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"I want to make sure I understand," Nathan said carefully. "You\'re saying that you and Zev have developed a bond that links you physically—so that if one of you dies, the other does also?"

Sasha nodded.

Nathan\'s lips thinned. "Nick, is this possible?"

"I don\'t know," Nick said, "but she\'s saying what she believes is true. We came right here, but I can get some checks made with the ancients."

Sasha cut Nick a look. He\'d said Yhet was the only ancient left, hadn\'t he?

"Do that," Nathan said to him, then turned back to Sasah. "And you want us to believe that we should just… free everybody. So Thana can be some kind of Chimeran utopia? As if, the moment they begin to bring offspring into the world they\'ll just… release them to us?"

"I\'m not saying anything of that sort. I\'m saying if you want any chance of any kind of success, you have to find a way to work with the Chimera, not against them. Not against their natural needs and desires. And not by keeping them isolated from each other!"

"And you believe that somehow this is going to benefit us?" Nathan said, his lips twitching as if he might laugh.

Sasha wanted to growl at him. "The last thing I want to do is benefit you," she snarled. "But yes. If you want any chance of seeing the population grow, of seeing healthy matebonds that will result in offspring, your only choice is to change how you\'re doing this.

"I\'m offering you a deal that turns my stomach, but it\'s better than what I see you pushing towards. Right now you\'re going to kill the Chimera. All of them. And I have a hunch that your little health experiments are already taking a hint—the females in the sanctuary tell me that they\'re dying. They can feel it. They\'re losing hope. They think they won\'t make it through another winter. Do you want to risk keeping them here, this way, to find out?

"The males are fighting among themselves and turning on each other because they\'re all so desperate for mates and families that when I walked in, even Xar threw tradition out the window.

"I get that the Chimera aren\'t human, but they have humanity. And when you remove their hearts, they will die.

"I\'m in a position to help you. I\'m a position to convince them that they need you. That it\'s worth working with you, finding a balance, so that we can all get what we need. I mean, if you send those females back in and only a third of them make bonds, how many babies is that? How many families you can study? How many potential recruits for your… program? How many more than you have now? Can\'t you see? You\'re failing right now—not just failing the Chimera, you\'re failing in what you want. I\'m telling you how you can get it!"

"So, you\'re going to give your baby to us if we do this?" Nathan said bluntly.

"No fucking way."

They stared at each other and Nathan shook his head. "Why wouldn\'t you just lie?"

"Because, you need to know what\'s actually true, and what\'s not. If I become a mother—and I hope and pray that I do—I will fight you tooth and nail to stop you from taking my baby from me. I have no doubt that every Chimeran Pair will. But from your perspective, you won\'t even get the chance to fight for those offspring if something doesn\'t change. Because they won\'t exist. Those women are dying—they can feel it at this point. I can feel it just looking at them. And I can feel how that will happen to me, and it scares the shit out of me."

Nathan\'s eyes narrowed. "What is it you want me to believe you\'re getting out of this?"

"I\'m getting my life with the other half of me. Zev owns me, don\'t you get that? And I own him. This burden of leadership, it becomes part of you. You don\'t get it, there\'s something spiritual about these people. Their needs, what they ask of you, it gets inside you. It\'s why I could never shake my need for Zev, even when he abandoned me. And why you could always use me against him.

"So if you really think you\'re the stronger people here, the smarter team, if you really do bank on yourself, what does it matter if we\'ll fight when the time comes? Between now and then we can give you what you want."

"And when we have need for the Chimera as our test subjects again?"

"We cross that bridge when we get to it," Sasha said. "All I know is, I can\'t be one with my mate here, and we can\'t be one if we\'re being forced to be together by you and your shifty eyes. If I can\'t find some kind of sense of safety. If I can\'t have people around me who can help and love and… Shit. This is like trying to explain emotion to a robot," she muttered.

"You might be surprised," Horace said quietly. Nathan shot the older man a look, but didn\'t say anything.

Sasha watched them both, but neither of them spoke again.

Nathan was rubbing his chin, while Horace looked at him. Sasha sensed the older man was being persuaded. But Nathan…

Nathan tipped his head and closed his notebook. Then he pushed his chair back and got up.

Everyone waited for him to speak, but he didn\'t, just walked around the conference table towards the door. It was Sasha who turned her chair and called before he got through the door. "You\'re just ignoring all of that? You won\'t even address it?"

"I\'m not making this decision here and now," Nathan said. "We\'ll speak later."

Then he walked out and the door clicked closed behind him.

Sasha deflated like a pricked balloon.

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