Page 51 of Avery

"Approved," the judge says, and then the trial continues.

The prosecutor asks Avery many questions about the documents she found on her father's computer. He'd pull some of them up on a large comm screen and have Avery tell us what they meant. After a couple of hours, the prosecution finishes speaking with Avery, and the defense is allowed to speak. Jovi has to press harder on my shoulder to keep me from reacting.

"The defense has no questions for this witness, your honor," the defense says before sitting back in his seat.

Avery and I both let out audible sighs of relief. She's thanked for her time and released back out of the room. She winces when she stands, and the Sombran next to the judge whispers something to her.

"Recess for ten minutes."

The rest of the room is a flurry of movement as Skia helps get Avery out of her seat and down the steps. All the while, his shadows are dancing around at hip level, flowing down to the floor before coming back up. He walks close behind Avery, and I give her an apologetic look because it's probably because she'ssoaked through her pants. At least the judge allowed for a break for the mess to be cleaned.

Skia leads her out of the room as a few other guards keep everyone else in their seats until they're gone. As soon as the guards tell us we're okay to get up, I'm out of my seat and scrambling after Avery. A hand on my forearm has me turning around fast and snapping my teeth at an older human woman with Avery's features. She winces when she sees the anger on my face, but she takes a deep breath and squares her shoulders.

"Did my husband do that to our daughter?" she asks the words through clenched teeth, her eyes already rimming red with emotions.

I don't trust my words right now, so I give her a firm nod and turn to leave. She calls out for me but doesn't reach out again. She knew what her husband was doing. She only cares now because her daughter was hurt.

In my peripheral, I can see Jovi and Alik blocking the small aisle. I make quick work of getting through the crowd and back to where I left Avery and Skia the last time.

The door to the small waiting room opens before I get to it, and Skia's staring at me with his normal, unamused expression. His shadows are dancing around like they're excited, though. Whatever, I don't have time to think about his weird hyper shadows right now when my Avery's in pain and needs me.

Skia grunts before leading me into the room. Avery launches herself at me as soon as she sees me, her hands wrapping around my head, her lips finding mine. Her body feels like it's on fire, and she's already trying to strip from her clothing.

"Not yet," I murmur, chuckling against her lips as she keeps kissing me even as I try to talk to her. "Let's get you home so you can make a nest, okay?"

Avery whines low in the back of her throat, but slowly, she pulls herself off me and nods. I wrap my arms over her waist,keeping her pinned to me. She's not leaving my side until this heat is over, and I'm going to make sure she never goes through another one alone again.

twenty-two

Avery

As soon as we pull into the garage I'm busting out of the transport and running inside. The entire time I was giving my testimony, I was thinking about Phial's cocks.

The entire time.

Even when I was crying or having to recount what something from the documents I found meant, I was thinking about how it would feel to have him slide those big, fat cocks inside me, split me open, fill me to the brink of being too full. Then, I thought about his tail and how I want to ride that, too.

There was a moment where I felt bad for the other Sombran, who might not have known I was in the beginning stages of my heat, but he never gave me any indication he could hear my thoughts, so maybe he was one of the more vibes over actual thoughts Sombrans.

Skia, I do feel bad for him. He heard it all, and now he's about to get the full actual play-by-play. I haven't asked Phial if he'll help me through this, but I think he's picked up on the contextclues. The biggest one being how I'm currently dragging him into the bedroom.

"Stay," I tell him as I push him against the door right after I close it. Skia didn't say anything to us, so I'm assuming he's fine with me banging my heat out with Phial while he's still in the house.

When I'm sure Phial's not moving from where I have him, I move over to all of the bags and start going through them. I need all of my furs. I find them and dump them all onto the bed. I work fast, knowing that I want the nest to be good for Phial but also knowing this isn't our nest. If this were in the dome, I'd spend much more time on it because that's our home.

This is a temporary nest just for this heat. It won't need to be perfect, but it does need to be nice.

As I work, I start to strip off my clothes. The heat is unbearable, and I need to feel something cool on my skin. I strip off the button-down and my skirt, then my tank top, and that's when Phial's chirping starts. I shoot him a look to make sure he's staying put. His feathers stand on end, but he gives me a devilish smile.

"I'm being a good male," he tells me.

But he's not. His hand moves to the hem of his shirt before he rips it over his head. A few feathers fall to the ground, and I lunge for them, needing them in my nest. Phial moves his feet around so I can grab them, and he watches as I add them to the nest. It's the same thing I do for all of his fallen feathers. The rest are just in our home.

I eye him suspiciously when he starts to unzip his pants, but I need to finish the nest before I can let myself get too worked up over him being naked and eager for me.

I hear his pants hit the floor, but I keep working on the nest, needing it to be perfect. Or as perfect as it can be since my patience is running thin, and I think I'm about to say fuck itto the rest of the furs and just dump them on the bed and call it good. I work fast, smoothing out one more blanket, and then turn to face Phial. Or, rather, where he should be, except he's not there anymore.

"Phial?" I call out, worry pinching my chest. I look around the room, trying to figure out where he's hiding before it hits me. "Are you invisible right now?"

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