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"Relax, Zev, I was joking," Skhal said quietly.

"I know. I\'m not worried about that. I was just thinking about Sasha."

Skhal sighed. "What do you need?"

"I need a strategy—an actual plan, not just a vague idea—about how to get her back if they don\'t return her quickly."

"Do you really think there\'s any chance that they will?"

Zev took a deep breath. "It\'s hard to say. If there\'s any reason they think it benefits them, they will. But it won\'t come without cost. Now that they have her, they\'ll be squeezing her, manipulating her. Pushing her…"

Zev swallowed. There was one aspect to all of this that he hadn\'t raised in the meeting last night, because he hadn\'t wanted to create fear for the others, but if someone else had the idea or Skhal heard murmurings…

He cleared his throat. "There\'s one risk that I\'d ask for your help with. Yours, and no other wolves," he said pointedly.

The man tipped his head. "What is it?"

Zev shifted his weight and put his hands to his hips, trying to feel strong enough for this. Speaking it would make it real and he didn\'t want it to be real. But he also didn\'t trust himself… He swallowed hard. "If she does come back we have to watch her for… odd changes. They may have interfered with her mind."

Skhal nodded. "Like Xar, with the medications."

"Possibly, though knowing Nick, he\'s not going to use exactly the same approach, because he knows I\'ll be on to it. He\'ll have taken a different route with her, I think. Possibly more subtle. No one is likely to notice the difference except me. And I… you have to keep me honest, Skhal. Make me answer the question. Don\'t let me ignore my instincts. I will want to, I know it. I\'ll be so relieved to have her back… the temptation will be just to trust that she\'s okay if she says she is. But I know them. I know how they work. They find the place inside you that you\'re desperate to keep safe and they use that against you."

"What\'s hers?" Skhal asked.

"Me," Zev said without hesitation. "Which is why I\'m probably the only who will see it, at least early on. So… ask me. If she shows back up—or if we\'re successful in bringing her back, you have to get in my face and make me look. Force me to answer the hard questions."

"About?"

"About whether she\'s become a tool in their hands. Whether she\'s set up to betray me. Us. All of us."

Skhal\'s face went dark. "What would be the signs?"

Zev shrugged. "I can only guess. But I\'d be watching for sudden changes in her motives, or… if she\'s dismissive of things that she used to be concerned about. If she\'s less focused on the things we discussed before, and more focused on making the humans happy—or putting off doing things we have to do to guard against them. Things like that."

Skhal nodded. "I\'ll watch."

"I\'m telling you, you probably won\'t see it. Their way of shifting people\'s minds, it\'s very subtle. I was surprised they were so open with Xar. Obviously they got him under their thumbs very quickly. Because the didn\'t even seem to be trying to hide that. I think they\'ll be smarter with Sasha. If they\'re able to break her. It wouldn\'t surprise me if she turned them on their own heads. She\'s capable of it."

"One person, one mind against their entire team? That seems too much to ask of anyone, Zev."

He shrugged again. "I don\'t know. She\'s stunning, Skhal. So smart. And so… right. I don\'t know how to put it. There\'s something deep inside here that is resolute. When she knows what\'s right, she goes for it. She doesn\'t waver. She\'s far stronger than me in that way. But if they can convince her—either through deception, or by altering her mind—that something she believes is wrong, or won\'t help, she\'ll be just a resolute for whatever new goal or new idea she has set. That\'s the danger. They\'ll struggle to crack her, but if they do…"

Skhal took a deep breath. "Are you certain, utterly certain that she\'s on our side? She spent so little time here."

Zev locked eyes with him and let the male see his conviction. "Utterly."

Skhal nodded slowly.

"No, Skhal, hear me: Not only is she committed to getting the females back here for all of us, she\'s… she\'s certain about me."

Skhal snorted. "You might me mistaking desire for—"

"Don\'t patronize me," Zev snapped. "That\'s not what I meant and you know it. I mean that she\'s… she believes in me. And when I told her that we need to be free of the humans, that she\'s got a role to play in that—she\'s all in, Skhal. If she\'s been altered while she\'s there, it\'s against her will. I would bet my life on it."

Skhal watched him for a moment, then one side of his mouth tipped up, pressing lines into his weathered cheeks. "If that is all true, Zev, your mate is truly to be cherished. By all of us. I pray for your sake that she lives true to this strength you see in her. I\'ll admit, I saw her courage, but I wasn\'t as convinced it was based in anything quite so… admirable."

"You just didn\'t have the chance," Zev said quietly. "Ask Yhet. He\'s got to see her. She\'s amazing."

Skhal finally pushed to his feet and came to stand in front of Zev, putting one hand to his shoulder and leaning in. "Then you fight for her, Zev. Every day. You fight to get her back here. You fight for the others to keep following her. And you fight for the future with her in it. Because I don\'t care what world you\'re in, we need leaders like that—male or female. If she can lead us against the humans with that kind of strength, and that\'s coupled with your goodness and capability, the Chimera will thrive."

Zev flattened his lips. "If we can get free of the humans."

Skhal nodded. "Yes. If we can."

They both got lost in their thoughts, then.