The crowd of men moved forwards like a wave rocking against the ocean bed as more people trailed out of the bushes, this time women and children. What had first seemed like a deserted area was becoming full with loud and boisterous people who pulled Simeon and his men in but left her out. Their mumbles of Alpha crashed over her, drowned out her senses until all that she could do was watch. Watch as Simeon enveloped his people around him and left her in the cold.

She stood by, the outsider watching as these wolves celebrated in what she could only imagine was a long awaited homecoming. Was this home? She stood in the middle of a brightly lit forest, walls of natures green and brown surrounded her but there were no buildings, no huts, no tall brick or steel walls, nothing. Nothing but nature and a few of mans creations. The odd wire or pipe intertwined with the trees but there was no home. Surely this was not where they lived, where someone expected her to live.

Stepping away for the car, glowing eyes met her as they glowered in her direction, watching, waiting. The back of the crowd followed her every move, they took in how her chest raised as her heart rapidly thumped in anxiousness. When she stepped further away from the car they made their displeasure known, hackles rising as they postured towards her. The children pushed further into the crowd as males and females snarled in her direction. Their growls causing the hair on her arms to stand as she looked for Simeon.

The male was in the middle of the crowd making his way through the forest, hands stroking against cheeks and shoulders as he greeted the many faces. His mate forgotten as he reacquainted himself with his wolves. The Alpha had returned.

Pushing further away from the car, she took the plunge. Shoulders straight she headed through the feral crowd. The whinny high pitch of warning growls were heard before she felt the first slice, her arm cut open as her liquid trickled through. They circled around her. There was no escape from the back, only forwards. They had warned her and now she had to learn, she was not one of them and they would greet her in the same way they greeted unfamiliar faces.

Every step she made closer was met by a snarl of some wolf, teeth bared, fangs descended as drool trickled from their mouths. These wolves were different, even in human form they were feral. She could see it in their eyes, the way they scented her out, sized her up as if she were a meal but Jana was no turn coat.

Growling back, she shoved her way through the moving crowd, nails ripping as she scored at the wolves who tried to pick at her. Their nails slicing across her skin, claws plunging deep as females pulled at her hair and children stuck their feet out. A large shoulder shoving her forcefully.

Her hands came forwards as she braced herself for the impact of her body meeting the dirt but a hand fisted her hair and yanked her up, stopping her fall and then she was shoved further into the crowd. Her warm liquid essence slid down her cool body and seeped into her clothes, the smell was subtle, shrouded by the pungent smell of wolf and mud.

Hands got rougher as people became more vicious, spitting and kicking her as she continued pushing through in hopes of finding Simeon.

Words accompanying actions as they dragged her about like a ragdoll, bitch, whore, sewage scum, filth. They pelted their words at her along with their fists and feet, beating their hatred into her ears and body.

A large black male stood before her, his body blocking her from getting closer to the Alpha as his canines descended and a crazed look entered his eyes, hatred ebbing from his body.  At the sight of him a flicker switched in Jana's mind, she was no prey, no victim to these wolves. If they wanted blood she would give it to them.

Straightening her shoulders, she stared the male down as she forced the crowd to shift around her and when hands reached for her she met them with the hard of her fist. There was no holding back now. Forcing her body closer to the male she met his claws with the chill of her own pair.

Her metal against claw was no match. She sliced through the male like it was light work, twisting the knife for good measure as his eyes widened in shock. His large form crumpled in on himself as she climbed over his body and continued pushing through the sludge of people. Silver meeting brown, white, black, tan and drawing red. Always drawing red.

By the time she reached Simeon she was nearly as feral as his crowd of supporters, the line between her sanity had been crossed and she was slowly descending into complete madness. The next wolf who approached her in anything less than a smile would learn a different kind of lesson about the eldest daughter of Khan Manasseh. Gripping his sweaty arm, she yanked his large body towards her as she growled at the ginger male who attempted to attack. Simeon's eyes widened as he took in what was definitely a bloody sight.

"Remember me?" her voice full of anger as she gripped Simeon's arm tightly but pointed her silver knife at the male who had greeted them. His body moving as the crowd shifted with him, their bodies posturing to attack the imposter. Circling around her, curling around her back as teeth nipped hot on her heels but she did not loose her focus. Her hand remained steady as she pointed at the ginger but her eyes focused on the wolf who was supposed to be her male.

"Now would be the fucking time to introduce me to your wolves" voice raising as she shifted her knife in Simeon's direction, the metal touching his chest but not penetrating skin.

It was enough though, ginger hair melted into brown fur. The male moved so stealthily she nearly missed it but she had been trained excessively. More than any other family member because the weak human needed to know how to protect herself, and protect herself she did. Her silver knife slipped from her hand and found its perch in the shoulder of the pouncing brown wolf, propelling the male into the crowd and forcing them a few paces back.

"Godamn wolves" she mumbled as she pushed on Simeon's shoulder to get his attention.

Howls of vengeance reverberated through the night, eyes flickering to an unnerving red as jaws realigned into snouts. That third form of their wolves pushing forward as they prepared themselves for their attack. The wolves yelping and growling in anger was shushed by the screeching howl of Simeon.

His hands wrapped around the back of Jana's neck as he growled over her, his snout elongating as he yanked her closer towards him, his claws slicing into her skin. His anger rolled over her, the bubbling boiling anger that melded over her like lava. Saliva dribbled from his canines as his face twisted, fur rising along his skin as his body enlarged. 

"My mate!!" his mangled voice snarled as he clutched her small body to his, his voice echoing through the lit forest. His eyes hardening in warning to each wolf, growls tumbling through his chest and out of his snout as he stared each twitchy member down. Eyes lowered and necks bared in submission Simeon released a final howl before he turned on his heel and marched through the forest. Jana's upper arm in his fingers as he dragged her behind him.

"About bloody time" she mumbled under her breath, clearly not paying attention to the sour mood he was in.  Her displeasure made known to him as curse words flew from her mouth with every bush or branch she forced from her face. Grass crunching beneath her feet she stomped on the earth as she followed Simeon, his third form still peaking through his skin though he had begun to shrunk back in size.

"Not now woman," his garbled voice rumbled deep within his chest as his fingers clenched around her arm tighter, nails biting. The menace wafted off his body in overpowering waves. Simeon was livid.

"Now never seems to be an opportune time for you, mate," she grumbled, tone surely at another one of his dismissals. Simeon was grating on her nerves. This whole situation was.

Simeon completely ignored her as he dragged her faster through the shrubbery with little care until they exited on the other side. The shrubbery gave way to a large clearing area that was filled with over a hundred different tents, their forms large as they stretched towards the sky. Each tent was marked differently, some marked in blue patterns and others in black. Simeon gave her a minute to take in the sight before he continued dragging her throughout the camp, some wolves remained inside the camp their faces shuttering with anger at the sight of her before nodding at Simeon.

A large pit filled with burning wood was at the centre of the camp alongside one of the largest tents. Forcing the flap open he shoved Jana inside, following behind her as he closed the sheet that covered the entrance to the tent. The material blocked seeing eyes and not overhearing ears but Simeon did not spare that thought.

"What the fuck was that, you just attacked an Alpha" his face red with fury as he boxed her in against one of the wooden planks that kept the tent up. His fists were clenched tightly at his sides as he glared at Jana, face and tone accusatory.

For a minute she went silent, completely silent as her eyes took in his irate form, his back straight as his nostrils flared. He stunned her, he stunned her into absolute silent. The man questioned her as if she had been in the wrong, was she not the female covered in her own blood, her pores still open as they dribbled with her red. He should be enraged but not at her. He should be enraged for her.

"Are you crazy? That godamn Alpha was pouncing at me! At me!" her finger thrust to her chest as she beat down on it, emphasisng her point with the resounding thud "And I'm in the wrong for stabbing him?" she asked incredulously, her eyes widening in disbelief at Simeon's absurdity. Surely he wasn't mad at her, he couldn't be.

"You had a silver knife in your hand Jana, what was he supposed to think, eh?" his accent becoming heavy with every word he barked out. Hands shifting as he gripped her hair and yanked it lightly forcing her to stare up at him in the uncomfortable positon.

"He was supposed to think that I was fucking protecting myself from those mangy mutts who were attacking me!" she screamed, her frustration mounting as the seconds ticked by.

She had not left her sheltered home to become the punching bag of some self entitled and clearly deranged wolves. She was not about to be treated like some lesser being so Simeon and his band of feral animals had better learn fast because Jana wasn't about to wait around for them to realise it. The Alpha male had been attacking her, all of them had been. Since the moment she has stepped foot in that car Simeon's friends had been making snide comments to her and it had only escalated.

All she had done was defend herself, it's all she seemed to be doing these days.

"For god's sakes Simeon, I'm covered in blood and its all mine," she sighed her face forlorn as she tried to get him to release his grip on her hair. She was resigned, no matter how loud she shouted Simeon was not hearing her. He was too stuck in his fury to hear her words.

"Mangy mutts?" he shouted his eyes blown wide as the dark brown deepened into a black and the changed into burning, flickering red, "Skurwysyn, you think I mutt too, heh?" words missing from his sentence as he grabbed her chin in his hand, fingers biting into her body as his claws began poked through his nail beds. Body shaking in fury

"Is that all you heard?" teeth gritting as tears gathered in her eyes and mixed with her trickling blood. 

"No I don't think you're a mutt, but those wolves out there," her hands clasping his fingers as she tried to lessen the pain of his sharpening nails, "they are, they attacked me and instead of protecting me you're here attacking me as well" her voice crackling in disappointment.

This day had gone from bad to worse, she regretted ever coming here. She had trusted that the small glimpse of the kind Simeon she had met at the dinner was who he would always be around her but instead she was met with this. She would be damned if she would stay where she was clearly not wanted, nor would she ever be in an abusive relationship. If Simeon would claw her skin every time he felt she did something wrong, then she would be out of here the moment he released her chin.

She should have gone to stay with Lara instead of following this male.

Tears flowed unchecked down her face as the month's tribulations beat down her, she was alone in this world. Her family had turned against her, they had made her a prisoner in her own home and then she had met Simeon. A man who had seemed like the answer to all her prayers, he was handsome, he was strong and more importantly he wasn't from her compound. He had whisked her away like prince charming on his noble steed only to transform into a monster. She had been met with such hatred from all fronts, she just couldn't take anymore.

All her anger flew from her body replaced by a deep rooted emptiness. She hadn't realised how much hope she had placed on Simeon being her saviour but the male had let her down, he was nothing but a crook.

"Let me go Simeon," big globs of tears trailing down her face as she tried to remove his hands, "let me go so I can leave," she cried. Her voice hiccupped as her big brown eyes stared into the flickering red of Simeon's until the red filtered out into black.

His hands moving from her neck as he took a step back, face thrown into shock as he looked at the blood that lingered on his fingers and trickled along his palm. The blood of his mate.

As if broken from his trance his eyes moved towards Jana taking in her shivering form, clothes torn apart in long gashes. Her hair tumbled in disarray around her shoulders, knots formed as loose strands of hair hung from the ends, ready to fall out from the rough tugging of vicious wolves. Bruises had begun to form on her arms and legs and her chin was covered in a scarlet stain. Streaks of clear running through the red made by her constant flow off tears.

"Jana," he sighed eyes mournful as he took in the crumpled sight of his mate.

Her hands came out in front of her body when he took a step towards her as if she were protecting herself from him! From him, when he was the male what was supposed to protect her.

"I want to go, move so I can go," she hiccupped, one hand whipping the tears as she watched him wearily, his body moving closer and closer until he could engulf her body in his arms. Her hands pushing at his chest as she tried to force him away, her body moving erratically in a panic. Her body stiffened in resignation before she melted into his skin, the bond zapping in contentment and lulling her heart.

His mouth hovered over her ear as he mumbled his apologies, his fingers stroking her back as he tried to comfort her in her tears. His skin damp with the liquid he caused.

"I can take the claws Simeon, I can but not from you", she murmured along his salty skin, her lips rubbing against his chest as she buried her face deep, "how can I when I'm meant to lay in your arms and feel safe?"

She didn't love him, there was not one ounce in her body that felt that emotion towards him but the bond she felt for him spoke of trust and protection. The bond encouraged her to find her sanctuary in his arms, even now when he had hurt her the bond was telling her to lay her head on his chest for comfort. He was supposed to comfort her and protect her and if he would not do that then what good was having a mate.

"No more, I promise. No one will hurt you" his cool breath trickling in her ear as he filled her with what she knew were empty promises.

She could not trust Simeon but she found that she really wanted to, she wanted to make this work. He was not a male worthy, not like Jeremy who had never put a finger to her in anger or used a raised voice in annoyance. Simeon was fire, he burnt her. He burnt her with his anger but his passion, his passion melted her. No man had done that.

She had never felt a connection like this with anyone else, as much as she disliked Simeon she felt this strong sense of belonging. Like with him was where she was meant to be.

It was all cliché but Jana found herself listening to the bond even though it went against her better judgement.

Releasing all her tension she rested her head on his chest, her eyes shuttering as the rumble of his voice soother her to sleep.

----
Skurwysyn = Son of a bitch