Page 1 of Avery

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Avery

The nightmares are still just as awful as ever. You wouldn't know it from how easily I wake in the mornings. No sweat, no screams, no jerking movements. On the outside, I'm fine, but on the inside, I'm just waking up from a hell I thought I was done with.

I blink a few times, going through the steps to remind myself I'm safe now and no one will ever hurt me like that again. I fixate on the bedside table. Wooden, dark brown, cluttered with water, food, and some herbs that were supposed to help with my heat. I reach out and touch it, reminding myself this is what's real. I'm no longer a prisoner on a smuggling ship.

I was rescued. I am safe.

I'm in a sanctuary on Rythar meant to help women like me. Women who go through heats who have no one to help them with it. I'm safer here than I would be anywhere else, but it still hurts, and I'm still scared most of the time.

Rythar is an alien planet whose species experience ruts and heats. Due to their genetic disposition to mating and the ease at which pregnancies occur, they're biologically some of the best procreators in the universe.

I was one hundred percent human before I was kidnapped on my way to a family dinner one night. I was taken to a smuggler ship where my DNA and body were altered to act more like a Rytharian female than a human.

I go through heats now. Rytharians only have to go through them every few months, but not me. Oh no, I'm a special little cookie who was altered to go through them once a month.

The light blanket one of the sisters threw over me when I finally passed out falls to the ground as I sit up. For the first time in days, I don't feel like I'm overheating. My skin isn't hypersensitive, and I'm not more horny than I've ever been in my life.

I rub at my temples, making sure that I'm not still asleep. That'd be another cruelty added onto all of this. For me to wake up from a nightmare, thinking my heat is over, just for it to be another nightmare.

"Avery?" a soft feminine voice calls my name.

I reach for the blanket, the only covering I have here. It's not that I'm ashamed of my body for the most part. I hate the new scars I have from the slave collar, but other than that, I like my body. Maybe on Earth, I was a little self-conscious of the extra weight in my stomach and thighs, but not here on Rythar.

I look like all the other females here. I'm short with round hips, a full chest, and curves that would make a Rytharian male want to bend me over and breed me. It's one of the reasons I was altered to be a fit for a Rytharian. If my body had fit the ideals of another species, I'm sure I would've been altered for them instead.

So, yeah, one of the positives that came out of this whole thing was realizing that my body might not have been ideal where I grew up, but on this planet, people think I'm gorgeous. Not that anyone else's opinion should matter when it comes to my sense of self-worth, but I can't help that I'm human. Knowing someone else—lots of someone elses—likes how I look. Well, it really does help boost my self-esteem.

"Hey," I say, keeping myself partially covered as I walk toward the small cooler in the corner of the room where the water's kept. "I think my heat's over."

"It is," the sister says. I don't remember her name, even though she's one of the handful of women who've been helping me get through this heat without a male. "The scent of it diminished while you were sleeping, but we didn't want to wake you."

I snort and roll my eyes. Not at her, oh definitely not. I'm not so rude as to think she could know that I wouldn't ever have any issue with anyone waking me up. I hate having to sleep, and if I had it my way, I never would.

"How's everyone doing out there?" I ask. What I really want to know is how my friends are doing and whether they waited for me.

The female beams at my question as she comes over to me with a fresh set of furs in her hands. She hands me the clothing, and I appreciate that they're on the more conservative side. I've seen what the women here wear. One of them in particular, Helna, wears the smallest scraps I've ever seen, but when I asked about it in all my heat-induced agony charm, she laughed and told me she'd go around naked if her brother weren't here now.

"Your crewmates have all acclimated very well to our customs," the woman says, turning away from me to give me some privacy to change. "I'm not exactly sure, but I believeHoloth and his mate will stay here on Rythar when you all leave."

"They're staying?" My brows almost touch my hairline.

I met Holoth a handful of times on the ship. The first time I saw him, I had a panic attack and cried for hours because he, and most Rytharian males from this tribe, look like the male who altered and tortured me. The second time I saw him, his face was shaved and his hair braided, making him still look like the male who hurt me but different enough that I knew it wasn't him.

Holoth's mate is a Varon female who was on our ship for maybe two weeks with the sole intention of getting pregnant and returning to her home planet. To hear that they're staying here is a little more than surprising.

"Yes, it's wonderful, isn't it? They scent matched and everything. Though some females were very upset at that," the female continues talking.

I tie the top around my neck. It's a long fur that covers my chest completely and goes down to my lower abdomen. It ties at the neck and in two places at my back to keep everything from falling out. The skirt I'm given isn't just the little scraps the females wear to cover their pubes and buttcracks like I've seen on some of the others. This one has fur all the way around and reaches my mid-thigh. I sigh in relief when I put it on and don't feel like I'm a walking sex symbol. All the power to the females who can do it, but I'm still not even sure if I can have a male touch me right now.

My mind flashes back to some of the worst moments during my heat, the moments where I begged and cried for them to bring me Phial. I shake my head, moving the thought from my mind.

Phial is my friend, the closest thing I have to someone I trust right now. He keeps me safe and talks with me about almost anything. I can't ruin that friendship by reminding myself of howI begged for him during my heat and how the sisters all denied me access to him.

"That's amazing," I say, and I mean it. I just am still reeling a little bit at how Holoth and K'Vella have known each other for like not even a month and already want a baby and are mated to one another and moving to a whole new planet. "Where's everyone now?"

"Probably the great hall since it's so late." The woman's eyes go wide when she says it, but she masks the reaction as she leads me out of the white marble room I've been in for the last five days. "I'm taking you back to the ship, though. The great hall isn't somewhere you'll want to be."

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