"Back again?" mumbled Emmaline as she took in the state of Neema. The bruises from the night before had deepened in colour and the scars had begun an attempt at healing. Her skin was clear from any blood but Neema definitely looked worse for wear, she had a swollen cheek and bussed lip that cracked with every movement.

"Yep, but you'll be glad to know it wasn't Khan."

Emmaline merely nodded her head at Neema's response and continued moving around the room, looking for any reason to fully face her. The tension was still strong between the two women and neither knew how to make up for the wrong doings they had done.

The woman refused to face Neema as she pulled out a blue flower that had lots of blossoms on it, she continued pulling out more stuff and placed them on the desk in front of Neema.

She pulled a petal from the flower and placed it into a small dish, moving over to the sink she carried the dish and a small bottle of a yellowish liquid to the sink. Her back was to Neema as she crushed the flower and added a little of the liquid along with some brown and red dust. She then set fire to the mixture and waited for a deep purple haze to rise from the dish before she blew it out and headed back over to the desk where Neema sat and some of her remedies still lay.

She began spreading the warm paste over Neema's skin in silence her eyes focussed on her work as if the woman she was working on was a corpse and not a live person with questions.

It was Neema who broke the silence.

"Emmaline I'm really sorry for what happened the other day, I know you probably hate me but I had to tell you the truth."

Neema would never apologise for the words she had said, they were the truth and though they were hard to hear she could not take them back. Emmaline needed to know the truth and she had been the barer of the bad news. She was sorry for the reaction it had on the woman, Neema could only imagine how she reacted to her mate that night. It was not everyday a female realised she had been pulled into a loving bond with a rapist but the scenario was one Neema was aware often happened to the women of this world.

People in the old world had come up with clinical terms for women who formed attachments to their kidnappers and rapists but in this world there was only one that they new, Life. It was life. It was how things had been for as long as anyone could remember. Even human marriages were not always roses that bloomed, some were weeds that spread and killed life around it. Sucked all the love into rot. It was life, a part that Neema had no intention of being a victim of. If she was to ever love Khan, she would remember the beginnings of this godforsaken mate bond and he would remember right alongside her.

At Neema's words she placed the dish on the table and closed her eyes, tears pooled at the corners of her lashes as she bit her lip and her hands clenched on the desk in her frustration.

"I do not hate you, I just. It was hard for me to hear it." Her voice cracked as she licked her lips. "when I got home, I had to look at my mate and tell him I remembered. I had to look at my son Konan and know that he was not conceived out of love. It hurt, it still does."

When her eyes opened Neema saw sincerity and a lightness that she had never seen in Emmaline the few times she had met the woman.

"But I'm better for it and my family will be better for it, the love we have now is one that I chose. I may not have in the beginning but I made that choice when I went back to my mate and lay my head on his chest. You gave me a choice, even if I did not realise I needed to make it. Thank you."

Neema had a new respect for the woman, she had made a choice based on all the facts of her mating. She was a realist now and if that was the choice Emmaline made she could respect it, even understand it.

"So now that it is out of the way, would you like to tell me why you are always bruised when I see you." Emmaline demanded as she wiped at the tears that lingered on her cheek and picked back up her purple-ish brown concoction. Her face was in a stern scowl but Neema could see the twinkle in her eyes.

"All I can say is Khan." Sighed Neema as she braced herself for the long story she was about to tell.

When Neema had finished being patched up she headed down to the nursery to watch her siblings in their learning environment. They spent a few hours a day there before she took them to have dinner with Vanya where they played until they were exhausted. After that it was bath time, then snack time where she let them have a fruit of their choice and yogurt before bed. While they slept she would then get ready and prepare herself for another dinner where she had to sit alongside Khan and pretend she wanted to be there.

Her little routine was always the same, it was a routine that she had formed and liked. It was a routine that Khan was scarcely involved in unless he was around the kids, which was something he wanted to change.

Khan entered the nursery where Neema sat on one of the child chairs at the back of the room and beckoned her over with a nod of his head. He exited the room leaving her no choice but to follow or wait for him to come back in and probably make a scene. She followed.

He stood leaning against the wall with his arms folded and his brows set in a scowl. Giving Neema a once over he motioned her to follow him again as he began strolling down the hall. Reluctantly she began following him knowing that her siblings would be safe in the yellow walls of the nursery and with the brown of Sahina's eyes watching them.

The walk was extremely short as he headed down two corridors, through what she believed was his study and out a glass door that led into a large garden. His feet kept crunching through the grass until they stopped by a maze like wall that was embedded with large flowers in bright colours. Pinks, blues reds, whites and lilacs all mixed together to make a rainbow of flowers.

"Why are we here Khan." Questioned Neema as she plucked at one of the red roses, it hadn't begun blooming yet, its petals were closed as it took its time to greet the world with its centre. It was beautiful, the most vibrant colour she had ever seen in her life. A full luscious red with a deep green stem.

"I wanted to spend some time with you, without any distractions," his arms were folded as his hazel eyes roved over her with a dry look. He looked as if he wanted to be anywhere but here.

"I don't want to spend time with you, not alone. You can't be trusted," she grumbled, the flower crushing in her closed fists. The petals fluttering to the ground before it had a chance to flourish.

"Well get used to this alone time Neema because it will be happening, how else will you give me an heir."

His words only made her even more annoyed, Khan had taken from her body and continued to do so. Yet here he stood still demanding more from her. Over her dead body. She would not voluntarily give him an heir and he would have the fight of his life if he tried to force her again.

"Are you crazy? You're not touching me! So you better hope I'm already pregnant. I deserve better than you can give me, I wont settle for less."

She deserved more than the slot she had been given. Neema was not one to think highly of herself but she knew that she did not deserve an abusive mate. She was not a cruel person so why she had been cursed with a cruel mate was beyond her. She did not think she was better than wolves but she was better than Khan.

He walked around with his head held high, preening like a peacock. Full of arrogance and self importance when in reality he was nothing. Without his titles nobody would miss him, maybe his father but that was it. Khan was nothing but a legacy. His name was all he had whereas Neema had no real family name but so much family love.

If she were to die she would be missed for the person she was, but Khan, he would only be missed for as long as his Alpha position was vacant.

She deserved more than him, she deserved trust, loyalty and respect, she would not settle for less.

"You have too much pride. You humans still think you are superior but it is that pride that caused this very predicament your race finds itself in," his mouth was tilted up in a smirk as if he were talking to an unruly child, as if she had a lesson to earn and he was her teacher.

"Pride? Well you'd know all about that, you arrogant twat. I'm warning you khan, try to touch me and see what will happen."

His eyes widened in shock as they flickered black and his teeth descended into a snarl. His canines sinking over his bottom lip as his nature made its presence known. He wanted to laugh at her threat, he really did but he was an Alpha and challenges could not be met with laughter, they were met with fire. If she continued to push him he would burn her world to ashes, starting with her siblings.

"No Neema, I'm warning you, this human pride you cling to is what ended your little human civilisation and now look where you stand. This is not your world female. You do not make threats to me. This is my world and in this world I crush resistant humans like you with my pinkie finger," the growling of his voice rattled through his chest, his jaw ticking with the anger rising though his body.

"Here we go, the real Khan emerges. Don't you ever get tired of being such a godamn cunt."

His chest rumbled and his lips curled in anger at her insult but Neema was on a roll. Her hands fisted at her side as she glared at him with equal fire in her eyes, the two were explosive together and it always ended in way more than fireworks. No, they were like a bomb, just tick tick ticking away, waiting for that one spark that would detonate them and cause nothing but destruction.

"You're deluded. You expect me to have sex with you but you can't even apologise," her voice was exasperated as she flung her arms about.

"I would tell you I'm sorry but I cannot show shame for who I am."

She had never expected him to apologise. It was something that he seemed incapable of but he acted as if she were crazy to want one. As if she had a few screws loose. Emotions were not something Khan dealt with daily she could tell, but surely he knew that if he wanted to get anywhere with her an apology was one of the first things he needed to do. Straight after he got rid of his arrogant attitude and abusive behaviour.

He took being Alpha way too seriously. He expected everyone to give him the respect his title demanded while he trod all over them. Respect was earned not given and all he had earned was her deep rooted disdain and repulsion.

"I never asked you to be ashamed of who you are but you should be ashamed of how you treated me, your supposed mate," her rose stained hands gripped her hair as her patience for the male before her reached its breaking point. He would be the death of her, literally.

"I will not accept your world Khan and if you force me, I will knock it down and build my own within the walls of this crumbling prison," she growled out as she released her hands from her hair, her eyes flickering as she stared into his dark black eyes with streaks of red.

"You do not understand the power I have, I could take your siblings away from you on a whim. A whim," his slouchy body frame straightening out as he towered over Neema, his body radiating with his dominance as he tried to force his power and his will over her.

"If that is what I need to do to show you I am your Alpha then I will do it, this is not a threat."

And Neema heard his words clearly for what they were, they were a promise but what good was his promise when he needed her siblings as much as she needed them. Khan liked her siblings with the little emotion he knew how to feel but more importantly without them he had no control over Neema. The only reason she remained in this compound contemplating whether to kill Khan or not was because her siblings were better off here. The moment he threatened that, changed it, was the moment he would loose any control he had over their situation. They both Knew it.

"I am trying to be kind but the more you push me, try to dominate me, I feel my self loosing what little human I have left. This is not me. I do not hurt women but your challenging is causing my sanity to slip,"

Khan's hands fisted as his claws began to poke through his skin and cause the red of his blood to drip. His stance was ferocious but his eyes implored her, begged her to stop challenging him. She needed to accept her role in his life before he really made her regret being mated to him. He was capable of doing much more harm than she could ever imagine, he did not want to do any worse but he would if she demanded it of him.

"You wouldn't take my siblings from me because they're the only reason I remain here, that I play this role as your mate. You take them from me and I will kill you Khan and drink your blood to appease my mind that you are really dead."

It was a foul thing to say, it was more wolf than human but it was the only language Khan spoke. He only understood bloodshed and violence so she would show him. Promise him, if he threatened her heart again she would make him bleed an ocean before she let him see daylight again.

Silence descend between them before he reluctantly acknowledged her words, "You are a good match for me," his mouth tipping up in his uncharacteristic smile. That half smirk that almost met his eyes but not quite.

"Un fucking likely, you keep trying to kill me," she grumbled but the fire in her had been washed out, he was not threatening her anymore. He was taking her seriously as if he had something to fear from her and he did.

"I never meant to treat you that way, but this is the world I live in. There are no rose tinted glasses, just a red haze of blood "

The weak apology was not enough, her eyes portrayed that message as her head tilted in acquiescence. She would of course accept his pitiful apology but she would not trust him. Their mating would be a shambles of public displays of submission and affection met with private displays of disdain. She would be walking a fine line between the two personas, but as long as the scar remained on her skin she would cling to her hatred like a life line.

Neema was aware that he would never let the actual words slip from his mouth, maybe he would never need to. All she knew was that no amount of apologies, spoken or not, could ever make up for what he did. The damage he had done was more than just a superficial wound. He had mentally scarred her. For days her sleep was tarnished by those horrid memories as had her families been. Everything Khan did to her echoed back to her family and until he understood that he would always be an enemy. If Neema bled then they bled too, no matter how hard she tried to stop it they were part of the same body.

Her family made up one body and they were all organs fighting to survive, fighting to keep pumping that rose tinted blood that Khan loved so much.