Rise of the Dark Alpha

Chapter 388 All About the Ladies

~ SASHA ~

A few minutes later they were in a rhythm, and Sasha hated the fact that she felt comfortable with him. She didn't trust him, but he was easy to talk to. Was it a trick? Or was it real? That was the rub.

"So, I need to know what the female's normal routine was at the compound," she said. "Like, what did their day look like? Their week? What would feel natural to them? I want to try and replicate that here for them as much as I can."

Nick kind of grimaced. "Honestly, their days were almost always the same—except when they were called in for an experiment or were going into heat. Then it would change. But that wasn't something we had on weekly, or even monthly cycles. The experiments occurred when they were conceived, and the right subjects were identified. But I'm guessing you wouldn't be doing that kind of thing with them anyway. So if you want to know a day that we didn't interfere with, I'm guessing it was much the same as here—breakfast, chores, lunch, finding something so they wouldn't be bored, dinner… then maybe some kind of entertainment. I don't know about those in the sanctuary, but the ones in the apartments had televisions to watch."

Televisions? Sasha almost swore. They made these beautiful people, these wild people, then put them in apartments with televisions?

Then Nick launched into his own question. "I want to know why I'm seeing so few Chimera? All the reports indicate there's a couple hundred males here and they were all housed and gathered here. Yet I see a couple dozen a day if you're lucky."

Sasha gave him a look. "The only reason your reports say they were gathered was because Xar used to indulge the Teams whenever they arrived and call everyone back from their normal routines and duties. I'm not doing that. I'm letting them live their normal lives. They hunt and build and sleep and bathe… you're seeing only a few because when they're left to their own devices, there's usually only a few around at a time. Everyone else is busy. The Chimera are wild, Nick. They want to be free. I let them be free."

Nick's lips thinned, but he didn't comment.

"My turn," Sasha said. "Tell me what the compound did with females who were… mentally weak?"

"What could we do? We kept them healthy and explored what might be causing the issue. But in truth, there was very little we could do. We've been doing this a long time, Sasha and we know that the Chimera only ever get weaker mentally, more dependent. It's why we use Thana—because they don't weaken here. But for those that have to be at the compound, we switched to the sanctuary model. Letting them form a hierarchy and make decisions seemed to slow that process."

Sasha blinked. "You're telling me that the Board knows that the Chimera are harmed by being at the compound and they still do it anyway?"

"They don't have a choice. We can't communicate through the gateway. Having the Chimera here is far too complex for experimentation and so forth. But yes, it became obvious pretty quickly that being closed in shuts the Chimera down and the more structure is around them, over time they stop thinking, get stupider. Hence, Thana."

Sasha wanted to slap him. "That's not the loss of intelligence, Nick, that's trauma. They don't know how to cope with what you people are putting them through."

Nick didn't seem disturbed. "Whatever the reason, the fact is that the females become less fertile, weaker, and less mentally adept the longer they're closed up. Why do you think your arguments to bring them here worked?"

She almost said it, she almost confronted him—that the entire agreement they'd made was a sham. Because she would be proven "wrong" when none of the females got pregnant. But she couldn't let him know that she knew that yet, so she just looked away like she was pissed off to have to let him ask another question.

But as they went back and forth, Sasha's mind was only half on the conversation, because it occurred to her that this whole concept of being closed in and cared for—the way that made the Chimera weaker—that's what they were doing to them, even in the City. She hadn't meant to, but that's what had occurred. They'd thrown them in a closed room, taken care of everything for them, and while some of the females were being tempted out of the hall, so many were still trapped there. What was going to happen to the rest of them?

She had to find a way to make them more independent. And keep them away from Nick. She'd seen the weariness and fear on Zev's face when he heard she was coming to talk to Nick. Zev hadn't argued, but she knew he was going to struggle when she went back and smelled like the guy. She was going to have to bathe and change her clothes as soon as they went back to the City.

"Where are the females? I'm not seeing them at all," Nick said. Sasha blinked. Right. It was his turn for a question.

"We put them together in one place where they can be together and be as engaged or isolated from the rest of the Chimera as they want. The males aren't allowed to enter that space, and they aren't being forced to leave it. If you're not seeing them, my guess would be they have no desire to see you, Nick."

"You could have killed them, and I wouldn't know."

It wasn't his turn for a question, but she was angry enough to answer anyway.

"No, Nick, because only sickos like you people think killing someone else is an answer. Those females are terribly traumatized and need some time away from men." She gave him a pointed look.

Nick just rolled his eyes. "I have never laid my hands on any female against her will."

"You've never taken a female to the breeding arena? Or the lab?"

"Is that your question?"

She considered it and realized his answer didn't matter. He'd told her that he never had before. If he was lying then, he wasn't going to tell the truth now.

"Okay, fine. No that's not my question. Tell me how you monitored their cycles—could you tell when they were coming into heat? Or did it just happen? Are their cycles the same as mine? And did you have a lot of miscarriages or failed pregnancies? Or did they just not get pregnant to begin with."

She'd asked the questions like they were a simple curiosity. Nick didn't seem at all disturbed about talking about cycles and pregnancies.

"Are you asking about the ones we bred with Zev?"

Even though he didn't smile, Sasha felt suddenly very vulnerable and she hated it. Hated it. Hated that he could put her there. "Yes."

Nick shrugged. "They just never resulted in pregnancies. Their cycles are slightly longer than the human female—about six weeks. But they work on the same basic principle. We could anticipate heat by hormone levels if we did tests, or just by behaviors."

They continued back and forth, but Sasha's skin was starting to feel too tight. She needed to be away from him. She supposed she should be grateful that Nick didn't seem wary, or like he was suspicious of her motives.

As they turned to walk back to the village she wondered… Maybe he really didn't know about her pregnancy?

Then she scoffed at her own naivete.

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