Rise of the Dark Alpha

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*****

~ SASHA ~

Sasha. Sasha please… please tell me you're okay.

Zev's voice in her head spread welcome warmth through her chest and made some of the creeping terror of their Spider friend ease.

I'm completely safe, she sent back. But tell me, does Nick know about the ardent bond? Does he know it's possible for us to speak with our minds?

No, of course not. I didn't even know—Sasha, you have to get away from him! Completely! Let Lhars and Dunken take care of him, tell them I said the time has come. You have to get out of there. Now!

Sasha shook her head, but made herself show him what she could see, sending the picture of Nick in the arms of the wolves, the Spider Chimera to his right, and showing his terror.

I don't think he's the risk just now.

Zev muttered a curse in her head. Lhars should never have brought Ernie in on this! He's really unpredictable—especially when it comes to the humans.

Ernie? That things name is Ernie? Sasha almost laughed out loud.

But then Ernie moved suddenly, his entire body sinking down on those legs and his eyes locked on Sasha. She tried to ignore it, to pretend every inch of her skin wasn't crawling at being so close to him, tried to remember there was something of a human head and heart inside that nightmare of a body.

But Nick startled at the movement and let out a tortured wail and twisted in the hands of the wolves.

"Look, look! Please! I'm not lying. I'm not trying to kill anyone—I'm trying to keep you all alive. I mean it! Please, god, believe me. I mean it!"

Fucking coward, Zev growled in her head. He is terrified of the creatures. Even avoided working with them when they were tiny babies.

Sasha cut off the images. She couldn't afford for Nick to say something that would let Zev know what she was thinking. Considering.

Was she actually considering this?

She licked her lips nervously, praying she didn't look as terrified as Nick. "Zev doesn't want to talk to you. And I know he sure as hell doesn't want me around you," she said.

Nick groaned. "You don't have to be around me. You have to listen to me—he does! Look, we're all smart people. I know you know this is about more than communications. But if Zev wants to live through it and be in a position to keep you safe, he needs to come with me. Right now. If we're lucky, they won't cross for another few hours. But if they realized I left… they could be here anytime."

Nick was a liar and a manipulator, Sasha reminded herself. "Well, I guess we better pray you're better at sneaking out of your world than you are at sneaking into this one. Why are you really here, Nick?"

"I told you! I have to take Zev back so they won't just show up and kill him—and the rest of you!" He cut Ernie a glance that made Sasha certain Nick wouldn't mind if they got rid of that particular Chimera.

"They'd have to find him first."

"Sure, but they've got the time and the… look, it doesn't matter what you think Sasha. I get that you're protective of him. I am too. That's why I'm here." Sweat dripped down his brow. "Everyone's under threat until the powers that be feel certain the Alpha is working with them. Talk to Zev, he'll tell you that he knows this already."

Sasha tilted her head. "Zev was shocked by how closely Xar was working with the team."

Nick grimaced. "The tiger went too far. But even Zev had meetings with us when he was leading. He can do it again. I'll personally guarantee his safety. He'll come back to you, Sash. I won't let them keep him."

"I don't believe you."

"Tough shit. It's the truth. If I told you anything else it would be a lie."

SASHA WHAT IS GOING ON?

Sasha shivered with the force of his voice in her head, as if she were compelled to answer him.

That's what he meant about using an Alpha voice, she thought wonderingly.

She quickly sent him back an image of the wolves still holding Nick.

Negotiations, she said in his head. Don't worry. I'm not bringing him back to you—which is what he wants. We're just trying to get information from him before they return him to the gateway.

Step carefully, Sasha. He's a powerful man on the other side of the gateway. Don't give him any information you can avoid. Knowledge is power.

She nodded again.

Then she blinked.

Nick was still stammering, trying to convince them all that he'd come with noble intentions for Zev while Ernie watched him, his black eyes and brown-and-black body incredibly still.

Then the shadows in the trees moved again, and Nick looked past Ernie and made a strangled noise. "No, please… please… I can't… please—you have to believe me!"

Three more forms stepped out of the trees, and Sasha forced herself to keep her eyes on Nick, not allowing her body to tremble as her eyes strained to turn and see what was coming. But Nick looked like he was falling apart—his face pale and sheened in sweat.

Where was the hardass that had spoken to Zev on the phone and been so cocky?

Where was the brutal man who'd threatened her life?

"Is he faking?" she asked Lhars and Yhet, suddenly.

"Faking what?"

"His fear. Can't you smell it, or something?"

"He's not faking," Yhet said, his voice low and ominous. "He fears to the point of wetting himself."

Nick's face was pained and terrified. He rolled his eyes to meet Sasha's, but those Chimera were approaching and his eyes snapped back to them, unable to watch anything but his apparent doom. "Please, don't let them—dammit!" His voice broke as a large, head with a long snout, bristled like a boar's shoved between Ernie and one of the wolves.

Sasha flinched, but caught herself as a voice thick—like its owner had adenoid issues—said suddenly, "He isn't just afraid as if he will wet himself… he already has."

The Chimerans laughed.. But Sasha's blood ran cold.