I was surprised at how much calmer my wolf was sitting next to Julieta.

He definitely didn't like the car, that would probably be unchanging. We didn't do well in confined spaces, but he seemed a bit less agitated with her there. The bond was curious. While I felt it, was aware of it, it wasn't all consuming or pressing. It made me wonder if I had built up some sort of tolerance for it, for the compulsions of the bond. Like the years I had been fighting the bond I had against Vera had made it so I could brush off a vast majority of what it used to try and compel people to complete it.

As it was, I was content to sit there, my thigh pressed to hers, our pinkies linked. It was enough to calm the compulsions the bond always caused. I knew Julieta didn't need me pushing myself on her and it was enough for me. Besides I didn't need what the bond wanted. Me wanting her to come with us had little to do with wanting to complete the bond and more to do with giving her a fresh start away from Provocatio and all their bullshit traditions, especially around females and pregnancies.

She needed a place she could breathe and have perhaps go to therapy. I knew what Provocatio was like in regards to that. They didn't really believe in therapy and if there was one thing I had learned over the few years since Shey came around was that therapy was necessary when dealing with anything traumatic and Julieta had more than a little bit of nasty trauma to work through.

Who are they? Luka's voice pressed into my head through the mindlink between the three of us and I flicked my gaze to him. He was busy focusing on getting the car out of the small parking lot and back onto the main road out of the pack territory.

I pushed through images of Hilla and Julieta among the illegal rogue pack and then, hesitantly, pushed the image of that asshole with Julieta in the woods. I didn't really want to share it but I knew the two would understand and ensure they were careful around her. If my blood brothers were anything, they were considerate, especially when it came to trauma and traumatized females.

I felt their acceptance push back through the link and there was a bit of a pause before Micheal cleared his throat. And before that? I didn't miss how Hill and Julieta looked at him, as if expecting him to say something. That had a flash of amusement move through me, it was so easy to forget when it came to us as a group, that not everyone was privy to the inner workings of us. Everyone at Fortis would have understood we were having a conversation through mindlink but it was amusing to be reminded that our conversational quirks weren't the norm.

Hilla, don't know. I sent it with a shrug and was aware of the two females looking at me. I was also aware of Julieta's eyes narrowing slightly, as if she were trying to suss it out. Julieta friend's younger sister in Provocatio. I pushed images of what I slightly remembered and there was a small moment of realisation that both Luka and Micheal pushed back at me. They were aware of some of what life was like for me in Provocatio. It had always been bare bones because I hadn't wanted to revist it but it was enough.

"Super rude for y'all to be having a conversation and leaving us out of it." Hilla snarked slightly, her arms over her chest and I smirked slightly as Micheal snorted.

"Sorry. We were wondering who you two were and where Kiel picked you up." Micheal turned his head, glancing at the back. "You must be Hilla, and you must be Julieta." He pointed between them and then gave a small smile. "Sorry we forgot about introductions. It's been a... let's say a super stressful twenty-four hours." I didn't miss how Micheal threw me a look that stated how unimpressed he was with me about all of it.

"Yah. I'm missing my kids right now, Kiel." Luka threw a look in the rearview and I gave him an unimpressed look in return.

"Didn't need t' come." I shrugged slightly, trying to seem unbothered by it, amusement swirling around in my belly as Luka sputtered as if with disbelief.

"The fuck you mean we didn't need to come?" Luka sounded appalled and angry all at once. "All we got from you was 'Go now. Goodbye.' Like some sort of fucked up suicide note before you locked us all out of your mind!" The way he said it had me fighting hard to not smile or chuckle. It was a rude way to do it, it was, but how he was describing it was kinda funny.

"Yah, not cool, buddy." Micheal threw me a look and it took all my strength to not laugh.

Hilla beat me to it and she started cracking up. "Not gunna lie, that's kinda hilarious. Go now. Goodbye. Oh, fuck that has got to be the worst way to tell someone you're taking a sabbatical." She laughed loudly and I fought hard to keep the amusement off of my own face but I ended up cracking and smirking when Julieta let out a chuckle.

I gave her pinky a small squeeze as I looked out the window, trying hard to school my face back to normal. To my surprise she gave me a small squeeze back. "You gotta admit, that is kinda rude." She gave looking at me, I could feel her gaze on me but I refused to look over at her. I knew I would end up laughing if I did and that was the last thing I needed to do. Micheal and Luka were already pissed at me, there was no need to make it worse.

I went to push the feeling of teasing at her, to let her in on the amusement but when I couldn't find it, I realized that I couldn't. At least not yet. The feeling was disconcerting. It had been instinctive, to try and let her in on the joke. I hadn't even thought twice about it, or the fact she wasn't part of Fortis. It was interesting how quickly the bond reacted, how it shifted how I thought. I didn't mind it, the bond would be what it was but I would move along Julieta's timeline.

"I'm glad you two are sensible." Luka spoke with a bit of a snit in his voice and I had to really fight to keep from smiling. As it was I lifted my free hand and made like I was scratching my nose so the fractures in my rather neutral expression couldn't really be seen. "It was rude, Kiel, and I'm still pissed about it." He pushed his agitation at me as he said it and I couldn't exactly blame him. If Luka or Micheal had done something like that, I would have been livid.

It was just hard to feel bad at the moment, especially when Julieta was finding amusement in it. She needed to be able to laugh at more things and I wasn't about to put an end to it. She could be amused all she wanted, in fact I very much wanted her to keep finding amusement in things. It would help her through this rough patch. As Mari always said, baby steps still moved a person forward.

"Also, we are super fucking pissed that you took on that illegal rogue pack by yourself. Are you shitting me, Ezekiel?" Luka's grip on the steering wheel tightened and all amusement faded from inside me almost immediately.

I sent a heavy wave of denial to that. If they had come with me, people could have gotten hurt or worse. I risked myself and only myself because it was safer that way. The two of them would have tried a full on assault and it would have ended in people getting hurt, pack members potentially dying, or the females dying. What I had done was the best course of action.

"I mean I get being mad at him for that but to be honest, he managed to handle it really well. Not a single female got hurt and the only people who died were some of the illegal rogues so it was really no loss." It was surprising to hear Hilla come to my defence and when I glanced at her, Julieta was nodding as well.

"Yah. Adding more of you to that equation would have caused a lot of issues. As it was he barely got us out without injuries. The males were pissed at him and he managed to play them well enough. A full pack coming out? Yah good shifters would have died." Julieta squeezed my pinky with her own and I was... well I believed I felt happy that she was defending me. It was hard to tell with how skewed I was on mate bonds. Also happiness wasn't something I felt a lot, especially not in regards to a mate.

"Yah, take it from us. We were stuck there. There were a lot of packs who thought they could do a full on assault that ended up losing a lot of members and more females were tossed to the pens." The other female crossed her arms over her chest. "He did what he did but what he did worked. Better than literally every other attempt that had ever been made."

Julieta nodded again. "Yah, it sucks he didn't tell you guys but it was better that way. He was able to get all us female away and out and then let the hunters deal with them. No innocent parties hurt either. I call that a win."

I felt a small push of amusement from Micheal. Luka looked like he was white knuckling the steering wheel so he was clearly not too impressed but was holding his tongue regardless. "You speak highly of his tactics." Micheal really wasn't hiding it, he knew something was up and I also knew he was going to ask. It wasn't like I ever offered anything up for females and he wasn't a stupid male.

Hilla scoffed, "No shit. We're alive and not being beaten or raped and it's because of that caveman. So yah, we speak highly of him." She pointed at me and Luka gave a bark of laughter at that, breaking the tension that was stiffening the muscles in his shoulders and arms, and even Micheal chuckled.

"Yah, that's our Kiel, doing what's right, even when he's going about it all wrong." The words held a warning that the conversation wasn't over but then again I already knew that. The two of them were going to lecture me quite thoroughly when we got back to Fortis. Or if we stopped for the night, either way a lecture was going to be served up on a platter for me to deal with.

Julieta let out a small chuckle. "Well the road to hell he paved with his good intentions got us out of there soooo..." She trailed off, giving a small shrug and I looked down at her, smiling slightly. She really was cute. She was trying to look unbothered but I could tell she was anxious and-

She glanced up at me and her face went red and her eyes widened as she immediately looked away. She was an absolute mess in the cutest fucking way possible. I hadn't expected her to be so flustered from being around me but it was clear that was how she was currently expressing herself about our bond. It was cute. She was just fucking adorable on all accounts. Even with her red cheeks and her wide eyed look that bordered on horror.

She's your mate, isn't she? The push came from Micheal, as I had expected it to. He had been building up to it. I hadn't known the male for over a decade to not be able to read his expressions and what he was going to get at.

Yah. I pushed the moment the bond formed between us at him. It was fitting that I broke my bond with Vera and it formed with Julieta. She cute. It was the truth and I was finding a bit of fondness growing as I watched her try to desperately not look at me.

I'm glad but just... be careful, okay? I knew why he was warning me. I had just come off of a bond with a snake of a female who was liberal in her use of poison. He wanted me to be sure, to really look at it from all angles.

I go... her speed. I forced myself to think about the words as I sent them to him. I 'kay, she need...therapy. Lot therapy. I looked away from her, giving her a break and I could tell she appreciated it because she relaxed slightly.

Well she's going to the right place for that. Luka pushed it at me and I nodded as I looked out the window. We were pulling onto the main highway, leaving Provocatio behind.

"So, you wanna tell us your stories?" Micheal looked back and I watched as he gave them both an easy smile. He was always the more friendly of us two, the one that put others at ease. I could never be bothered. "Being stuck with illegal rogues is a shit thing, how did you end up there?" I leaned my head against the window as Julieta stiffened slightly. I gave her pinky a small squeeze, a small reassurance.

"Vera poisoned me because I formed a mate bond with Blake." It seemed to blurt out of her and there was a stiff silence that fell as Micheal's eyes hardened and went wide before Luka gave a strained chuckle.

"Is it too late to turn this car around so we can beat her ass?" He glanced at me and Hilla cracked up at that. I was glad she found amusement in it, even more so as Julieta gave a chuckle as well. I just nodded. It was far too late for that.

"She go Void. Too late." I shrugged, I was done with that side of my life. I was leaving it behind but I was glad that they were reacting like that.

"What a fucking bitch." Micheal had a look of heavy distaste, his lip curled. "Like I know we hated her before but come on. What a psycho fucking bitch!" He turned to face the front, his arms crossing over his chest. I smiled at that slightly. He was going to have to chew that info for a while before he would feel up to revisiting that particular conversation.

"I agree completely. I don't hit females but I would probably make an exception for that bitch." Luka looked like he had sucked on some lemons and I snorted.

"No. You send Shey." He wouldn't do it himself but he would 100% send Shey to beat the shit out of Vera for him. She would gladly do it as well, that female loved a good brawl.

Luka gave a small chuckle, shaking his head slightly. "You're right, but I would cheer her on from the sidelines while Vera got dragged by her hair." That brought the memory of Hilla doing it to the forefront and I started chuckling before I pushed it to them both. Which resulting in both Luka and Micheal laughing loudly.

Micheal turned in his seat and held out his hand towards Hilla. "Give me a high five. Kiel just showed us you dragging Vera around by her hair."

At the quick explanation Hilla looked smug but gave him a solid high five for it. "The hunters didn't even get involved. The witch said she was there to deal with poisoning, not assault. I took that as permission to keep going." She looked hilariously smug as she said it and Luka put his hand over the back of his seat and Hilla gave him a high five as well.

I nudged Julieta as she chuckled. "It funny." I nudged her again and when she glanced over and made a pinching motion with my fingers. "Just lil bit."

She shoved at me, fighting a smile. "You're a fucking dork." She looked away, her cheeks red and I chuckled, unable to help myself.

She needed to stop being so fucking cute.