Page 65 of Dark Gambit: The Play

"Sure. I assumed that it must be important if you were texting me so early. I heard you had a lot of excitement over at Safe Haven. I bet no one even remembers William's and my whirlwind romance."

She wasn't wrong. It felt like they had left Safe Haven months ago.

"I assume that you know all about Sofia."

"I don't know much her. I heard that she was sent by Jade's captor, a dude named Igor, who is a powerful compeller, and that Toven managed to override his compulsion with Mia's help. Also, that she's willingly feeding him false information until we figure out how to free Jade and her people."

"There is more. Sofia's mother is a hybrid Kra-ell, and her father is human, which is very rare because the hybrid females usually only want to breed with pureblooded males. I was wondering if it might be possible that she's a Dormant and can be activated."

"If their longevity is passed through the mothers like immortality is for us, that should be possible in theory. I don't know if the Kra-ell's venom has the special mojo needed for activation, or if an immortal male can activate one of theirs. You should talk with Bridget. She has a lot of experience with transitioning Dormants and the various factors that contribute to it, but I would wait an hour or two. You know it's six in the morning, right?"

He hadn't checked the time. "What are you doing up so early?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?"

He chuckled. "I'll assume that you were consumed by the need to work on Okidu's journals and got up to do it. Speaking of the journals, I thought you would have more insight into our genetics after working on them for so long."

She sighed. "So far, I've only scratched the surface. Besides, I'm new to this world, and I'm still learning. One of the things William kept bringing up is the affinity and how fast we have fallen for each other. Is that how you and Sofia feel?"

Marcel closed his eyes. "I think we both felt the connection immediately, but our story was so fraught with issues that things got derailed. I was suspicious of her motives and tried to pull back, she felt guilty about manipulating and using me, but at the end of the day, it just feels right to be with her."

"Then go for it. What's the worst that could happen? She will just not transition."

"Yeah, but I need to obtain her consent, and to do that, I need to tell her about us, and I haven't yet."

"You need to talk to Kian and get his permission first."

"I will after I talk with Bridget. If she says that there is no way I can activate Sofia, there is no point in me asking Kian's permission."

"True. Good luck, Marcel."

"Thanks. And thanks again for calling me back so early in the morning."

"You're welcome." She ended the call.

It was six o'clock Saturday morning, and the doctor was probably enjoying a lazy time in bed with her mate, but Marcel was going to pretend that he'd forgotten it was the weekend and that he hadn't noticed how early it was.

"Marcel," Bridget answered after several rings. "Why are you calling me this early? Did something happen?"

"My apologies. I didn't realize what time it was. I can call later."

She sighed. "That's okay. I'm already up. What can I help you with?"

He explained the situation and what Kaia had said.

"I agree, but I need to add that we know that Kra-ell males cannot activate Dormants. At least not immortal Dormants. Emmett and Margaret are proof of that. They were intimate many times over the years, and he still failed to activate her. That being said, he kidnapped Peter because he believed that immortal males could activate Kra-ell Dormants. But since all the human children born to the Kra-ell had human mothers and hybrid fathers, that wasn't going to work. Sofia is the exception, so there might be a chance that you can activate her. You should ask her if she ever had unprotected sex with any of the hybrids or the purebloods. If she did, and they failed to activate her, then it's either because the Kra-ell can't activate their Dormants, or because even the children born to hybrid mothers and human fathers don't inherit the longevity genes."

"She told me about her boyfriends, and they were human, but she might have omitted having been coerced into breeding with the purebloods or the hybrids. She didn't mention that, and I didn't ask. She was in a good mood, and I didn't want to spoil it.'

"You should find a gentle way to do that. We need to know."

"I will."

It wasn't going to be an easy conversation, but Bridget was right. They had to know.

"Come to think of it," Bridget said. "Perhaps Mey and Jin's mother wasn't an immortal Dormant. She might have been a Kra-ell hybrid that somehow escaped or just left her tribe. She might have fallen in love with a human male, had two daughters with him, and, for some reason, couldn't raise them. Or maybe something happened to her and her mate."

"Yeah. Maybe Igor and his cronies found her and killed her and her male. Anything is possible."