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~ SASHA ~

Sasha stood, back still to the tree, stunned speechless.

The picture Nick painted, the motives these people had… and yes, the plan. She could see it. It was like something out of a bad science fiction movie. But if these past few weeks had shown her anything it was that those stories perhaps weren\'t nearly as much fiction as she\'d always believed.

His words kept echoing in her head.

They\'re going to make them gods.

Did these men really believe that? It made a sick kind of sense—why they seemed so cold and calculating about it all. The power they thought they\'d gain.

Nick had been right, she hadn\'t seen how big this was. That scared her, though, because what else was she missing.

"So fucking creepy," she muttered under her breath. A shudder rocked her entire body and she didn\'t bother hiding it. Nick was a part of this. He needed to see that normal people didn\'t walk through the world thinking that this was okay.

But to her surprised, Nick to turned to look at her, his expression concerned. "I know that\'s a lot. Are you okay?"

"Of course I\'m not okay. This whole thing is just… it\'s evil, Nick!"

"It\'s not evil. It\'s ambitious. There\'s a difference. I mean, you\'ll use a pregnancy to get what they want, why shouldn\'t they?"

"I\'ll what? You\'re crazy!"

"You said yesterday, you told Nathan, if they let you get back to Zev, don\'t ask you to harm anyone, you\'ll give them their Chimera babies."

"I… but…"

"You\'re the beginning, Sasha. With you here, they can smell how close this all is. If you get pregnant, they\'ve finally got their answer about how to increase the numbers affordably. Once these men know what works, they won\'t swerve from it."

"Great, then lets get pregnant and they can let the rest of the females go!"

Nick snorted. "Fat chance."

"What are you saying?"

"I\'m saying the only way you get them back to Thana is if it benefits Nathan and the Board. If you find something that makes their resource more profitable, or more efficient. But, if it turns out that you and Zev are the only future, they\'re done with the rest of them. They\'re expensive and not fulfilling all their needs. They\'ll be done."

"Done? With the females?"

"With all the other Chimera." Nick sighed, still watching the land ahead. "Stop telling yourself there\'s boundaries here, Sasha. The men who run this place don\'t see the Chimera as people. They won\'t free them into Thana out of the goodness of their hearts. They\'ll either harvest them, or kill them.

"Harvest them? What the hell does that mean?"

"Use what they can and discard the rest."

Sasha shuddered again. "No!"

"You don\'t get to say no."

"I don\'t care. I am saying no. If I\'m going to be a part of this, returning the females to Thana is a non-negotiable."

"You\'re really overestimating the amount of leverage you have here."

"Am I?"

Nick stared at her. "What\'s making you so sure of yourself right now?"

Sasha glared at the forest. "You\'re saying me and Zev are the answer, right?

"Probably. That has yet to be seen."

"So… if we aren\'t here, they\'re screwed. They have to keep everyone else, and try to get them healthy."

"No, Sasha. If you aren\'t here, They find someone else for Zev and they keep trying. You can\'t win this."

"You said he can\'t breed with anyone else, because we\'re bonded now. He can only breed with me. If you need offspring from him, you need me. And only me."

Nick didn\'t answer. She could feel the cogs turning over in his mind.

Then he swallowed. "We have technology. We can harvest his sperm and force fertilization in—"

"If they could have done that, they would have done it. I\'m betting they\'ve tried it already and it either didn\'t work, or you got some of our friends who live in the forest that you\'re so scared of.

She sees him tense. He doesn\'t speak, but he\'s starting to smile.

"What?" she asked.

"Keep going," he muttered. "Keep following that trail."

Sasha didn\'t trust him, but she kept thinking it through anyway. "All their eggs are in one basket now, right? You\'ve got your medical resource. You\'ve got your process to build Chimera, but it\'s all too clunky and expensive to make it sustainable. So you need Chimera who can stay healthy and reproduce. And right now, it looks like me and Zev are the only way there. Without us, you\'re back and square one, because you have to recreate Zev, and you haven\'t been able to do that."

Nick just stared.

"It\'s even more dire than you think, Nick."

His eyes spark. "How so?"

Sasha rolls the dice. "If I\'m not here, Zev\'s not here."

Nick frowned. "Zev loves you, Sasha, and the mate bond… I get it, his time will be limited. But—"

"No, Nick, you don\'t get it. We didn\'t just bond. We\'re ardent. We forged something—the Chimera called it a soulbond. I don\'t know what it is, all I know is that there\'s a piece of me that belongs in him, and a piece of him in me, and they are all certain that if one of us dies, the other does. Not years down the line. That same moment. We\'ve vowed to each other and something happened. I can\'t explain it. But it\'s like our heartbeats are… linked somehow. If mine stops, his does. And visa versa."

Nick\'s face goes very serious. "You can\'t lie to them about stuff like this, Sasha."

"I\'m not. Ask a Chimera who\'s never met us. Ask them what a soulbond is, and what it does. I don\'t know how you\'d test for it, but I figure there has to be some physical markers. It doesn\'t matter, the point is, it\'s true. Whether you like it or not, it\'s true. You kill me, Zev dies. You kill Zev, I die.. I think… I think your people are now wholly invested in keeping both of us alive and healthy."