Page 50 of Avery

"Avery, would you please recount for the jury how you came to work with the Intergalactic Alliance Sentient Smuggling Department?"

Avery unscrews the lid of the smoothie and takes a long pull from it, her cheeks flushing and her eyes dilating. I feel bad for her that she's having to recount all of this right now while also trying to fight back the symptoms of her heat.

"Every year, my family has a get-together—extended family and all. We meet up at one of the family properties and spend about a week together. I was putting together a slideshow of pictures from all the events through the years and thought some of the images were kept on my father's computer." Avery takesa deep breath, her words coming out a little fast. She breathes through her nose, trying to calm herself, and when she starts again, she's a little calmer.

"I found family pictures, but I also found other things. There were images of 'cargo.'" She adds quotation marks around the word as she says it. "Images of human males and females collared with listing prices on tags around their necks. I dug a bit further, making sure it wasn't just some weird fetish or something. That's when I found the financial records. I sent everything to my own comm and then forwarded it to the Intergalactic Alliance's smuggling tipline. From there, Althin was in contact with me. I fed him information, and he started building a case against my father."

"What happened to you on the night of your disappearance?" the prosecution asks.

Avery closes her eyes tightly, and I hope it's just because the memories are hard and not because the heat is getting more difficult for her. When she opens them again, Skia hands her a shirt from the pack, one of my shirts that I didn't pack in there. Avery holds it close to her, her knuckles turning white as she grips it hard and brings it up to her nose.

She hasn't looked at me yet, but I know it'll only make it harder for her if she sees me. Maybe I should go invisible so it's not even more difficult. Jovi squeezes my shoulder again, and I want to hiss at him for keeping me from doing what I want to do.

"On the night of my disappearance," Avery says the words with a scoff because it wasn't a disappearance; it was an abduction. "I got a message that the family dinner for that night was changed at the last minute. When I arrived at the restaurant, I was grabbed in the parking lot by an unknown male. He injected a drug into my neck that caused me to blackout. When I woke up, I was in a smuggling ship operated by a Rytharian male named Vyron."

"Do you know who kidnapped you?"

"No."

"Were you ever made aware of who kidnapped you while on board the smuggling ship?"

"No. The male who kidnapped me was never named. Only his employer."

"Objection, outside the scope of the question." The defense's lead lawyer stands.

"Objection granted." The judge gives Avery a soft smile. "Keep your answers only to what was asked." Her attention turns to the comm screens that make up the jury. "You will disregard anything after Ms. Crawford's answer of 'no.'"

Avery takes another drink from the canister and sighs loudly as it flows down her throat. My claws are so extended they're carving into the wood of the bench I'm sitting on. I want to be up there, holding her, telling her it's okay that I'll take care of her.

"On this smuggling ship, do you know what they did to you?"

It takes everything in me not to gnash my teeth at the male for making her relive this, for not just asking her who was named as the kidnapper's employer. I'm assuming he can't because of the objection or hearsay or something. I don't know. I'm not a lawyer. All I want is for her testimony to be over, but now he's asking questions that have no relevance.

"I was altered to be more Rytharian than human in some ways."

"Could you describe to us what those ways are?"

Avery's breathing picks up as her hands start to shake. I don't know if it's the heat, a flashback, or something else, but I don't like it. Skia looks toward the other side of the room where the other Sombran is standing next to the judge. The other Sombran makes a quiet comment to the judge as Avery tries to calm herself down.

The judge lifts her hands and has both the lead prosecutor and defense step up to her podium. They all speak in hushed whispers to one another. I stare at Skia, wanting to know what just happened. He cuts his eyes over to me and shakes his head softly, either telling me not to worry about it or not to make a fool of myself. I'm pretty sure the left side of his mouth tips up in almost a half smile before he covers it.

The two males step away from the judge's podium and back to their own tables. The defense sits down while the prosecution walks closer to Avery.

"I'm sorry to make you go through this, but we would all appreciate you telling us how you were altered."

Avery nods, her hand moving to her face to wipe at a tear about to fall. "My DNA was altered first so that I would go through heats like Rytharian females. It was later altered further so that I would go through heats every month. I was given a genetic disposition to need to consume male ejaculate to keep me functioning. They thought it was funny to keep my sense of smell the same, so I could never find a scent match. And," Avery presses her lips into a tight line. A harsh inhale is sucked in through her nose as her jaw clenches. As she exhales, she tells them the cruelty done to her. "And they sterilized me."

Silence falls over everyone in the room. Jovi's fingers are squeezing my shoulder so tight they might leave bruises, but he's not growling, and neither is Alik, so that's good. I don't look at anyone but Avery, even as the sniffles start from the others on the other side of the aisle.

I already knew all of this. Of course, I did. Avery's my best friend, my partner forever now. We know all of each other's secrets.

"Thank you for telling us, Avery." The prosecutor speaks to her slowly and gently, like she's a wounded animal and not the strong female she is proving herself to be. I bite my teethtogether and wait to see what will happen next. "Are you aware of a smuggling ring that abducts humans, gives the females Rytharian traits, and sterilizes them in order to sell them at auctions?"

"I am," Avery says, wiping at her tears and drying her hand on the shirt she's holding.

"The prosecution moves to extend Ms. Crawford's testimony to case number 484392. In accordance with IA regulations, she has provided truthful testimony that implicates her victimization in an intergalactic crime, one the IA has been building a case against for almost a decade."

I squint at the prosecutor, unsure of what he just said. My eyes flash over to Skia, who gives me another barely-there nod. I think this means he'll tell me about the statement later tonight.

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