The night was quiet, which I had known it would be. The dead male I had dumped a bit further from the tent had been a rather good deterrent. I wasn't going to lie, killing him had felt good. These males were scum and deserved that end. My wolf had wanted to continue with it, to purge the rest of the camp of all the shitty males.

He hadn't appreciated me denying him.

He could suck it up though. It made me feel a bit better to be able to deny him for once. He hadn't appreciated the thought but it meant little at this point in time. We had to ensure what we did, didn't come back on the females. Every iota of my chocies at the moment was to ensure the females were safe. I knew these types of males, they would take it out on the females. Cowardly, weak males always did. They always went for those weaker than them, more vulnerable, because they knew they wouldn't be able to go after those stronger.

It was disgusting.

Males like that didn't deserve to breathe air, so if more challenged me, I was more than willing to kill them as well. I had no patience for their bullshit. As Micheal and I stated, the only good rapist was a fucking dead one, and all the males here were rapists. They were lucky I had determined I would head to the hunter checkpoint about an hour from here and let them take care of them. Their fate at my hands would have been painful.

Through the night, I could feel Luke and Micheal pressing at the edges of my mind, trying to figure out how to get through my block. I made it as strong as I could to prevent just that. I needed to do this, to fix everything before Provacatio fell to ruins under Vera and Blake. He wasn't strong enough and she would end up leading them into war to follow her ambitions.

I had to do this. I could get everything put to rest, dead and buried. It was the only way and I had to do it alone. Luka and Micheal had families to think of, they couldn't spend that time helping me. Added to that, Luka had the pack and helping Shey. Then Micheal had Lilith. They couldn't be running around with me like that.

But now that it was dawn, I had to start getting shit done. My plan was to get the females to the checkpoi, alert the hunters to the illegal rogue pack, and then wait for them to disband them. I shook out my fur as I got to my feet. Luiz was still sleeping, his head on a bag. I shifted and grabbed the discarded sweats and yanked them on. The camp was sleeping, I could hear it. No one was really moving around from what I could tell. Which was good, we needed that to get out.

I turned and opened the tent. The females startled, some grabbing onto others and they all watched me with wary eyes. I stepped around them and headed for the cot where Julieta was. Her forehead had sweat beaded on it and she was clearly not comfortable. Her face was slightly flushed and her dark baby hairs were sticking to her hairline with sweat. I could smell the labour on her a bit thicker.

I tapped her shoulder and her eyes snapped open. She hadn't been asleep, I knew that much, she had been restless most of the night. Which made sense, she was getting pretty close to being in active labour, she wasn't comfortable enough to sleep. She stared up at me, those dark brown eyes intent on me before she grimaced, stiffening as she gripped her belly. I watched, mentally counting but it gave up after thirty seconds and she relaxed.

"Go now." I kept my voice low as I pointed to the tent door. "All go now." My first order of business was getting the females to safety. I wanted to leave now, with dawn's light, so the males wouldn't try to stop us. That and this was no place for Julieta to give birth, not here, not among these males.

"Where?" She looked wary as she looked up at me. I could see it as she gripped the blanket in tight hands. In fact all the females were wary of me, staring at me as if they were rabbits wanting to bolt.

"Go... safe." Words jumbled with images in my head and I knew I couldn't explain it to her properly. Any of them really. I hated it but thinking in skin was difficult. I was so used to images being my main form of communication. I knew that if I practiced it would be better but there wasn't any time to practice right now. "Safe." I repeated the word as I looked down at her.

She blinked up at me, a small crease appearing between her eyebrows. "Safe... you're taking us somewhere safe?" There was caution to her voice, a lot of it really, as she asked. I understood it, she probably didn't think there was anything about me she could trust. It was good for her to be skeptical, wary. Especially after everything that had happened to her with these shitty males.

I nodded though, "Go safe." I could tell she was struggling to trust me. She was a smart female; I didn't take offense to it. "Quiet." I pressed a finger to my lips. I didn't want the males to wake up and stop us from leaving. I turned to the other females and gestured to the tent door. "Go quiet. Go safe." All those eyes, almost twenty pairs of them, stared at me warily. "Quiet." I gave them a quiet shush signal as well.

No one moved but a female laying down beside the cot I had put Julieta, she stood up. "If he says we're going where it's safe. I'm going." She nudged Julieta gently with her knuckles and I watched as Julieta nodded and threw her legs over the edge of the cot. She gave another grimace and paused, breathing as she pressed her hand against her belly. We really needed to go, seeing the contractions twisting her face made me anxious. She needed to get where there would be medical help and healers.

She relaxed after a few tense moments and then stood up. The female looked concerned and I nudged her arm and she flicked her gaze to me. "Watch." I gestured to Julieta with my chin and after a few seconds she nodded her agreement, relaxing. With Julieta taken care of I headed for the tent door.

I could hear some murmuring behind me. "Can we trust him?" Someone whispered it and I tilted my head but slipped outside. They would work it out.

Luiz was up and I pressed my finger to my lips as he opened his mouth. "Females go. I go." I kept my voice low, a mere murmur. I hated that I couldn't just send him images to get my point across because he looked like he wanted to argue. "Females safe. I come back." I tilted my head as said it and he paused before nodding his acceptance.

I would come back once the females were safe in the hunters hands. We could deal with the males after.

I moved back to the tent and gestured to the females. "Go. Now." I stressed the word. The longer we lingered, the more chance the males would wake up to try and stop me. The female I tasked with watched Julieta nodded and started grasping females and pulling them to their feet.

"You heard him, we need to go now. Before the males wake up." Her hissed words seemed to have a better effect than my own order and within a few minutes I was leading the females from the camp. I had sent Luiz ahead to make sure the patrols wouldn't come across us and we met no resistance as we moved through the trees.

The females were quiet, which I appreciated, it allowed for me to listen for things outside of their feet moving over the debris on the forest floor. There was nothing out of the ordinary but I didn't let my guard down. The females were under my protection and I was going to ensure they made it to the hunter checkpoint safely.

It was about forty-five minutes into the walk before the female I had tasked with watching Julieta called out. I immediately turned around and moved along the line of females to see where Julieta was. She was at the far back, clearly lagging behind. "I'm fine!" Her voice was pained but agitated and I spotted her at the end. She was almost doubled over, holding onto the other female with white knuckles.

"You aren't, they're getting closer together and you can't walk through them." The concern was evident in the female's voice and there was a faint growl from Julieta that showed her disagreement. Her face was even more sweaty and she looked like she was in serious discomfort. I was more than aware that her labour had progressed a bit quicker than I would have liked.

"No! It's just some cramping." Julieta straightened up, letting gout a long breath, pressing a hand to her lower back as her head tilted back. "I'm fine."

I nodded at the female and moved over to Julieta's side before scooping her into my arms. I adjusted her and ignored her protest as I carried her back towards the front of the group. It was just another fifteen minutes and we needed to get there a bit quicker.

"I'm fine." She hissed it, glowering at me but the way her hands balled up into fists and she bared her teeth, let me know that was a lie. I ignored her protesting as I started leading the females again. We had about fifteen minutes to make it to the outpost.

"Where are we going?" Someone, clearly gaining some more confidence, asked it from the back.

"Somewhere safe, clearly." At the retort, I realized I kinda liked the female I had asked to watch Julieta. She didn't ask too many unnecessary questions and seemed no nonsense. I liked that. She was wary but she trusted me to an extent but I had a feeling she would fight if she felt she needed to. I respected that.

"This is all woods. What's so safe about it?" There was clear agitation in one of the other female's voices and I knew we needed to get to the checkpoint as quickly as possible before they devolved into refusing to go any further.

"We aren't stuck in that stupid fucking camp." The female drew closer and Julieta tried to wiggle out of my arms.

"Stay." I let out a tiny bit of my dominance and that had her stilling.

"I'm a damned, land whale! Put me down." She was pouting, I could tell she was from the petulance in her voice and when I glanced down, I was proven correct. Her bottom lip was sticking out just ever so slightly but that stopped as she sucked it into her mouth and bit down. She stiffened and I could see her belly stiffen. That was a full contraction and she breathed noisily through her nose and her face went even more red.

I felt for her, I did. She wasn't in a very good place to give birth and if I was sussing it out correctly, she didn't want to give birth. I didn't blame her, nor did my wolf. In nature female wolves would deny unwanted pups, leaving them to die. It was natural for it to happen, I knew why she would feel like that. The male she had probably been paired with, more than likely wasn't someone she wanted but felt she had to choose.

That sent a spike of anger straight through me at the thought. How many of these females felt the need to sell themselves for a bit of protection from the other males? It was sick and twisted and I felt the urge to burn down the entire camp and toss the males into the flames. It was wrong, against the natural order of things. A female wolf would let a male know if she was receptive or not and if she wasn't he felt it because she would give him teeth and claw as a reminder.

This was a perversion of our natural instincts. I bared my teeth slightly even as Julieta slowly relaxed in my arms as the contraction ceased. "I'm fine." She muttered the words but I ignored them. She wasn't and we all knew it but she could pretend if it made her feel better about it.

Every so often she complained about wanting to be put down and I pretended I didn't hear her. She wasn't too heavy and we were getting closer to the checkpoint. I wouldn't let her walk, not when the contractions seemed to be getting closer together. They were currently about five minutes apart, lasting only forty-five seconds but that was enough to make me slightly nervous.

I really didn't do labour, not really. I had alerted everyone to Shey's labours but experiencing them? It wasn't something I did. It was too much reliance on skin and I always preferred being a wolf. It was uncomfortable for me but I ignored it because I knew Julieta needed someone to be there for her, at least for now.

The other females had fell quiet but I knew it was a matter of time before their concerns would arise again but I could smell exhaust. We were close tot eh checkpoint. Once we were there, they would understand what I hadn't been able to tell them. That I had been taking them to safety.

Two minutes later I breeched the tree line and walked straight towards the rundown looking dive bar. There were some motorcycles out front that I ignored. I could feel the females hesitating, some stopping. Even the one that stuck close to me, talking to Julieta had paused. I turned and looked at her as I adjusted my grip on Julieta.

"Look, where the fuck are we?" She asked it bluntly and Julieta made a noise of agreement that had me giving a low rumble to try and calm her as another contraction seemed to steal her voice with a grunt.

"Hunters." I gestured to the building with my head. "Checkpoint." I watched as the realization dawned on the female. "Safe. Go safe." I turned and started walking again and I could hear the other females whispering about me taking them to the hunters.

"I can go home?" Someone's voice pitched upwards with hysteria and I stopped and turned back around.

"Hunters, go safe." I was feeling a bit agitated before I watched as about 90% of the females I had been leading, burst into tears. I blinked, suddenly feeling uncomfortable with it. They were crying, some were full on sobbing and what was worse, some were rushing towards me, trying to hug me. I did my best to avoid their hands, lifting Julieta slightly.

I didn't like that

At all.