Chapter 422 [Bonus chapter] No.  

~ SASHA ~

Everything in her head went silent. And then it all screamed.

Next to her, Zev, who'd gone utterly still at the woman's words, suddenly launched forward with a guttural snarl and was intercepted by two of the guards and Yhet, while Sasha struggled to find any room in her head to even think, let alone speak.

Patty gripped her shoulders, her eyes pleading and grieving. And she was still talking, Sasha realized. There was more.

Holy fuck, there was more.

"They knew you were pregnant and the implantation wouldn't have taken yet. They knew they could remove it without harming you and—they wanted to do that. I helped them do that! Please, believe me, Sasha, I never meant harm! I just didn't know—"

"What are you saying? They… they killed my baby?" Sasha's voice was broken and behind her, Zev snarled again and was restrained by Yhet who held him from behind in a bear hug.

"No! No! Your baby's alive! At least… he was…"

"He?" Zev rasped.

Patty blinked, then turned to look at Zev, looking surprised, like she'd forgotten he was there. "Yes. It's male."

A whine like none Sasha had ever heard broke in Zev's throat and he became a whirlwind so that even Yhet was struggling to hold him.

Zev, please. Please stop! Sasha pleaded with him in his mind. Her heart was breaking and his was too, and she knew that. But she needed… she needed to think. She needed to breathe.

She shook Patty and the woman looked back at her again. "How can you say he's alive? If it was just an embryo—"

"They do this all the time, Sasha. This part is no big deal for them anymore. They hardly ever lose them—not for the past several years. The problem is getting embryos in the first place. But once they have one…"

"How?! Where? Where is my child?!"

Patty gulped. "They're growing him," she whispered, her fingers clawing into Sasha's arms. Her nails, ragged and dirty, bit on Sasha's skin even through the furs she wore. "They can do that, Sasha. They grow them… it's what they do. They just… they just needed him—"

Sasha shoved the woman away from her, her entire body recoiling from the idea of being close to this woman.

"You? You did this? You helped them do this?"

"I thought I was helping. I thought I was saving lives!" she wailed, her hands clutched at her chest. "I swear, Sasha, I thought it was good. I thought we were doing good. But they showed me. They showed me. I understand now—I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!"

She tried to reach for Sasha again, but Sasha felt like she was going to vomit. "Don't touch me. Tell me where he is. Tell me how to find him!"

"You can't! He's in the lab. They're growing him. They won't even take him out for three months, they can't. He's safe. Sasha. I swear it, he's safe. He's so valuable to them—"

"SHUT UP!" Sasha screamed and instinctively clapped both her hands over her ears to stop anything else from getting in.

She stumbled backward, struggling to breathe, as, behind her, Zev began to struggle to reach her, snarling at Yhet to let him go, while Sasha turned her back and stared at the forest, her mind numb with shock, her stomach lead.

They'd taken her baby. These fuckers had done it. They'd known exactly what they were doing the whole time. They'd planned everything. And she'd fallen for it. At every step.

Suddenly warm arms were around her. A tall, strong presence at her back—that perfect presence. Zev leaned over her, hugging her to his chest, curled himself around her as he always had since she was seventeen years old. And she fit. She fit. She always fit there, in that place.

They were both trembling, but he murmured in her ear.

"… get him back. We'll get him back Sasha. Don't doubt it. We will get him back, or die trying. I will not leave him in their hands."

She turned to face him then, staring up at him, taking his beautiful face in her hands.

His eyes looked black in the darkness, but pinpoints of light shone—determination, fear, rage… everything she felt was reflected in that pair of eyes that she loved more than any other on earth.

"They took our baby," she whispered.

Zev's chest jumped and he held her tighter. "We'll get him back."

"We have to, Zev. We have to."

"We will."

She turned around in his arms, burying her face in his chest, and sobbed into his furs. Zev held her so tightly she could barely breathe, but she wanted it tighter. Yearned to press herself into him and never come out. This world was too much. Too painful. Too frightening. Too ugly.

There was a scuffle behind Zev—Patty trying to get to her, she thought. But she didn't even look up. Let the males take care of it because she couldn't look at that woman. Not yet.

She needed a minute. Just a minute to breathe through the pain and abject terror that now tore at her guts.

She had a baby. They had a baby.

Nathan had her baby.

A sound like she'd never made in her life tore out of her throat and she screamed, shoving Zev away and turning to where Patty was being held by the guards.

"How could you?! How COULD YOU?!"

"He's safe!" Patty cried. "They want him alive. They want him healthy. They're doing everything they can—"

"Except loving him! They'll never love him—how could you be a part of that?!"

"I never will be again, I swear it, Sasha. I was… I was taken… in that place… When I stepped out of the gateway, I wasn't a scientist, I was the animal to them. I didn't know. I didn't know! Please, you have to believe me!"

"I will never believe another word that comes out of your mouth!" Sasha snarled, her hands clawed at her sides. She wanted to tear this woman's face off. Wanted to flay her skin from her bones. She wanted her dead.

Sasha had never wanted a person dead before, but now she did. Patty. Nick. Nathan. Everyone in that fucking compound.

She wanted them all dead.