Chapter 397 Death Knell  

If you like music while you read, try "Land of Confusion – Epic Trailer Version" by Hidden Citizen. It's what I was listening to while writing these chapters!

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~ SASHA ~

Even in his wolf, Sasha could feel the tension in Zev. His shoulders were a solid block of marble under her hands, and his gait was stilted.

Zev, are you okay? she thought to him, but he shook his head so hard his ears flapped.

Just give me a minute. We aren't going far.

His voice sounded dead in her head and it made her nerves spike, but true to his word he didn't run far. Just a couple minutes later he veered off the trail, pushing through bushes and between trees, until the trees opened to reveal a dip in the land and a creek, about six feet across.

The water gurgled and danced quietly, and the wind rustled the leaves of the trees overhead, but there was no other sound.

Sasha slid off his back and then Zev shifted back, immediately beginning to pace in front of her, up and down the water's edge.

"Zev, what's going on? You're scaring me."

"I'm sorry," he said, his voice a low growl. "You don't need to be scared of me. I'm just… I'm just so fucking angry."

"Why, what's happened?"

His jaw flexed and he glanced at from the side, but kept pacing. "I got my hands on Nick's device," he said quietly.

Sasha's head jerked back. "How? He said it could only be opened with a fingerprint or retina—"

"I'm still in their system."

Sasha's mouth dropped open.

Zev nodded at the comprehension on her face. "I looked you up first, to see if they said anything, but there's nothing new on there. For whatever reason, they haven't added anything to your file from when you were in the compound. That was a dead end."

Sasha slumped, but a part of her wondered if it was better not to know. "Okay, then, what—"

"Since I had a minute, I looked up some of the others," Zev said, and his voice went very tight. Sasha swallowed. He wouldn't stop pacing. "Sasha… they're all… they're not just infertile… they're marked for harvest. All of them."

"Harvest? You mean, their eggs? Like, IVF or something?"

He stopped walking suddenly and turned to face her, both hands in his hair. "No, Sash. When a Chimera is harvested it means that they're… everything is taken. Their blood. Their organs. Their eyes… it's what they do when a Chimera can't be used for their experiments or whatever. Or they get too sick—they use their parts to make a human healthier."

Sasha was reeling. "You… what?!"

He stepped up to her, leaning in, his eyes pleading even as every inch of him quivered with anger. "Norm was right. None of them can breed. And all of them were marked for harvest within five or six months."

"That's when they were supposed to be bringing more females through… if I got pregnant, or the others did…"

"It was a lie, Sash. This was set up to fail from the beginning. They let you think they were giving us a chance, but those females they sent will only "prove" that your theory didn't work. Then they'll take them all back, harvest them, take you back, and me…"

He started pacing again, Sasha gaping at his back.

"But that doesn't make sense. Why would they send them at all? Why even want me to think they were trying? It's still a risk. Why would they do it?"

"I can't be sure, but…" he hesitated, raking a hand through his hair.

"What?"

"Sasha, it's so ugly—"

"Tell me."

He stopped again a few feet away and turned to face her. "They didn't send those females here to breed. They sent them here to get healthier before they killed them. They gave them to us to help them so when they harvested them, they'd be in better physical shape."

"WHAT?!"

Zev's face was a picture of torment and rage. "If the females were marked for harvest it means they were the weakest and least thriving of the lot. I think they sent them here to try and get them healthy. But that must mean they were always planning to come get them. They have to know the females wouldn't return of their own free will. So they sent them here to get us to embrace them and hopefully heal them before they stole them back and slaughtered them."

Sasha's entire body went cold, then white-hot. "Those… fuckers."

Zev nodded. "I want to kill him, Sash. I'm serious. I had to leave. The guys pinned him in the bathing pools for me so I could get on the device. I had to leave. I was so angry I would have attacked him if I'd faced him."

"Zev," she breathed, "Does that mean they can tell you used the device? Isn't that the one Nick's going to give to the Team when he goes back?"

Zev gaped. Holy shit. She was right.

Sasha's face crumpled. "How bad is it? Will they know right away?"

Zev swallowed. "No, I mean… there's a log. They'd have to look at it intentionally, but they'll probably be looking for stuff from Patty, so they'll find it."

"Zev! What were you thinking?!"

But he shook his head. "It doesn't matter, Sasha. Listen to me, this is already reached critical mass. We have to go. There's no negotiating with these people. There's no reason. They are evil. We have to get out of here. We have to. And we have to do it before they realize that we're onto them."

Sasha turned away from him. She was nodding because he was right, but even under her fear that they'd see Zev's betrayal, the logistics of moving this quickly… the females were still so broken. The Creatures still had today and some might still be moving. She felt like she'd just walked onto the field to play a game, only to find herself on an entirely different field. And yet, she had no choice but to play.

"You're right," she said suddenly. Because he was. It didn't matter how dangerous it was. It didn't matter how broken they all were. "That's it. We're done. We have to move on this. The humans are expecting Nick tomorrow afternoon, right? Then we have to leave the next day."

Zev's eyes were hollow and sad, but he nodded.

This should have felt triumphant. It should have felt strong. Instead she felt like a fool. Of course they hadn't been listening to her. Of course she hadn't convinced them.

What an idiot.

But that thought just made her spitting mad.

"You tell Skhal to tell the Creatures, this is it. All or nothing. Tonight they get out of here. Tomorrow Nick and the humans cross. As soon as he's back… we're moving. We're leaving Zev. They've got twenty-four hours to pack."

**** END OF VOLUME 2 ****

Thank you so much for your dedication to this book and these characters! Stay tuned! Volume 3 starts tomorrow and then we're running downhill all the way to THE END! Can't wait for you to see it!