Ashaya Aleine is an M-Psy neurologist and geneticist. She is the mother of Keenan Aleine, the twin of Amara Aleine, and mate to Dorian Christensen, a sentinel of the DarkRiver pack. Ashaya and Dorian are the main protagonists of the fifth book in the main series, Hostage to Pleasure.
Biography[]
Childhood[]
Most Psy children slip in and out of the minds of their younger siblings until they're about two years old as they learn that's unacceptable behaviour. Amara, however, never learned that lesson as she never saw her twin as a separate individual, more like two halves of a whole.[1]
While they were living in Zambia, their house collapsed atop them in an earthquake. hey were trapped for 48 hours and Amara never fractured. Ashaya had, had intense reconditioning, but it kept fragmenting. When she told her mom, Iliana, this, she told Ashaya to hide it because she'd be better, stronger, more human with emotions.[2]
In September 2069, Iliana ran from the Council, leaving a letter for Ashayaasking her to take care of Amara. They both knew there was something wrong with Amara, but she was still theirs and a brilliant intellect.[3]
On their 17th birthday, Amara drugged both their guardian and Ashaya, then dragged her sister underneath the house where she buried her in a shallow grave with wooden planks on top.[1]
Her Silence shattered and Amara listened to her panic before asking her questions about what it felt like, seeing it as an experiment. She wanted to understand why Ashaya had been traumatized by their time trapped by the earthquake, but she hadn't been.[1]
At first she was too scared to telepath, but once she did try, she found that Amara had locked her within her own shields while she was passed out from the drugs. Worst of all, she couldn't ask for help otherwise they both would have been rehabilitated.[1]
After a couple of hours, Amara began to shovel dirt on top of the wooden cover. One of the boards broke over her leg, hurting her. Ashaya screamed and shredded her hands trying to claw herself free. Amara kept her in there a long time, conscious all the while.[1]
Life with Silence[]
She was pulled into the Council superstructure at the age of seventeen[4] when she graduated with honours and was offered a training position at one of the Council's top labs.[5]
Neural Implant[]
The implants would ostensibly grant equality and enforce Silence on a biological level from birth, in truth they were there to create slaves, who wouldn't be able to even think of rebelling against the Council.
Ashaya was considered the best candidate to create the implant, but she refused to be a part of the project so Ming LeBon kidnapped Keenan to force her cooperation. Additionally, one night she went to sleep in her own bed, but woke up in a room at the Center where she was told her fallopian tubes had been tied. If she had the procedure reversed, they would perform a full hysterectomy and leave behind so much scar tissue a cloned womb wouldn't take. This was partly to ensure her only genetic legacy was Keenan, their hostage, as well as demonstrating Ming had total control over even her body.
Despite the incredible risk, Ashaya and her friend and colleague, Katya Haas, carefully sabotaged the project wherever they could.
Another scientist in her lab, Larsen Brandell, took Forgotten ostensibly children as test subjects in another different, but parallel, approach to Protocol I. However, he was torturing and killing them out of his own depraved desires. To rescue the final two subjects, Jon Duchslaya and Noor Hassan, Ashaya smuggled out a message to Talin McKade because of her connection to Shine, which was how Larsen found his victims. In return for her help in getting the kids out, she asked for their help in two months' time to rescue someone else. They knew that the Council held her son and surmised, correctly, that, that was who she wanted them to kidnap.
Omega[]
Omega existed long before Protocol I, but was mostly theoretical and mothballed. Its objective was to prevent any self-regulated reproduction. Simply put, every Psy would be infected with only the Council having access to the cure. Any rebellion would mean the death of their family - the loss of their genetic material, their legacy. The virus would quickly spread to humans and changelings, wiping them out as competitors to the Psy.
Ashaya destroyed all data about the project prior to defecting from the net. While that means Omega is dead, Program I still has a chance of being finished in a few years.
Defection[]
Dorian Christensen and Judd Lauren eliminated Keenan's escort while on his way for a scheduled visit with his mother. Judd cut the boy's link to the PsyNet, intending to pull him into his own familial net, but instead he joined the Web of Stars via an accidental blood oath with Dorian.
Having prepared for her own defection, Ashaya had deliberately interfered with her sleep cycle to claim the pressure of living and working underground constantly was affecting her efficiency.[6] When Ming ordered her to have a medical examination, she swallowed a data chip with all of her research on it, having coated it with a protective layer. On top of that, she applied a neurotoxin from an Australian tick that she tweaked. Finally, the topmost coat was designed to dissolve in her stomach acids, which released the poison as she was taken to the Center.[7] All body systems stopped for ten hours and effectively dropped her from the PsyNet. When it reconnected, her mind-star appeared in a different area of the Net, thus hiding her re-appearance. Having been notified of her plan through more smuggled messages, Zie Zen arranged for a new, human identity and a teleport to DarkRiver territory.
With the help of DarkRiver, Ashaya sent out a worldwide broadcast revealing the goals of Protocol I and Omega in the hopes that it'd become too difficult to make her disappear.
Mating[]
Physical Appearance[]
She has blue-grey eyes, dark brown skin, and exuberant black curls.[8] Her scent's that of wild honey.[9]
Personality and Traits[]
She has severe claustrophobia, originating from the first time she was buried her alive in an accident. It was exacerbated when Amara buried her again, on purpose, to test her mind's limits. Treatment for her claustrophobia included journaling, a habit she kept even after she was supposedly cured and helped her keep her sanity while in the Council's superstructure.[5] Dorian keeps trying to steal it from her so he can read it.
Abilities and Skills[]
She's a brilliant neurologist and an M-Psy at 9.9 on the gradient[4]; this ability allows her to see cells, even strands of DNA, which she used to cure Dorian's inability to shift.[10] Proteins, like white blood cells, "show" up best to her mind.[11] Her telepathy, however, is only 1.1, just enough to maintain her connection to a neural network.[12] Also, she has some basic psychometry.[12]
After being in the Council substructure for so long, Ashaya's developed razor sharp survival instincts and the ability to hide what she's truly feeling, even to the point where she often fooled herself.[13] Because Amara never understood boundaries, Ashaya developed impenetrable shields in self-defense, helping her to survive.[1] Although she can play the game with even Ming LeBon himself, it's not who she is.[11]
Since her defection, she discovered she likes to bake because it's creative with a sense of order and experimentation and she's good at it; Dorian thinks her cookies are even better than Tamsyn's, even if she tends to add things like vegetable protein without affecting the flavour. Her mate's not the only one who enjoys her cooking because packmates often drop by, especially juveniles with bottomless stomachs.[14]
She can climb thanks to a climbing machine at the gym.[15]
Relationships[]
Amara Aleine[]
Despite hating their twisted relationship, Amara was the only person Ashaya could trust to not betray her for money, power, not even to save her own skin.[1] Although Ashaya's the more dominant of the two, Amara's the reason why Ashaya's Silence never held because her twin thought she was more "interesting" with emotion.[16]
Dorian Christensen[]
Ashaya was determined to cling to her Silence in order to keep her sister in check, but Dorian - and Keenan - made that untenable. What's more, they accept each other's sister.[17]
Although it's not true telepathy, Ashaya can pick up on Dorian's thoughts from time to time.[18] He keeps trying to steal her organizer to read her journal.[10]
Iliana Aleine[]
Ashaya's work was influenced by her mother, who was an entomologist studying the medicinal properties of insects[19] in the Council's pharmaceutical arm.[2]
Jon Duchslaya[]
Since Ashaya and her mate are friends with Jon's parents and her son's best friends with Jon's little sister, she's basically an aunt to the juvenile.
Katya Haas[]
Her coworker and friend, they were both secretly rebels.[6] Ashaya was devastated when she thought her friend had been killed when Ming destroyed the lab to send a message after her defection.
Keenan Aleine[]
Her adopted son and biological nephew.
Mercy Smith[]
According to Amara, she says that Mercy's her favourite sentinel, which is no surprise considering she's best friends with Dorian. Mercy welcomed Ashaya as Dorian's mate, promising to share blackmail material if he stepped out of line.[20] She even loaned her gun to Ashaya, only asking if she knew how to use it.[21]
Noor Hassan[]
Since Ashaya and her mate are friends with Noor's parents and her son and Noor are best friends, she's basically an aunt to the little girl.
Talin McKade[]
They're friends.[14]
Trivia[]
- She is one of ten people who own one of Zie Zen's golden coins, his "inner circle." Hers bears the Chinese character unity.
- When Dorian's in leopard form, he likes to bat at her curls to watch them bounce.[14]
- She's older than Amara by one minute.[22]
Quotes[]
Dorian is in my blood, in my very veins. Never in all my lectures on "sexual biology" and "animal behavior" did anyone tell me of this incandescent joy. When I lie with him, there's pleasure, incredible pleasure - my cat knows how to drive a woman to insanity. But there's more, this indefinable, near-painful happiness. I don't know what to call it, how to describe it. I just know that I would die for him. - From the encrypted personal files of Ashaya Aleine[23]
Appearances[]
Caressed by Ice[]
Judd Lauren and his rebel cell suspect she wasn't in support of Protocol I, but was forced to because her son was in Council hands.
Mine to Possess[]
Ashaya works with the Ghost and Talin McKade to get Jon Duchslaya and Noor Hassan out of the lab, asking that they help rescue her son from the Council in return.
Hostage to Pleasure[]
Main character (POV)
Branded by Fire[]
Dorian's worried about her when he has to attend a sentinels meeting while she's visiting her sister. Later, Ashaya asks Mercy to deliver to Amara a chip taken off the humans who attacked her and her family.[24]
Blaze of Memory[]
Ashaya identifies Katya when Devraj Santos shows her a photo and learns her friend's still alive, but in a bad state.[25] She and Dorian fly to Shine's headquarters in New York, but Katya doesn't recognize her. Ashaya wants to take Katya back to DarkRiver with her, but Dev won't allow her out of his sight and because he won't send a potential sleeper agent into the pack. If she does prove to be a threat, Dorian asks him to warn him so he could prepare Ashaya if her friend had to be eliminated.[26] Later, when told of Ashaya's offer, Katya refuses for the same reason.[27]
Ming presents Ashaya's research on the Forgotten, which she'd hidden before defecting, to the Council and they start to see the Forgotten as a threat because of it.[26] Dev tries to coax memories out of Katya by asking about that research, which she'd worked on, too.[27] As Katya's memories return, she wants to warn Ashaya, but Dev tells her that she might endanger the children from the research lab, which is how she learns that Ashaya managed to save Jon Duchslaya and Noor Hassan.[28]
Dev yells at Ashaya for not warning him how powerful a telepath Katya is,[29] then later asks her for help with a kid exhibiting signs of Tk-Cell.[30] Judd Lauren becomes the boy's mentor, saving him from killing anyone on accident like he had as a child.
For Ashaya's sake, Lucas Hunter offers Katya a way out, but she refuses to put her friend and the children at risk.[31] Cutting herself free of the PsyNet, Katya finds her own way out, but lies dying so Ashaya comes to say good-bye,[32] bringing with her Noor and Keenan who save Katya's life with their harmonic ability.[33]
Bonds of Justice[]
Sascha Duncan, Tamsyn Ryder, and Ashaya go over Sophia Russo's medical records
Play of Passion[]
The Scotts plot the deaths of the sentinels and their mates.[34]
Dorian suggests Ashaya as a resource when it comes to Psy tech.[35]
Kiss of Snow[]
Appears
Tangle of Need[]
Appears (POV via letter/message/email/quote/etc. only)
"Christmas in the Kitchen"[]
A main character, most of the short story's from her point of view as she and Talin coordinate a baking party with their families that turns into a competition between him and Clay, which they both fail miserably at.
Shield of Winter[]
Ashaya assists in the surgery to remove the computronic device implanted in Vasic Zen's arm.
Secrets at Midnight[]
Mentioned
Shards of Hope[]
Mentioned
Allegiance of Honor[]
Appears (POV)
Dorian (in Wild Embrace)[]
She's camping with Dorian, Keenan, and Noor when he's able to shift for the first time. They celebrate and she meets his cat for the first time.
Silver Silence[]
Appears (POV via letter/message/email/quote/etc. only)
Ocean Light[]
Mentioned
Wolf Rain[]
Ashaya is present when Memory Aven-Rose demonstrates her E-Sigma ability on Amara, allowing her to experience the full breadth of human emotions for a few hours. For the first time, Amara's able to feel and express her love for Ashaya and Ashaya's grateful to Memory for that brief time.
Last Guard[]
Mentioned
References[]
Unless stated otherwise, all sources are Hostage to Pleasure
- ā 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 32
- ā 2.0 2.1 Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 22
- ā Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 41
- ā 4.0 4.1 Caressed by Ice, Ch. 9
- ā 5.0 5.1 Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 19
- ā 6.0 6.1 Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 1
- ā Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 12
- ā Mine to Possess, Ch. 5
- ā Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 21
- ā 10.0 10.1 Hostage to Pleasure, Epilogue
- ā 11.0 11.1 Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 20
- ā 12.0 12.1 Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 4
- ā Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 7
- ā 14.0 14.1 14.2 "Christmas in the Kitchen"
- ā Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 5
- ā Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 43
- ā Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 53
- ā Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 30
- ā Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 10
- ā Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 46
- ā Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 47
- ā Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 27
- ā Hostage to Pleasure, Ch. 45
- ā Branded by Fire, Ch. 23
- ā Blaze of Memory, Ch. 2
- ā 26.0 26.1 Blaze of Memory, Ch. 3
- ā 27.0 27.1 Blaze of Memory, Ch. 5
- ā Blaze of Memory, Ch. 16
- ā Blaze of Memory, Ch. 22
- ā Blaze of Memory, Ch. 48
- ā Blaze of Memory, Ch. 22
- ā Blaze of Memory, Ch. 53
- ā Blaze of Memory, Ch. 55
- ā Play of Passion, Ch. 3
- ā Play of Passion, Ch. 25