I watched as the last few females were sent quietly over to the tent. The male who challenged me was laying in the dirt. I didn't care if he was dead or not. I couldn't be seen as weak and they were disgusting. I would have been content to kill them all to be honest. I could smell their ill intent, their rotten cores, the evil they were filled with. They were worse than the old way bastards.

You could trust the old ways to be pricks but they would somewhat follow the laws. Illegal rogues? Most of them spent their lives brutalizing everyone they came across. I could see it. The females looked shell shocked, I couldn't see a single one that wasn't bruised outside of Julieta. That I could see, that is. Who knew what bruises there were that weren't visible.

However, the females had been mistreated. I knew they would be before I had walked into the camp. I just didn't expect how badly it seemed. I had spotted one female in the back of the crowd with a black eye and I knew I would need to separate them off. I knew the females were freaking out but that wasn't my problem. My issue was separating the females from the males and figuring out how to get rid of all the males. My wolf gave a low growl and he sent me images of attacking, the feeling of bone between teeth, blood coating our tongue.

It was hard to resist it. I liked fighting, it was why Luka and I got into it so often. The fighting orientated me, made me feel like I had a proper place. That something in my life was going my way, that I was making the decisions in the direction my life was going. It liked doing it. It was like it gave me purpose.

"This is bullshit! Those females are communal property!" A male tried to go by me as Luiz ushered the last females into the tent and I clamped my hand down on his throat.

"No." I rasped thr single syllable before squeezing, letting him know I was more than fucking serious. I tilted my head as he choked, grabbing at my hand to try and get it off. His face was turning red and I watched with interest before I let him go. He staggered away, coughing and choking. I was aware of the males that were throwing me wary looks. That was good.

I wanted them wary.

I pointed to the tent as Luiz zipped it closed. "Mine." I threw out my dominance, staring out into the crowd and narrowed my eyes. They needed to understand the females weren't to be touched. They were mine now according to their fucked up rules. I turned and shoved the sweats off before I shifted. The male I had knocked out seemed to be coming around and when my wolf and I walked by, his eyes opened. I snarled at him, a dark and deadly sound and he scrambled away almost sloppily.

I moved and laid down in front of the entrance to the tent, my eyes scanning the crowd while my wolf happily urged me to attack, to show these shit males our teeth and claw for all they did. I let him, it would be good for one of us to release that aggression without starting a full on battle.

Luiz shuffled closer, moving a bucket as he sat down on it. I knew what was coming but I could also ignore it. "Been a long fucking time since I've seen you like this, Ezekiel. You got a lot of scars." He spoke low and when a male glanced over, I bared my teeth and he looked away. I narrowed my eyes before standing up. They were all too fucking close.

I stalked forward, my hackles raised down to the tip of my tail and I growled heavily. They backed up quickly but when I snarled they all dispersed, retreating rather hastily. I returned to my post and could see Luiz glancing at me. I could smell the wariness that radiated off of him, sour almost. I didn't care about that. I rested my lower jaw on my paws and watched, listening as well. The females were mine to protect and I would ensure they were safe. I just wasn't quite sure of all the details just yet.

Thinking made my head hurt. I didn't want to have to plan anything but I also didn't want to listen to Luiz rattled on about his own plans. I had little tolerance for that, not since everything that happened. "You're bigger than I remember." It was easy to tune him out, so I did. I focused on the sounds the males were making. I could hear hushed conversations. They weren't happy with me but they also weren't willing to test me, at least not yet. I knew someone would. If not tonight, it would be soon.

Luiz spoke in low tones about how he had hated what had happened between us as Provocatio. I only listened to the murmur of it, allowing my wolf closer so he could help listen for any signs of approach. "I thought you would be able to beat him. Blake was a shitty little upstart. It should have been a slam dunk for you, but you got your ass handed to you. I don't know how the fuck it happened. Neither did Antonio. "

The words pulled unpleasant memories up and my wolf growled, the sound echoing in my own chest slightly before I huffed. There was no reason to get into it. It was all hearsay anyway. Nothing that anyone would believe if I told them. Mates didn't do as Vera did but there was no point in explaining it when there was no fucking proof.

"I always wanted to ask you about it. It made no sense. You were fucking out of it." At his words I flicked my gaze over to him, watching as he shook his head, resting his elbows on his knees. "Tony and I hated that we had to banish you. We even looked back in the records to see if we could some how override the traditions but it was pointless. Maybe after several years of campaigning but if we did it outright for you, it would have been seen as favouritism."

I huffed out breath at his words, wanting to roll my eyes. My wolf bared his teeth, my own lip twitching upwards. A stick cracked to the left and I turned to look in the direction immediately but could see a male taking a piss. His urine was potent and my wolf curled up his lip, thrown me the image to cover up the scent with our own. I shoved at him for it. There was no point in that shit, not right now. It was insignificant against what we were currently facing.

"Then Julieta got challenged. Like about five years after you and I had to watch as she was kicked out. I hated that." His words caught my attention and I tuned into him quickly. Julieta had been kicked out? That didn't sit right with me, at all. "Vera challenged her because she formed a bond with Blake. Julieta vehemently said she didn't want anything to do with him but the challenge was issued anyway."

That sounded like something Vera would do and I bared my teeth, a low rumble escaping my chest. It made me hate her that much more. Julieta would have been just nineteen at the time and Vera would have been thirty. Vera liked vulnerable targets, she never would have challenged an older female, I knew that fucking much.

"And you know Julieta, she never took to fighting. Vera wiped the floor with her. Tony had to hold me down, I wanted to jump into it. That was my baby sister and she couldn't hold her own. If I didn't know any better, I would have thought she was drunk." That statement had me turning my head to look at him completely. He was staring at his hands, rubbing at his palm.

Drunk.

He thought she was drunk.

My wolf bared his teeth and snarled in my head as I drew the only conclusion with what I knew.

Fucking wolfsbane.

Vera couldn't just beat down a teenager, she had to fucking poison her too. Just like she had me. I shifted, crouching on the ground as I pointed at Luiz. "You. How you?" The words garbled up in my throat and I bared my teeth in agitation.

"What?" Luiz looked over at me in surprise and confusion.

"Why you-" I snarled, trying to get the words out. "Leave. Why you leave?"

"I didn't. Blake challenged me and I got my ass handed to me. My milk in ny coffee must have been bad, it made me sick. I was off my game." He shrugged slightly. "Maybe I just wanted it to happen so I could find Julieta. She had been gone for over four years at that point. I wanted to find her because she stopped writing to me about two months prior."

The rage I felt at the words had me almost choking. Of fucking course. It was in Vera's playbook. I would guarantee that she had some how slipped Luiz wolfsbane as well. I couldn't believe her. I probably should have believed it. She was a power hungry snake, her ambitions were endless. This made a sickening amount of sense. A heavy, heated growl rattled my chest and throat.

"It took me almost two years to find her. She was with these rogues but sometimes last year she was taken by these bastards." He gestured around to the camp. "Took me a while to find them and join so I could save her." He grimaced and I blinked, swallowing the snarls and growls.

That was three people. Three. I could imagine that she wasn't done. I could almost guarantee that she would be going for Antonio next. I thought hard, as much as I disliked it. I felt a throb in my head but I shook it off. She would do it again and Provocatio would suffer for it.

The realization hit me hard and I bared my teeth at it. Luiz was talking to me again but the words were drowned out by the rage buzzing through me and my wolf.

We had to go back.

I closed my eyes and breathed, trying to push the rage down as I felt pressure against the mindlinks with Luka and Micheal. They were worried, it was clear. I pushed it all down, trying to make my mind empty before I pushed back at them.

What's going on? Luka's voice was almost harsh with his worry and I breathed slowly, calming the rage down.

Come on, you need to tell us what's going on. Micheal's response had me baring my teeth.

Go now. Goodbye. I pushed the words at them both and shut the mindlinks down as tightly as I could, barricading them out of my head. I shut down all the links to the pack but one slipped through.

Good luck, Kiel. Remember we love you. Lilith's voice was soft as it breezed through my mind, something calming about it, but she didn't linger, she never lingered. It gave me pause, she never mindlinked outside of Micheal on rare occasions but it bolstered me in my decision.

We had to go back to Provocatio and deal with Vera once and for all.