Cold

~ SASHA ~

Nathan wasn't smiling. He wasn't the cartoon villain who took delight in scaring others. He didn't seem to feel anything at all. He barely looked human.

Sasha opened her mouth, but Nathan pressed the barrel of the gun harder against her temple. "I'd recommend keeping your mouth shut. You've already pissed me off one too many times. I'm still tempted to just kill the three of you and start over."

"Don't," Nick snapped. "She might be pregnant."

"If she is, it's likely implanted by now, so we're screwed."

"Not if you keep her alive."

Nathan rolled his eyes again, as if they'd had this conversation several times already and he already knew the answers.

Sasha didn't move, just watched that gun and held her son as tightly against her body as she dared. Her heart pounded in her ears until she could barely hear the beeping of the equipment in that other room.

"Sasha, give me the baby," Nathan said coldly.

"No."

"He's not your baby. He's a decoy—"

"I don't believe you."

"We're expecting the board to visit tonight and I can't show them your real son, so I needed to—"

"Let's get one thing straight, Nathan: I will do as you say when you have a gun to my head. I will follow instructions. But I will not believe a single word that comes out of your mouth."

Nathan made a small growling sound and shook his head. "Fine, I'll show you." Then, faster than she would have thought possible, his free hand shot out, grasped her baby by the skull and yanked him out of her arms, throwing him across the room so he was slammed against the wall behind him.

Sasha screamed, "NOOOO!" and leaped after him, but even as the little body flew, she registered the unnatural flail of the limbs—as if the joints didn't bend properly—and when the head hit the wall, there was a tone to the thud, as if something heavy, but plastic had slammed into it.

Sasha froze again as the baby dropped to the ground, face first, it's entire body bouncing like a single piece.

It was a doll. A very beautiful, very realistic looking doll.

Sasha gaped.

"Perhaps you'd do well to remember that not every word that I speak is designed to deceive you," Nathan said, sounding bored.

Sasha was trembling from all the adrenalin. Nathan stood at her side, that gun still pressed against her temple, while she stared at the doll on the ground, trying to breathe.

"You lied to me… and you want me to believe you don't lie?" she said through her teeth.

"I have your son, Sasha. And he's all human and just as disappointing as I described to you. He just wasn't the thing in my arms at the time."

"Fucking bast—"

Nathan cursed and the gun barrel dug in against her skull. "I am losing my patience, Sasha. This has been an extremely trying few months—and it's all because of you. Everything in this program was going brilliantly until you arrived to fuck everything up."

equipment behind the crib—which was where the noises were coming from. But as they approached, 09:27

Sasha's eyes blurred, because laying inside the crib, swaddled just like the doll had been, was a baby.

"I don't care."

"Well, you should," real fury had crept into his tone, "because I am very tempted to simply remove the problem."

"Nathan, she's the only one he can breed with. If you really want to try again—"

"I'm never doing anything to help you. Any of you. If that means never have sex with Zev again, so be it." "You said you'd be our broodmare, Sasha. You said you'd cooperate!"

"And you said you'd send the rest of the females over. We both lied."

Nathan hissed another curse, but didn't remove the gun. Sasha raised her hands as if she was cooperating, but her eyes darted left and right. She desperately wanted to lean around that doorway and see the rest of the adjoining the room.

"Where is my real baby?" she asked finally.

"He's utterly safe and healthy and thriving. I've been taking a very personal interest in him."

They were the creepiest words she'd ever heard.

"I don't believe you. Show him to me. Show me to him!"

"You think you're in a position to give orders here?"

"No, I think you want me here for some reason, so… if you're going to target me, at least let me meet my son!"

"Why would I ever give you anything you want?"

"Because if I know he's real, and I know he's mine, he's the best power you'll hold over me in this world."

Nathan went quiet. She could hear Nick shifting around Zev—what was he doing to him? But she couldn't see them from this angle, and didn't trust Nathan not to get trigger happy if she tried to turn.

"I can respect a logical argument," Nathan said and she could hear his smile. It made her skin crawl. "Nick, keep an eye on Zev. I'm going to take Sasha into the nursery."

Sasha kept her hands up as Nathan took hold of her arm and steered her towards that empty doorway into the next room. As they approached, it looked like a smaller version of the first, but without the rows of work surfaces and equipment. There were computer monitors and blinking lights, and a rhythmic beeping.

But as they stepped through the wide frame of the door, another area in the room was revealed—a large crib, in white, with yellow and beige blankets and a stuffed, black wolf, there was a lot of equipment behind the crib—which was where the noises were coming from. But as they approached, Sasha's eyes blurred, because laying inside the crib, swaddled just like the doll had been, was a baby.

His skin was light brown, his hair and lashes black. His face was wrinkled and as she watched, he yawned, his little mouth opening so wide it seemed like it might crack his face in half.

But then he closed it and his chin…

It was Zev's chin.

She didn't know how she could tell. But she could. He was Zev's boy.

This was her son.