~ SASHA ~

Head throbbing, Sasha looked at the woman in the building, on the inside of a massive, open window, the frame of which was as tall as her thighs. She looked small inside such a huge structured, yet, with impossible grace, keeping the arrow knocked and her head tilted to aim it, she stepped up onto the window frame, then dropped into the courtyard.

Sasha gasped—it had to be a thirty foot drop—but before she could do more than tense, the woman landed easily on the balls of her feet, her legs taking the impact smoothly.

She didn't even lose the knock on the arrow.

Sasha stared at her, one hand still fisted in Zev's waistband.

The woman had beautiful, amber-colored, eyes, catlike in their shape, though as human as Sasha's—and filled with tears.

"Let him go," she said through her teeth, and Sasha dropped her grip on Zev, putting her hands up, palms towards the woman. "I'm sor—"

Zev screamed in her mind, DON'T APOLOGIZE FOR TAKING ALPHA! Listen, Sasha! Claim it. OWN IT. She'll kill you if she senses any weakness.

His breath was panting in short, heavy puffs.

Sasha froze, swallowing hard as the woman came to a stop twenty feet away, the arrow aimed directly for Sasha's chest.

She could feel Zev quivering next to her.

"What's your name?" she said as clearly and boldly as she could.

The woman didn't answer, but the point of the arrow shivered.

"Her name is Aurelia," Zev said softly, one hand raised towards the woman, as if he could stop the arrow's path. "She's Xar's daughter."

Sasha nodded, licking her lips. She'd heard Zev and the others talk about the twins. They had been rebelling the night the females were taken, so Aurelia wasn't taken with the other females. The two had been hiding from the humans ever since.

"You've been living here with your brother for three years?" Sasha said to her. "Must be lonely."

"Don't speak to me, murderer."

"Murderer? I'm still getting to understand Chimeran tradition, but… is killing a male to take Alpha murder?"

No, it's not, Zev said in her head. Keep going.

The girl didn't answer. Her knuckles were turning white on the bow.

She was clearly younger than Sasha, late teens, Sasha guessed. She was tall—much taller than she'd looked standing in that massive window above. Her hair was a rosy blond and fell in waves to her shoulders. Her eyes were striking, and her body clearly strong.

And she was emotional. A daughter who loved her father and had lost him.

Sasha swallowed. How did you comfort a child without apologizing for what happened?

"I took no joy in removing him," Sasha said honestly. "I didn't want to kill him. But he attacked me. I have no reason to fight with you."

"I have reason to fight you. You killed my father."

"'Lia, we talked about this," her brother said, his voice heavy with grief. "If I had challenged her mate and killed him, would you expect her to come for you?"

"I am not a human! I am not the one who betrayed all of us and deceived my father! I am not to blame for the death of our race!" she shrieked suddenly. Sasha startled, but managed not to make a sound.

"No," Sasha said carefully. "You're not. And neither am I. The same men who are killing the Chimera tried to kill me. I don't work with them, I want to defeat them."

"Bullshit! Another human lie for human purposes, and I am DONE WITH YOUR LIES!" She jerked the arrow back farther, until the string was vibrating.

Zev snarled, his hands twitching towards her, and Sasha—stunned, but finding impossible calm—put her hand up to stop him moving.

"I'm not lying," she said to Aurelia. "Ask me anything. I'll tell you the truth."

The woman's eyes narrowed over that arrow. "Was my father crazy?"

"I don't know. But from what I gather, he wasn't crazy when he took Alpha. It sounds like the grief of losing his mate and… I heard that he was being given medication by the human team. If that's true, I suspect they were giving him something that made him… see the world differently."

The girl blinked. Then bared her teeth. "They said it would help him."

Sasha frowned. "Maybe it helped in some ways. But I think it also… also made him suggestible, or something. There were decisions he made that made no sense."

The girl tensed and adrenalin shot through Sasha's system when she tugged on that arrow. "He was a good king! He was trying to keep everyone safe!"

Sasha kept her hands up and nodded tightly. "I'm sure in his mind, that's what he wanted. But he couldn't see that he was ushering in his enemy. I'm sure he was desperate and well-intended. But he was wrong."

Aurelia snorted. "But you have the right of it? You? The human? You expect me to believe you're the one who can see everything clearly?"

"Yes, because I'm one of them. I know how they think, and I understand the way they're motivated. I disagree with what they're doing, and I'm going to do everything I can to stop them."

"Why should we believe you?"

"Because your people are dying and if something doesn't change, you can't stop that."

Aurelia lifted her head from the arrow, slowly, both eyes now fixed on Sasha. "I don't trust you."

"I don't trust you either, but there's a saying in my world… the enemy of my enemy is my friend. If you want to see the humans taken out of Thana, we're on the same side, because we're both opposing them."

Aurelia kept staring, her fingers shaking on the arrow so that Sasha was afraid she might loose it by accident.

When no one spoke or moved, Zev growled.

Axe, behind them, sighed. "Please, Aurelia, she's Zev's mate. We can't afford to lose more females."

Everyone held their breaths except Aurelia as she shifted her feet and tightened her grip and pulled the arrow back until the string creaked.