All I can say is that listening to BANKS does something to me.

His dark eyes bore down on her, pools of molten lava glowing red with his anger. They were at a stalemate, he had bested her and in return she had gotten one over him. They were both winners and losers, bleeding together.

His victory had become a loss the moment she had ripped through his back and sliced his neck. How did she do that? Move so stealth that his senses were barely able to pick up her movement.

Whether his back was to her or not he should have heard her coming, smelt her nearing, anything. What was the point of having heightened senses if he could still be blindsided by a little human. She was no more than 5ft 7 and she had still bested him. How?

He could see the cockiness rolling off her, she knew she had gotten him good. Her silver had given him a new scar, one that would need to be tended to. He couldn't leave this one to heal on its own, she had cut him too deep. The blood was pooling between his shoulder blades, sliding down his muscles and dripping onto the floor. She definitely got him good.

"I'm going to let that one go, Jana, even though it was a cheap move" his thick blonde brows knotting together as he reluctantly conceded to her.

He didn't approve of her shot but he should have expected it. Khan's mate had been a spitfire in the beginning and Jana was her younger sister raised as a daughter. She not only had that inherited fire but Khan had trained all his children from young. He should have known better.

You never turned your back on your enemy, never. She wasn't quite his enemy though, they had been lovers a few hours ago and in a different life she would be the centre of his world. The matter that his world was constructed of. The gravitational pull that sent his world into orbit, the sun that brightened his nights. She would have been it all but this was reality and his reality was cold. Colder than he imagined it ever would be.

"But this can't continue, as mates we need to do better" her face fell into a deep frown at that word.

"Mates" she spat, nose upturned as if the word emitted a repugnant stench.

She had made her point. He heard her loud and clear. Jana would not submit to him, he was not her friend, he was not her mate or her Alpha. She viewed him more as an enemy than anything, the knife in his back proved that.

"I know you don't want this" his fingers running through his locks, the movement tearing the wound in his back further apart. His hand fell to his side as a grimace flashed across his face.

"I get it, but Jana we can't keep doing this. The anger, the violence, it needs to stop."

Jana acknowledged the truth behind his words, whether she wanted him or not she was resigned to staying here. It was too soon for her to return to her family. This was her only option, the only way she could prove to herself and her family that she was more than what she had become. She was more than a sad and bitter female at the tether of an old life but too scared to move to a new one.

Even though Simeon was not her new life, he was definitely a key aspect in her moving on and the only way she could learn from this experience was if they actually stopped fighting and acted somewhat civilised. As civilised as they could be m, living in the wild with a bunch of rabid rogues.

She acknowledged they needed a truce but it would not be at her expense. She was not ready to be silenced, she needed the truth and she needed change.

"Yep it does need to stop. Alongside the lying, the secrets, the bullshit " her fingers flicking up as she listed off each issue she found. "But it seems being a secretive asshole and a condescending prick is ingrained in your DNA, so I don't see this working." Arms folding in defiance as she practically spat all over his truce.

"Fuck Jana, do you have to be a bitch. I'm trying to put our differences aside." He growled, feet tearing up the carpet as he paced around the tent.

"And because you decide you want to "put our differences aside" I have to what? Just follow along? No!" She growled, hands waving as she stepped towards him. Subconsciously sizing him up.

"How can there be a truce when nothing is resolved? You owe me Simeon." Her hands fell to her hips, slapping against her skin. " You owe me an apology and some explanations. Otherwise this won't work!"

When all he greeted her with was his muted noise, she continued talking, voice climbing in frustration.

"You have been feeding me crap, giving me false hope from the moment we met. Had you just told me the truth- been honest, we wouldn't be like this."

"I'm normally a level headed person but you have me fucked up, Simeon. This" she gestured between the two of them "won't get better until you man up and start being honest."

There, she had said all that she needed to say. The ball was in his court now and if he didn't give her the words she needed to hear this would be it for them. There would be no truce, no companionship. Nothing. She would spend the rest of her days challenging his authority. There would be anarchy.

"Psia Krew, you drive a hard bargain" he murmured eyes rolling as he pulled at his dreadlocks in annoyance.

Looking at Jana he knew there was no negotiating here. She wanted answers and there would continue to be violence until she got what she wanted. Damn she was a tough female. He was wrong to call her a princess. She was a queen, a fierce empress who knew her worth. She said she was more than dirt and he was inclined to believe her. She was a diamond that was found deep within the earths layers, created by friction. She was a diamond, multidimensional rough edges and all.

"Okay, I'm guessing you want to know about Zosia," conceding for the second time within minutes. Motioning over to the collapsed chairs in the corner of his tent, he ushered her over and took a seat after she had sat down. Wincing as the hunched position pulled at the scar more.

"And her mother" she interjected as her eyes shuttered in resignation and she climbed from her chair to gather her bag and its scattered contents. Rummaging through the deep red bag she pulled out an even smaller bag and headed back over to where he sat. She placed the small red bag down on the table and pulled her chair so it sat behind his. Reaching around him she opened up the small bag and pulled out some scissors.

His back tensed in anticipation for a fight, form hunching as if to ward off the blow he was bracing himself for.

"Relax" she murmured, her fingers running through the baby hairs that lingered on his neck, stroking him until he melted into her touch. The sharp snap of his scissors had him jerking away from her, a reaction she couldn't fault him for.

"Calm, I'm just cutting the top" her breath close to his ear as she tried to cut away the pieces that had begun to cling to his drying blood. Her hand slow as she gently snipped away at the material until his whole back was on display and the tope pooled around his chest in shreds.

"Okay" she whispered to herself as she took in the sight of his mangled back. She had definitely worked him over. His back was smothered in reddish black blood that had clotted in some places but ran a vibrant red in others. The wound itself was camouflaged by all the oozing blood but she could see beneath all the liquid his flesh was poking through his skin.

Grabbing a small bottle of medicinal alcohol from the bag she prepared herself to douse the wound in the burning liquid and then changed her mind. Grabbing a glass of water that had been sitting there since yesterday mornings breakfast, she ripped some of his shirt and dipped it into the liquid. Gently dabbing along his back so she could see clearly what she was working with. She knew the damage her silver could cause.

The air between them crackled with tension and suppressed emotions, silent questions and hidden answers. "So" she prodded him to start when the silence became too unbearable. Her eyes focused on his wound but her ears were open to his explanations. 

"So. Zosia is my daughter, biologically and her her mother was Sonja's sister." The steady rhythm of her breathing down his neck as she tended to his back soothed him enough to open up a new wound. One that he had left to fester but not nearly as long as some of the other wounds he had.

"Zosia's mother, Melaina and I were from old way families who liked to arrange matings for their young to keep the blood pure. She was meant for my cousin Roderick who was reaching his adolescence but when the tests came back I knew she was to be mine."

Jana listened to the first piece of information she had heard of Simeon's life with great attention. It did not slip her mind that this would probably be the only opportunity she would get a slither of information from him. Her hand kept wiping along his slick back as she ran over his words, taking in each sentence. Grabbing the alcohol she poured it on a new cloth and began dabbing around the wound. Getting closer and closer to the site.

As more blood cleared away she took in the scars that littered his body, the deep grooves that her nails had sunk into a few hours ago. Intertwined in those very scars were markings, little black and gold markings so finely etched it was as if they weren't there and were just a figment of her imagination.

"So that was it. We grew up in our city Kraków knowing we were to be mate- tss" he grunted as she began wiping onto the bleeding wound. Fire settled into his skin, burning him alive with the stinging pain.

"So a few years before we were to be officially mated, I went away to begin my Alpha training and she decided to travel Europe. She met her mate, some human on the council in some little speck country and that was it." His voice had become sullen, his head leaning on his hands that were perched on the table.

"I never heard from her again until about 10 years ago, way after we had begun this- Jebać, Jana, be careful." He groaned his voice becoming heavy with his mother tongue, in his pain that foreign accent of his tinged his words.

"We found her washed up in the bank of Wisła, she was alive but barely" a sharp lull came to his story as he thought back on the way he found Melaina.

She had been pale and frail, open wounds all over body. Her face had been covered in bruises and her ribs had been broken so badly that she had made rattling sounds when she breathed. But she had breathed and Simeon had felt like he had waited all his life to hear it.

"When she came to she told me her story, some fucking humans had tried to recruit her husband but when they found out he was mated to a wolf, well that was it."

"She begged me to let her join us. She needed reven- kurwa mac." He cursed, his large hand trying to swipe at her hands but she pushed him away. "What are you doing?" his face scrunching up as she doused his back in more alcohol, the soft material of his top feeling like tiny shards of glass being rubbed into his open skin.

"Stop complaining" unperturbed by the deep growl that was emitted from deep within his chest. His head twisted over his shoulder as his dark eyes glared at her in annoyance, her hand forcing his head back around so she could continue her job and him his story.

Gathering a small black device from the bag, she pulled out a syringe with a deep blue liquid and injected it into a nozzle that was tucked away into the device. Placing the empty syringe back into her bag, she placed the device on her lap and continued disinfecting his back.

Sighing deep he continued, "It became easy for us to fall back into the way we were before. It just worked and before we knew it Zosia was on her way."

"Aniołku. Neither of us wanted children, we were focussed but when I saw her little pink face I couldn't regret it."

Jana tilted her head around to see his face as he thought on the little girl who clearly held his heart. She could only imagine how that felt, to see your child that you and the person you loved had created. Seeing that little bundle breathing their first breath of air, face pink and ruddy. She could only imagine that scenario, because it would never be hers. Simeon would make sure of it. She knew his type. If she wasn't having his children, then she would have no ones. He wouldn't let her have anyone else but him.

Melaina was a lucky female, to be around when Simeon was better than he was now, not so jaded. Where was she now? The lucky woman who'd had the future Jana longed for.

"Two years later Melaina was killed. She begged me to avenge her with her last breath, so I added her name to my list. I haven't crossed her off yet." The fact that he had a list showed Jana how serious he was about his revenge, if the camp outside hadn't already. Simeon was in this war to the end and he would never walk away from it, even if it was the best thing to do.

"I'm sorry for your loss, the grief of losing a loved one never goes away. Even with time." She spoke from deep within, that place where she buried all those hopes and dreams of the future she'd had with Jeremy.

Death was such a final thing. It took the one you loved away but it could never erase those memories, those hopes. She could almost imagine how different her life would be if he hadn't died. Grief over death was never ending. The smallest thing could send you back to that time. You never got over that grief, you just learned to cope with the deep pain that buried itself into your soul. Grief became a part of who you were, re-emerging every now and then.

"Thank you. I avenge her memory every time I head out of this camp"

She could see it in his eyes, revenge consumed him and even if he had killed the very person who had harmed his mate he would not stop at that. He wanted to take down the whole organisation, he would not settle for less but while he was fighting his battle out there who was taking care of his daughter? Her aunty? Who was she to him, had Sonja taken the place of his deceased mate, slithered in like the snake Jana knew she was. There were still so many questions and she could tell that Simeon's story was just the tip of the ice burg. There was a much larger driving force behind his actions.

She cleared her throat, tongue sticking out as she broached the next topic. Her hands shaking with the small device in her hand. His answer to her next question would show her the type of man he was at the root.

"And Sonja? Did she- umm, did she become your mate?" Her eyes flickered up as his head twisted over is shoulder, his hand gripping the small device in her hand. His fingers wrapping around hers as he stared deep into her turbulent eyes.

He shook his head, releasing her fingers and facing back towards the door, "Nie, I wouldn't disrespect Melaina's memory like that." A small sigh of relief escaped her mouth, causing a smile to rise on his lips. Her jealousy pleased him, even though it was unwarranted.

"Okay" she said hands busying as she used the laser to help force his skin closed, it wouldn't completely heal a wound so deep but it would stop any infection and prevent the wound from reopening.

"Okay?" A small hum left her mouth in agreement as a hush descended between them. It was comfortable and a lot less charged than it had been for the past few days.

Placing the device back on the table and clearing her throat, she fell back into her seat. Hands on her lap as she stared at the white material of their tent. In her peripheral she saw Simeon climbing to his feet and making his way towards the tent door, no words spoken between them. As his fingers wrapped around the flap he paused, his head twisting over his shoulder as he took in the sight of the muddy and bruised female before him.

"Jana," he called, her eyes pulling away from the white canvas for her thoughts and focusing on him. Him and his blonde hair, dishevelled clothes and blood stained skin.

"I am sorry. I have treated you wrong. I know my apology is not enough for what I refuse to give you, but I am sorry." His eyes glazed over as he thought of his next words carefully. His body turning so he faced her, his hand still on the flap for a quick escape.

"I'm sorry that I cannot give you the dreams that I know you hold dear. You deserve more than this because you are more than dirt. Jesteś moją boginią, cesarzową, moja królowa."

His head bowed deep before he turned his back on her and stepped through the flap. Leaving her alone to try and decipher his parting words.

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Psia Krew = Dogs blood

Jebać = Fuck

Kurwa mac = Fucks sake

Aniołku = Little Angel

Nie = No

Jesteś moją boginią = You are my Goddess

Cesarzowa = An Empress

Moja królowa = My queen