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n~ SASHA ~

nWhen she finally made it to the Village the males that were around all submitted when they saw her. She tried to accept the salutes as if she was due them, but they made her uncomfortable.

nShe stopped by the medical building first, peering around the door to find Kyelle, puffy-eyed but awake. She gestured for Sasha to stay outside, then slipped out to join her a moment later.

n”How are they doing?” she asked the woman.

n”They’re sleeping,” Kyelle whispered. “It was a difficult evening. They feel afraid but can’t explain why, so everything is frightening because they do not know the source of their fear. One will be better today, I think. She was calming as the night went on. But the others…”

n”Thank you for doing this, Kyelle. Today we’ll ask the others to start taking turns to be with them and help. The little Alphas should be up to it. Some of them, anyway,” she said with a frown, thinking of Mae.

n”How did it go, taking them back?” Kyelle asked hesitantly.

n”It was… up and down. Pysa has a mate and he was overjoyed to see her—and she him. She was the only female who didn’t sleep in the hall they’d prepared. That gives me hope that the others, even if they don’t have mates, can eventually find their way.”

n”They will,” Kyelle said with conviction. “Don’t doubt it. This is a time of transition, but it’s in their nature to do more than survive. They want to thrive. They just need to get past the initial shock and truly believe that they’re here,” she said.

n”I hope you’re right,” Sasha responded with a sigh. “I really do.”

nKyelle rubbed her arm and promised to stay with the females until others could be found to be companions, then Sasha bid her farewell and started back into the Village proper.

nThe guards had been ordered to take Nick to one of the shacks at the center. It had been used mainly for equipment, but guards bedded down there when they were on breaks, so it was set up for habitation, without being comfortable.

nThere were two guards outside that Sasha acknowledged but didn’t stop to speak to, and another in the hut with him when Sasha stalked in.

nNick sat on a bench with a device in his hand. The bench lay along the wall next to the cot he’d been given for sleeping, the furs still tangled and unmade. When Sasha entered he was eyeing the guard warily, but his face brightened when he saw Sasha.

nHers didn’t.

n”Good morning!” he said quickly and got to his feet.

nThe guard stepped closer but Sasha cut him a look to keep him from interfering. She folded her arms and glared at Nick.

n”Does that work here?” she asked, nodding towards the device without greeting him.

nNick frowned. “It can’t connect with the human world, but it works on a solar battery. I can lodge information and stuff that will be downloadable when it goes back to them.”

n”And how will it go back to them? How do you all communicate across the gateway?”

n”We can’t,” Nick said like that should be obvious. “Normally the teams log everything here in real time, then when we go back it gets uploaded to the network.”

n”What are they doing when you’re staying here, then?”

nNick hesitated, glancing at the guards.

nSasha snorted. “I’m not letting them get far enough away from you that they wouldn’t be able to hear anyway, Nick. So just get that out of your head. You haven’t earned respect or privacy, and you won’t get it unless I need it. And I don’t need it for this. So answer the question. How are you communicating with them while you’re here?”

nNick’s lips twisted. “I have to go to the gateway a minimum of once a week. There will be two opportunities to meet someone, but they’ll accept if we skip one. They do know that life here isn’t quite as… convenient.”

n”What happens when you meet them?”

n”They replicate everything on the device to one of theirs, then give me the new device with the new battery while they take this one home.”

nSasha filed that away for future thought. “What information are you gathering while you’re here? What are they looking for?”

nNick shrugged. “Everything. Information about the females and their connections here, how the society is working, political positions… anything that I think is important or useful, I’ll log it all. You’ve got to let me get out of here and walk around, Sasha. With Patty gone, if they don’t see a butt-ton of information for me, they’re going to get suspicious real fast.”

n”Do you have information on individual females in there?” she asked, indicating the device in his hands.

n”Yes.”

n”Including me?”

n”Yes.”

n”I want to see it. All of it.”

n”No.”

nSasha snorted. “You think you’re in a position to say no to me?”

n”No, I think you won’t find what you’re looking for, and what you will find is all the leverage I have… so, withholding this is what it takes for you to give me what I want, then I’ll give you what you want.”

n”You know I could just have it taken from you?”

n”It’s programmed to my retina and fingerprints. It literally won’t even turn on for anyone else. If I put it in front of you without entering the passcode first, it will just turn itself off.”

n”Oh, really? You want me to believe—”

nNick lifted the device and turned the screen to face her. She caught a flash of a screen with dozens of fields in bold headings, and the normal type entered underneath. But before she could read anything, the screen went black.

nNick turned the device back to himself and tapped the screen, entering a password. “Even if you gouge out my eye and cut off my finger, you still won’t have the codes, you still won’t be able to get into it.”

n”And that means you think you get to negotiate?” she asked, frustrated.

nNick looked up at her. “I know that means I get to negotiate. I’m not trying to be an asshole, Sasha. I’m getting us both what we want.”

nThey stared at each other and Sasha wanted to bare her teeth, because she was in control, but he looked at her like he had no concern she’d prove him wrong.

nDid that mean he was telling the truth? Or just that he really believed he could win?

nBastard.

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