Rise of the Dark Alpha

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*****

~ SASHA ~

A trembling Sasha stepped out of the shadow of the forest when the sun was a little higher in the sky, to find Nick leaning back against the hood of the Jeep. He watched her approach and looked relieved when it became clear she was alone.

She stopped a few feet from him, aware that her hands were shaking, but completely unable to do anything about it.

Nick's face got very serious. "Are you okay?"

Sasha shrugged. "I don't know. That was… scary. They almost… Nick those women are not in their right minds. I don't know what you've been doing to them, but—"

"Let's get in the car and discuss it later. They're very sneaky. They might be watching or listening without our knowledge."

He turned to walk to the driver's door, but Sasha stood her ground and didn't approach the vehicle.

"No, Nick. We're going to talk about this now. When there's no one else here. I can't… how can you have such a state of the art complex here and yet they're living like cavemen? Those caves… it's like they're animals!"

Nick stopped in the act of opening the car door, instead turning back to face her, but he looked pissed. "They live that way because they prefer it. You might have noticed the Chimera have a different definition of "creature comforts."

Sasha hesitated. He was right, of course. She dropped her head into her head. "I don't know what to do," she whispered.

"About what?"

She jerked her head up to stare at him like he was blind. "Can't you see that they're dying?!"

"Those women are perfectly healthy—"

"In their bodies, but not in their minds. They just told me themselves, they don't think they'll make it through next winter."

Nick blinked. "They told you that?"

"I told them I was working against you, trying to free them. That I needed them to trust me, to tell me how to get them out of here. But there's no way out. From their perspectives, this is where they die. They're despairing, Nick. Literally, losing their minds. They believe anyone who tried to escape was killed, and anyone who complied with your program was taken. They're caged animals, Nick, just waiting for it to swallow them. You're going to lose them!"

Nick watched her face, expressionless. Examining her.

Sasha swore. "Test me with your little gadgets or whatever, Nick, it's the truth! They're dying, and you're just sitting here watching it happen. Tell me how that is a good use of these billions you're telling me you've spent?"

Nick's lips pressed thin and he turned away to stare at the distant mountains. "They might have really told you that. They might even think it's true. But I doubt it. I told you they're uneducated, but they aren't unintelligent. They're using you, Sasha. They can tell they can pull on your heartstrings."

"So? That doesn't mean it's not true. We have to get them out of there—they need to go back to Thana or you're going to lose them. They said more of them have died in the past year than in the two previous combined, is that true?"

Nick hesitated. "Yes, but it isn't large numbers—"

"Nathan said they can go back. You have to help them! We have to help them!"

"No, Nathan said you can go back—if you're not pregnant. He said they'd consider about the rest."

"That's such bullshit," Sasha sneered. "'Consider'. Bullshit. That's a bullshit word for never going to happen and you know it."

"That's my point," Nick said, shaking his head, his eyes flicking to the forest behind her.

"But why does it have to be that way? Because these men won't believe me? Fine, but they'll believe you! You tell them that they need to go back!"

Nick, standing next to the driver's door, tipped his chin as if she should go back to the forest, but when he spoke, the gesture was nothing to do with what he said. "You don't understand what you're dealing with, Sasha. The Chimera are a resource, that's all. If they can't serve their purpose, they're useless to us." Then he tipped his head towards the forest again and widened his eyes.

"I can't stand you and your… callousness!" Sasha shrieked and turned on her heel. "I'm going to go help those poor women—they don't deserve this! You guys can figure this out on your own, I'm not having anything to do with getting them killed—"

"Sasha, wait, please," he called, darting after her.

"No, this is bullshit! You'll protect me, but you won't protect them when they could all have Chimeran babies too? You people are assholes!"

She started to run into the trees, Nick on her heels, calling that he didn't want to hurt her, but that she needed to stop.

Then suddenly, he hooked her arm and whipped her around so her back was to the trunk of a large tree to her right.

She started to scream, but he clapped a hand over her mouth and leaned into her ear, hissing. "They're resources, Sasha," he whispered urgently. "If they don't earn their keep, they're useless. Yet they're still here. Even though they haven't had babies. What do you think that means?"

Sasha stopped trying to scream through his hand, but stared at him, her breath hissing in and out of her nose over his palm. Then he let her go and stepped back.

"I'm sorry, but just in case the camera could still catch it, I had to get you in here. The audio won't pick up this far away."

Sasha swallowed. "Get me in here… for what?"

"To tell you what you're stepping into so you won't make a mistake and get yourself killed. Listen to me, Sasha: The Chimera are a resource. An asset. They're a thing to these people. You think they're keeping them alive, keeping this whole complex going out the goodness of their hearts?"

"They're people," she insisted. "People that you all made! How does killing them slowly do anything but waste those "resources" you're so proud of?"

"Because they can be used, even when they're dying, don't you get it yet?"

"No! I don't!"

Nick raked a hand through his hair and swore under his breath. Then he turned back to glare at her. "We have seconds before I have to get you back out there, or they get suspicious, so listen fast: The breeding is secondary. It's preferable. Cheaper, and easier than making them. It costs less to keep them and breed them than to make them. But we can do it if we have to, and they're considering that, right now. Because if they can get babies from you and Zev, and if they can figure out how to breed Chimeran males with human females, they don't need the females to be anything but cattle. Resources, Sasha. Think. What do we do with resources? We consume them."

Sasha blinked. "But… what…"

"Their blood heals wounds, Sasha," Nick hissed. "Not just when you get a boo-boo on your finger. Real wounds. Diseases. Their blood can rejuvenate internal organs. It can heal massive wounds—the near-loss of a limb, or someone whose brain was damaged in a car crash. Just give some thought to what that means? Their blood can stop a delivering mother from bleeding out—or stop her underdeveloped baby from dying. The potential is literally endless.

"Imagine what people will pay for that. Imagine the difference in our society for the people who can access that? Imagine the power?! Wake up, Sasha. You aren't playing with scientists who are here for shits and giggles. They're staring down the barrel of immortality." He took a deep breath, shaking his head. "Do you get it yet? They believe the Chimera are the literal fountain of youth.. That they're going to make them gods."

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