Rise of the Dark Alpha

~ SASHA ~

Sasha took a moment to meet eyes with every man in the room, then she threw her hail mary.

"You need me," she said to Nathan quietly. "You need me, and you need Zev. You need us healthy and productive. You need us not only physically close, but emotionally—you need that bond to do its work. You've already seen in the past three years that no amount of interference or planning is going to have the same affect as the Chimeran bond.

"I'm not pregnant," she said firmly. "But I'm under extreme stress, shock, and fear. I'm angry, and my whole body is running on adrenaline. As long as that's the case, it's going to mess up my cycle—and even if you gave me medications to force all that, you can't force me to get pregnant. I can't force my body to do that, either. That's only one part of this that you have no control over.

"But there's so much you can control. You can control what kind of environment we're in, and who's in it with us. You can control whether we feel afraid or safe. You can control who we get to be around, and where.

"I'm not na?ve, Nathan. I know you can imprison me—you already essentially have, let's not pretend otherwise. But if you think keeping me here and baiting Zev back here is going to end in little Chimeran babies for you, you are the na?ve one.

"Chimeran offspring are born out of the bond. Out of love and desire. And you're killing that. All of it. For all of us. But the worst part is, you held me and Zev apart for so long, it's been hard for us to find our balance. And then, when we finally did, you yanked me back out again before we'd barely stepped foot back into any kind of life.

"Your goal is longer, healthier life, right? You don't get that from unhealthy, fearful people. If you want Chimeran offspring, you need Chimeran joy—you need time and space to form bonds, and time and space to explore them. And when it comes to Zev and me… you need both of us in that place of safety. Because your technicians can look at every little number and blood level they want, they're never going to identify the true source of what they're finding, because you're all so blinded by your own fucking knowledge, you haven't seen the truth."

"And what truth is that?" Nathan seethed.

"The truth that Zev and I have something that goes so much deeper than you can even effect… it's changed my body, apparently. Because I have a soul, and so does he!" she insisted, far to vehemently, but she was so desperate for Zev to realize this… they'd stolen this from him too! Rage burned in her chest so she had to put her head down for a second and fight for control.

"You've done it," she said finally. "You've made me as desperate as those poor women out there. So here's the truth Nathan. You can accept it and we can move forward. Or you can deny it, and we can stay stuck in this stupid place until Zev and I die, and you're left starting from scratch: The truth that you can't see is that Zev and I are your last shot. He's here for reasons you can't explain, and we bonded for reasons you can't control. That bond has… linked us. That's what your technicians are seeing. They're literally measuring the fact that my body and Zev's are now linked because our souls have linked. So if you remove one of us, the other goes too. Not in a few months, or years. But right away. Get your books out, ask your sources. It's called a soulbond for a reason, and it's real. We've got it, and that's what you're tests are showing you. I'm not talking out of my ass. But we are walking on unchartered ground, because once again, you all had to get involved in something beautiful and turn it into a shitshow.

"When you brought me over here without Zev, you tore something from us. Something I pray hasn't been stolen forever. But regardless, what I know is, I'll never give you a child here. I'll never give you a child if you put me and Zev in a breeding arena. And it's unlikely either of us are ever going to be able to deliver while everyone around us is miserable and afraid.

"Wake up, both of you. All of you! Everyone in this place needs a fucking wake up call: If you remove people's dignity and relationships, you remove their purpose. The moment you take away everything that makes life worthwhile, you remove the reason they have to keep living.

"So your choices are this: Take me and the females back to Thana. Let all of us return to life there—in a place where you can guard the gateway and make sure no one's getting away. Let us go back to having families and homes and a real, full society, and let us build that. Or keep doing what you're doing and you'll lose all of us. Every one. And once Zev's gone, you're starting over. Not just looking for him, but with everyone. They'll follow him into the grave."

She leaned forward intently, willing the men to hear the truth in what she was saying. "Zev's their last hope, do you get that? They know he's special, and they know he understands things they don't. They've been waiting for him. Looking for him. Wanting him to come back and lead so they can feel safe again.

"If you try to turn me into Xar, you'll lose all of them. They'll fight you, or if you pen them up, they'll die. Then all of this has been for nothing. Absolutely nothing. Is that what you want?"

She sat back and took a deep breath. It was cruel, but she turned to meet Horace's uneasy gaze. "How much time do you have, Horace? How much age can they reverse? How much does it cost to do it? Because if you kill me, you kill Zev. If you kill Zev, you kill me. And if you kill both of us, you're burning down the Chimera around your ears. If you don't want that, if you want all of this to actually achieve something then you have to let me go back.. And you have to let me take the females with me."

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