"What the hell was that Khan, you couldn't even warn me! And then you tried to kill Victus." His grunt was the only reply she got as his muscles tensed in anticipation of another battle.

"I did not try," he looked insulted at the idea that he could ever fail in killing a human. His thick brows furrowing as the scar across his cheek tightened with the scowl.

"Well whatever it was he didn't deserve it, he didn't challenge you, you had no right to do that! I want to see him," her voice was climbing in timber as she tried and failed to control her anger.

What she had been subjected to this night was worse than anything she had ever seen, the humans had been brutalised viciously. There was no fairness to their deaths and decapitations. It had been like throwing an axe to a baby and expecting them to defend themselves, they were more likely to harm themselves than any opponent. These beasts were inhumane and then wondered why humans felt the need to form The Verum Resentiam. Inequality only bred violence and Violence only bred more. It was a vicious circle.

"Khan, are you listening? Khan," she was on the brink of crying, her frustration was mounting higher and higher the more Khan dismissed her. Her fears were real and she needed reassurance, if only to see Victus was alive for a second. She needed to know he would be okay.

"Not now Neema, I am this close to marching out of this room and tearing that male limb from limb. He is not your male, I am," his body shuddered with repulsion at the thought. Fists pounding as he thumped along his chest for emphasis, there would be no negotiating with him

Eyes rolling to the sky Neema sighed out, "khan" his name falling softly from her mouth.

"I said enough. I am tired of talking about some weak human male. You owe me. Why don't we discuss that, hmm," his eyes glimmering with interest as he folded his arms and slunk his body across the wall.

It was too late to discuss the terms he wanted and get her agreement but she wanted it over and done with, she would hear his terms but give no definite answer, "There wont be a carte blanche, I wanna hear your terms," she reluctantly grumbled out, her posture mimicking his.

His brows shot skyward, his eyes widening in shock as he questioned her, "How did you learn that phrase."

"The same way the resistance learnt Latin, I read," Khan looked as if the idea that sewage dwellers were so well educated had never crossed his mind, though many were not Neema came from a family who had tried to instil that value within each child. It was something she had initially struggled to do with her siblings but she was making amends.

Neema was proving to him time and time again that she was more than just a pretty face. She was a provider, a fighter and now an educated female, a combination that was rare to come by. She was constantly surprising him. She was like no human he had ever met and he needed to remember that every time he interacted with her. His mate was smarter and fiercer than most.

"Hmmm," he hummed distractedly, plucking at his beard as he thought through his terms, "I want your undivided time, not those forced 2 hours but real intimacy where you to want to be with me."

Though his terms were better than she had anticipated they were still unrealistic, especially when Khan had only ever given her hardship. To her siblings he was loving. He took on the role of father with them, teaching them and playing with them but providing them with discipline when they needed it.

With her though he was different, he was either dismissive or cruel, he either ignored her existence or took perverse pleasure in taunting her. They hardly had any moments when she could say she genuinely enjoyed his company, for a second or two he was amicable maybe even nice but then he was back to his brutish ways. There was no middle ground with Khan.

"Well that's not possible, I can't pretend to want to be around you. You repulse me," shoulders shrugging as she easily dismissed his idea. She was tired of making concession after concession, especially when he only ever proved to be the same mean cusp he had shown himself to be from the beginning of their mating.

Lips tilting up in a smirk Khan mocked her, showing her the taunting side of him she hated the most, "Don't lie your body tells me differently," white teeth gleaming with arrogance.

Her lids shuttered as she heaved a heavy sigh, her head shaking profusely as he continued to prove he had no worth to her, "You mean to say my body is saying the same thing it did when you raped me, huh" sarcasm rolled off her tongue as she hit him with a dry stare, fingers gesturing between the two of them as she finalised her point, "this bond may force my hand but I don't want you."

His nostrils flared as he was reminded of the rough start to their mating which only seemed to be progressively worsening over time. They had been together for nearly a month and this is where they stood. More blood had been shed between them than any love and it would remain this way until they figured out how to work with each other, but today wasn't that day.

"Those are my terms, take it or not but there will be no middle ground, " he finalised as he turned his back to her and slammed the door of his room shut. His legs making the same march he had been making for the past four weeks.

//--//

"I cannot believe the cheek of him" grumbled Sahina as she sifted through the files that she had gathered in piles in front of her. Though everything was based on their com-devices most of the files they needed were confidential and so their access was blocked, which was why they were now sitting in the middle of the library gathering information the manual way. Papers and files were their new best friends as they were covered in a fort of them

Neema had asked the only people she could call friends and family to help her and they had all turned up. Getting approval from the warden at Vanya's room was the only obstacle had they faced but Carson had managed to sweet talk the lady.

Each person had a pile of files they were flittering through, each pile held information on the human females who had been mated within the last year. They were separated into locality and were divided into the wolf hierarchy, they began looking at Alpha and Beta mating's and would eventually work their way down to sentinel and civilian wolves. If Lara still wasn't located they would expand their search to other countries and begin looking at human ceremonies, which would be nearly impossible to locate. Their best hope at finding Lara was if she was mated to a higher ranking wolf because banners for the more important wolves were run, whereas lower ranked wolves and humans barely got a sentence let alone names and locations.

"He wants you to be willingly intimate with him, after everything? That wolf has a couple screws loose" growled Sahina as she tried to gage Neema's feeling about the situation. Her face was screwed tight as she tried to not imagine the kind of intimacy a male like Khan would demand from his mate. She was clearly disrespecting her Alpha but among friends there was no wrong doing, anything and everything went.

He was too wolf for her. Being a Civilian wolf, Sahina was placed at the bottom of the wolf hierarchy where wolves like her hardly ever interacted with wolves of Khan's calibre and temperament. Khan's kind of wolf was almost as foreign to her as it was to Neema, her psyche did not demand blood in the same ways theirs did, well not as much. She was a wolf but she had no beast. The hunger did not haze her mind and so she could only imagine how a human female who was used to relatively little blood, would feel laying with a wolf who bathed in the liquid daily.

She could not understand the match even though she knew being mated to Khan was a privilege all females wished had been bestowed upon them. In the beginning she had even felt the same way but knowing Neema had only made her see the truth. This female deserved more than Khan was willing to give her, intimacy be damned.

"Yes, he wants me to enjoy being with him," her face was incredulous as she tried to understand how that could ever come to pass, "he's psychotic, that's for sure!" her nose scrunched up at the thought of the male, "how am I meant to enjoy being around him when he keeps attacking me and everyone else every few days," her confusion was apparent in the way her face crumpled up.

"He can't be that bad, I mean he is your mate. So you must feel something," Emmaline's voice was hopeful as she tried to be a positive influence on the two females, ever the pessimist Sahina dismissed her words as she looked at the female in befuddlement.

Sahina and Emmaline had complete opposite opinions regarding Khan, where Emmaline encouraged Neema to give Khan the benefit of the doubt Sahina was against it. She wanted Neema to be happy and khan clearly wasn't doing that for her.

"Of course there is something but it's hardly anything to go by. Every time I think I could make this work he proves me wrong, this back and forth is tiring and to be honest I don't think he is worth my stress," she had more important things to be worrying about like making sure her siblings and her baby were okay and finding her family. They were what was important to her, not Khan and his bipolar behaviour.

"But the mate bond is so special, you can't just throw it away," pleaded Emmaline, her eyes wide with fear of what she was hearing. Neema was a different type of human to her, one female could accept the way of her wolf whilst the other refused to.

Neema's voice rose with her ire, voice challenging the blonde haired female, "Why not? He's disregarded this so called 'bond' from the start so why should I try. He has only ever hurt me," head shaking in contempt.

"It is true. The bond is not something that is given, it is something you have to work for. My mate bond is the way it is because we worked, both of us! Khan clearly isn't doing that," Sahina's teeth clacked together as she spat out his name.

"Maybe this is his way of trying? Look at his family, no offence Carson," she grimaced in his direction before continuing on, "but they don't really look like the loving type, maybe he just doesn't know how to be what you need."

Neema's lips turned up as she replied, "That's a lot of maybe's, what do you think Carson?" the male's eyes blew wide, his tongue stuck to his gums as he struggled to reply. He was clearly uncomfortable with the topic of conversation especially as the topic was his brother and his families lack of love.

There was no correct answer and he had no idea how to give his opinion on a matter he had little to no experience on. He couldn't speak about love because up until now the only love he had ever received was the overprotective and crippling love of his mother and the dismissive kind of his father. When it came to his brother he knew even little about him, the male was over 100 years older than him and of a completely different class to him. They had never had a relationship and so he had no idea how he could help any of these females.

A soft voice provided the answer for him "It's a lot of maybes but I think that you're luckier than most. Least you've a mate that wants you. He may be crazy but least he is crazy for you" her eyes flickered to the side before she continued her sentence, her eyes wistful as her voice began to hush, "and not other females. He wants you, maybe you should at least talk to him about your fears," Vanya's lips pursed as she nodded her head one last time before going back to her silent search.

The impact of her words hit everyone differently, Neema tilted her head in contemplation as Emmaline smiled and nodded her head in agreement. Carson looked flustered before his face turned morose, his eyes flickering back and forth as he tried to form the words he desperately needed to say.

Sahina was the only one who spoke, her voice grouchy as she spat her final words on the matter, "If clawing up your mate is how we show our affection then you can count me out, I do not want a part of that kind of bond. No thank you, me and my mate are fine the way we are"

Her words were not directed at the young girl, at the age of 13 what did Vanya really know about Neema's issues with her mate. What did she even know about mates in general. Though parts of Vanya's sentence rang true, the majority were the words of a young wistful girl who craved to be loved in return. Her words bore little importance to Neema's choice though perhaps she did need to have a word with Khan.

"And to think I was pro-Khan at the beginning of this month," head shaking, she heaved a sigh in disappointment.

"Oh shut up Sahina you're just mad cos you aren't getting any from your mate, don't be a hater," tongue poking as she twisted her mouth around the weird expression, green eyes brightened with laughter.

The jovial words of Emmaline's words distracted everyone from the heated conversation they were having, eyes and voices crackling with mirth as they laughed at Emmaline's words.

Eyebrows wagging, she snickered back, "Girl, don't be hating on me, when my mate returns from his council duties you guys won't see me for a month," her phrasing was abnormal for Sahina's usually well articulated sentences but it only added to the hilarity of the sentence.

The female had been without her mate for over a month, her human male was a part of the council for the region and so he often had to visit other packs to them help reach decisions. His role was something he'd had to work hard for. It was one of the reasons why Sahina had been with him for 10 years and had yet to bore him a pup, but her time was coming. As soon as her male returned they all knew Sahina would be missing. Though her words were a joke she was not kidding, she would take a whole month to appreciate her male. It was the way the mate bond should be.

"But on a serious note, I think Vanya has a point. Just speak to him and see what happens after," Emmaline encouraged over the sound of their vivacious laughter.

"Yass, because you need to get some too," shouted back Sahina, tears trickling past her eyes as her and Emmaline high fived.

Their bodies bowing over as they laughed at their sexual innuendo's. Neema's lips were stretched wide as she chuckled at the two crazy women before her, they really made her experience here bearable. Everyone in this room did, Sahina with her constant support, Emmaline with her slightly warped positivity. Vanya with her staid quietness and Carson with his cuteness.

They were turning this compound into a home away from home.