~ SASHA ~

While Sasha waited for an explanation, it was agreed that they should speak inside, where it was warmer. Kyelle told Yhet she would shelter Sasha and teach as much as she could about the Chimeran's traditions in a mating season while Yhet took Zev his bag. Then, Yhet had picked Sasha up bodily and placed her on the small ledge in front of the open door.

Kyelle took her elbow and pulled her over the threshold quickly. "I don't want you to get shaken off the ledge," she said in a low voice.

"Shaken off how?" Sasha asked, but a moment later the entire house trembled, swaying slightly. Sasha squeaked and grabbed for something to help her stay steadily on her feet—and ended up holding Kyelle's arm.

Sasha had been in a highrise once during a tiny earthquake. She had the same, surreal feeling and slightly nauseating sense that everything was moving now.

"Yhet is running," Kyelle said as they stood there. "It won't shake for long. He's heavy, but the impacts only travel a short distance, especially when the ground is frozen.

Sasha gaped at her. "That's from Yhet?"

Kyelle grinned. "He's a lot of male," she said. But her smile faded quickly.

Half a minute later, the shaking stopped. Sasha blew out a breath and wiped her brow. Then she let go of Kyelle and turned to look at her home, intending to compliment her. But her mouth dropped open.

The inside of the tree house was a marvel.

The home was wide and round, probably thirty feet across. The floor was solid wood planks that opened only where the trunk of the tree grew through it. The ten foot ceiling made the space look much bigger than it was, but what Sasha couldn't get over was the furnishings.

Rich furs, a leather couch, a solid-wood table polished to a shine, and all of it glowing from the light that came from windows on every side.

This level of the home was all one room, with a small kitchen to Sasha's right, a dining space right next to it, then couches, chairs, bookshelves and a strange pole that rose out of the floor—a large branch that grew almost straight up just for a foot or two, then bent to a right angle and extended several feet parallel with the floor, just inside the window.

Everything in the room was made from something organic. No plastic. No metal. No rubber. It was all wood, leather, fur, and cotton.

"This place is beautiful!" she breathed. Although the room felt strange because it was round, everything in it felt like something out of a décor magazine—one of those rustic lodges or vacation rentals that would be titled, "Life as it was Meant to Be" or something like that.

Sasha walked toward the fat couch and buried her hand in the soft, thick fur that was thrown over its back. "It's so soft! I have a big blanket on my couch, too. I love to curl up in it…"

And then it hit her.

She wasn't home.

This wasn't a dream.

She wasn't playing a game.

She was in a stranger's house, touching strange things, being judged by strange rules… and none of that was going to change. She wasn't going to wake up in the morning to discover it had been a dream.

Or that Zev was next to her.

She was here alone and completely unprepared. And Zev was nowhere to be seen. She put her hands in her hair and forced herself to just breathe for a moment. "I think… I think it's time for you to tell me whatever it was you were going to tell me."

Kyelle sighed. "We should sit. This might take a while. Can I get you a drink?" she asked carefully. "I have water, milk, or eldertea."

"I… just water is fine," Sasha said faintly.

What the hell was she doing? Where the hell was she?

Kyelle began to cross the space, probably to get one of those mugs from the open cupboards on the wall above her kitchen block. All of her movements were short and swift, yet somehow graceful. "Are you warm enough, Sasha? I have a fur you could wear if—"

"I don't wear fur," she said without thinking, then spluttered a laugh. Then another. Oh no. She was cracking up again.

Kyelle gave her a strange look from over her shoulder, but didn't say anything. She urged Sasha to take a seat on the couch, which Sasha did because she didn't know what else to do. She was left sitting on an oversized couch, staring out a window of slightly rippled glass, but that gave her an unbroken view of the cold forest beyond.

Her hands were shaking.

Kyelle was gone for a minute or two, then returned quietly to stand at her side and passed her the water. There was a strange expression on her face as she watched Sasha sit there, staring at a mug. She needed to drink, she knew. And probably eat. And who knows how many other things. But all she could do was sit there and blink.

"Sasha—"

"I don't know what's going on here, or why you and Yhet were talking around something in front of me. But I'm sitting here right now, holding onto my sanity by a fingernail. I walked out of my friend's apartment last night to find Zev in front of me for the first time in five years. Then suddenly men were shooting at us and we had to have a pretend argument in my apartment that wasn't really pretend, and then they chased us in a car. I would have sworn he killed someone. Maybe two someone's. Then just when things were calming down, he… he turned into a wolf in front of me. And then he gave me something that helped me sleep. And then I woke up in a cave and I met… the largest man I have ever met and learned that, by the way, he isn't really a man.

"Then we met a goat. Then another wolf. Then all these men—one in particular who seems to hate Zev—and now I'm alone again, except this time I'm who knows how far away from civilization and now I'm sitting in a living room that is gorgeous, but I feel like I can't trust you. Are you going to try to kill me too? Was this whole thing a set up? Because, seriously, I can't take any more surprises at this point. So just tell me and let me get on with losing my mind."

When there was no immediate answer, she looked up at Kyelle, whose eyes had gone wide. "Well?"