Page 44 of Bad Boy Beast
Larkspur took her seat and I bent down for one last kiss. When her hands cupped my face, I couldn’t help myself, I lingered.
“Kai? Are you sure I look okay in this? I’m not very tall, not compared to the women around here.”
She was correct. Most Atlan females towered over my petite mate. I did not care. “You are beautiful. Perfect. Everyone will love you as I do.”
She sighed. “Okay. I know you have to say that, but I’m going to run with it and pretend it’s true. Otherwise, I am going to have a nervous breakdown sitting up here in front of millions of aliens.”
I chuckled. “Billions, mate. Hundreds of billions on over two hundred worlds.”
“Wait. What?”
Grin on my face, I backed away and took my place on the floor marker as the announcer’s voice filled the theater. There were a few thousand seated here, but the Coalition Fleet’s broadcast system would send this performance, in real time, over their entire system. The inhabitants of more than two hundred and sixty planets would hear the ancient songs sung by my family line for the first time in almost twenty years.
They were ready.
So was I, ready to forgive my parents and let go of my childhood pain. A beast could not survive without his mate. The only other instinct that could compete with that need was protecting a child. Now I didn’t just logically understand my father’s choices, I honored them. He served his people, loved his mate and protected his child. What more could life ask from a worthy male? That was, in essence, all there was.
The curtains parted and a roaring, cheering crowd stretched as far as I could see. I glanced over at Larkspur to find her wiping a sentimental tear from her cheek.
Gods be damned, I loved that female.
I launched into the first song, the oldest, a song about leaving innocence behind to go to war, about honor and battle and protecting home.
I could have heard a female’s sigh from the back of the theater when I finished. Heavy, poignant silence hovered in the air thick enough to cut with a knife. Many females in the audience wiped tears from their eyes. Larkspur beamed with pride as I faced my people, and my legacy, with open arms.
“My friends, let us sing together in the old way.” I signaled the musicians and raised my voice. Larkspur’s sweet voice joined me first, listening to hours of my practice had taught her all the songs. Seconds later, twenty thousand Atlans were on their feet, their voices raised in tribute to thousands of generations gone, and thousands of generations to come.
Tears streaked my cheeks as life, and love, filled every cell, as the broken pieces inside me were made whole, as I sang for my family, my people, my future.
As I sang for my mate.
