Page 49 of Avery

Skia makes some sort of grunting sound upfront before a partition slides in place, blocking him from our view. I know he can still hear our thoughts, but the illusion of privacy helps. I'm out of my buckle and between Phial's legs before Skia has the transport backed out of the driveway.

"Needy." Phial chuckles as he slides his pants down enough to let his cocks go free.

I shoot him a playful glare before taking him in my mouth. His fingers splay through my hair, making sure not to tangle ittoo much as he strokes down my neck to my back. I groan, and goosebumps explode over my skin.

"Take what you need," Phial groans as his head falls back against the seat. I do as he says and don't feel any less for needing him as much as I do.

twenty-one

Phial

I'm sitting in the crowd of others who are all allowed to witness the trial. For the most part, it's the family and friends of the defendant, the piece of shit father, who sold Avery to the smugglers. I try not to look over at the large group of people who all sit in the rows of seats behind where his table is set up.

If I'm not careful, I'll memorize all of their faces and work myself into such a fit that I'll kill them all. I doubt they're all bad people. Maybe they just can't believe that the male they're so close to is capable of such things. Surely, they can't know about what he did to Avery.

"You good?" Jovi asks me, his upper hand reaching behind me on the bench we're sitting on.

Sloane's on his other side, and Alik is on her other side. Helna and Essa are right behind us. Helna's wearing a pheromone blocker like the one Holoth wore when Avery first joined the ship. Now would be an awful time for her to scent someone, soI guess she offered to wear it so she could be here to show her support for Avery.

"I'm fine," I say, letting out a long breath and looking over my shoulder to look around the room.

When we arrived, Skia took Avery to a closed-off room and told me I had to wait here with everyone else. When we leave, I'll be allowed to be near her again, but for right now, we have to be away from one another. Skia will keep her safe, though. No one will even get near her with him around.

"I'm sorry she had to do it now." Alik leans over his mate and Jovi to tell me. Sloane pushes at his arm, which is squishing her face, and he moves again. "I wish I knew who demanded it happen now."

"You already know it'll have been the defense," I grumble.

We're technically not supposed to talk about the trial, but I mean, who else would've thrown a fit over when Avery could testify? If anything, I'm sure they denied the request to do it after her heat because they didn't want her showing up at all.

I can only hope that her heat doesn't start to affect her until she's said what she needs to say. She doesn't like anyone seeing her when she goes through it, and I doubt she'll want anyone in this room to know how much she was altered because of her father's selling her to the smugglers.

Someone up front makes an announcement, and everyone in the room stands. I left the pack with everything Avery could need with her, but I wish I had saved some water for myself. I need something to fiddle with to keep me from doing something stupid.

The judge and her Sombran enter the chamber. Each Intergalactic Alliance appointed court has a Sombran that filters through the answers given on the stand to ensure the truth is always spoken. It doesn't happen with all trials since theSombrans have to be hired and shuttled here, but I'm not surprised to see another one for a case of this high caliber.

The beginning part of the trial is boring. I look around the room and notice the comm screens that hold the various jurors for this trial. Intergalactic Alliance regulations say that trials can either take place on the planet where the crime was committed or in IA-specified court sites. Since this is a multi-galaxy operation, Avery's father is being tried first here on Earth for his crimes of kidnapping and trafficking humans off the planet and then will be tried on an IA site for the rest of it.

Both sides recount things that happened previously in the trial to bring the jurors back up to speed. After what feels like hours but has only been maybe one, the prosecution announces their first witness of the day, Avery Crawford. Maybe once this is over, we'll do her Earth tradition of marrying and sharing a last name, preferably mine, because I don't want her to share a name with her father anymore.

The courtroom is eerily quiet when Avery is announced, but when the doors open and she comes walking in with Skia right behind her, murmurs break across the group behind her father's defense table.

I want to hiss and snap my teeth at all of them, but Jovi's hand is on my shoulder, a firm reminder that this isn't about me. No, this is about my sweet human who's walking forward with her head held high and a flush on her cheeks that I can't tell if it's from her heat or embarrassment.

Skia's eyes cut over to me and his lips turn down in a way that tells me everything I need to know. Avery's a brave, strong female, though. If she thinks she can get through this, then she can.

Skia's gaze falls behind me to where Essa and Helna are sitting. Something in them darkens as his shadows lift from hisskin ever so slightly. He pulls them back close and forces them to drop to the ground as he follows Avery up to the witness stand.

"State your name and species identification for the court and jurors," the prosecution instructs Avery.

"Avery Crawford, Rytahrian altered human."

There are more whispers from the people sitting on the opposite side of the aisle from us, and this time, I shoot them a glare that I hope they all feel. The only thing that makes it better is that most of them look horrified when they see Avery up there.

Maybe they don't know what her father did to her. It would be even crueler for her if they knew and did nothing. It's already bad enough that she found out some of her family knew what her father was doing and chose to look the other way. Avery has no interest in reconnecting with any of them, but that doesn't mean seeing them isn't difficult.

The prosecution asks her a few more questions and has her vow not to lie before she finally sits down, her face even pinker, sweat starting to break across her temples.

Skia stands behind her, the backpack dangling from one of his hands. Avery barely looks over at him before he unhooks the canister with the meal I made and hands it to her.

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