Page 38 of Avery

Of course, this news has Phial whipping back around, feathers once again standing straight up.

"Her heat will be here soon." Phial's hiss is extra pronounced, making his displeasure clear in his voice. "The sanctuary is a safe place for her. We can't take that from her."

"Hey." I place my hand on Phial's shoulder, hoping to calm him a little bit. "She's right here and perfectly capable of talking for herself."

Sloane opens her mouth to say something, but Jovi's hand clamps over it so fast she doesn't get more than the start of a word out. She casts him a dirty look, but he smiles and keeps his hand in place. Alik looks like he wants to turn around, but his attention is on me now. He might have two silly partners in his life, but he makes up with enough seriousness to counteract them.

"Yes, yes, of course," Phial grumbles under his breath, but he steps back behind me, resting his head on my shoulder again, and pulls my body close to his. "You know I only want to look out for you."

"I know," I murmur, coasting my fingers over his forearms and tracing small circles around his larger scales. I lift my eyes back up to Alik's gaze. "I've been working with Kithi and Jia on ways to help me get through my heat on Earth. I'll need a few accommodations, but they should be relatively easy to get."

"You'll have whatever you need," Phial says in a clipped tone. His words are directed at Alik, who's narrowing all three eyes on Phial and looking unimpressed.

"Of course she will," Alik says, shaking his head and rubbing his temples again.

The poor guy has to deal with Tweedledee and Tweeldeldum all day just to come in here and have Phial snap at him for no reason. I look over at Sloane, who no longer has her mouth covered. She stares at Alik with a tender devotion that I've seen her give him plenty of times. Whatever exhaustion Alik is feeling right now, I'm sure she'll find a way to make it up to him later.

"If you're amendable to leaving, we want to do it as soon as possible," Alik says. Phial opens his mouth, but Alik holds up a hand and keeps going. "The sooner we get you on Earth, the more prepared we can be for your heat and the trial."

Alik takes a deep inhale, his jaw working. Obviously, he doesn't want to ask whatever this next part is, but he'll do it anyway. There's not much that he shies away from, except apparently his feelings for Sloane when she was first here, but I didn't get to witness that, so I have to take Phial's word on it.

"Will Phial be assisting you during your heat, or do we need to secure him somewhere?"

Phial hisses again before the words fully even register in my mind. I haven't even thought about him helping me out through my heat. I mean, I did when I was in the sanctuary, begging for him to be there, for him to help make me feel better, to make the ache inside me go away. That wasn't ever possible, though. As much as I wanted him during my heat, I was still terrified ofbeing with him outside of it. Not to mention, he was offered a mate room twice, and he rejected it both times.

"Avery?" Phial's voice is soft as his hand moves from my hip to pluck the pendant off my chest. His other hand grabs one of mine and puts the pendant in it.

I didn't realize I'd started trembling until the thin chain shakes against my neck. My fingers work quickly as my mind races with thoughts about my heat, why I even have a heat, flashing back to all of those months in the smugglers' ship when I had to go through it on my own with nothing to help.

I click the pendant until it's shining red on my chest, my fingers still shaking as I let them fall back to my sides.

"Get out," Phial snarls, his grip on me loosening, allowing me to retreat further into a corner of the kitchen as he stands in front of me.

I don't know what he says or what the others say to him. I only know that my arms are wrapped around me, tears tracking down my cheeks. It's not even that bad. My thoughts are more manageable now, but I can't stop falling into the spiral of fixating on one moment.

All I can think about right now is how Vyron and the others on the smuggling ship took away my ability to move. How they made me go through my heat completely paralyzed because I cried too much, and it annoyed them.

I'm so scared it's going to happen again. It won't. The crew would never let it, and I'll never wear another slave collar. Still, my mind is stuck on when it happened, and I have an overwhelming fear of it happening again.

When the haze of my thoughts finally starts to clear, I don't know how much time has passed, with me cowering in the corner. The first thing I notice is Phial's still in the room with me, walking around, placing eating utensils, grabbing a canister of water, and setting it on the island.

His claws click against the metal floors as he walks to and from the food synthesizer. His tail is softly swaying on the ground behind him, and I focus on that as I come more into the real world instead of being trapped in my mind.

"How long?" I ask, my words coming out dry and cracked. My throat is sore, like I've been screaming, but I know it's just the burning of emotions that rammed into me and took over my body.

Phial's movements stop. His back is to me, but he turns around slow enough not to startle me. I lift my eyes, worried about what he'll look like when I look at his face. Every time he's seen me through one of these attacks before, he's been patient and kind, not rushing me for answers or asking questions I don't want to answer. We're more now, though, so I worry he might expect me to offer him more.

"It's only been about ten minutes," Phial says, his fingers twitching near his thighs as he tilts his head to the side, taking in my appearance. "Do you need more time?"

I suck in a deep, uneven breath and shake my head. I step toward him, my whole being wanting to be close to him, for him to wrap his arms around me, tell me everything is okay now, that he'll never let anything happen to me. As if he knows, he lifts his arms, opening them for an embrace that I dive into.

"Do you want to talk of it?" Phial asks, his hand stroking down my back as I bury my face in his shoulder. I shake my head, and he doesn't ask about it again. "We have that new season ofChoosing Her Mate. If you want to watch it after we eat, I was thinking maybe we could first go say our goodbyes."

"Our goodbyes?" I ask, my voice becoming more and more normal as Phial talks to me.

It takes me a second to remember that we're leaving Rythar today, probably as soon as we get our supplies and Phial gets the ship ready for travel. My body jerks, thinking about how I needto say goodbye to Kithi, Jia, Holoth, and K'Vella. I'm sure we'll be back at some point, but I don't know when it will be, and I don't want them to think I left without saying goodbye.

"I already commed Jia and Kithi and told them you'd be there in about twenty minutes. I wanted to make sure you ate before you went," Phial says, keeping me close to his chest when I try to pull away. I settle back in his hold until he feels like I'm calm enough, or maybe just until he's had his fill of me pressed against him. "If you want me to go with you, you need to wait until I put on some actual pants, though. I don't need Jia seeing me in this skirt anymore than she already has."

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