Taking A Chance: Charity Anthology Read online

  Taking A Chance

  Charity Anthology

  D. G. Carothers

  Toshi Drake

  C. W. Gray

  K. L. Hiers

  Gianni Holmes

  KC Luck

  G. R. Lyons

  Claire Marta

  Abrianna Denae

  Amanda Meuwissen

  Shane K. Morton

  Faith Ryan

  Bretton Sans

  JP Sayle

  Lynn Van Dorn

  Shannon West

  Toby Wise

  Contents

  Foreword

  Desert Knight

  D.G. Carothers

  Leaping into Hope

  Toshi Drake

  When Clyde Met Hay

  C.W. Gray

  Playing for Keeps

  K.L. Hiers

  Alien Attraction

  Gianni Holmes

  In The Twilight Hours

  KC Luck

  Evan’s Awakening

  G.R. Lyons

  Always and Only You

  Claire Marta and Abrianna Denae

  Silhouette

  Amanda Meuwissen

  A Dark Half

  Shane K. Morton

  Fated

  Faith Ryan

  The Sweetest Ache

  Bretton Sans

  Love’s Heart Print

  JP Sayle

  Catch Me If You Can

  Lynn Van Dorn

  Take a Chance on Me

  Shannon West

  Taking the Leap

  Toby Wise

  Acknowledgments

  Taking A Chance: Charity Anthology

  Copyright ©2021 D.G. Carothers, Toshi Drake, C.W. Gray, K.L. Hiers, Gianni Holmes, KC Luck, G.R. Lyons, Claire Marta & Abrianna Denae, Amanda Meuwissen, Shane K. Morton, Faith Ryan, Bretton Sans, JP Sayle, Lynn Van Dorn, Shannon West, Toby Wise

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All art is for illustrative and marketing purposes and is copyrighted by all authors named therein.

  Cover Art by Samantha Santana, Amai Designs

  Internal Formatting by D.G. Carothers

  * * *

  First Print Edition

  ISBN:

  Foreword

  International Taking A Chance Day is all about having the courage and faith to leap forward and do something small or big that we’ve been hesitant about before.

  For the last few years I’ve wanted to do something whether that be volunteer or help raise money for AIDs awareness. Mixing my passion for writing and my desire to raise money came together in the making of this anthology.

  Please, take a few moments to visit the AIDs Healthcare Foundation and see all of the good things they are doing for our community around the globe.

  -D.G. Carothers

  Desert Knight

  D.G. Carothers

  Introduction

  Tekken Mcallister was an ordinary PI doing ordinary jobs in an ordinary galaxy station at the fringes of the universe. The first exciting thing to happen in ages is when he finds a distraught Lomi in his office. Summer is new to the station and desperate to find his missing uncle.

  Who is Tekken to turn down a Lomi in distress?

  As Tekken unravels the case, he discovers dastardly deeds he cannot stand by and allow to happen. Will Tekken be able to help Summer and save a friend at the same time?

  * * *

  This story contains intelligent species of all shapes and sizes, cuddle parties for two, real coffee, and one tall oddly sexy lavender skinned male with boundary issues. But be careful. There’s also adult language and situations intended for mature audiences, along with the harsh realities of futuristic sex trafficking.

  Galaxy Station Delta

  Universal Year 2734

  It was a dark and stormy night…

  “Computer, change weather simulation to a light summer rain.” The wall to the right of my desk shimmered, and the rain in the artificial window let up. It was nearing the twenty-fifth hour of the thirty-hour day cycle. It was still dark, but at least now, it wasn’t as ominous.

  I picked up the datapad and scrolled through the company messages. I should probably be home asleep, but I was still wound up since finishing the surveillance job. I scrolled past the junk mail and spied a familiar name. I read the message and rolled my eyes before tapping reply.

  “Tekkenwood Investigations and Security will be at your disposal upon your arrival Ambassador Ameri.” I tapped send with a sigh. I was the investigations part while my business partner, Thaddeus, was the security part. The Rinkaran ambassador had her own security, but she kept hiring us in hopes Thadd would succumb to her charms one day. Thadd wasn’t against having a little hanky-panky with another species. She just didn’t have anything he was interested in. She knew this and accepted it, but she loved flirting with him, and he loved turning her down. It was a lighthearted game between them.

  Some days I was jealous of the attention my tall, muscled business partner got, and other days I was grateful it wasn’t me getting the attention. We were both fifty-four—born four days apart—but he wasn’t as grey and far more fit. I looked down at my soft protruding belly with a mixture of disgust and resignation.

  I ran a hand through my hair, noting I needed a haircut as I put down the datapad. The sides of my head weren’t short and fuzzy anymore. I loved to feel the little prickles against my skin, but I would be denied that until I got it cut again. I rubbed the back of my head with both hands as I leaned over my desk, elbows resting on the cool glasslike surface.

  The edge of the desk dug into my stomach, reminding me of its existence. It seemed that the older I got, the heavier and hairier I got despite all my best efforts. There was nothing one could do about genetics, especially since the Alliance banned humanoid eugenics centuries ago. There were other options like expensive surgeries, but those were just a credit sink for people like me whose bodies fought against them, and whatever changes made would just reverse over time.

  Don’t get me wrong. The universe wasn’t completely horrible. There were many species and even humans who still found me attractive, but at the end of the day, if I can’t stand myself, then no amount of praise will make me feel what they see. Then it’s a cycle of guilt and frustration and hurt. I feel guilty that I’m not happy and try to make them happy, and they’re frustrated because I don’t see or feel what they try hard to make me see and feel. In the end, all parties are just hurt, and it’s not worth it.

  It’s been well over a decade since I tried dating, then decided it was best for me, and any poor soul who fell for me, that I’d be better off remaining alone. Thadd thought I was ridiculous, but he stopped trying to talk me out of it years ago. That’s what best friends were for, loving and accepting you no matter what. Besides, Thadd wasn’t any better than me, really.

  He was what I used to be, a serial monogamist. He’d date someone for a few years, then end it and move on to another. He normally had them lined up, but he was currently single taking one of his rare breaks. I was happy about the break. That last one was a doozy. She wasn’t the first to think they’d finally nailed down Thadd and would be the one for him. I’d feel sorry for his trail of broken hearts, but he was upfront with each one.

  Thadd didn’t believe in the one, and neither did I anymore. But in my youth, I thought each one was the one—until they weren’t. There was someone who’d nailed me down for more than a few years, and in the end, I’d left, breaking both our hearts. I never regretted my decision. We were young and both stagnant as individuals. Freeing us was the only way for us to grow, and we did. I just wished we would have found each other again later in life.

  It was no surprise my thoughts were going down that path. Thirty-five years ago today, I met my ex-husband, whom I spent seven years with. That was back when I was still living on my home planet Terra-Tribus. I was young and had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, but this guy had said he was looking for me and that we were meant to be. I believed him, and it took years after I left to stop thinking that I had ruined my shot at the one. I had a few relationships after that, but they didn’t last long. Then I stopped trying to have relationships and worked on being happy with myself.

  By the time I was thirty-five, I had already lived on two planets and one space station. I still didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life or where I wanted to go, but I needed to stop living for other people. It was then my childhood friend, Thaddeus, asked me to meet him on GSD, a galaxy station on the fringes of Sector Delta. It was the last station between Sector Delta and Epsilon. The Alliance station housed over a million people, not including the transient population from across the galaxies. The station was a trade outpost, tr
ansportation hub, and now my home.

  When I stepped off the transport ship onto the station for the first time, I was pulled into the arms of my best friend. He towered over me, the top of my head slid under his chin perfectly. I oomphed as I got smothered into his pecs of steel and squeezed to death by his equally hard, muscled arms. I didn’t complain.

  I squeezed him hard back and then bit him when I needed air. He let me go and rubbed his chest with a smile. It’d been a decade since we’d seen each other. As soon as we had finished primary school, he’d enlisted in the Alliance Defense Force. Even if I had been inclined to join him on that bit of insanity, I would have been rejected. That was one thankful thing my messed-up genetics had done for me.

  When we were growing up, we’d talked for years about opening our own business. We’d joked about being PIs as we watched old Earth series. I never thought it would happen. But he’d led me to the station's commercial ring and to a side corridor with a vacant business front between a tattoo shop and a small café.

  The very same office I now sat in.

  Now, the café was still there but under its third owner, and the tattoo shop hadn’t changed except for the rotating designs on the walls around its door. Kryton, its owner, had been on the station for almost as long as I’d been alive. We were friends of a sort. The Dhalnolian kept to himself, or maybe it was me who kept to myself now that I think about it, he would entice me over now and again for a cup of tea. The reptilian-like species had a thing for any kind of warm beverage, but Kryton had an obsession with teas.

  Here in this very place, two best friends combined their names, Tekken McAllister and Thaddeus Woodcomb, to create Tekkenwood Investigations and Security. We’d spent many a night as children debating various combinations of our names, but this one was the one that always stuck.

  I groaned as I raised my head and rubbed my face with my hands. I should go home and just masturbate and go to sleep, but I felt restless. I had two more days before my scheduled appointment with Kestyn. I knew if I called him now and he was free, he’d come over to my place, but I’d make myself wait. Every fourteen days for the last five universal years, Kestyn spent a night cycle with me. We saw each other and talked between those nights, but I paid him for that time specifically, despite him not wanting me to. It was the only way I could justify allowing the intimacy between us.

  We didn’t have sex. Kestyn didn’t have sex with any of his clients. While Kestyn specifically advertised his cuddling service, he did other things with some clients who just wanted a companion for a few hours. We met when I hired him in a desperate bid to quell some of my loneliness.

  Thadd was the one who suggested I look into a service. He was more than happy to cuddle while watching a movie like we had all our lives, but it wasn’t quite the same. We didn’t kiss anymore, and I wouldn’t mind making out with someone from time to time. We had put the kibosh in anything remotely sexual between us as teenagers after exploring each other thoroughly. Despite what our parents assumed, we were better off as friends.

  At first, I’d been skeptical about the whole idea of paying someone to cuddle with me. But like I said, I was kind of desperate, and Kestyn was a Crelan, a feline-like species I always thought were cute. Kestyn looked like you’d taken an old earth tiger and mixed it with a humanoid. He was varying shades of orange with black stripes. His fur was super soft. He was muscled but not hard like Thadd. Crelans came in as many shapes and colors as most humanoid species, but I’d never seen anyone quite like him. At first, I was a little stunned and thought maybe it was a bad idea, but as we talked that first night about what I wanted, I became more comfortable. It wasn’t long after I started our sessions that we became true friends, and I do count him as close a friend as Thadd. That first night I spent in his soft arms was one of the best nights of sleep I’d gotten in many years.

  We couldn’t kiss in the way that humans do since he didn’t have traditional humanoid lips. Kestyn had a short muzzle that was more feline with lots of sharp pointy teeth but an exceptionally long tongue that rasped against your skin. I smiled as I thought about the times I’d woken up to him licking my chest or back. It wasn’t a sexual act, just affectionate, plus he said he liked my furry chest. I returned his affection with kisses and rubbing my face to his neck.

  After we became friends, he tried to talk me into not paying him for his services since cuddling is something he does with lots of his friends, and he didn’t consider me any different. But I needed that line. Without it, I might start thinking of him as mine, and I was oddly possessive for a human. It would have rankled me to share him with others even if they were just paying him for his services. So, to keep our sanity and our friendship, I kept that line. When I explained my reasoning to Kestyn, he seemed like he would argue more with me, but he just nodded and accepted my terms.

  Tonight though, I was sorely tempted to call him. My heart ached. While I’m normally quite happy with my life and my romantic partnerless status, I felt myself drifting into a melancholy mood that, while not unfamiliar, was rare and irritating. I didn’t like being unhappy. No one does, but it made me think and sometimes, thinking was bad. It’s why I was still sitting in my office chair thinking about nonsense instead of going home.

  The door chimed, and I stared at it. I checked the time on my comm band, knowing it was way past our office hours, clearly marked on the door. Maybe it was Kryton. His shop was still open when I came in. The door chimed again.

  “Enter.” I ran my hands through my hair again in an attempt to straighten the top that was probably sticking up in all directions.

  The door hissed open as it slid to the side. The first thing I noticed was the gorgeous lavender skin of the person who ducked his head to enter the office. The second was the Lomi that entered wasn’t wearing the typical robes you always saw them in. He wore a plain baby blue t-shirt and dark pants with a bag strapped across his chest. The Lomi were from a desert planet and tended to wear the same attire they did on their home planet. They were also a devout species who sent members of their religion across the universe to spread their gods' words. That wasn’t unusual since there were many religions with missionaries that traveled the vastness of space. But I’d never seen a Lomi that wasn’t dressed like a missionary before.

  The Lomi straightened as he entered. His slender frame was graceful despite how long his arms and legs were. His shoulder-length dark cobalt hair contrasted his pale skin beautifully. Staring into his deep violet eyes framed in worry, I stood in equal amounts of confusion and concern.

  “I am sorry to trouble you, but I need help, and I do not know where to go.” His soft voice trembled, and I quickly maneuvered around my desk.

  I put my hand over the two he wrung in front of his chest. “Please, come, sit. What’s your name?” I guided him over to a chair in front of my desk, realizing my head barely came to his chest, but his thin shaking frame made him seem much smaller.

  He collapsed into the chair, and it was like every ounce of energy he had keeping himself together was spent as he crumbled in on himself crying. My heart wrenched, and I wrapped my arms around him carefully. His arms surprisingly wrapped all the way around my stomach and squeezed me tightly as he sobbed into my chest. I stroked his side and made soothing noises. I couldn’t bring myself to say everything was going to be alright because I didn’t know that, and such platitudes often hurt more than they helped.

  I looked behind him at the wall where the rain still drizzled down in the illusion of the dark city street beyond. A dark and stormy night, indeed.