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“I would kill or die to protect her,” Torus asserted. “Molly is everything to me.”
Molly felt her heart flutter and she saw several women on the jury sighing. Torus was so big and handsome and the way he stated his love for her was definitely romantic.
“So when you saw the video of her that Zachary Wyndham sent to you and Molly admitted to you that it made her want to kill herself, what did you think?” Councilor Paige asked.
Torus frowned, his face like a thundercloud.
“I didn’t think—I went into Rage. The life of my Mate was threatened—my instinct was to go and punish the one who had threatened her and neutralize the threat so that she could never be hurt again.”
“And that’s why you went to Zachary Wyndham’s home and took his computer equipment?” Councilor Paige asked.
“Exactly.” Torus nodded. “I wanted to be sure he could never send out those compromising videos again. I wanted to protect my Mate.”
“Thank you.” She nodded. “No further questions.”
Zach’s lawyer rose.
“So you wanted to protect your ‘Mate’ did you?” he asked Torus, raising her eyebrows skeptically.
“Yes.” Torus nodded.
“But it’s my understanding that Molly Byrne wasn’t your Mate at the time. In fact, the two of you weren’t even married until after your attack on my client!” he exclaimed.
Molly felt her stomach clench like a fist with nerves but Torus’s stoic expression didn’t change a bit.
“It’s true that our Joining ceremony wasn’t until after the incident with her ex-Mate,” he said. “But I had deep feelings for Molly long before that.”
“Why was that?” the lawyer demanded. “I suppose you’re going to tell me the two of you were ‘Dream Sharing’ as I believe you Kindred call it?” He turned to the jury. “The Kindred claim that before they get married to someone they share dreams with them,” he explained. “Though of course, we have no actual proof that it really happens.”
He sneered as though to discredit the idea, but Molly thought some members of the jury looked interested—especially the women. Dream-Sharing was a part of Kindred life that wasn’t extremely well known, but the big aliens had been on Earth long enough now that many people had heard of it—especially the single women who were signed up for the Kindred Bride Draft.
“Dream-Sharing does happen—as a matter of fact it happened in our case. Or at least, I was dreaming of Molly,” Torus said.
Molly tried to keep her face calm but she was shocked. Was he lying? He’d never said anything about dreaming of her—and she’d certainly never dreamed of him. So what was going on?
She tried to send him a question through their TET link, but the big Kindred had put up his mental wall and there was no getting through to him.
“So you claim you went into ‘Rage,’” the lawyer used air quotes, as though he didn’t believe that Rage was a real thing either, “Because you thought your ‘Mate’ was being threatened.”
“Your client’s actions made my Mate wish to end herself.” Torus’s voice had dropped to a low, angry growl. “So yes, I felt she was being threatened. I knew I had to end his abuse once and for all.”
“End his abuse?” Zach’s lawyer made a sound of derision. “Please, Commander Torus! You’re acting as though he was beating her or hurting her in some way!”
Torus’s eyes sparked red and Molly felt a surge of pure fury coming through their link.
“He did hurt her,” he growled. “I saw it in my dreams of her!”
“You what?” The lawyer made a face of utter disbelief. “You actually expect us to believe that you saw events in your dreams that happened to Molly Byrne back when she was with my client—before she even knew you?”
“That’s exactly right.” Torus bit out each word and Molly could feel him getting angrier and angrier until he was almost ready to explode! “I saw how he treated her! I saw how he shouted at her—cornered her and threw things at her to make her fear him! I saw what he did to her every night! How he forced himself on her?—”
He broke off abruptly but it was too late. Molly felt like her whole body had turned to ice. So he had seen all that? He knew what Zach had done to her?
She felt sick. Her stomach clenched like a slick fist and she was sure she was going to throw up.
She had to get out, right now!
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