Rise of the Dark Alpha

~ SASHA ~

Sasha was silent as Nick drove the Suburban across the wide expanse of land. It seemed to stretch endlessly off to their right, the north from there, wide clear land, grassy with a few stands of rocks here and there that felt like it followed the foothills of the mountains for miles. But straight ahead, a little over a mile away if Sasha guessed correctly, the trees encroached back into the cleared land. A thick, dense bunch of forest that ended in the clearing a little too perfectly to be natural.

The closer they got, the easier it was to see a handful of tall buildings under the cover of the trees, but from the distance she hadn\'t been able to see them and Sasha was again reminded how strategic these people were.

As they got close enough to see the buildings in detail she could see that the trees here were extremely tall, and their branches had been shaved low on their trunks—to two or three stories on the building, so the peaked rooves of the buildings remained under the branches. Searchers looking from above would likely only see trees.

The buildings themselves looked like massive lodges—not unattractive, but very utilitarian. And the entire building was natural wood, or painted a dark brown that seemed to sink into the shadows of the trees.

Camouflaged. The buildings were camouflaged.

"Yes. You\'re sharp to pick that," Nick said as they finally rolled into a space just in front of the first building where a glass door was the only nod to anything contemporary. The rest of the building looked like it had been erected as a barn, or some other kind of functional space.

As the Suburban rocked to a stop and Nick pushed out of his door, Sasha stared at the building in front of her.

She was here. She was in the headquarters—or whatever these people called this place. She was here. She was going to see what they had, what they did, and how she might get the females out.

The door clunked, then opened with a creak and Nick stepped back to give her space to get out. Sasha tried to move quickly, but she couldn\'t stop staring. There were at least three buildings here. She could see one directly behind the building they parked in front of, and another across the gravel, leaf-strewn driveway that continued past the parking area and deeper under the trees.

"I\'ll show you those later. Right now we need to get you inside," Nick said pleasantly, like she was an employee who was being shown around.

Sasha nodded and made herself concentrate as they walked from the vehicle to the building—how many stories was it? Two. Though there might be a third, attic level up under that roof, she realized. There was little metal and glass on the exterior, as she\'d observed, it was mainly wood. Whatever hadn\'t been left bare was painted in brown or gray.

Nick trotted ahead of her to get the door, then turned as he opened it. "Are you ready?"

"Not even close," Sasha said honestly as she stepped inside, praying frantically that she could figure out how to get herself—and the other females—out of this place. Nick laughed, but followed her through the door, then darted around her again to lead her towards a very normal looking reception desk.

Apart from the very tall, double-height ceiling, to Sasha, the reception area looked a lot like a doctor\'s office—light brown carpet, a tall desk directly ahead from the door. Pastel colored paintings on the walls. For a large space it was, however, almost shockingly empty. Not even a rug on the floor. And it smelled almost new. As if it was barely used.

But Nick strode up to the reception desk and the heavyset woman who sat behind it, with brown hair and a gray stripe only on one side, clearly knew him. She smiled brightly.

"Hey, Nick!"

"Hi Alice. This is Sasha."

"Sasha…? Oh! Sasha! The Sasha?!" the woman said, her voice shocked and hushed, as if she were meeting a celebrity.

"Yes, that Sasha," Nick said with a wink.

Sasha\'s stomach twisted as the woman stood up from behind the desk and reached over to shake her hand. "It\'s really wonderful to meet you, Sasha. Is Zev here?" the woman leaned around and over the desk to look behind them.

"N-no," Sasha said, suddenly filled with the urge to grab the woman\'s hair and slam her face into the desk.

She\'d been spending too much time with Chimeran males.

"We\'ve had a change of plans, Alice. Can you please contact the Board and tell them that Sasha is now Alpha and is here to speak with them? Make sure they\'re here no later than dinner. And Sasha\'s going to need a couple changes of clothes—something comfortable. No need for formality."

"Will do, Nick."

"Thank you. Sasha, if you could just sign in here, we\'ll head out to the back and I\'ll show you around some."

Sasha had a small book placed in front of her on the desk where she was asked to enter her name and phone number, the time of day, and to sign.

She balked for a moment—until she remembered that these people had been following her, and interfering in her life for years. It was a little late to be holding back personal details.

After she signed, Alice handed her a small envelope with a chip card slid into a little pocket, like the room keys at a fancy hotel. She looked at it, and frowned, but Nick just told her not to worry, that he\'d explain.

A moment later she was following Nick up a narrow staircase on the side of the room to a door that stood just below the ceiling. Through the door and down the hall—another plain, functional space—and then there was a little alcove on the side with two doors on the sides. Nick urged her to open the one on the left and when she did, Sasha discovered that her thoughts about the hotel hadn\'t been too far off.

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