It calls to me and seems to want to entangle itself with my own pure white aura. My body hums in delight. Her aura encases me in warmth, and I find it hard to resist temptation. Every Starling has a unique ability to locate their missing half. Mine happens to be auras.
After the girl, Trixie, leaves, the shopping mall closes for the night and I change in one of the bathroom stalls. My blood soars in my veins from the very encounter I shared with her. As I bend down to tug off the overly large red trousers, my leg begins to twitch, startling me. I fall backward and curse loudly when I land with my butt in the toilet. Glaring down at my leg as the toilet water laps at my soaked underwear, I tap on my leg and stop the vibrations.
Before even speaking, I tilt my head, listening for any signs of humans in the restroom, before saying in the SaxZon language, “This had better be good.”
“I don’t apologize for interrupting your human affairs,” a female voice echoes back.
I sigh and grab the edge of the toilet seat and attempt to pull myself upright. I shake my butt for good measure once I am free and feel like a dog getting a bath. “If you called just to mock me, then I believe our conversation is at an end,” I snap.
The female voice sighs dramatically. “Zayton, it has been three years and counting. SaxZon is without an heir.”
I press my lips into a line as I kick the trousers away from me and turn to grab some toilet paper before beginning to pat down my thighs and butt.
“Zayton, are you listening to me?” the female voice shrieks.
I wince at the sharp shrill and sigh loudly. “Yes, Mother. I hear you.” I pause for a second before adding, “I found a mate.” I stop patting myself down when I don’t hear a reply and frown down at my leg. “Mother?”
“I AM SO RELIEVED!” I jerk backward and almost plop into the toilet again from her loud screams of joy. I let out a growl while she continues to talk. “Oh, Zayton, this is wonderful! As soon as you return to SaxZon with her, we can arrange a ceremony. And then, soon enough, you can consummate the marriage—”
“Wait, Mother!” I blurt out. She goes quiet. “I can’t just snap a talon and she marries me.”
Mother scoffs loudly, “I don’t see why not. Any girl or boy would be lucky to marry my Zayton!”
I sigh and reach up to rub my temple. “It’s not that, Mother.”
“Then what is it, Zayton? You’re not getting any younger, darling. You’re already two hundred and eighteen.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose in annoyance. “She’s fairly young, Mother. She wants me to take her to another planet…”
“Then why don’t you? If she’s willing, then all the more reason to bring her home!”
“It’s not that simple,” I say quietly and work on getting into my jeans. “She’s not older than Zona. Trixie is far younger.”
Mother makes a sound in the back of her throat to showcase her distaste for Trixie already. “Zona is eighty-one. How much younger could this human girl be?”
I clench my jaw. “Her name is Trixie, Mother.”
“Trixie, then,” Mother snaps angrily. “Just how old is she?”
“If I were to guess, in her early teens.”
Mother is quiet for some time that I began to worry. But as I am about to open the stall door and end the long-distance call, she mumbles bitterly, “We’ll groom her to be your mate. Come home at once.”
The call ends, and my mind reels with all the possibilities of Trixie despising the world she will be called to rule someday. I let out a breath and push open the stall door. I will need to prepare the hovercraft that hasn’t been used in three years before I retrieve Trixie.
Trixie
“Are you sure you don’t want to watch the movie with us?” Jim, my foster dad, calls from where he is putting the DVD of Elf on in the living room.
As much as I love the movie, I don’t have the time to watch a movie where an adopted elf gets a family for Christmas when I’ll be back to square one with a new foster family.
“No,” I say and look away when Kate, my foster mom, gives me a puzzled frown from where she sits on the couch across from the TV.
“You sure, honey? It’s Christmas Eve. Are you sick?” Kate gauges my reaction, and my eyes flicker to her belly with distaste. It’s all their fault for deciding to get pregnant and forcing me to live somewhere else.
I shake my head. “No, just not in the mood.” I turn to head up the stairs. “I have to pack anyway,” I mumbled from the landing as I storm to my room and slam my door shut behind me. Their voices fade after a little while, and then I can hear the movie playing downstairs. I sigh and march over to where a suitcase is open on the bed and finish packing. I am due to leave first thing in the morning, and I hate every single minute of it.
I wake to a hand over my mouth and a body pressing down atop mine. I take in the large, intimidating silhouette and bite the hand covering my lips. I hear a curse as the man draws back, and I go to yell for help. But then he presses a hand to my mouth again. “Shh! We don’t need to wake your family, now do we?”
I scream against his hand, and he leans forward so that our eyes meet in the darkened room. His voice sounds oddly familiar, and the long beard he has tickles my cheek. “I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to grant you’re wish, Trixie.” I stop moving immediately.
Wish? My wish?
“Now, I’m going to remove my hand. I trust you won’t scream anymore?”
I nod against his hand, and he removes it, then his body is off of mine in a flash. I push on my forearms to sit up halfway. “Santa? You came to take me away?”
“If that’s what you truly wish, then yes,” he says, and I squint to see him better, but he is mainly cloaked in shadows. The only thing that gives him away is the gaudy, awful red suit.
I eye him warily—it’s weird for a stranger to be in my room this late at night. “How did you get in here?”
“How else? The chimney of course.”
My blood echoes loudly in my ears as a smile works its way onto my lips. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go!” I swing my legs over the edge of the bed and stand up, bouncing on the balls of my feet.
Santa chuckles and turns, snatching the only suitcase I have with my belongings inside before striding over to the window. I hesitate when he is halfway out the window and I see what hovers just beyond him. A bright red hovercraft that looks more like a decent sized frisbee. He can’t be serious about flying in that. “Something wrong?”
“Aren’t we supposed to ride in a sleigh with reindeer?” I ask as I stand just by the windowsill.
Santa glances over his shoulder, then turns to look at me. “Why would I have need for animals or a sleigh? They won’t protect you from space.”
“Space?” I blink in shock. “We’re going to space?”
He offers a hand and I hesitate for a couple of seconds. “Yes. To a planet called SaxZon. You will be treated like family.” He smiles.
A gasp leaves my lips the moment he pulls me to his side and wraps an arm around me. Our bodies lift from the edge of the roof by the window, and we shrink in size. The hovercraft tilts horizontal and opens a hatch door.
My eyes hurt, and I shut them, feeling myself give in to the darkness.
Zayton
“What do you mean she fainted?” Mother shrills in the SaxZon language of clicks and growls, waving black talons a little too close to Trixie’s face as she studies the young girl cocooned in my arms. The moment our bodies shrank down to be allowed on the hovercraft, Trixie had fainted and thus missed the joyous thrill of going at lightspeed through the Milky Way, past the main planets, heading toward one of the outer galaxies to SaxZon. “What girl decides to faint before even witnessing space?” she snaps before gesturing for me to follow her into the family tree house.
All the homes on SaxZon are tree houses. Some on the ground, some high up in the trees. Each individual home is built for a particular Starling and their specific needs, of course. My family�
��s happens to be the largest and most accommodating.
“Mother, please. Lower your voice,” I say and frown at her backside. She stops near a vine-wrapped entryway.
Mother turns to address me with her gray pupils that are dilated in anger. “I don’t know if you chose the right mating partner, Zayton. She’s just a child.” Her upper lip curls back to expose sharp teeth in disdain when she briefly glances down at Trixie.
“I chose her, Mother. She feels like my missing half, my own personal star. I can’t return her now.”
“She’s still too young. Perhaps marrying Zona would be best…” Mother trails off as she turns and walks into the area where Trixie will be staying.
“I’m not marrying my sister, Mother. Neither will Zante.”
Mother sighs loudly as I lay Trixie down on a bed made entirely out of fallen branches, vines, and exotic-smelling flowers in blues, greens, and grays. “Honestly, you and your brother are pickier about your sister than your father was about me.”
I roll my eyes as I straighten. “Not everyone wishes to mate their sibling, Mother. We have a choice on who we choose, you know that.”
She harrumphs but drops the subject as we turn to move out into the entryway. “When do we expect you to fetch the girl?”
My eyes narrow slightly, but I glance at Trixie’s still unconscious form. “Eight years.”
“We could use lightspeed—”
“No,” I snap, and she presses her lips into a thin line.
“But…Zayton, another eight years? We can’t keep our people without an heir, son.” Mother’s opinions sometimes matter to me, but I can’t deny that I want to be with Trixie no matter how she views me, whether as a protector, a lover, or a friend. Something nags at me that she won’t be ready and will take time. Time she very much needs. Trixie knows next to nothing about SaxZon and the people that dominate the planet. She will need to be taught and learn about the world she will help rule over soon.
“Teach her the ways of our people. Eight years will come sooner than you think, Mother.” I reach out to touch her curved hands and avoid the talons that could pierce flesh in a matter of seconds. “I trust you to tell her about the Starlings and where we came from.”
Mother bows her head and gives a forlorn sigh. “Very well, Zayton. It shall be as you say.”
Trixie
8 Years Later
Eight years can change a person, change their perspectives of the world, what causes them to grasp at relationships, work related affairs, etc. Eight years ago, I dreamt of finding somewhere I belonged. Since then, my life has been nothing short of blissful. I was brought here by Santa Claus, here. I’d woken up to find myself surrounded by dark-skinned people who kept me as their own.
I never want for anything. A lush paradise seems to have been the answer to my wish. I’d gotten a family that provides and caters to my every whim and a best friend who turned out to be as goofy as I am. Over the years, I wondered why I learned certain aspects of the planet and studied relentlessly whereas Zona, my best friend, could go off hiking with a few of our friends.
And that’s exactly what I’m doing now. Lying upside down, with my head hanging off the edge of the bed, while Zona’s moving at lightspeed around the room we share, hunting down a particular bright blue dress that makes her skin stand out. While all the Starling people wear bright colors against their dark skin, I have to wear darker colors so I don’t appear as washed out.
“You really should stop freaking out,” I say, closing one of the geography books I have to study. “I’m sure Daron can wait a few more minutes.”
Zona sends me a glare when she stops for a split second to throw a vine-wrapped pillow at my face. I laugh and use the pillow to prop my head up as I watch her whirl around like a tornado. “Easy for you to say. You don’t have to worry about impressing anyone.”
Zona doesn’t exactly have a filter for a mouth. She’s straight to the point, truthful, and a bit of a showoff. “Daron isn’t that bad, though. He looks cute enough.” Hard to imagine, but I can’t picture Zona settling down with, well, anyone. She’s only done one-night stands these past few years, but something has changed. Not sure what, though.
Zona sighs loudly as she snatches the blue dress she finds and throws it over her head. “No guy has to be cute enough. I have to find my mate. Otherwise my parents will never let me live it down, nor will my brothers.”
“Speaking of your brothers,”—I sit up and grab the pillow to hug it to my chest. Zona’s head pops through, and she flutters her blue-green eyes at me—“do I ever get to meet them? Officially?”
Zona presses her lips into a line and shakes her head. “Not yet. You’re not old enough.”
I roll my eyes. “Z, I’m twenty years old. They can’t already be old, wrinkled men by now.”
Zona’s lips twitch as she threatens to smile. “Believe me, you’ll meet them eventually. Just not right now.”
My bottom lip sticks out and quivers slightly. “Oh, c’mon, Z! Please?”
“No.”
“What are we exactly saying ‘no’ to this time, Zona?” We both turn to look at the entryway, where Zona’s mother is standing, folding her arms to study us.
“Trix wants to meet your sons,” Zona says, and I shoot my best friend a glare, which she ignores. She smooths out the wrinkles in her dress and pushes a few strands of hair away from her sharp, angular face.
Mother Z purses her lips as her eyes flicker to me. “Is that so? Are you old enough yet?”
“I’m twenty. Not like that matters. Starlings don’t age as fast.”
Mother Z cracks a small smile, and Zona groans loudly. “Go see Daron, Zona. I pray he’s the one for you.”
Zona doesn’t hesitate and lightspeeds out of the room before I can even clamber off of the bed. I try not to laugh at how quickly Zona needs to fly everywhere. Zona and the Flash should be an item, not that the Flash even exists, but now that I think about it, I didn’t think aliens did either.
“Trixie,” Mother Z says, and I glance back at her as she moves farther into the room. “You are, in fact, old enough to meet my sons.”
“Really?” My smile grows wider as I get off the bed and try not to bounce on the balls of my feet. I only ever really spent time with Zona and a couple of her girlfriends, Latesha and Launay, along with Mother Z during homeschooling. I find it interesting that all aliens are either a twin, a triplet, or a quadruplet. According to Mother Z, there’d only been one family to have quadruplet children, and that had been the royal family many eons ago if their history lessons were accurate. “When?”
Mother Z’s smile falters for a split second. “If and when you win the talent show, then you will meet them.”
I groan and slump back down on the bed. “Not this again. What is up with you and this talent show?” I scrub a hand across my face in agitation. “For the past eight years, you’ve been hounding me about this ridiculous event that hasn’t even bothered to take place.”
“All eligible females must enter the talent show. There is no avoiding it,” Mother Z says as she moves to the pile of clothes Zona left behind in an attempt to catch up with Daron.
I frown as I watch her move around. “Zona is single. Why doesn’t she have to participate?”
Mother Z clutches a silver dress in one hand and a dark green one in the other as she turns to look at me. “Zona is a special case. Now, which dress will you wear?” She holds them up, and I press my lips into a thin line as I look them both over.
“Silver.”
Mother Z nods and tosses the dress to me. I catch it and stand up, wondering why it matters whether I wear this dress or not. “Now, have you thought of a talent?”
My gaze flickers from the dress to her. “Umm…I’m going to go with singing, I guess.”
She arches a dark eyebrow, her eyes glowing a soft, silvery gray. “Oh? What song?”
I lift my shoulders in a shrug. “Whatever I feel like at the time.”
; Her eyes narrow slightly. “It better not have any lewd words.”
“No, no!” I wave my hands in the air. “Nothing like that, I swear!”
“Trixie…”
“I promise. Scout’s honor.” I place a hand over my heart to show her how serious I’m being. “It’s a song that I grew up listening to.”
She sighs heavily. “You couldn’t just appease my sons by dancing seductively?”
I swear I almost choke on my own spit. “Wait, what? You want me to be seductive while I sing? Why?”
Mother Z merely blinks at me. “How else did you expect to attract your mate?”
“My mate? I’m not attracted to anyone.” I toss the dress on the bed behind me. “I’m perfectly happy being single, thank you.”
She gives me a curious look. “Why else would you have been brought to SaxZon if not to mate with one of my sons?”
I swallow back the bile climbing my throat. “Mate with one of your sons? Are you insane? I’ve never even met them!”
Mother Z gives me a small smile. “This is the perfect opportunity to meet one, then. Now, I want you to practice being seductive. If you need Latesha and Launay’s help, along with Zona’s, by all means.” She waves a hand as she turns to exit the room. “Go ahead and prepare yourself. You have until tomorrow night.”
My face pales. “Tomorrow night?”
“Yes. That is when the first part of the competition begins.”
I wrap my arms around myself to steady the trembling. “How many others are in this?”
Mother Z glances over her shoulder briefly to study me. “Too many. If you wish to be one of two to see my sons, then you must do whatever it takes to win.” She leaves soon after.
I settle back on the bed and place the dress on my lap. Staring down at the way the light above my head causes the dress to sparkle and shine, I let out a small breath.
If I want to meet one of Zona’s brothers, I need to win? No pressure.
A Very Alien Christmas: A Limited Edition Collection of Holiday Alien Romance Page 21