Gift of the Beast: Holiday Starrs Read online

  Besides, it didn’t have to be permanent. If it didn’t work out, they could always return to New York. And they would come back during the holidays to see Shea’s parents anyway. Lila would still get to see her dad. Maybe, if he didn’t get as many opportunities to see her, Evan would take more seriously the times he did get and actually show up.

  Lila was starting school this year too, so if they were going to move, now was the best time to do it. Of course, Shea would still have to see about work, but she was fairly sure that there would be way more journalistic opportunities in Space City than New York.

  God, was she actually considering this?

  Of course, she couldn’t make the decision in a day. And she wouldn’t make it without knowing what Lila thought about it all. She didn’t want to put her daughter through another change in her life that she didn’t want.

  With her thoughts calmer, Shea found Lila talking to a spaceship’s captain, her face alight with enthusiasm.

  “Why do they do that?”

  “Everyone who boards the ship puts themselves under the command of the captain. It keeps everyone safe, and doing their jobs.”

  “Why?”

  “You are the curious one, aren’t you? It makes it simpler if you have one man in charge, then he can tell everyone what to do, and make sure they all do it in good time.”

  “Wh–?”

  “Lila, give the poor man a break.” Shea scooped her daughter up into her arms.

  “Mom, he says he’s the boss of a whole cruise ship!”

  “That’s right, sweetie. But come here for a moment and talk to me. What do you think about moving here? To Space City? We could be close to Auntie Hazel then.”

  Lila’s eyes lit up at once. “Ooh, can we, Mom? Can we? That would be so great!”

  “Are you sure?” Shea looked at her in concern. “You might not be able to see your dad as often.”

  Lila pouted. “He doesn’t come. He never comes.”

  “I know, honey.” She hugged Lila tighter against her chest. “It’s not your fault.”

  “So, we can move here with Aunt Hazel?”

  “Maybe,” Shea said, not wanting to commit to anything just yet. “We can think about it.”

  It was a possibility, one that had seemed absurd at first. But Lila’s enthusiasm had Shea considering it even more seriously than she had before.

  Still, the doubts still lingered in her mind. She didn’t want to make any hasty decisions, swayed by her emotions.

  Could they do this?

  Chapter 2

  Garr

  July

  Clank! Bang! Thud!

  Garr looked out of the window of his bedroom to see what all the commotion was about. It looked like someone was moving into one of the apartments in his building. His was a small block of apartments in the outskirts of Space City. It wasn’t anything flashy, but it was comfortable and in a relatively quiet neighborhood.

  A small child jumped around the moving van, accompanied by two dark-skinned human females, one of whom was carrying a baby in her arms. Then, a male emerged from the back of the van. Garr was surprised to see that he was an Ezak-X, like him. He wore an Alliance military uniform.

  Was he the one moving in? But who were the human women?

  Garr took a closer look at the women. They were both quite young. He could not tell human ages so well, but if he had to guess, they were both under the age of forty. The child jumping around most likely belonged to one of the women. Possibly the one carrying the baby?

  He squinted at the baby in the woman’s arms. The coloring of the baby was odd, grayer than the warm brown of the rest of them. Oddly, it reminded him of his own skin tone. The baby looked like a strange mix between a human and an Ezak-X. It was the oddest thing he had ever seen.

  Was the child not hers at all but some other species? Ezak-X?

  No. It couldn’t be. There were no Ezak-X babies. Not as far as he knew.

  The baby had to be human. Humans ranged in skin tones, after all. He just hadn’t seen one with this coloring before.

  Just as he arrived at this conclusion, the Ezak-X male kissed the woman carrying the baby tenderly. Garr froze in shock. He had never even imagined such a thing, but as he watched the Ezak-X male and the female, he noticed that they were acting like a human male and a human female who were mated – married.

  The child was human. And Ezak-X. It was her baby. And his.

  Garr stared in astonishment. It wasn’t something he had even thought possible. He’d always been told his kind were sterile. But he supposed it only made sense that some of the freed Ezak-X would want to mate. And to have families.

  Garr turned to the other woman with them. She was similar-looking to the woman with the Ezak-X male – dark-skinned and tall, with a long, attractive face and curly hair. If Garr had to guess, he would say that the two of them were related.

  The woman bent down and picked up the older child, pressing a kiss onto her forehead.

  Garr frowned as he tried to figure it all out. It looked like the older child belonged to the other woman, after all. His thought was confirmed when he trained his hearing on them and heard the child refer to her as ‘Mom.’ And the child looked fully human.

  Having solved the mystery, Garr retreated from the window and returned to his business. As much of a shock as the discovery of an Ezak-X-human baby was, it wasn’t his business to poke his nose into.

  Admittedly, his business wasn’t much. He’d failed his tests to join the Alliance military again. His application had been rejected due to ‘psychological scarring.’ Again.

  Garr knew what the issue was. The Alliance psychologist kept telling him that he wouldn’t make it until he started speaking.

  Garr didn’t understand why. He spoke plenty. He could say ‘yes’ and ‘no’ and he followed orders very well. He had gotten through life just fine with just gestures and a few words. Why did the military require more?

  They said he was damaged. Not good enough.

  But Garr knew that he could fight. It was the one thing he was good at.

  So, despite the psychologist’s words and the multiple rejection letters and failed tests, he kept applying. It was the only thing he could do. The Alliance currently paid his bills as a part of the Ezak-X recuperation plan, but it was a dull existence. Garr really needed to find something more to do with his life than getting handouts. He wanted to be useful.

  Letting out a frustrated growl, Garr decided to take out his trash. Whenever he felt on edge, all he needed was just something to do. To occupy his time and feel needed. Which is why a proper job like the military would do him a world of good instead of him ‘not being able to handle it.’

  He grabbed the trash bag in a huff and rushed to the door. Just as he stepped out of his apartment, he bumped into the little family in the hall.

  The Ezak-X’s arms were piled high with boxes. The woman with the baby was holding the hand of the older girl, and the other woman was trying to haul an armchair up the stairs – one that was clearly far too heavy for her.

  “Let me, Shea.” The Ezak-X tried to put down his boxes and take the chair, but the woman waved him off.

  “It’s fine. I can take it the rest of the way.”

  “I’m sure you can. Doesn’t mean you should,” the other woman insisted. “That thing is a monster! Come, we’ll take the boxes and Zeriq can–”

  “It’s fine, Hazel,” Shea grumbled. “I can do it. Just make sure Lila doesn’t run off.”

  The woman named Hazel rolled her eyes, as if this kind of a thing was a common occurrence – and not something she approved of. Garr couldn’t say that he agreed with her. Instead, he found himself grudgingly impressed by the woman hauling the chair.

  Though she was deficient in the area of muscles, she was clearly fiercely independent and her determination showed. That was something Garr could appreciate. It reminded him of himself – trying despite everyone telling him he couldn’t – and he respected that.


  The Ezak-X – Zeriq, as the woman with the baby had called him – looked up and met his eyes. Though they didn’t know each other, all Ezak-X shared a common bond – a bond forged from surviving torture at the hands of their creators.

  “Could you help us here?” Zeriq gestured to where Shea was still struggling with the too-large-for-her armchair.

  Garr hesitated. He didn’t want to get in the way. If the female wanted to carry the chair on her own, he wanted to let her, even if it was a difficult task that others thought she couldn’t do.

  But when Shea wobbled with the armchair, nearly bending backward and falling down the stairs, he didn’t hesitate to act. He grabbed the other end of the chair without speaking, helping her balance it. He wasn’t good with words, but he was good with actions.

  The chair wasn’t too heavy, and he could have easily carried it on his own, but he didn’t want to ignore the female’s wishes. If she wanted to carry it, he’d let her. So, he only helped a little, allowing her to do most of the work and steer the chair into the right apartment and the living room.

  “Thanks,” Shea said to him, her cheeks red with embarrassment. “I guess… I guess I needed some help after all. I’m sorry to have bothered you though.”

  Garr didn’t say anything. He understood the feeling of inadequacy all too well, and helping hadn’t been a problem to him. It wasn’t even anything worth mentioning.

  The woman stood in front of him for a moment, clearly expecting him to say something.

  When he didn’t, she seemed to brush it off and said, “Well, I’ll let you get back to taking out the trash.”

  Garr frowned, wondering how she had known. But then he realized that he was still carrying the bag of trash around his wrist.

  Now, it was his turn to feel embarrassed. He nodded at the female and walked out of the apartment quickly, depositing the trash in the garbage bins outside.

  He glanced at the large moving van parked in front of the building. Pieces of furniture were now scattered next to it, along with large cardboard boxes, and there were likely even more heavy things inside.

  Garr wondered if he should help some more. He didn’t want to get in the way, but he didn’t have anything else to do either, and he had already started feeling restless. It would be good to have something to do. They might say no, but he could at least offer.

  Walking back into the corridor, Garr stood relaxed by the entrance, with his legs parted and his arms behind his back. When Zeriq walked down the stairs again, coming to grab more items from the van, Garr made eye contact with him. It was a classic waiting for orders position, which Zeriq recognized at once.

  “If you’re willing to help us a bit more, there’s plenty of stuff in the van. You can just start bringing it right up.”

  “No, Zeriq, leave the poor guy alone,” Shea protested, coming down the stairs after him. “I’m sorry to have already bothered him so much.”

  Zeriq cocked an eyebrow at Garr.

  When Garr didn’t make a move to leave, Zeriq said, “It’s fine, Shea. Let him help.”

  Garr exhaled heavily. Zeriq clearly understood the agony of inaction without Garr needing to explain it to him. Garr nodded gratefully and started toward the moving van. He focused on the larger and heavier pieces that wouldn’t fit inside the elevator, and settled on another armchair.

  When Shea came to pick up items as well, her arm brushed against his side. Garr froze in his spot. Her scent hit him particularly strongly, wafting into his nose. He hadn’t noticed it so much before, always a few steps away from her, but he certainly noticed it now.

  She smelled delightful, better than any female Garr had ever encountered.

  Like lavender and honey.

  To his great embarrassment, his cock hardened in response. He quickly picked up the chair in his arms and hurried back inside, out of the reach of prying eyes. He took the stairs two at a time, and deposited the chair inside the apartment, next to the first one.

  There, he peered down at his cock in confusion. What was it doing?

  Garr knew about sex, of course, even though he’d never experienced it. He just didn’t understand why his cock would react in a way that indicated it wanted sex, just because of the scent of a woman. It had never done so before.

  What are you doing, you idiot? Get back down! We’re not having sex with her.

  Shea was certainly attractive, but sex involved talking and understanding another person, neither of which Garr was any good at. Besides, he was so strong, he’d probably hurt her without meaning to, and he didn’t want that. Not to mention the fact that she most likely wanted nothing to do with him.

  Taking several deep breaths, Garr tried to get a grip on himself. Thankfully, away from Shea’s presence – and her intoxicating scent – his cock quickly softened.

  He considered going back to his apartment to avoid any further interaction with her – in case the same thing happened again – but he had already committed to helping them. He couldn’t just disappear without a word.

  So, he returned downstairs. Thankfully, Shea had taken the elevator with smaller boxes, so their paths didn’t cross. He picked a few chairs at the van and started carrying them up. He carried boxes and furniture silently, placing them wherever the others told him inside the apartment.

  Moving in the stuff wouldn’t have taken long with him and Zeriq working together, but Shea wasn’t about to let them do it. She seemed determined to carry everything herself, and the next time Garr saw her outside, she had picked up a couch – thankfully, with Zeriq’s help.

  By now, Garr had found out that it was Shea and her daughter, Lila, who were moving in, and it was clear that Shea didn’t want others doing what she thought was ‘her job,’ carrying the furniture. In a way, Garr could understand her.

  Despite the fact that she was slowing the task, Garr found that he didn’t mind Shea’s interference. It was sometimes more of a nuisance than help, but he liked her spirit and determination. And as long as he breathed through his mouth when he was near her, he was able to avoid the embarrassment of his cock rising of its own accord.

  When the boxes and furniture were all moved from the van to the apartment, Garr went back into his own apartment, accompanied by thanks from Zeriq, Shea, and Hazel. He felt good about having helped. It had taken them hours to move everything, but it had been a productive day and he had felt useful.

  He expected to hear nothing further from Shea, but to his surprise, several hours later, his doorbell rang. He opened it to find Shea standing on his doorstep.

  “Hi!” she said. “I just wanted to bring you these to properly thank you for all your help with the moving.”

  She held out a plate of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. Living on Earth, Garr was used to human food, and he knew he liked cookies. What he didn’t know was why Shea was offering them to him. She had already thanked him, and he was obviously willing to help, or else he wouldn’t have done it. Why did she need to bring him payment?

  Still, he was hungry, and the cookies did smell delicious – almost as delicious as Shea did. Garr angled his body behind the door so that she wouldn’t see his rising cock. He took the plate of cookies with a nod of thanks.

  Then, he quickly retreated into his apartment. Picking up the warm cookies one by one, he started eating them, savoring the taste. They were absolutely divine. The thought of saving a few of them for later crossed his mind, but before he managed to stop himself, the cookies were all gone.

  Now, he was faced with a dilemma. What to do with Shea’s plate? Did he return it? Surely, she would want it back.

  How would he do it, though? Did he ring on her bell? What would he say? Would he just hand the plate to her?

  No, she would surely expect words from him, perhaps thanks for the cookies. He tried the words in his mind, even tried to say them out loud, but it wasn’t coming out right. Garr didn’t know what to say to her.

  Frustration welled up inside him when he realized he
couldn’t just return the plate to her. He had never felt insecure about is lack of communication skills before. Hadn’t he just earlier thought how he’d gotten along in life just fine? So why did it matter now?

  Either way, returning the plate directly to her was out of the question. He could leave the plate outside her door, but that risked her stepping on it as she came out. He didn’t want to be responsible for her plate breaking.

  Garr paced up and down, trying to figure out a solution to his problem.

  At last, it came to him. He could mail it to her!

  Garr almost laughed in relief. Mailing the plate wouldn’t require any human interaction. He could simply wrap it up and place it in the nearest automated post portal.

  Now that he had a solution, Garr enacted it at once. He washed the plate and found some puffy wrapping to protect it with. After taping it all together, he walked across the street to drop it at the nearest post portal.

  Done. She would get it within a day.

  He checked his own mail as he returned to the apartment complex and found that he had a response from one of the jobs he had applied to. He hurried back to his apartment and opened the letter eagerly. He knew that certain jobs liked to correspond by post, at least at first, to ensure that the person they were talking to was indeed a person and not a bot.

  Security companies in particular followed that practice.

  Sure enough, the letter was from Ariva Securities, who were hiring security guards to patrol around some of the buildings in the city. It was regular work, and even better, it was work that Garr was fairly certain he would be good at.

  The letter gave him a link to respond to on his tablet – a much more civilized form of communication. Garr quickly sent his response, accepting their offer. He would start orientation the very next day. He was ecstatic, and he felt his lips stretching into an unfamiliar smile.

  He had a job!

  Over the next few weeks, Garr was kept pleasantly busy. He volunteered for every extra shift he could at his workplace. He didn’t need the money – he required very little to survive – but he longed to be kept busy. To feel useful.