of how well you’re taking care of her, they’ll just die.”

Sollit laughed, leaning back on his hands, smiling at his family. “Wait until you hear her sing.”

Chapter 44

Leah

“I changed my mind. I can’t do it!”

“Nope!” Tillos and Sollit said at the same time, catching her by the arms when she attempted to flee and turning her around. Facing her right back to the stage entrance.

“You’re just nervous,” Tillos assured her. “You’re going to be fine.”

“I’m going to be sick.”

“And it will be glorious,” Sollit said grandly.

The ridiculousness of the statement made her laugh, but it was an uncomfortable sound. “Guys, seriously, I can’t do this. I’m going to mess it up. I won’t be able to sing. Let me go.”

“Nope,” they said again.

“No, really, I mean it. Let me go.”

“And we would,” Tillos smiled.

“But you told us not to,” Sollit reminded her, kissing the side of her head, on her hair so he didn't mess up her make up. “I believe your exact words were, ‘No matter what I say, don’t let me change my mind. I mean it. Don’t let me run.’”

“Yeah, but that was last night when I was being dumb and overconfident,” she protested, shaking her head as the others watched her curiously.

Leah had no idea why she thought she had the right to be confident last night. That was just her being stupid. Now that she was standing here, actually faced with the prospect of going out on the stage, she realized how foolish she had been.

Leah was going to be up therealone. She had a choir singing with her for her opening number, but the other ‘people’ on stage were all holoprops, not real. There wasn’t actually a species so big that she could be compared to their thumb. And even if there was, the stage wasn’t big enough for them. They were pulling a trick out of old cartoons and just making light props that were only feet or hands for her to move around and interact with as she sang about being tiny Thumbelina.

But until Sollit and Tillos showed up later so she could meet her fairy princes, she was going to be on her own. Singing on her own. In front of a huge crowd that was even bigger than normal, especially the streaming audience, because everyone wanted to see the first human performance. And she really thought she could be confident aboutthat?

Nope. Clearly, last night, she’d suffered from a brief bout of insanity brought upon her by the rehearsals and practices that had been going so well. She’d been high on the success of the last full run through of the play and that, combined with the lingering throes of ecstasy she’d enjoyed at her mates’ hands, had made her really think she could do this,

But the open maw of the stage entrance reminded her of her place, and it wasn’t too late for her understudy to get dressedand take her position. She would take the writing credit alone, and that would be good enough.

Except her mates were pushing her forward, following her first order, not this one. They continued promising her that she’d be great. That the play was going to be wonderful. To take that nervous energy and put it into her performance.

They shoved her into the tunnel. The now familiar sense of weightlessness from the anti-grav machine hit her. And it was like muscle memory took over. She pushed herself up through the darkness, making her way to her first mark. She had to hide in a giant, holo flower for her ‘birth’.