Page 28 of Avery

"Avery?" Jia asks, coming out of the sanctuary with a concerned look on her face.

Her lips are swollen and red, her furs disheveled. I have questions, but they're answered when a male I recognize as coming around often to chat with Jia comes stepping out of the hallway where mates go, a smile on his face and a pep in his step. He looks shocked when he sees me, and he turns on his heel toretreat back to the room he came from. I shake my head, too busy with my own issues to worry about Jia's sex life.

"Can I stay here tonight?" I ask, wiping away tears from my eyes.

"Of course," Jia says, wrapping her arm around my shoulders and guiding me inside. "Is the room we set up for you okay?"

I nod, feeling like a child. It's one thing for me to get upset with Phial for not sleeping next to me, but then I went and threw a fit about it.

Everything was going so good, too. We were back to laughing and talking with one another, back to things being easy around him. I hate these stupid hormones, and I hate that they've latched onto the one person who makes me feel safe and loved because he's the one single male here who doesn't want me in that way.

"Is this about Phial?" Jia asks me, sniffing the air around me before the bridge of her nose crinkles. I don't know if I envy the Rytharian's ability to smell so well or if I'm grateful I can't. "You smell like him."

"Yes, it's about Phial," I groan as she opens the door into the sanctuary for me and leads me down the hall. "It's always about Phial."

Jia rolls her eyes. She's behind me, and I can't see that she's rolling her eyes, but she is. I know she is.

"What's your problem with him anyway?" I ask.

It's not like tonight can get any worse, so I might as well ask Jia one of the questions that's been bugging me for so long about her issues with Phial. She's never directly told me anything, but I see how her lips turn downward when she sees him or how she rolls her eyes when I mention more about how I don't know why I can't just want anyone else.

Jia takes a long moment to answer my question. I don't know if it's because she's trying to pick her words carefully or becauseshe's not going to answer at all. "Avery, I love you. You're one of us, and you'll always have a home here. But you've picked the dumbest male."

My fists clench at my sides, the same reaction that's been happening more and more when I hear people talk about Phial in unflattering ways. It doesn't happen often, but it happens way more than I like since the number of times it should happen is exactly zero.

Phial's a good male, and others should be able to see that. I don't know why they don't.

"Calm down," Jia says, laughing as she opens the door to my room. "He's not actually dumb. I'm sure he's a highly intelligent male, but he's stupid when it comes to you."

"What do you mean?" The words shouldn't sound as hopeful as they do because it's a childish little question.

It's like being back on the playground again and asking one of my friends to go ask a boy if he has a crush on me. That's what this feels like because Jia's words make it sound like there's something there that I'm not seeing.

"You're just as stupid," she says through a huff. "I can say that now because you've been healing, and I don't think it'll make you spiral."

I frown at her, my cheeks an inferno as my emotions show on my face. "I'm not stupid."

"Oh, so you've told that male how you feel about him then?" Jia asks, her face a mix of sass and amusement.

"I'm happy to inform you that I did, and he didn't say anything after I did, and now I'm here." I turn my chin at her, refusing to meet her eyes or see if her face falls at my admission.

Instead of her face falling or her attitude changing, she doubles over and laughs at me. A long, belly laugh rumbles around the room and makes me acutely aware of how funny she thinks what I just said is, even though it still feels like a thousandpieces of glass are slicing into my heart. I wipe at my tears, turning my face hard because now I'm just pissed at how she's reacting.

"Avery, that male is probably telling himself right now that whatever you said, you didn't mean." Jia wipes at her eyes. She's shedding more tears than me now, but hers are all from laughing at me and my failure of a love life.

"I was pretty clear," I counter, shooting her a dirty look so she knows I don't appreciate whatever this is.

"You've also been physical with him for two hours and had this whole room smelling of your pheromones, and he still thought he was being chivalrous by keeping this a secret because he doesn't think you want anyone to know you're with him."

"That's not true." I shake my head, my lips flattening.

"Oh, so he's not lying in the dirt all hours of the day and night when you're in your heat?" Jia asks, and I give her a confused look. I'm about to tell her I have no idea what she's talking about when she continues. "He thinks he's sneaky, did you know that? Holoth's sister came and told us during your first heat. He was talking about sneaking in, so we lessened the pheromone dampeners outside in the alcove. Sure enough, Phial's smell was there all of the time."

"What?" I hold up my hands, trying to get Jia to slow down on everything she's saying so I can have a second to process it.

"Avery that male is in love with you," Jia says, her hands on her hips, her head tilted to the side as she gives me a sympathetic smile.

"No, he's not," I try to argue, and Jia's sympathetic look turns into another eye roll. "You can't just roll your eyes like that's a mature way of conversing with someone," I huff.

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