Page 64 of Your Wild Omega (The Feral Actress #2)

Chapter fifty

Callisto

Court day arrives with a gale and a smattering of raindrops on the windowpanes. Today everything changes. After weeks of trawling through precedents and scratching my brain, it’s time to go into battle.

My heart feels heavy as I straighten my gray vest, checking my reflection in the mirror one last time while reciting my opening address.

Although I arranged for a fast settlement on the new apartment building, I haven’t convinced myself to move in yet.

Somehow this basic hotel room feels like a kind of necessary punishment.

Or perhaps it’s because I know how much the empty apartment will remind me of the pack I missed out on.

But I can’t put off moving forever, so I’ll start as soon as this case finishes. It’ll keep my mind busy.

And give me an alibi.

A small voice in the back of my head asks what today’s outcome might’ve been if I hadn’t rejected Red that day. Could I have supported her through her trauma to testify? Would she have felt safe enough if her first scent match never abandoned her?

I brace my hands on the tiny kitchenette counter and groan. I need to shake off this despondency. It’s go time. Time to face the lunatic who destroyed the beautiful omega’s life.

“Even if I can’t nail you, you’re going down, motherfucker,” I promise darkly. Because the burly motorcycle club leader agreed to take on the job. I’d love to know how he verified my story about Ray’s guilt, but the man remained tight-lipped, no matter how much money I offered.

I straighten and spritz on cologne before knotting my tie. After a quick survey of my appearance, I collect my materials, double-checking everything is in place, organized neatly in my folders with the important bits highlighted. I’m as prepared as I can be.

Quinton, my assistant lawyer for the case, waits for me on the courthouse steps, sipping from a coffee cup. “Morning, Callisto,” he says as I jog up the stairs.

I turn to stand beside him, looking out over the busy street with the towering buildings as a backdrop. “Catching the last bit of sunlight for a few days?”

He nods. “I think this one’s going to be brutal.”

I nod. “Yeah, the OCB legal team told me these trafficking cases are the hardest.” Harder again for me because I’m Red’s, well, nothing, I suppose.

Maybe if parallel universes exist, I’m her alpha in one of them.

Surely at least one version of Callisto Wren won’t be an idiot. The thought makes me smile.

Quinton claps me on the back. “Come on. Let’s go bag you another case win.”

It’s pointless bravado, but at least he’s trying to cheer me up. I’ll have to make sure I don’t keep him late on his family date nights anymore.

Allen, the OCB legal representative, sits at our table already and I shake his hand as Quinton settles on my other side.

The door creaks open behind me, and I can’t help myself.

Ray Fibbistachi follows his lawyer down the aisle, looking neat and non-threatening in a brown suit and pale, patterned tie.

A monster walks among us. My roving gaze locks with the tall blond man in front of him: the country’s top criminal defense lawyer.

Antonio Pike smirks at me, and nervous energy flocks to my belly.

I used to survive on this sensation of hyperalertness, but now I recognize its true nature—anxiety.

If I have a panic attack in court today, no one will ever take me seriously as a lawyer again. How strange to have a piece of myself I used to love morph into something so potentially catastrophic.

Ray sits down at the defendant’s table, looking serene.

To calm myself, I count my breathing and remind myself he’ll get what’s coming to him.

How dare he sit here like he’s done nothing wrong?

I’ve combed through the records so many times, and reflected on everything Red told me.

Every detail of his despicable crimes is etched deeply in my brain.

It wouldn’t be enough to tear Ray limb from limb.

He needs to suffer, to feel helpless like Red did as he locked her down and destroyed her life.

All those vials stolen from her. And Red goes into heat extraordinarily frequently for an omega.

That’s a lot of strain on her slender body to begin with.

And the way she screamed during her heat and tried to burn her nest—the memories still haunt me.

I’m on my feet before I’ve registered my movement. A wave of rage floods through me, sweeping away reason. What if I just took him out now and saved us all the trouble?

“Callisto,” a familiar voice calls behind me.

I swivel in surprise to find my paralegal coming through the small gateway that separates the front and spectator parts of the room. My inner fury falters. Shit, what was I thinking? Not only is this a courtroom, but I won’t be able to help Red if I end up in prison myself.

“H-Hale?” I stammer. “What are you doing here?”

The paralegal gives me a lopsided smile and passes over a sheet of paper. “I don’t think I sent you the most current list of witnesses. This is the correct one, just in case you run into any issues.”

“Any additions from Pike I need to know about?”

“No.”

Annoyance spikes within. Did he have to disturb me for this when I’m trying to get in the right head space? For obvious reasons, it’s harder to achieve today than usual.

I take the sheet without glancing at it. “Thanks,” I mutter, sliding it under my other files. Not sure what he’s worried about; the witness list won’t change anything now.

Hale leans over the barrier, squeezing my shoulder briefly. “Good luck, Callisto.”

I nod in reply. Part of my annoyance comes from the bubbling anger directed at the defendant, but seeing my paralegal here settles me a little more. He’s a reliable guy to have on my side. Any further conversation gets cut short as the judge enters.

The jury gets sworn in, a group of twelve, already vetted through the voir dire selection process.

I excused two who I thought were sympathetic to the idea of helping an omega through a heat by any means necessary, and my OCB counterpart excused another who he believed was a haze user, although when I asked why he thought so, he just shook his head.

Guess they see enough cases in the OCB to get a sixth sense for it.

I tried my best to get an omega in the group, but only two showed, and Antonio excused them without reason. Now my case is in the hands of seven betas and five alphas.

Time for opening remarks. I rise to my feet, my throat closing up.

“Your Honor, diligent alphas and betas of the jury. On the second of February this year, the OCB raided an illegal omega trafficking hub two hundred and sixty miles north of Laversham city. They rescued fifteen imprisoned omegas from abhorrent conditions of torture and isolation. The raid also uncovered copious amounts of illegal haze, as well as experimental drugs.”

I can sense Antonio making notes behind me, ready to adjust his opening speech to shoot down every argument I present.

Ignoring the slop of nerves in my belly, I charge on.

“During that raid, OCB agents arrested the defendant, Ray Fibbistachi, on-site in the middle of the facility. In the process, one of the most brutalized omegas attacked him in a fit of vengeance before Ray was taken into the Omega Crimes Bureau custody. A following raid on the defendant’s home found sixteen vials of illegal haze in his home—haze which is a forensic match to over two hundred vials found at the trafficking hub.

“Today you will hear conflicting stories about whether the defendant was involved in the unthinkable crimes committed against the omegas who passed through the facility, but I ask you to keep one thing in mind. The defendant, Ray Fibbistachi, was the only alpha arrested on-site. The only one. And as you’ll hear from the experts presenting today, an alpha’s sexual involvement is undoubtedly required in order to extract the amount of haze the agents discovered onsite. ”

I pause, reminding myself to breathe. Now that I’m on a roll, my nerves have settled, but anger still sparks hotly in my gut.

“Ray Fibbistachi not only aided and abetted the other criminals at the Laversham trafficking center, but he performed unspeakable crimes amounting to torture and rape of at least one omega victim. Some may argue this wasn’t torture, but what else would you call strapping an omega into physical restraints and fucking her repeatedly while denying an alpha’s knot and using a needle to extract haze so many times that her skin could never heal from the pinpricks? ”

Emotion lodges in my throat and I swallow.

My delivery matters now more than ever. I straighten, keeping eye contact with the jury members.

“And that’s just the crimes we know about so far.

As members of an upright society, can we allow such brutal and despicable actions to go unpunished?

Ray Fibbistachi cruelly confined and tortured at least one omega, profiteering from her agony for over ten years.

Please, do not be lulled into thinking this case is about peddling some haze.

It’s about the brutal torture of an innocent omega. ”

Quinton gives a small nod as I sit down, indicating the jury exhibited emotional reactions to my statement. It’s a good start.

The judge clears his throat. “Counsel for the defendant will now give their opening remarks.”

Antonio rests both hands on his desk before rising, drawing everyone’s attention to his movements. He smiles as he glides to the center.

“I heard Counselor Wren used to receive top marks in his Fiction Writing classes, and now I understand why.” He tosses an indulgent smile my way before turning back to address the jury, some of them smiling at his supposed joke.

Fury grips me. On my left, Quinton laces his hands together, knuckles popping.

The visual of his agitation calms me. I’m not the only one getting mad here, but that means I’m not the only one responsible for the outcome of this case.

I channel a few deep breaths while thinking about Rickon’s instructions that time I had a panic attack after Red vanished.

Losing my cool won’t put Ray behind bars. And really, what do I have to lose? Even if I fail here, Ray’s days are numbered.

Antonio spreads his hands in supplication.

“Your Honor and gentle jury folk, the only two correct facts presented by the prosecution are that my client was on-site at the trafficking hub on the day of the raid, and that unregistered haze was found in his apartment. There is simply no evidence to draw these outlandish conclusions that Ray was in anyway involved with crimes against omegas. For that matter, the prosecution also has no proof the haze found in his house was his and not a plant.”

I grind my thighs up under the table, using the pressure to stop me spiraling into rage.

The defense lawyer smiles, oozing confidence.

“The OCB can’t produce this supposedly tortured omega, and no sustainable DNA evidence exists to say he was ever in the same room as her, let alone had sexual relations.

Even if he did, everyone knows that an omega in heat requires the presence of an alpha for assistance. ”

I dig my fingertips into my leather folio, leaving nail imprints. It’s the age-old argument every defense falls back on in cases for alpha sex crimes against an omega. Everyone swallows the story whole, especially betas who don’t experience the raging hormones of the other traits’ cycles.

Well, I have some experts to speak to that fallacy.

The lawyer comes to the close of his speech with a few more remarks about there being no evidence and then he points toward our table.

“The prosecution is looking for a scapegoat in a case riddled with professional bungles. I will prove to you that Ray Fibbistachi is not the vicious criminal they are painting him as, but rather an innocent man in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Wrong place and time? My heart sinks as the lawyer retakes his seat. Everything I’m about to say will be shot down.

The judge speaks. “We’ll now examine the evidence and expert testimony brought by both parties. Please call your first witness, counsel for the prosecution.”

I stand again. The battle’s not over yet, and I’ll fight with everything I have. “The prosecution calls on Mr Finley Byron, lead forensic scientist with the Omega Crimes Bureau.”

Piece by piece, I’ll lay out the evidence starting with the haze vials. That’s my job.

And when I fail, my insurance policy will kick in automatically.