~ SASHA ~

Sasha took the last step through what appeared to be a pulsing, glass window, rippled and shifting to obscure what was behind it. The ground on its other side was uneven dirt and she stumbled, catching herself on a stone wall, then blinking so her eyes would adjust.

She stood in an old tunnel—brick and stone sides curved together over her head, though the floor was dirt and lead seamlessly out into the bright sunlight at the end. As she blinked and squinted, she could make out a rough staircase climbing to the right, while the ground plunged over the lip of earth and down into a forest ahead. The place looked ancient and handmade. Perhaps left over from the war?

Where the hell was she?

Then a shadow shifted, right where the sunlight was cut and the tunnel turned dark. Sasha startled as Nick materialized, his voice heavy with relief.

"Good, you made it. I was starting to get worried. I didn't want to have to tell the team to go after you."

He turned and started out of the tunnel, Sasha stumbling after him, looking around, awed and terrified, and deeply sad.

It smelled like home.

Well, like the parts of her home she'd never really spent a lot of time in. Yet, here she was in a set of furs with her hair unwashed, padding down a dirt trail through ancient pine trees and Cedars.

"I… I thought you said the team would go across regardless?" she asked, her jaw feeling too tight to properly speak.

"Not now. I told them I got you."

"Got me? I came with you—"

"Yes, you did. And I'm really grateful, Sasha," he said quietly, still walking ahead of her, leading her down a narrow trail. "A human Alpha. That's incredible. If we'd known it would even be accepted… how did you do it?"

"I told you, I killed Xar."

Nick glanced at her over his shoulder, his eyes unreadable. "But… I mean, why did they accept it as an Alpha fight? We thought Zev was the one who challenged for Alpha."

"He was. I was standing at the side, watching. But Xar came for me—and he had a knife. He'd dodged Zev, and the only weapon I had was a rock. I just grabbed it and clocked him with it and… he just fell.

"When I stood up, Zev was there, and everyone was kind of quiet and… they all just started calling me Alpha," she said uncomfortably. "Zev said that technically he should have challenged me to take Alpha, because I'd beaten the Alpha. But he didn't want to do that, obviously, so he submitted, and then everyone else did too."

Nick shook his head again.

But Sasha was finally making sense of the niggling feeling she'd had when this came up the first time. "How did you know?"

"Know what?"

"That Zev challenged Xar for Alpha? And how could you not know that I won? Everyone was there. They all knew. They called me Alpha to my face."

Nick's lips twitched. "We have sources."

Sasha huffed. "Apparently your sources aren't super reliable." Which made her feel better.

Nick gave a one-shouldered shrug that made her uncomfortable, but he didn't elaborate. How was he comfortable with being given false information?

A few minutes later they reached a massive, cross-wire fence, hung with NO TRESPASSING signs at each section, and a massive gate signposted as private property.

"Don't touch the wires," Nick said quietly, working the latch of the eight-foot gate free. "They're electrified."

Sasha shrank away from the sides of the gate as she followed him through. But Nick seemed to have the answers he'd wanted, because they walked silently for another twenty minutes or so before she started to hear road noise.

A few minute later they emerged from the woods into a gravel carpark. The road noise came from further away, a highway that couldn't be seen because the parking lot was completely surrounded by the forest. And there was only one vehicle in it—a thick, white suburban that looked like it had more than a few years of wear on it.

Nick picked up his pace, trotting across the gravel to the car and reaching into the space under the car's fenders, his hand emerging with a small, metal box. He flipped it open to pull out an electronic key that he tapped.

The suburban blooped and the door locks thunked open.

Nick looked into the passenger seat at the front and winced. "I've got a ton of equipment in here. Do you mind riding in the back seat for now?"

"No," Sasha said, relieved that she might have a little more space. She was feeling suddenly woozy, as if everything was surreal.

How could her normal world suddenly feel surreal. But staring at the little metal guard rails around the parking lot, and the almost-perfectly circular gravel area… it was as if it all threw her off balance.

Nick opened the back door of the car and Sasha climbed in, sitting back in the seat as he reached up to pull her seatbelt forward of her shoulder.

"Thank you," she said awkwardly.

"You're welcome," Nick replied, then closed the door and trotted around the car to the driver's seat.

The big car rocked when he got in. He immediately leaned over the open the glove box and pull out a cellphone, tapped the screen a couple of times. Then when a voice answered he simply said, "Yep, we're on our way."

He tapped the screen again, dropped the phone into a cup holder between the front seats, and turned the car on.

As the car began to roll out of the parking lot, Sasha could see a couple small buildings further up the gravel road. She felt relief. "How long is the drive to… wherever you guys do your thing?"

"Less than an hour," Nick said, his eyes finding hers in the rearview mirror.

"Can you stop here so I can use the restroom before we get on the road, then?" she asked.

"Sure." Nick slowed the car and pulled up on the emergency brake, then started to get out.

"It's fine, I'll get myself out," Sasha said, pulling up on the door handle—only to find it loose and useless in her hand.

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