Rise of the Dark Alpha

Chapter 466 In Secret

If you like music while you're reading, try "Walk Through the Fire" by Zayde Wolf + Ruelle. It's what I listened to while writing the next couple chapters!

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~ SASHA ~

A few days after they moved positions, Sasha sat in their little cave-hollow, shrouded by tree branches and bushes Zev had found and pulled closer to give them more insulation. He'd gone hunting—he was always so scared to leave her, she had to promise not to move from the cave until he came back.

The humans still hadn't found them, though there continued to be daily arrivals of new people, and others leaving. Hundreds of humans were in Thana—and the glimpses Zev had gotten of those leading the mission, they were frustrated and angry.

It was beginning to become clear to them that the Chimera really had escaped, either leaving Thana or hiding successfully.

Though the activity for searches continued, both Zev and Sasha felt like the Team were losing their intensity, and hoped they would soon stop. They'd cleared the land for miles around the village and City. Zev grieved the Creatures, but prayed that his message to Horton had gotten through and those that were being stubborn had decided to leave. He couldn't risk moving into that area and being discovered.

Though he knew he could evade a person or even large groups of people. Their technology could see and detect things that their human senses couldn't. Though Zev doubted this many people all had the technology to detect him, he couldn't know which of them did. It was just too risky.

So, they'd hunkered down on this little plateau above the Gateway cave and were waiting the humans out.

Sasha got tenser every day when the number of humans using the Gateway didn't ease. Zev was almost certain that they had guards posted in the cave itself, out of sight. He was concerned that when it was time for them to go, he'd have to kill again—

and even if they avoided other eyes and got into the Gateway, their presence would be noted as soon as the bodies were discovered.

Sasha had told him not to think about that yet. That they'd face it when the time came. But it niggled at her more than she wanted to admit.

Zev still wasn't himself. He was doing better than he'd been doing the first couple of weeks, but she was aching to get him away from all this danger and all these people. Other than the time they had to wait, getting through the Gateway was their only barrier.

She had curled up in the furs next to the embers from last night's fire. Zev had shown her how to bank them so that they didn't really burn, but kept their heat through the hours of the day and could be used to more easily start the fire at night.

Pulling the furs tighter around her neck as the warmth of the cave from the night slowly seeped away into the chill of the winter day, she wished Zev was there.

While they were too close to the humans to risk actually speaking out loud—Sasha didn't think she'd used her voice in days—the advantage to this position was that it was near impossible for anyone to approach without Zev smelling or hearing them. When he was at the cave with Sasha, he wasn't relaxed, exactly. But he was far less tense than he had been when they'd been buried in the forest.

He'd started touching her again.

For a moment her mind tripped back to the night before when they'd been eating their cold food—it was risky to make cooking smells unless the humans nearby were also doing it—and she'd complained about the temperature dropping.

He'd looked up from his food, chin still low, his eyes finding hers in the half-dark. His hair was growing longer, but the first thing she noticed was that he was losing weight.

They weren't getting enough food.

The nerves that thought brought had initially blinded her to the look on his face. He'd raised an eyebrow when she hadn't responded and she'd realized he had that delicious, lopsided smile that she loved.

She hadn't seen that smile in weeks.

Is someone feeling saucy? she'd said in his head.

He'd answered by laying aside the handful of berries and strip of dried meat and leaning towards her, taking her mouth.

I'll warm you up, he breathed in her mind.

She'd smiled a genuine smile because Zev was flirting and it felt so normal. So him. She hadn't felt that from him in so long. They'd made love since they came to this cave, but it was always with a desperate edge, as if it might be the last time.

It was such a relief to see his playful side emerge again. It gave her hope.

And then he'd turned his attention to playing her body like a musical instrument, and her attention had shifted to keeping herself quiet.

Sasha blushed, remembering. Then shook it off. There was nothing but frustration to be found sitting there, alone, in the dark, with that train of thought. She needed to wait until he came back before she let herself fall into that.

But she would. She hoped he came back in a good mood.

Sasha sighed. They'd had so much time alone the past three or four weeks, it should have been such a special time. Time truly in private. If there hadn't been so much danger, if they didn't have a baby to save, she'd never want to leave.

As always, that thought gave her pain in her chest.

They had a baby. And he was utterly alone. Growing and developing without the safety of her body. Without her voice and Zev's to orient every new awareness.

The Team had stolen that from all of them, and Sasha grieved it. And it made her rage.

But they were going to do something about it. She set her jaw and glared at the dark.

Those bastards, Nick, Nathan, Horace, the rest of the Board… they could all suffocate in their own urine as far as she was concerned.

Nothing was going to stop her from getting her child out of their hands. Nothing.