"Well this is awkward" murmured Jana as she held Carina's hand.

The woman's mouth ripped up in a half hearted smile before she started coughing and splattering blood all over the place.

"You got me good" she croaked, her eyes flickering as sweat gathered on her brow.

"It seems I'm territorial over my things" replied Jana dryly, though there was a tinge of worry in her voice. Carina was bleeding profusely and the Doctor seemed to be frazzled with her appearance. Not quite knowing where to start.

"No surprise- raised by Wolves-" her breath was wheezing out of her, blood rattling in her chest with every word.

"No more speaking" murmured Jana as she stroked one of the stray hairs away from her face. When Carina opened her mouth to speak, Jana placed her fingers over her mouth and hushed her.

"Just rest, the Doc has you."

"Yes you definitely made a lot of work for me." He replied sardonically as he mashed up some ingredients with water.

"Here, make her drink that" he mumbled as she shoved the cup into her hand before pulling out a small laser machine and some blue syringes.

Jana could tell that this was going to be a long night, now that she was Luna she had to sit around and console the same females she had just ripped a part. This night was just worsening.

The soft humming of the laser machine starting up filled the awkward silence that had descended across the tent. A red light was emitting from the handheld laser machine.

"So I'm going to puncture your lung to help ease your breathing and then use the SRM to help healing. It will hurt."

"Do it. Jana, talk" she mumbled, her lips turning blue with her struggle to breathe.

"Any time soon doc, she's about to expire." Huffed Jana, looking over her shoulder to locate the stray doctor.

"Husband, go crazy." She chuckled, gurgling on more blood.

The sound of her choking on her own blood was unnerving and worrisome. Grabbing a bowl, she forced Carina to spit out the blood gargling about in her mouth. Wiping away the stray droplets as the doctor finally came back over with a small scalpel.

"So you're married" she questioned, showing full interest. Her head moved closer to Carina blocking the woman's view of her lower body.

She hummed a reply and then added "Kieran." To which Jana's face automatically soured. Kieran was one of the first males she had mate from this pack. He had been cold and unwelcoming to her throughout their whole drive.

"No like" she coughed, Jana brought a tissue to her mouth to remove the blood.

"He's an ass." She grumbled in annoyance.

The female smiled a genuine and hearty smile despite her current situation. "Mmm, my ass" she chuckled, a lopsided smile on her face as her eyes began to droop. Panicking Jana began shaking her, but Carina's eyes remained tightly closed.

"Carina? Doc I think she's gone." She shouted, trying to get the man to pay attention to his patient. He lifted his head from the woman's chest and then tutted at her.

"Leave her, the drugs are working." Eyes rolling beofre he continued focusing on encouraging the regeneration of her flesh.

The machines had vastly improved over the years. Instead of just healing scars and scar tissue, they could now help heal open wounds. They couldn't heal them completely but they were useful to have when there were serious wounds such as this one.

"What drugs? She questioned incredulously.

He didn't even lift his head when he replied this time

"The ones you gave her." Huffing under his breath, head shaking at her obliviousness.

//---//

The surgery, or treatment of the most wounded females had taken well into the morning. Many of the females had asked to see their children or spoke of their mates and family. Fearful that their wounds were more dangerous than they actually were.

All the talk of families and children made her miss hers. So much so that she made the conscious effort to contact them.

Well not them, Khan.

She sat in her tent as the sun came up. Patiently waiting for the alert to go through on her comms device. The light on the top of her screen lit up, telling her that the device was configuring the other persons surrounding.

When the light turned red, she could finally see Khan as he sat inside his study. A hologram picture of him in his office appeared in her tent. Though she couldn't see the whole room, she could see a large majority of it. The hologram was so real it was as if he was in this room with her, even though they were so far away.

"Jana, is that you." Shock splattered across his face as he stared into the device.

"Hey, dad" she smiled into her comms device, waving at him. She could see his study background, the room where him and her had spent a lot of their days. When she wasn't being taught by her questionable teachers or trailing on the feet of Vanya, she was in that room with Khan.

"How are you." She stammered, her hand stroking down her hair.

"I'm 100 times better now that you have called." She could tell, there was a wide grin spread across his face as he brought his face closer to the screen. His sparkling teeth glistening in the screen.

"How are you doing."

"Im alright, it's been a challenge but I'm finally getting somewhere." She sighed deep, wiping at her eyes. A large yawn left her mouth, her hand rising up to cover it.

"Sorry, I'm tired. I haven't slept all night."

"Yeh you look it." He murmured, a grimace on his face a she took in her slightly paler skin and her drooping eyes.

"Pfft, thanks yeah." She huffed.

"Sorry but you don't look the greatest ladybug." He hummed, stroking his beard and analysing her. She shuffled in her seat feeling uncomfortable at his unnerving stare.

"Kettle, black. You don't look much better." Which was true he had purplish bags underneath his eyes and his hair was a little haggard. Khan wasn't as kept together as he usually was.

"Well my eldest daughter decided to disown her whole family and her mothers have been inconsolable since." He stopped for a break so he could accentuate his words.

"So sleep hasn't been the greatest." He continued on. Staring deep into her eyes as he reprimanded her like only a father could

"Gee, thanks dad. Just make me feel worse than I already do." Her eyes rolling as she threw her head down into her arms.

"Well you can't feel that bad because you only took nearly a month to contact us."

"Not us, you." She interjected making it clear that it was just him she was trying to contact. As much as she missed her family, she was still bitter at the way they had treated her. None of them had made an effort to contact her so why should she bother with them.

"Stop being a spoilt brat Jana. We are your family and we love you. Now speak to your mothers, Neema especially." His eyes were flashing, a clear sign of his climbing anger.

"Look Khan, I don't need you to be on my case. This family hasn't treated me the nicest over the years. Neema especially." She spat! Her voice becoming extremely hostile as her face neared the device.

"I'm not gonna apologise for that." She was unbending like her swords, she would not yield when it came to this.

"I don't understand where this is all coming from." Brows knitted and forehead wrinkled in confusion.

There was muffling over her sound peace and the vision of Khan tilted to the side. It was righted as the sight of Neema stepped into the hologram. She had clearly been in the room listening to their conversation.

"Jana, baby I don't understand why you hate me so much." Her face was blotchy and tears cascaded down her face. She was wiping at them profusely but more kept replacing them.

"Fuck sake Jana, look what you've done!" Thundered Khan his eyes flashing red as he rubbed Neema on the back. Trying to console his sobbing mate.

"Apologise, right now," his face distorting in his anger. She subconsciously leant further back into her seat at the sight of his canines prodding from his lips and his shoulders widening.

"No," she rebuffed as she looked away from the screen, so all they would see was the side of her and not her upset face.

"Jana, I'm not fucking asking you I'm telling you! Apologise right now!" His hand punched down on his desk, the thump causing Jana to jump and her comms device to fall out of her hand. The feed cut off and she could no longer see their apparition

Her hand clenched her chest as tears fell from her eyes, lips trembling as she tried to stop the cries from slipping. He had never spoken to her like that, never demanded her to do anything. He never swore at her, never.

Her hand shook as she hastily wiped at her tears before she picked the device back up.

She could hear them calling her name and then some fumbling of the device, swearing on Khans part and then some more crying. The light began flashing again and then the hologram of her parents reappeared in her tent.

"Jana, oh fuck." His eyes were filled with worry as he saw what his words had done to his daughter.

Neema buried in his arms as he leaned over the desk as if he was trying to reach through the screen for his daughter. She flinched away from the looming vision  of him. Sniffling as she tried to regain her composure.

"I'm sorry baby girl, I just- I'm messing this up. Please speak to your mum." He begged but there was no room for debate because he dumped Neema into his seat and walked off to the bookshelf. Leaning against it as he tried to leave the frame of the hologram so they could have some privacy.

"Jana, love what did I do wrong." Sniffled Neema, her face leaning towards Jana as she tried to see her reaction through the screen.

"I dont- I don't want to get into this now." She hiccuped, rubbing her nose with the palm of her hand. Her eyes swollen from lack of sleep and crying.

"Please, I need to know. I love you and I never meant to hurt you Jana." When Neema only received silence she continued speaking. "Please Jana, I love you like you were my own daughter. You are my daughter, please. Jana." She pleaded.

"That's just it though isn't it, I'm not really your daughter am I!" She growled out, hand waving in anger.

"What? I don't- You are my daughter." she stammered, face crestfallen and forehead wrinkled in confusion.  "I have raised you for nearly all your life and loved you since your birth."

"I love you like all my other children, I don't understand." Her hand covering her face as she broke down into more tears.

"Put her on big screen," shouted Khan as he stomped back into the hologram. His head disappearing out of sight of the camera as he slapped on some buttons.

A red laser shone through her device, the light beeping and flashing over her skin and tent until it disappeared. An alert popped up in thin air, informing her that her surroundings had been configured by Khan. She was now an image in their office.

"Jana what is this all about, you're making Neema cry and I don't like that at all."

He spoke to the screen as he wrapped Neema in his arms. Voice strained as he tried to not to shout at her.
"Shh it's okay baby" he murmured, peppering kisses in her hair.

"Jana, explain this now," his voice impatient as he stared her down. Her willpower weakening against his fearsome look.

"I was treated different from all the kids-

Words spilled from her mouth like a turbulent river, causing chaos. "I know I'm human but I was treated like I was some burden. If Vanya hadn't been around then it would have been so much worse."

"That's not true!" Shouted Neema in denial, her head shaking profusely.

"Yes it is! I was shoved into lesson after soul sucking lesson!" She bellowed, face red like molten lava. She was boiling with her fury.

"Even though you knew they were rotting my brain, you didn't care! You just wanted me gone."

"The litt-little human girl who didn't belong!"

Jana thought back to the time when Madam Rue would rot her mind with filth. Telling Her that she wasn't good enough. That she didn't belong, that she wasn't one of them. Even then Neema hadn't stopped her lessons. She had fired madam Rue but a week later there had been a replacement and lessons had commenced like clock work.

"That's not true!" But her words fell on deaf ears.

"It is! You forgot what it was like to be an ordinary human and instead of fighting my corner, you abandoned me and suppressed me!" Words she had kept built inside her for years were flying from her mouth. Hitting their intended marks as Neema's face crumpled with every sentence. Every truth.

"Khan didn't force me to go to those horrid lessons! He even helped me sneak out of some. Even Vanya sneaked me out of some but never you!"

"You always made me go! You didn't want me interfering in your perfect family!"

And that was it. The source of the grudge, the anger. Jana's resentment stemmed from years of neglect and differentiated treatment. It had made her feel isolated and alone. She had felt unloved by the only female she had ever seen as her mother.

"No! No!" Shouted Neema her hand wacking down on the desk as she leant forward in her seat.

"I sent you to those lessons because I didn't want you to suffer" her eyes shuttering with memories of her early days in the compound.

"Being human and female is hard in this world and I wanted you to be prepared." Her face was soaking wet with her tears but the rivulets did not stop gushing down her skin.

"Well none of those lessons have ever helped me." Jana Refuted. Her voice ricocheted through the speaker, she hated shouting at them but her anger was too much to hold back anymore.

"You were my mother, I trusted you to be there for me but as soon as you had your own children you didn't want me." Head twisting so they couldn't see her tear stained face.

"Jana, you and I know that's a lie. Neema loves you, she just made a few mistakes. We all have made mistakes."

"She never learnt from hers! She made me go to mating events even though I was too young! She stole my childhood from me all because I was human."

The conversation became solemn, somber as Jana spoke about her husband. Neema had never been supportive of Jana's decision to marry and it had only added more strain to their already weakened relationship.

"And Even when I was with Jeremy she couldn't be happy for me. I wasn't good enough because I wasn't a wolf and I hadn't mated one!"

Her hand slapping against her chest as she showed her hearts pain. Gods she had always been the odd one out, the one who never fitted into the family. The outsider.

"No! I couldn't be happy for you because I was scared that you would have to go through the trials if either of you found your mate!"

"I have witnessed it Jana and it's ugly! You would have either died or he would have and then you would have been savagely mated!" Her eyes blown wide as she shook her head in denial.

Neema had done many things as a mother to protec tjans, things that had only served to hurt them in their later years.

"Khan wouldn't let that happen! Would you?" She turned to look at him but he refused to meet her eyes.

Before he could reply, Neema answered for him. "He wouldn't have been able to stop it because those are the laws that govern us!"

"You would have suffered and I couldn't accept that! I needed to protected you!"

They were both panting and crying from their anger and pain. The division had become so wide it seemed impossible to ever mend it.

"I didn't want you to protect me I just wanted you to love me the way you loved the rest of your children." Head bowing forwards as she looked at the floor.

"I know I'm not yours but I always felt like you were my mother and the way you treated me hurt me to my core." Her words quietening as she bore her soul to the person who had hurt her soo deeply.

"It hurt." Her lashes were damp and her eyes felt heavy.

Eyes closing as snapshots of her childhood flew through her mind. Images of her being told off for climbing trees while the twins did the same. Of her being forced to attend mating balls while her siblings didn't. Memories of her sitting at home while everyone else went of hunting, even Caillum was allowed to go.

The issue hadn't been that she was just a human, it had been that she was human and a girl. Neema had forced Jana to be everything she had never learnt to be. Between all the tutors and Neema's ever watchful eye, Jana had started to feel estranged even before she knew what the word meant.

"I'm so sorry baby. I'm so sorry." She sighed, heart heavy with all her wrongdoings.

"I tried to raise strong and passionate children but my fear for your future changed me. It's no excuse, I was wrong. I just- " Sobs wracked her frame as she buried her face in her hands.

"I just didn't want you to suffer like I did with Khan in those first few months. You were too young to know this but it was ugly between us."

She grimaced and Khan flinched at the reminder of their horrendous past and how it was the root to this long brewing grudge. Had he treated her right in those first few months, maybe Neema wouldn't have been so strict on Jana.

Ugly was an understatement to how how their relationship had been in those few months. It had been volatile, abusive and mentally tormenting. Those few months had been toxic and he was the one who had made it so. He needed to apologise again to his mate but he would save that for when it was just the two of them.

"I just wanted to protect my little angel from the harsh world," her eyes lowered in shame.

"Don't hate me Jana, please. I love you your my first little girl." Her face was turning red, her body shaking with her cries.

"I don't hate you, I could never hate you. I guess I was just disappointed and mad but it's over now." Gods the tears they cried could fill an ocean, the endless waterfalls flowing from their bodies.

Taking in a deep breath she swallowed her pride, "I'm sorry, mum. I didn't want to hear what you had to say about Jeremy because I felt you had never liked him. You were fight though, I needed to start living."

"Mothers normally are right, love." She smirked. Neema's eyes were rimmed red and her nose was runny but she looked much better than she had when she first appeared.

"Pfft, you weren't right when you dressed me up like a fruitcake. That's child abuse!" Sulked Jana, humour in her voice as she remembered some of the horrendous outfits Neema had dressed her in.

It was no surprise she never found her mate, she probably scared them all away. What person walked around in massive ball gowns flowing in frothy pink, layered with ribbons and trimming. She had looked a disaster and it had all been thanks to Neema.

Neema burst out into laughter, her fingers swiping at her tears as she chuckled, "Yeh but you were a cute one."

Her eyes glazed over as she thought back on little Jana. The two of them chuckling and hackling at fond memories they had made over the years.

Khan stood by watching as his mate and his oldest child finally laughed like sisters were supposed to.