Mated by Twilight (True Match)

Chapter 49

Leah

Whatever knocked Leah out faded just as quickly as it took effect. Leah gasped, coming awake all at once, her head jerking up-

Thud!

Groaning, she dropped it back again. Pain throbbing from her forehead. Wha-

Before she could figure out what she hit, something grabbed hold of her ankles and dragged her into the light. Out from under a bed, she realized, frowning as she looked around quickly. Trying to get her bearings even as she began to struggle against the bindings on her arms.

She was in an unfamiliar room that looked professional and impersonal – a hotel? And not even a good one. She’d compare it to a roadside motel if they were back on Earth. There was a bed, a desk, and a device she knew would cast a holodisplay that was, essentially, a big TV, but all of them were old, worn out, and smelled musty and a bit like rotting flowers.

Her arms had been bound. Not behind her back, like she expected, or by her wrists. Instead, her arms had been crossed and a cord tied all around them, keeping them against each other and binding her range of movement. A piece of fabric had been shoved into her mouth and another cord tied around her head, keeping it trapped there.

And there was Biella. Staring at her with a retched, insane smile. Her hair was mussed and wild, as was her dress. It was dusty and smeared with dirt in a few places.

How the heck had they ended up here?

Any question Leah might have asked was totally muffled and incomprehensible against the gag. Biella didn't look like she was in the mood to answer anyway. She was laughing quietly, unnervingly, as she crawled up Leah’s body on her knees.

“Finally got you… finally got you… finally got you away from them! ” She was muttering. Her eyes were wide and deranged as she looked Leah up and down like a hungry coyote trying to decide which hen to eat off the yard first.

“Mph um mf-”

Smack!

Pain burst across the Leah’s face. She didn't know who was more surprised by the slap. Biella, her hand still up, looked just as shocked that it happened as Leah felt.

Then she laughed once. Twice.

Smack!

Leah let out a cry this time as she was backhanded across the other cheek. Biella let out a bark of shocked delight. Like she’d just discovered something amazing.

She smacked her again. And again. One cheek then the other. Laughing uproariously the entire time. Leah was helpless to do anything but try to roll with the strikes, the pain burning along her face making her eyes water.

It seemed to go on forever, though, realistically, she knew it had only been a few seconds before Biella finally stopped. Breathing hard like she’d just run a marathon. Leah’s entire face throbbed as she felt something trickling down her cheek – she genuinely didn't know if it was blood or tears. It could have been both.

Biella ran a hand through her hair that was even wilder now, half fallen in front of her face.

“Yes. Yes. YES!” She cackled merrily. “That’s what you deserve, you human slut! For daring to touch my mates!”

Though the pain was making her shake, Leah couldn’t help but glare at the declaration. They certainly were not Biella’s mates.

The silent contradiction didn't go unnoticed.

Biella grabbed her by the hair, jerking her head up to snarl at her face to face.

“They are mine! I warned you! You didn't listen! ”

She slammed Leah’s head down onto the tile floor. The thud and crack made stars burst in her vision as she groaned, nauseated by pain. Luckily, that didn't seem so amusing as the slapping because she only did it once.

“You understand? You understand?!” Biella hissed, lowering her head right over hers, looking at her closely, directly in one eye. “They’re mine! Get it!”

Leah nodded. Because that seemed smarter than arguing with a crazy stalker.

But Biella yelled at her. “Why do you do this?! What’s this mean, eh!?”

She grabbed her hair and jerked her head up and down. Forcing her into performing a painful mimicry of nodding.

“What is this?!” She yelled again.

It was hard to think. Her ears were ringing, her head was throbbing, her cheeks were burning. But she realized, a bit slowly, that Biella didn’t know what nodding meant. Her mates had taken the time to read the human info packet that came with her as part of their mating. She’d never needed to explain what nodding or head shaking meant. And the information quickly spread through the troupe, and she’d never questioned them knowing it as well.

But Biella didn’t know, and Leah couldn’t tell her.

Apparently, though, she didn’t have to actually explain. Biella didn’t want an answer. She dropped Leah’s head, and she just barely stopped herself from hitting the ground again.

“It’s fine. This is fine. It’s all fine,” Biella muttered, standing and moving to the door.

Squinting against the pain, Leah rolled onto her side. It looked like Biella had dropped a bunch of stuff when she came inside.

She had stashed Leah under the bed, she realized. Like she was hiding contraband she didn’t want others to find, she’d tucked her away so she could go get…

What did she get?

The lump of fabric unrolled, sending a few items rolling around. Shiny, metallic. Biella was panting as she picked up a knife and a fork.

Oh. She’d raided the kitchen. That was a plate, stained with food. There was some random cutlery. A clean, folded napkin. What appeared to be a root vegetable of some kind. She looked like she’d just grabbed whatever she could and stashed it in a towel.

“Yes. This. This! ”

Biella was panting, laughing as she turned, squeezing the knife too close to the blade, causing it to cut into the side of her finger. But she seemed completely unaware of the brownish-red blood welling up and dropping down her scales. Was that what avanava blood looked like? Leah had never seen her mates bleed before.

And she had to be knocked silly, because that shouldn’t be her focus when this obviously crazy woman was walking towards her with the knife.

“I have to,” Biella was muttering to herself. “Have to… have to… they’re mine… save them… slut… human slut! I’ll save… mine…”

Why did this moment feel so… familiar…

Leah’s eyes moved past Biella to the window of the room. The curtains were partially open, and from here, Leah could see the silvery blue, artificial sky of the station. It didn’t look like Earth’s sky; it wasn’t blue enough for that. She was also very aware that it was artificial, and as good as it looked, her eyes weren’t deceived into thinking it wasn’t.

That was a ceiling disguised as the sky.

Yet, somehow, it looked remarkably like the blue sky outside of the open doors of a church. The bindings on her arms felt just like the wedding dress she hadn’t chosen. And the end of her life was approaching her, gleaming in the artificial lights overhead.

A wave of calm swept over Leah, dulling the pain, making everything seem like it was happening in slow motion.

Because she’d done this before. She knew what to do. Maybe the situation was different, but the desire to escape, to live, remained.

And this time, it burned even hotter. It wasn’t just the memory of joy and fulfillment that filled her with a strange, alien determination she didn’t understand. She knew happiness now. She knew love. She knew what she wanted to live for.

Her family couldn’t shackle her and force an end to her life.

She certainly wasn’t going to let this crazy female do so.

Biella approached, pulling back the knife.

Leah drew up her legs. Biella, in her insane wisdom, hadn’t seen a reason to tie her feet together since she was already unconscious.

Biella shrieked, falling on her.

Leah kicked up both legs, catching her in the torso. Not really kicking her off but catching her in the air, holding her up in a twisted game of airplane as she slashed the knife across where Leah’s chest would be if she was just a bit lower. Leah heard it cutting the air, but it missed hitting her directly.

Biella let out a wordless cry of rage, slashing again and again, trying to force her way down. Leah’s legs were shaking with the effort it took to hold her up.

They struggled against each other for just a second. Biella scratched Leah’s legs with her claws, trying to force them out of her way. Unlike the guys, she didn't keep her claws neatly blunted. But Leah didn't feel the cuts. She just saw the darkness of her blood welling up and trickling down.

With a grunt, Leah kicked, tossing Biella to the side. Rolling over herself. A hard clunk told her that Biella had hit her head against the hard frame of the bed. Leah continued rolling, getting up on her knees, to her feet.

She staggered a bit, trying to find her balance, as she ran to the door. It didn't open automatically, and Leah kicked it once in frustration before turning. She just barely managed to jump out of the way in time. Biella, who had come charging after her, hit the wall with a hard crunch of the knife cutting through the paint.

Turning with a growl, a trickle of blood coming down from her forehead, she snarled. Leah glared right back, lifting her arm and tilting her head so she could get her hands to the gag in her mouth. She ripped the piece of cloth out and jerked the cord down, letting it fall around her neck as she spat out the cotton-like fabric, wetting her lips.

“Just die already!” Biella yelled, charging for her again.

Leah ran to the side, now using her teeth to rip at the cords around her arms. They were tight, but not actually tied that well. Biella wasn’t right in the head, and it showed in the sloppiness of this kidnapping and murder attempt.

Oh.

Leah was somehow stunned as she avoided another wild attack, sending Biella running into the desk this time.

Leah was getting murdered right now. Attempted murder, at least. It was kind of a wild realization. And if Biella hadn’t been insane, if she had been capable of thinking this through better, she might have already succeeded.

Strangely, the knowledge that she was actively being murdered wasn’t depressing or shocking. It was more motivating. Like it had unlocked some kind of deep, primal survival instinct. Leah wasn’t scared or in pain anymore. She was focused. She was determined.

She glared at Biella as the avanava female picked herself up and turned.

“I’ll kill you,” she hissed, hand shaking around the knife. “I’ll kill you and-”

“And what?” Leah snapped back. “And take my mates?”

Biella shrieked at her for daring to claim her own males. Leah didn't even have to worry about screaming for help. Biella was doing plenty of that on her own. She might have locked the door, and Leah didn't have the time to figure out how to unlock it, but she was making enough noise that, if they could be heard, someone would be coming sooner or later.

She just had to survive that long.

Her mates would come for her.

They would. She knew it for certain. They loved her deeper than anyone ever had before. They treasured her as something important and valuable. She wasn’t a possession to be owned to them. Not just a little woman to obey and serve and give them children.

She was their mate, and she was worth their love!

And that was a future she was willing to fight for!

“They don’t want you!” She yelled at Biella, circling around to the side of the bed.

“They do want me!” She screamed, chasing her down.

Leah vaulted onto the bed and jumped off on the other side, turning just as Biella slammed the knife into the mattress. It ripped loudly, making Leah think that knife wasn’t all that sharp.

“No! They want me! ” Leah yelled back, putting a hand to her chest as they glared at each other over the bed. “They mated me! We’ve had bonding ceremonies!”

That sent Biella over the edge. She bellowed like a banshee, cutting and scrambling her way over the mattress. Leah turned and ran from her, making her hit the wall. Then the other wall. Then the desk again, before once more vaulting the bed.

She turned back, both of them breathing heavily from the short chase. Though, Biella looked even more mussed. Her hair was a gnarled mess, her dress was slipping off one shoulder, and she had managed to cut herself on the chest one of the times she hit the wall and was bleeding from it sluggishly.

Leah, still in her Thumbelina costume, had her skirt bunched up in her hands as she glared over the mattress, waiting for her to charge again.

“You’re crazy,” Leah told her, a surprising tone of determination in her voice. But she clung to it. Letting it power her. “Sollit and Tillos are not your mates. They never were! You’re obsessed with them, and I get it. I’m obsessed with them too!”

“NO!” Biella slammed her hands on the mattress, stabbing it with the one still holding the knife. She did it again and again, all the while screaming her defiance repeatedly. The dense foam in the mattress went flying as she cut into it.

Leah just waited for her to exhaust herself. Until she ceased thrashing about in her tantrum and she stopped, half slumped over the mattress, still holding onto the knife she’d plunged into the same spot she’d been digging into.

“But they’re not yours,” Leah continued like the meltdown hadn’t happened. “They don’t love you, Biella. Not like they love me. You need help.”

“I need your head! ” Biella snarled, drool seeping out from around the corners of her snarling mouth. “If you’re dead, they’ll come back to me.”

“No. They won’t. And you know it.”

“No!”

“You’re sick in the head, Biella! You need to stop this now and just… listen! ”

Her own shriek made Biella draw back as if in disgust that she’d dare take that tone with her.

But Leah continued, determined. “You’ve got these beliefs in your head that are just delusional! You’re delusional. And you’ve got this idea of reality that you want to believe in so badly, you’re willing to hurt and warp and manipulate the people around you to make things how you think they’re supposed to be. And when they don’t live up to that expectation, it breaks you inside because you feel like reality is falling apart, so you want to hurt them more to fix it.”

Biella blinked at her, still staring in affront, but at least not lashing out again.

“You are trying to force your beliefs and desires onto them, despite whatever they want,” Leah continued, her voice strengthening. “But what you’re doing is just hurting them further. Is it really worth hurting the people you claim to love because they don’t agree with what you think?”

“They don’t know any better!” Biella snapped. “They don’t know what’s best for them. I do! I have to show them what’s right. I have to make them see!”

“But they won’t! They won’t agree with you. You’re going to make them hate you, you’re going to make them hate everything you stand for, just because they won’t think like you.”

“So what?!”

Leah’s heart hurt at her dismissal. She shook her head. “Then, you can’t say you really love them. If they told me tomorrow that they loved you and wanted to go to you, I would let them go. I would love them enough to release them. Support and love are unconditional when they’re true. And if you make them happy, I’d want that for them.”

“Because you’re weak! Because you don’t love them like I do!”

Someone began pounding on the door.

“Leah!” That was Skara’s voice. “Leah, are you in there?!”

“I’m here!” Leah called back to her, surprised by the calm in her own voice.

“Are you okay?!”

Leah didn't answer that, because she wasn’t sure what the answer was. Her heart was pounding fast and though she knew she should be in pain, she couldn’t actually feel anything right now. Everything was weirdly disconnected.

Biella was shaking. She dragged the knife out of the bed and stood facing her.

“I don’t care what they want,” the avanava female said, responding to her earlier words. “I want them. And they’ll learn to love me!”

“That’s not how this works.” Leah said, the certainty of it a solid core of steel in her chest. “I know what it’s like to have that kind of belief pushed on you. Trust me, Biella. You will never be able to get what you want. Not like this. You need to get help. You need to at least acknowledge that you have a problem.”

“I have no problem! You all are the ones with the problems! You’re the ones who are wrong!”

Biella threw herself across the bed as Leah, once again, took her on a chase.

Only this time, Biella didn’t hit the wall and bounce off, she pushed off it and continued running after her immediately, giving her no time to make more space between them.

The door swooshed open with a chirping alarm. Twin flashes of purple rushed into the room. One slammed into Biella, knocking her off course, making her slam into the far wall. The other one grabbed Leah, wrapping her in their arms, and blocking out her vision.

She didn’t know if it was Tillos or Sollit – whoever grabbed her put their hand on the back of her head and hid her face against their chest before she could see.

“I’ll hold her here. You get out,” Skara was saying.

Leah wasn’t sure who she was talking about until her mate clutched her to his chest and rushed out. In lifting her up a bit, she could see Tillos right behind, coming after them. That must mean that Sollit was holding her.

She should be excited to see them, right? Relieved. Something.

But she just still felt so oddly disconnected. Biella let out a shriek of crazed frustration and anger. It was like Leah was still back in that room with her.

And really, genuinely, she felt pity for her.

Outside of the grimy hotel, they were intercepted by station security. Leah didn't recognize them, but their steel gray and black uniforms certainly looked like something space station security officers would wear.

Someone tried to reach for her, but Tillos rushed ahead, pushing whoever it was back.

“We’re with emergency health!” They snapped.

“Don’t touch our mate!” Tillos snarled.

“Guys, I’m okay,” Leah promised, her voice weak even to her own ears. Where had all that strength and conviction gone?

She must have sounded pretty pathetic, because her reassurance only convinced her mates to set her down onto a floating stretcher in front of a pair wearing red uniforms. She didn't recognize either of their species – one had five eyes and all black skin, while the other was a very tall female with four arms and waist length hair that moved in an eerily smooth way. They looked her over together as her mates stood to either side of her, behind the floating stretcher. There was no EMS vehicle that she could see, but the tall alien female pointed something at her – like a gun with a giant bubble wand like ring at the end of it – and scanned her up and down.

“We should get her to the healing center,” she said, staring at whatever read out the not-bubble wand gun was giving her. “She’s got some significant head and face trauma.”

Oh, right. Leah had her skull bashed into the ground and had been smacked around. There were also various scratches on her thigh. And, as she catalogued her injuries, the deadened pain decided to make itself known again. And there was more than she expected. Aches and pains and bruises all up and down her body, not just at her head.

It wasn’t until she was instructed to lay back and the red-uniformed people began jogging away with her gently strapped onto it that reality finally caught back up to her.

And she burst into tears.