~ SASHA ~

“Zev! No!” Sasha scrambled to her feet. He couldn’t do it. They had to find out what Nick knew! “Zev! Stop!” she ran a few paces after him, but he was already out of sight, galloping in his wolf form, his coat blending into the forest ahead even before he turned a corner and was obscured by the trees.

She whirled to face the others whose expressions ranged from surprise to approval. “We have to stop him! Nick knows things we need to know! If he kills him, we’ll never… I mean, we won’t know if…”

“Sasha-don,” one of the guards said gently, “he goes to stand in defense of his family, his clan. It’s the right thing to do.”

“Not if that male he’s about to kill can tell us how to save everyone else!” she snarled. “Do you think I don’t want to see him dead? Do you think I don’t want them all dead?! I do! But that’s not the point. Revenge won’t save anyone who’s already been hurt. If we don’t get the information he has, we might be killed ourselves and then they win!”

The guards looked at each other. Patty stayed on the ground, shaking her head and crying softly. Sasha wanted to scream. Couldn’t they see?!

But then Yhet stepped forward—quickly. Sasha looked at him, was going to ask him, but he stepped into a run, sweeping her up in one arm and pulling her into his chest like a child. “Hold on, Sasha,” he rumbled.

Then the wind hit her back so hard that her hair blew into her face. “Yhet—whoa!”

She squawked when he flipped her onto her back and hooked an arm under her legs, holding her the way Zev often did when he carried her. But Yhet made no sly smile or suggestive wink. “Hold on, Sasha,” he repeated.

She threw her arms around his neck and clung as he picked up his pace.

The forest flew by in a blur. She was jolted with every step and if she let herself think about what was going on, she might have screamed in fear. But instead, she pressed her face against the side of Yhet’s neck and hugged her massive friend.

“Can you catch him?” she asked.

“Yes.” He wasn’t even breathing heavily. How did he do this?

“Can you stop him?”

“Yes, but I won’t.”

“What? Yhet! Why not?”

“Because Nick deserves to die,” Yhet said, his voice a low growl that made Sasha think of rocks and boulders tumbling down a stone hill.

“Yhet, listen to me: We were coming this way because Nick had sent a message that there were problems with the humans.”

“Nick lies.”

“Yes, but Zev’s pretty good at telling when he’s lying. And even if he is, then we know what they’re trying to push us towards—we know what to avoid! Please, Yhet. We have to stop him.”

She turned her face forward to look and see if she could see Zev, but his wolf was nowhere to be seen. Would Zev even have stuck to the trail? She doubted it. Still looking forward, her eyes watered so badly in the wind of their passage, and they were moving so quickly, that the tears were pressed back towards her temples instead of falling down her cheeks.

Never again would she view Yhet as a gentle giant. The guy was a force of nature. Sasha turned back to press her face into his shoulder.

“Yhet, please. Help me stop him. Just for a time. If he’s not helping us I’ll… I’ll let you two do whatever you think is right.”

Yhet didn’t respond immediately, but she could feel him thinking. Trying not to take advantage, she just held on and prayed that he’d see the light.

Finally, mid-run, Yhet sighed. “Very well, Sasha,” he said quietly. “I’ll help you stop him if it’s needed.”

“Thank you, Yhet.”

“But you should not stop him forever, Sasha,” Yhet continued. “Sometimes… sometimes it will do a male good to be the hand of justice in the life of another.”

Sasha winced. “Is it justice though, Yhet? Or revenge? Because I’m all about these guys getting revealed to be what they are and punished. But I feel like if we just kill them, they look like victims—and whoever they left behind just keeps doing what they’re doing. They need to be… unmasked.”

Yhet frowned, his face barely quivering despite the punishing pace he was running at. “I’ll think on that,” he said gruffly.

Sasha nodded and held tightly as they continued down the trail. She just prayed they’d get there quickly enough that Nick would still be alive and coherent so she could ask him questions.

*****

A couple of minutes later they flew into the village, males calling for Yhet as he passed.

He slowed down to a walk and called to one of them. “Have you seen Zev-dan? He might have been in his wolf form?”

The male shook his head. Yhet ground his teeth and it sounded like rocks being broken down by machinery.

“Where is Nick?” Sasha called as Yhet let her down to the ground. It was a strange feeling, like her dad putting her down when she was a little girl. But she stifled the feeling and just eyed the males straight.

“He was being guarded at his hut a few minutes ago.”

Yhet turned on his heel, pulling Sasha along with him, though he kept his pace to a slow jog for her as they passed through the village on the way to Nick’s hut.

When they reached the square there were a lot more people around, and Sasha peered around, looking for Zev, listening for the sound of his voice.

When she heard it, she broke into a run.

Zev was snarling through his teeth, each sentence punctuated by thuds and grunts.

As they rushed forward, Sasha’s heart dropped.

Zev had Nick by the chest of his black outfit. He picked the older man up bodily and threw him down onto the ground.

Nick made a strange groan and a wheeze when he landed, then curled up to cover his stomach and head as Zev kicked right into his ribs.

“Zev! Stop!” Sasha screamed. “We have to find out what he knows!”

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