Mated by Twilight (True Match)

Chapter 42

Tillos

Leah was off with Corvidair, writing their next play. They’d already gone into pre-production. Costumes were being made, props and holodisplays being crafted. The cast already had their roles assigned and explained, they were just waiting for the final script – which they were promised today.

But for that purpose, Corvidair had forbidden Tillos and Sollit from being there for the writing process. The two of them were much more likely to distract Leah than actually help. Which they couldn’t even argue against.

So, instead, the two of them were going through their fan letters and all the gifts that had been piling up. They hadn’t properly sat down to open them since Leah arrived. Why open these things when they could instead spend that time with her? But they didn't have anything else better to do for today, so they were working through the pile, preparing thank you notes to send in return, and missing their female.

“Got another note from Biella,” Sollit said – he was going through the messages while Tillos tore through the packages. Reading the messages took less time, but there were also far more of them. So, they were working together, Sollit reading messages out loud as Tillos opened packages and sent off their thank you notes in return.

“Delete it,” Tillos said, using a knife to cut through the packaging. He and Sollit had claws, but they kept them filed. It wasn’t like they needed to defend themselves anyway, and they had been extra careful about it since getting Leah. Her skin was so soft, they could easily cut her on accident, and to have drawn her blood would have been a great failing as her mates.

Sollit didn't argue as he banished Biella’s note without reading it. They had always been careful about keeping boundaries with her since their date, but now, they wanted to actively discourage her. Even if it meant losing her as a fan.

The decision had been simmering in the back of their minds for a while, but hearing Leah compare herself to Biella had solidified the decision. They certainly were not going to continue indulging Biella even that much if Leah had even the slightest apprehension about it.

“Oh, look.” Tillos lifted the gift he had just opened. It was a hand painted picture of Leah on stage as the sleeping queen, the two of them standing on either side of her bed. It was Leah’s first piece of fan art, and it was wonderful!

“Precious,” Sollit praised. “I can’t wait to show her.”

Tillos nodded and set it aside in the pile of other hand-crafted gifts. There was also a pile for treats, and another pile for purchased gifts. They also got gifts from companies trying to get them to use their brands, but those were vetted out through the mail. Corvidair would go through those and determine which ones he wanted to be used by the faces of his troupe. Not to say they couldn’t use the rest, they just couldn’t use or promote it publicly.

“Oh, there’s a message here for Leah,” Sollit said, opening the message. “It says, ‘We loved seeing your performance. We can’t wait to watch you again. You’re beautiful, and we had such a great time. Do you have a fan group yet? We want to start one!’ Oh, that’s sweet.”

“We need to make a thank you note template from her,” Tillos said, setting aside another gift – sweets this time – and sending off a thank you note from his combot.

“I think I can just repurpose ours,” Sollit said, messing about with his display.

As he worked, Tillos opened a bottle of dark wine, which made him hum appreciatively. That would be nice to share with their mate later. He made sure to send an extra thanks to that sender as dark wine wasn’t cheap to export.

He added the wine to the treat pile and grabbed the next box. It wasn’t very big, but it had some weight to it. He expected another treat.

That was why, when that foul stench came out, he thought it was because whatever treat had been sent had gone bad. Sometimes, fans sent fresh food, thinking that just because it was delivered quickly, they’d get it quickly. They were warned not to when they sent things for delivery, but sometimes, they didn't notice or thought it would be okay anyway.

“Ugh, what is that?” Sollit asked, picking up on the smell.

“Rotten food, I’d guess,” Tillos grumbled, looking for a name or something so when he sent the thank you – because they'd still tried, even if the result was a failure – he could also remind them not to ship fresh food again in case it spoiled, not letting on that it already had.

But he didn't see a note or anything that would indicate where it came from. The shipping information on the outside was all very generic. Which wasn’t unusual. With intergalactic deliveries, it was common to bring packages to drop off locations instead of scheduling for someone to come and get the package from your home.

But as he was looking, the lid opened, and he caught sight of what was inside.

It wasn’t rotten food.

It was a dead, rotting animal carcass.

His belly dropping with horror, he opened it fully, looking inside. He didn't know what the original creature was, but it had been small, with yellow fur. But someone had hacked its head off in a way that looked violent and messy. The skull had then been crushed and mangled before having a bow grotesquely tied around it and being set inside.

And there, on the wall of the box, someone had written, in Standard-

‘ Human slut ’

Tillos’ horror and then immediate anger upon reading the words caught Sollit’s attention. He leaned over, looking for himself, before gagging.

“What in the…”

“How did this not get intercepted in the package room?” Tillos hissed, furious. Their presents were all checked for things exactly like this so that it never reached them.

And this was meant for his mate!

“Easy,” Sollit said, touching his shoulder. Trying to help him reign in their anger. “Let’s take this down to security. They can deal with it.”

“Leah…”

Sollit hesitated. “Let’s not tell her. There’s no need to scare her with something like this.”

It wasn’t common, but it also wasn’t unheard of for them to get dangerous stalkers – fans that were truly fanatical. But it wasn’t usually a problem because Corvidair had a great security team that usually dealt with these things.

“She’s human,” Tillos said, getting to his feet, glaring into the box. Into that horrible slur carved into the side as though with a claw. “She might be targeted more than the rest of us.”

“Yes, but she’s human, that means she’s more protected than any of us,” Sollit countered. “Come on. We’ll deal with this.”

Tillos followed, closing the box, trying, and failing, to contain the smell. They were going to have to have their dressing room cleaned before Leah came back in here.

Humans were considered the most sexual, sensual, fuckable species in this galaxy. Beautiful and hyper feminine to a degree that was outright outrageous, borderline illegal on some planets. But harming or kidnapping a human was also a high crime for that exact reason.

That meant their Leah, as lovely and famous as she was about to become, needed increased security. And first and foremost, they needed to figure out how this package made it all the way to them, one step away from her, so nothing similar would ever happen again.

But Leah was just getting comfortable, getting confident, on the stage. They didn't want to scare her with something like this.

So, for now, they were going to keep it to themselves.

Because Tillos and Sollit would do anything to keep her safe, keep her healthy, and keep her happy. And that included getting in the way of things like this so she wouldn’t need to be anxious about it.