Page 44 of Roar Letter Word

It was all that lack of privacy and intrusiveness laced with very real danger. Especially since she had been advertised as his mate. That was going to draw in the worst of the worst. Certain shifters would jump at any chance to take over his throne. They had their bait then, didn’t they? They would take Addie, and he would do anything for her. Even release his hold on his precious legacy.

He imagined himself as a shifter who ruled with an iron fist. He could have had Addie locked up in a castle by that point. A part of him longed for it, his slipping sense of control dwindling and making him feel foolish. But he also knew that he was insane and possessive. He saw the way she shined on stage. Shutting her away would snuff out that light.

Mahes growled. The couch he sat on shook beneath his fury. He leaned forward, his face flopping into his hands as Addie went back out for an encore. The audience was already chanting her name with rhythmic, thunderous claps and stomps interwoven between a chorus of exhilarated voices.

“Add-ie! Add-ie!” they shouted.

The stage had gone dark while she’d gone backstage, albeit briefly. When she returned, the entire stadium lit up in a brilliant wash of red, spotlighting Addie in a shimmering jumpsuit flowing with the sandy yellow and blood-orange color of his planet's suns.

The sight of her smile made his chest warm. She had a guitar slung around her neck and approached the microphone with the same cherry lips that had kissed him a hundred times with incomprehensible desire.

“This is a new one that will be on my next single,” she said into the mic, smiling ear to ear. “It’s calledYour Sun, My Moon.”

Mahes in no way considered himself a poet, or even an artist for that matter. Words, as important as they were for intergalactic relations, were merely a means to an end for him. You either used them correctly, or you didn’t.

But his experience with Addie had changed his opinion. He knew then, watching her through the screen, that words had just as much power when they were understood as when they were misunderstood. Their relationship was the epitome of how words and language could easily become a tangled web of confusion. Explanations that should have been easy for him to relay, such as the mating mark, were abandoned and created a vast space between them that made his chest tight.

Words had a way of strangling the truth. But they also acted as an ample avenue for blossoming trust … and, of course, love.

Mahes listened to Addie’s song, the sweet ballad closing her first performance on Nova Aurora. His eyes began to moisten, having listened to the sheer, blinding grace of her words. He wasn’t stupid. He knew it was about him. The lines about being torn between the luminance of the moon and the heated longing of the suns hit too close to home to be abstract.

Mahes had enough. His heart was ready to burst out of his chest, and his lion paced. He stood, stomped out of the dressing room, and began to search for Addie. The venue had quieted with only chatter from the departing spectators leaving. He explored the entire back area of the concert hall, then finally ventured out to where the stage was being dismantled. The entire time, there was no sign of Bruce, either.

Mahes was beyond suspicious.

“Excuse me,” he said to a man working on the stage.

The man had droopy eyes, likely from the late hour and the monotony of building and then tearing apart a massive platform in one day. But when he saw who was tapping him on the shoulder, they bulged like he was speaking to the creator himself.

“Oh, oh, My King,” he said, dropping the metal tubes he had been holding and falling to one knee. “I apologize, My King. I wasn’t aware that you were in attendance."

Mahes waved him away, not wanting to draw attention to himself. He wore a hoodie over his dress wear, and although his stature was rather identifying, he seemed to blend in well. But face to face, he couldn't really hide the stoicism that he was known for.

“No matter. I wanted to ask you where Addie, our performer, went. I was supposed to meet her backstage.”

The man rose to his feet, looking rather alarmed, like the mistake was all his own. Mahes shook his head back and forth in reassurance.

“You aren’t in any trouble. I just need to know. I cannot locate her."

The man picked up the tubes he had dropped and held them to his chest like a child holding a precious heirloom. He gazed over to where the backstage area began, and then he shook his head.

“I overheard her manager speaking to some fans. They wanted pictures, autographs, the usual. He said she had gone home for the night.”

Mahes's heart sank even deeper into his sorrow. His lion whined. But he didn’t let it show. He merely touched the man on the shoulder, thanked him for his loyalty and service, then left.

He scoured the backstage area one last time before finally deciding to head back to his estate. The problem with the stage worker’s message was that Mahes had no clue whichhomeshe had gone to. Had she gone home to the mansion, the king’s home, where she had been staying for the past week? Or to her original home, hundreds upon hundreds of galaxies away?

Mahes wasn’t going to let himself wallow just yet. He called for his driver, who picked him up promptly. He watched as the venue emptied out with Nova Aurorans of different ages and sizes, their eyes twinkling with glee. She had done something for them. There was no doubt about it. She may have even inspired a whole generation of writers, singers, and artists.

It was an awesome power that Mahes admired. Even with as much power he had as king, nothing compared to the ability to inspire. That wasn’t something he could learn without aid.

They soared over the dull yellow mountains, the incandescent lilac of the forest glowing below. He mused in great agony over the potential loss of the one and only person who would ever matter to him. The deal had been sealed with the scratch, so there was no going back. It gave the king a morose sense of satisfaction. Whether she had decided to stay with him or not, he had found his one true mate. There was no more searching to be done. His heart would belong to her across space and time. And that might have to be enough.

TWENTY-ONE

ADDIE

The first sensation that Addie felt when she came to was a dull ache in her right eye. She stretched her jaw wide, the cracking sound visceral and only somewhat satisfying. It felt like someone had socked her directly in the eye, her socket throbbing like hot lava crawling inside her bone structure. It spread to her ear on the same side, then moved like a shockwave down her jawline. She groaned as she sat up, eyes squeezed shut, trying to think her way out of the pain.

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