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nAn hour later they had Lhars, Kyelle, Skhal, Dunken, Jhon, and Yhet in a clearing near the village. Sasha had called them there because Skhal and Jhon were still at the village, and it was a much shorter walk to the Gateway when they were done.

nZev just prayed that they could all pull this off. He felt like the land was sliding out from under their feet and they were all just being borne along with it, their only choices to run and try and keep their feet, or be swallowed up.

nHe couldn’t leave her side. Had stood just behind her while she explained to them what she’d done, and how she planned to get the females out of the compound—to their collective stunned disbelief. Despite his stress, Zev found himself thrumming with pride. She was amazing.

n”But now… we’re pretty sure that the humans are going to figure out that we’re onto them,” she said, her voice a little shaky. Zev put one palm to her shoulder, to let her feel him there. “I was going to do it myself—that’s what the females are expecting. But we realized… there’s just too much risk. I need three of you to go across and contact the different female groups—and Kyelle, I need you to make sure you can find the safe place. When we take the females through from here, I’m leaving you as Alpha.”

nKyelle blinked. “I… okay?”

n”And Zev and I… the bond is affected every time we go through. So we aren’t confident we can get back and forth. That means we need three of you to go through, make sure you can find the females, and get a message to them from me. Warn them that we’re coming the next day. They need to understand that it’s not going to look the way I said it would—we need to know if they’ll trust you enough to follow. Because if they won’t… I’ll have to risk it.”

n”No, Sasha,” Yhet rumbled from behind the others.

nSasha smiled up at him but shook her head.

n”We have about five hours,” Sasha said, and Zev felt her shift her weight to press back against him a hair. “I need three of you to go and see if you can find the three groups of females I identified. Then cross to the safe place—but don’t go through. You have to get back here before sunrise. We can’t risk that Nick goes early—or that the humans come through looking for him and find you instead. They can’t know that we’re experimenting.”

n”I’ll go,” Yhet said immediately.

nSasha smiled sadly. “Actually, Yhet, I was hoping you could stay on this side and guard the Gateway for us—make sure Nick doesn’t sneak through or something. I don’t know. I just… I feel like we want to keep eyes on this end. And you can get back to us faster than anyone else.”

n”I can also crush a human,” he said easily. “Okay, Sasha-don. Whatever you need.”

nSasha blinked, but Zev grinned.

n”I’ll go,” Lhars said quickly.

n”Me too,” Skhal added.

nSasha thanked them both, while Dunken and Jhon turned to stare at each other.

n”You or me?” Jhon asked quietly. Zev blinked. He’d expected his friends to immediately step forward. It hadn’t occurred to him that anyone wouldn’t want to—

n”She’s here. I can’t risk it,” Dunken said. “I’ll remain and do anything I can to help from this side, but… if you would be willing…”

nZev’s mouth fell open. “Who’s here?”

nDunken took a deep breath and turned to Zev. “I was going to tell you. I believe my mate is among the females that are here.”

n”What?!”

nExclamations rippled around the circle of friends. Dunken looked very uncomfortable.

n”Who is it?!” Sasha gasped.

n”I would… rather not say. She has not… shown any regard. I do not wish to…”

n”It’s fine, Dunken,” Zev said quickly, motioning to Sasha to stop. She didn’t know, Dunken had welcomed her quickly, for Zev’s sake, but he was extremely reserved and private. And, Zev suspected, if he hadn’t told Zev about it, there was something that concerned him about the bond.

n”I’ll go,” Jhon said, drawing all the attention back to himself. Dunken looked relieved.

n”Thank you, Jhon,” Sasha said. “Now, the females won’t be expecting you, and given the experiences we’ve had here, I’m going to ask you all to step very carefully in your communication with them. It’s very important that they feel confident you were sent by me. So I’m going to send you all with a very specific message. It’s so important that you relay it exactly.”

nZev could smell her sudden ease and he frowned. “What message?”

nSasha looked up at him sheepishly. “So… when Nick took me to the main female camp in the compound, Vayl, the leader said they had a prophecy. And I wondered how that could be. But… when I went back through the Gateway and tried to reach them, Vayl and I spoke and she told me she knew I’d be coming because I’d already been there once before and given her instructions that when we met the next time, I wouldn’t know her, and she wasn’t to question that. She was to act as if we’d never met. That’s how I realized the Gateway must cross time.”

nZev’s mouth dropped open.

n”So, when I went back in, I asked the Gateway to take me to a time before I’d met Vayl that I could speak with her without the humans knowing. It led me around a small loop, then opened again, immediately. Vayl was shocked when she saw me—she didn’t know who I was. It was summer and warm outside, very obviously a different time… so I told her I would be coming back and she wasn’t to be surprised that I didn’t recognize her or know her. That would be part of the miracle of this. But we were going to get her and the others out.

n”She asked who I was as I was bout to leave and I told her that I was Zev’s mate…. And the Alpha of the Chimera.”

nZev almost fainted. “You… traveled time?” He trembled. She could have been lost! She could have come back to the wrong time! His hand tightened on her waist.

nSasha stared back at him, her eyes pleading.

nPlease don’t be angry, she sent to his mind. Please, Zev.

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