His Human Believer (Monsters Love Curvy Girls #14)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Margaret

Ido not travel anymore. Which isn’t as sad as it sounds.

Believe me, I used to travel all the time, all over the Four Sectors for my prior job with the Intergalactic Business Bureau.

Nowadays I’m happy to remain settled in a comfy apartment on Salo, living amongst the Gravians who are a very nice species, and also lovers of scary stories.

Which is perfect, considering I love scary stories too.

My best friend, Avery Hellstone, has a darling four-year-old daughter who requested my attendance at the very first human-style Halloween celebration on Tarvos.

How can I refuse this invitation?

I adore Mitry and her baby sister Sela, who I’ve only ever met via a vid screen. And I also adore Avery’s fourteen-year-old stepson Dagr.

So here I am, dissolving.

Remain calm. Calm.

The fancy transporter disk hums to life.

My atoms break apart, dart across the universe and reassemble in the right order on a similar disk in Tarvos.

Of course this is going to work seamlessly, considering the perfect safety record of these machines…

which never once stops me from thinking what if this time it doesn’t work right?

My vision clears.

The Tarvos transport room is enormous and quiet at this hour.

The Hyrrokin staff are exactly what I prepared myself for—terrifying red beings with shiny black horns, deadly fangs, and barbed tails that flick gently behind them as they work.

Smoke wisps from a worker’s nostrils as he bends over a console.

All of them are barefoot because the Hyrrokin don’t wear shoes.

They consider the foot coverings humans need to wear very, very odd.

Males are shirtless, as usual, and the females all wear the traditional, brightly colored tube tops of their species.

A staff member glances up, catches my eye, and nods politely.

I nod back and swallow a small, undignified squeak. These beings look like my darkest nightmares, but I am not going to scream.

I’ve interrogated bloody Surrelian assassins and Hurlian war criminals about financial crimes. Therefore, I am not going to freak out in a transporter station because a customer service worker has a tail.

No matter how many times I visit, stifling my fear of the Hyrrokin’s dreadful features remains difficult because this species is well known for their nightmare characteristics.

Beings across the Four Sectors are routinely frightened at the sight of the Hyrrokin.

These beings—with their red skin, bald heads, flashing fangs, black horns, barbed tails and flame throwing—literally look like creatures from the darkest pits of hell.

It still astonishes me that Avery fell in love with and married one of these satanic-looking beings and lives here on purpose. Not that I’d say that out loud to her, but her relationship with Hannibal Hellstone remains one of the greatest mysteries of my life.

“Aunt Margaret.”

I look up and smile with delight as a small body rushes across the transport room.

Mitry is a blur of pumping legs and bouncing barbed tail.

I barely get my purse down before she crashes into my legs.

I drop to my knees and scoop her up. At four years old, her two tiny black horns push up through her dark hair.

She grins so wide it takes up her entire face.

Her teeth are blunt and human, no fangs at all.

Her claws are blunt too, where her father’s are silver-tipped.

Mitry Hellstone is a perfect blend of human and Hyrrokin.

Which means she’s darling instead of terrifying.

“You’re here.” She beams.

“Of course I am. I would never miss your first trick or treat. You know how I go crazy for Halloween.”

She bounces up and down. “It’s going to be so much fun.”

“Right?”

Mitry pulls back to look at me with total seriousness. “And I have a really good costume.”

A chuckle escapes my lips. “I’ve heard rumors about this amazing costume.”

“Margaret.”

I stand and see Avery, who looks gorgeous, as usual, in a skirt, heels and a lovely tube top blouse. She’s got a baby on one hip, which explains why Mitry beat her across the room by a full ten seconds.

“Oh my gods,” I breathe. “Is that baby Sela?”

“Yep. This is our precious Sela.” Avery grins. She gets one bare arm around me anyway and Mitry is suddenly squashed between the three of us, laughing. My best friend of fifteen years hugs me hard enough to bruise a rib while managing to keep her giggling one-year-old daughter perfectly safe.

Sela regards me with enormous dark eyes. Two horn buds. No fangs, same as her sister. She has Avery’s exact expression, which on a baby is deeply unsettling.

“She’s so much bigger in real life than through the vid screen.”

“They do that,” Avery laughs. “Ooh, your hair is shorter, I like it.”

I run my fingers through the ends, happy she likes my new look. “Oh, thanks.”

We’re both of similar size, meaning we’ve always been overweight, wearing plus size clothing.

But Avery was the one with sexy style and I always wore what was serviceable and appropriate for work.

I’m more of a ‘whatever covers my extremities and appropriate for work is good’ type of person.

But lately, I’ve been liking the idea of color and wearing less baggy clothes.

At thirty-four years old I’m in the mood to reinvent myself.

Well, I already have, leaving a steady career at the IBB to take a chance with this new gig, being self-employed, hosting a cold-case show on Intelgram that has no business doing as well as it does.

It was risky but is working out really well for me.

But…I must still be on the lookout for something else different in life because I’m recently caring about my appearance more than ever before.

She glances down at my shirt. “Oh and I like that color on you. You look good in lavender.”

“Thank you.” I grin.

Dagr Hellstone has been hovering at a polite distance this whole time. Deep red skin like his father, two small black horns just coming in above his forehead, and that same slightly serious set to his mouth.

“Hey Dagr, it’s good to see you. You’ve gotten tall.”

“Hello, Aunt Margaret.”

“Come here, Dagr.”

He grins, ducks his head, and steps into the group hug. I have to widen my arms to fit all four of them.

And then I feel something hot and damp against my elbow.

Three snouts.

Skylo has found me. This wulver is enormous now, with three menacing, full-grown heads and three sets of intimidating red eyes all locked on me with an intensity I would find frightening if his tail weren’t wagging hard enough to move air.

The left head licks my hand. The center head investigates my luggage and finds it acceptable.

The right head decides I’m friend and bonks his cheek against my knee hard enough to nearly take me down.

“Hey Skylo, it’s good to see you too.”

“He’s been waiting at the door for two hours,” Avery says, breathless from laughing. “Hannibal said if we didn’t bring him, he was going to break out and find the station himself.”

“Well, I’m happy you’re here.” I scratch the center head behind one stubby horn and get a rumble of pure animal pleasure.

“I know I already mentioned this, but for reals, that blouse is cute,” Avery says as we all walk outside together. “You look great. Are you actually wearing makeup?”

Dagr takes my luggage for me and I smile at him in thanks. Then I look back at Avery. “Yeah. I was in a mood this morning. Took a little more time than usual.”

“Mmhmm. This is unusual. Why all the pomp and circumstance?”

I point at her feet. “Says the woman wearing heels to a transport station.”

She flings her long hair over her shoulder. “I don’t work out of the house anymore, but I still have standards.”

Avery is self-employed too, with high-value financial audit and advisory clients and the same Salo assistant she’s had for years running her calendar. But she’s scaled things down a bit since her babies arrived.

“I always dress this way,” she points out. “But for you, this is unusual. And I’m going to help you lean in on this, because of course I like it. Maybe I can finally talk you into trying one of these Hyrrokin tops. It would look great on you.”

I roll my eyes, preparing myself for lots of makeover and shopping advice in the coming days.

We step out into the Tarvos afternoon and I take a deep breath. The dual suns are warm on my face and I’m loving yet again the climate of this planet. The Hyrrokin themselves might be scary as hell, but their planet is a delightful paradise.

And then my mouth drops open when I see the enormous black vehicle parked on the curb. “What the heck? Avery, this is our ride? It’s the size of a small building. It has armor panels.”

She shrugs. “You know what Hannibal’s like. He wanted me to take his security transport today.”

“I like Daddy’s vehicle,” Mitry cheerfully announces as Avery helps her up into the back seat. Sela goes into the buckled car seat beside her and is asleep before the doors close.

I frown. “Is this thing legal?”

“Of course it is,” Dagr laughs from behind me as he loads my suitcase, then climbs in with Skylo.

I exhale and take the passenger seat.

“Rainy season ended ten days ago,” Avery remarks as she pulls away from the curb and drives through the city.

“Everyone’s coming back outside. It’s the best part of the year.

This side of the planet is sparkling clear and all of us are in a great mood after spending the last month cooped up inside.

So, you’ve arrived at the perfect time.”

“And it’s a perfect time to have Halloween.”

“Yep.”