"I know, I'm sorry you were worried but I am not a little kid. I'm 23!"

Jana was fuming. She had tried to sneak into the compound without being caught but she had not even made it through the threshold before she was being attacked by her hysteric family.

Her brothers and father were furious; they had been admonishing her for the past three hours with no respite and her mothers had been emotional. Neema and Felicity together were the worst combination ever because each woman fed the others fear and exacerbated it.

She had not even had the opportunity to wash herself or to eat. When she had tried to make an escape towards the hall she had been trailed by a pack of people howling and moaning in her ear. They were pushing her to her breaking point, there was only so many apologies a person could give until they became fed up. She was inclined to give up already. Her tree outside the compound was looking mighty tempting right now.

"You say you are not a child and yet you sneak around like a guilty teenager"

Khan was growling like some deranged wolf, Jana had never seen him as enraged as he was now and she had seen him pretty mad. Khan's jaw was twitching his eyebrows set in a deep scowl, making that scar across his eyebrow pop ferociously.

"Do you know what could have happened to you? Out there by yourself!"

Jana knew that stepping foot outside of the compound walls was always dangerous, with or without company. So if Khan had been shouting at her for that then she could fully understand his reasoning but he wasn't because he wasn't aware that she had stepped foot outside his precious walls.

He was oblivious to the fact she had ran right past his patrolmen and scaled the walls of her personal prison cells. Khan was oblivious to that. what him and the rest of her family were so enraged about was the fact that Jana had entered the forest alone, a forest that was constantly patrolled throughout the day.

Jana was aware that the patrols were not 100 percent effective, if they were then she would not have made it outside the compound on numerous occasions without being detected. Khan did not know that though, he thought that those sky high walls that separated the pack forest from the outside world was secure. The only reason the forest posed a threat was because she was human and even worse a female.

"I get it. I shouldn't have been gone for so long. I already said sorry for that."

She was becoming flustered with all the glares she was receiving from her exceedingly large family. They sat by the long wooden table watching the conversation giving their avid support of the Alpha male whenever needed.

They could glare all they liked. They could be mad at her all day long if it pleased them but they would never understand what it was like being Jana. She was the second eldest but still treated like some inferior little child. A child who needed mummy and daddy's protection from the big bad world.

She was twenty-three goddamn it, how many times did she need to tell them that. Did she have to get herself knocked up or mated to some unknown wolf for them to see her for what she was. A grown woman. Not some little pup, but a fully fledged, hormonal woman.

"NO," growled Khan as his fist smashed down on the table he leaned upon. The wood splintering around him as he thumped the table again for good measure. The sharp cracking sound of the crumbling table corner was melded with her startled gasp of surprise. Jana always forgot how volatile Khan could get when he felt like he was being challenged or just plain angry.

"That is not what you should be sorry for," his voice was laced with disappointment and thinly veiled anger. Shaking his head, he threw the remaining debris from the table onto the tiled floor.

"I want your apology for worrying your family, Neema could be pregnant... The stress you caused might not be good for them."

Jana's face was screwed up in disgust at his stupid reason.

"When is Neema not pregnant and stressed?"

She threw out, her hand swinging to point out her multiple siblings sitting among them. Neema had an uncanny ability for getting pregnant easily. She seemed to spend most of her life pregnant, which was just as well because she liked having a baby in her arms.

Having children around her always added a prep into her step. As soon as Jana or one of her sisters were mated Neema would stop having children. Until then she would keep popping them out like an addict does his pills.

Snickers rose around them at her comment adding fuel to the already burning inferno.

"That is not the point! We were worried Jana! WORRIED!"

His brown face had turned blotchy with rage as the snickers turned into grunts of agreement. The forest was dangerous and she could be attacked by wild animals and all that jazz. She had heard about the "dangers" all her life but she had yet to be harmed in the 13 years she had been stepping into the forest unattended.

"Why? Why were you so worried?" her voice had dropped extremely low as she asked for the answer that she knew would send her stark raving mad.

The tension around them increased, wafting about and chocking them with its invisible hands. Wringing any calamity that was left from the atmosphere. Everyone was aware that his answer would only serve to anger Jana beyond the reach of reason.

That brink where all her sanity dissipated into nothingness, and she was surrounded by a ruby haze of madness. Her hands were twitching by her side as she watched Khan sputtering about for an answer.

"It's dangerous for you," he gritted out.

Khan could sense that any control he had held over the situation was slowly drifting through his fingers. Jana had successfully flipped the situation making her the accuser and him the defendant. She was great at these games. Always able to manipulate arguments that were not in her favour, to bring out the faults of everyone else without even trying.

"Let's not sugarcoat it, Dad," she grinned manically as she stressed the title she had given him. The revered position in her life that she had allowed him to have, through her choice and no one else's, "you don't want me out there because I'm human!" she shouted.

She could feel the metaphorical hackles rising as she mentioned his reasons. Khan would never admit it out loud but he typically skirted around these topics because he did not want to be discriminatory to her race. Whether he voiced it or not, his ideal about humans had never changed. He believed humans were weaker species who should be kept under the watchful eye of a big strong wolf, especially the females.

The beat downs Neema had given him over the years had clearly not worked at all, because he was still stuck in his stubborn ways twenty years down the line.

"Jana don't put words into Khan's mouth," called Neema, ever the mediator.

"We just worry for your safety," she tried to placate Jana with her soft, gentle tones but her words only sent her further down the decline of madness. Of course she would try to justify their warped overprotective behaviour.

"Well don't bloody care then! Just don't!"

She was tired of being an outsider among her own family. Caillum was a man among wolves. He could pave his own path because that was what was expected of him. He was encouraged to fight wolves and go into the forest alone, even stay days outside the compound to train in the wilderness.

He had never experienced the level of sheltering she had received all her life. They had thrust Caillum out there with all the other little pups at the age of six so he could learn along the best and fastest. While they kept Jana wrapped in her pretty little packaging, only coming out when it was time to find her mate.

The same sexist ideals her ancestors had fought for hundreds of years ago and won were still prevailing in this archaic society. She was not going to end up like Neema.

No offence to her mother figure and sister but she was not a breeding machine to have kids by the dozen to prove her husband's virility. She had plans for herself and this family were getting in the way. She wanted to no what it felt like to be free, to not have her family scrutinise her every move. She wanted adventure and she needed to find herself, Loosing Jeremy had left her desolate and alone.

"Do not take that tone with me" shouted Neema at the same time her brother Micah screamed "That's stupid and you know it!"

His indignation at her remark had her stepping back in shock. Micah never interfered in arguments, never voiced his opinions in anything above a raised whisper. He was the one who always hated shouting, hated the loudness of their family. He preferred to read his books instead of engaging in the political debates Roarke, Khan and Caillum often participated in. He was a silent member of the family, the brother she had always found her solace in but but now even he was turning against her.

They were attacking her from all angles until she was left withered and willing.

"We are your family Jana, and it's our flipping job to tell you that you are not strong enough to be out there yourself! It's a hard truth but one nonetheless," He stood abruptly and began pacing the room as he continued shouting at her.

Tears unconsciously fell from her eyes as she watched the change in her younger brother.

He looked so much like his father this way. All this time she had thought he was least like Khan, but he was made in his father's image. He had just learnt to veil that obsessively mad streak all his children carried and though she loved her father there were traits of his she hated. To see them in her brother broke her heart, especially when his anger was directed at her.

"He is right Jana. We have to let you know that you can't do it anymore. If..." Khan cleared his throat and patted his panting son on his shoulder as he prepared himself to mutter the words that would surely make him loose his daughter for good.

"If we have to get you a guard or bar your windows then we will do that."

Neema stood behind him in support, the two a united front against her openly displayed turmoil and angst.

"You would make me a prisoner, in my own home" she spat, her hands shaking with her uncontrollable despair.

She could not believe that they would do this to her. That they would force their will on her like she was some inferior pest, that needed to be stomped down into submission. She would not let them take her freedom from her.

"I'm done," she sobbed the word as her heart ached for the loss she faced. She couldn't compromise her identity to appease her family, they would never allow her to be herself if she conceded to their wishes. She had to be done, or else the pain would kill her. Either way she would be loosing.

"Jana, love," murmured Neema as she stepped towards her with her arms opened wide, as if a measly hug would soothe her.

Jana retreated from her family as if they were strangers. At this very moment they were, she never dreamed they would dare take her her freedom from her over something so trivial. Especially Neema, a woman who told all of her children about the way she fought Khan, fought the prison cell he placed her in when he forced her into mating him. Neema should know but in her contentment she had clearly forgotten, or perhaps she did not care.

Shaking her head in denial she wiped at the continuously flowing tears as an incredulous laugh tumbled from her lips. Swiping at the stray droplets furiously as they continued to fall, she continued laughing hysterically.

"I'm so done!" she threw out as she made her way to the door.

Stopping before she reached it, she turned back around and made her way towards her weary family.

"I've been outside your precious compound walls and all I found there was oblivion from this,"

Her hands were clenched at her side as the words dripped from her mouth. Her voice devoid of all emotion she previously felt. They seemed shocked by her confession, Khan most of all but she was beyond caring about their emotions.

"You want me under lock and key until I'm mated even if I'll hate you for it."

She watched all of their faces, their faces so straight with conviction. They were sure that she would yield, that she would bend to their will like she always had but Jana was tired. This was a family, not a dictatorship and if they could not respect her choices then she was done respecting them. What good was family when all they did was hurt you. Of course they loved her, but it was warped, distorted. They could not understand her dedication to Jeremy nor could they understand the struggles of a young human female living in a wolf dominated world.

"Well you have your wish, I'll be mated."

Khan's face softened as she conceded to his wishes, a sigh of relief heaving from his chest. His hands rubbing at a teary Neema's back as he soothed his heartbroken mate.

"I'll be mated as soon a possible and when I am, I will be leaving this godforsaken compound and never returning. So get a good look at me now. Because I am done with this family. DONE!"

She marched out of the hall as soon as the words were out of her mouth, not one ounce of regret floating in her mind. They had gotten their wish, she only hoped they could live with it because she was going to thrive with her choice.

How could she go wrong when she would be mated to a blonde giant who oozed sex appeal from his very pores. A man who knew her to be a wild animal from the start, he would never imagine taming her.

Sure he was patronising and overtly cocky but at least she would have her freedom. It was more than she would have here.

He would want her, of that she was sure. After all a man did not give a nickname to a woman he did not plan to have.

Pójdźka, whatever that meant.