Niv had been completely certain from the very beginning that the hot meats would win the Mother over. It wasn’t even really a question in her mind, more like an obvious truth that didn’t need to be proven. No one, not even the Mother at her most stubborn and unreasonable, could resist something that smelled that good and tasted even better.
And, as it turned out, she had been right.
Now that the food had been eaten and the initial tension had eased, the three of them had settled onto the grass just outside Juno’s home. The evening air was calm and cool, and the faint smell of cooked meat still lingered around them. It felt… peaceful, in a strange and unfamiliar way.
At least, it felt that way to Niv. More than anything, she was fascinated. She couldn’t remember the last time she had seen her mother sit and talk like this for so long without it being about something serious or grim. Their people weren’t like that. They didn’t gather just to talk, or to enjoy each other’s company. Most of the time, everyone kept to themselves, moving through their own lives without much interaction beyond what was necessary.
The only real exception had always been death. When someone died, that was when they came together. The rites were important, sacred even, and everyone would be there. There would be voices, and presence, and a shared understanding that mattered more than anything else.
But this? This was just… sitting together. Talking and sharing space.
It was new, and Niv found that she liked it far more than she expected. Juno shifted slightly where she sat, glancing between the two of them with a bit of nervous energy still clinging to her.
“Okay, okay,” she said, rubbing the back of her neck a little. “This one might be good, and hopefully you don’t think I’m hitting on you with this one.”
Bahl frowned immediately.
“You are small and weak,” she said flatly. “Your strikes would not hurt me.”
Juno let out a small, strained laugh.
“I meant… right, yeah, no, that makes sense,” she said, clearly trying to recover. “Hitting on means, uh, flirting. Courting. Not actual hitting.”
Bahl continued to stare at her for a moment, then gave a slow nod.
“Okay.”
Juno exhaled quietly, looking relieved that she hadn’t somehow made things worse, and reached over for her phone. She tapped at it a few times, then adjusted the small speaker she had set beside her earlier, making sure it was positioned properly.
“This song is… a darker one,” she said after a moment, her voice a little more thoughtful now. “It’s about oppression, and fear, and how people can convince themselves that others are the enemy.”
Bahl didn’t react much to that explanation, only giving another short nod.
“Okay.”
Juno hesitated for just a second longer, then started.
“Why do we build the wall, my children, my children, why do we build the wall?” she sang, her voice low and steady as it carried into the quiet space around them.
The speaker chimed in softly, backing her with the rest of the song, and Juno followed along with it, her voice blending in as she found the rhythm.
“Why do we build the wall? We build the wall to keep us free.”
Niv watched her closely, her eyes bright with interest.
She loved this part of Juno more than she could properly put into words. The way her voice changed when she sang, the way she seemed to lean into it more and more as the song went on, like it was something real and important to her. It felt like she was sharing something deeper than just sounds, like she was bearing her heart to the world.
“That’s why we build the wall, we build the wall to keep us free,” Juno continued, her voice growing a little stronger as she matched the chorus.
Bahl, who had been sitting with her usual guarded posture, seemed to shift slightly. It was subtle, but her attention had sharpened, her gaze fixed on Juno in a more focused way now.
Juno kept going.
“How does the wall keep us free, my children, my children? How does the wall keep us free?” she sang, lowering her voice again for the next part.
“How does the wall keep us free? It keeps out the enemy, and we build the wall to keep us free, that’s why we build the wall, we build the wall to keep us free!”
The words carried a different weight now, repeating over themselves, almost hypnotic in the way they reinforced the same idea again and again.
Juno stayed with it, following the song all the way through, her voice steady even as the meaning behind it settled more heavily into the air.
By the time it ended, the quiet that followed felt thicker than before.
Niv glanced toward her mother to see Bahl’s expression had changed. There was something intense in her eyes now, something thoughtful, as if she was turning the meaning of the song over in her mind and examining it from every angle.
After a long moment, she spoke.
“I liked that one.”
Juno let out a small breath, a faint smile on her face as she glanced over at Bahl.
“I thought you might,” she said, her voice a little quieter now, but more certain. “A lot of people hear that song and think it’s about protection, about keeping themselves safe from something dangerous on the outside.”
Bahl’s eyes stayed on her, intense and unreadable.
Juno shifted slightly where she sat, then continued, choosing her words a bit more carefully this time.
“But it’s not really about that,” she said. “It’s about people in power convincing others that there’s always some enemy out there, something to be afraid of, so they’ll accept being controlled. The wall isn’t just to keep things out, it’s to keep people in, to make sure they don’t question anything.”
Niv tilted her head, listening closely.
Juno gestured vaguely with one hand, trying to explain it in a way that made sense.
“They use fear to make it feel necessary,” she went on. “Like it’s for their own good, like they’re being protected, when really they’re being trapped and watched and kept in line.”
Bahl didn’t answer right away.
Her gaze didn’t leave Juno, and there was something deeper behind it now, something more thoughtful than before, as if the meaning had landed somewhere important.
Niv glanced between them again, her ears flicking slightly as she tried to piece it together.
After a long moment, Bahl spoke, her voice lower than before.
“…Humans do this?”
Juno hesitated, then gave a small, honest nod.
“Yeah,” she said. “They do.”
Bahl’s expression didn’t soften, but it shifted, just slightly.
“…Then this is a good song,” she said again, more firmly this time.
“I’ve got more on my playlist if you’re interested?” Juno offered, gesturing vaguely toward the small speaker beside her, her tone a little lighter now that things had settled into something resembling a calm conversation.
Bahl shook her head almost immediately.
“No. I wish to know other things,” she said, her voice steady and direct, making it very clear that her focus had shifted away from songs entirely.
Juno nodded, straightening slightly before leaning back onto her hands, pressing her palms into the grass behind her as she tried to relax into the moment.
“I’ll answer whatever I can,” she said. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
Bahl didn’t hesitate.
“Do you care for Niv?”
The question landed heavily, far more serious than anything that had come before it.
Juno blinked once, caught slightly off guard by how blunt it was, then let out a small breath as she thought about it properly. She didn’t rush her answer, instead taking a moment to settle into it before speaking.
“Yeah,” she said finally, her voice quiet but certain. “I do. She’s… very gentle, and kind, and curious about everything. She’s been good to me so far, and I hope I’m being good to her too.”
Before anything else could be said, Niv chimed in immediately, clearly pleased.
“Juno is best!” she said brightly. “She teaches me many things and we have much nuzzle time.”
Juno couldn’t help the small smile that tugged at her lips at that.
Bahl, however, remained focused.
“Have you two den-merged yet?” she asked.
Niv shook her head.
“No, not yet.”
Bahl’s brow furrowed slightly.
“Why?”
Niv shifted a little where she sat, glancing briefly toward Juno before answering.
“Humans are slow about den-merging,” she explained. “We are doing the human dating thing. We spend time together to make sure good fit, then after small time, see if good together.”
Bahl looked unimpressed.
“Why wait?” she asked. “We do not wait. If the gift giving is acceptable, then merge dens.”
“Because humans are a bit more… flighty than that,” Juno said, speaking up this time. She shifted her weight slightly, her expression growing a little more serious as she continued. “Especially someone like me. I was in a long relationship before this one and… it wasn’t good. I wasn’t treated well. I travelled a long way from my home to get away from it.”
Niv made a low, displeased sound in her throat.
“Do not like people that treat Juno bad,” she said, her ears flattening slightly. Then she hesitated, her expression tightening as she thought back. “Was that mean human before…?”
Juno sighed, her shoulders sinking a little.
“Yeah,” she admitted. “That was her. She’s the one I escaped from. She’s… manipulative, and honestly just a vile bitch. I was really hoping I’d never see her again. I wasn’t expecting her to track me down all the way out here.”
Niv’s expression hardened immediately.
“I scare her off again if she comes back!” she declared, her voice full of conviction.
Juno gave a small, tired smile at that.
“I appreciate that, Niv,” she said gently. “But if she comes back, I want you to let me handle it. Actually… if she does, it might be better if you go hide in the forest for a bit.”
Niv’s head snapped toward her.
“No!” she protested, her voice rising. “Will protect Juno! Juno is my maybe bond-mate!”
Juno pressed her lips together for a moment, then glanced over at Bahl before speaking again.
“I’m actually going to side with your mother on this one,” she said. “Humans can be dangerous. There are a lot of good ones, yeah, but there are also a lot of bad ones. She’s the kind of person who will twist things, make it seem like everyone else is the problem and that she’s the one trying to help. It… it won’t work on me anymore, but if something happened to you because of her, I’d be devastated.”
Bahl gave a small, approving nod.
“Good sense,” she said.
Niv shifted where she sat, clearly unhappy with that answer, her brows knitting together as she tried to argue against it. The words didn’t come as easily this time.
She didn’t know enough. The only humans she really knew were Juno, Barry, and Lou, and all of them had been good to her in their own ways. That was her experience, the only one she had to draw from, and it made it hard to fully understand what they were saying. So instead, she stayed quiet, her tail flicking faintly behind her as she thought it over.
“Okay, so I am getting some vibes from you,” Juno said after a moment, clearly deciding that the conversation had gotten just a little too heavy to sit in for much longer. She reached over for her phone again, tapping at the screen as she spoke, her tone shifting back toward something more casual. “And I can’t really sing along to these ones properly, but I feel like you might like KoRn.”
She glanced up briefly, gauging Bahl’s reaction before continuing.
“They sing a lot about pain and suffering,” she added. “It’s… cathartic for me, sometimes. Helps get stuff out.”
Without waiting too long, she hit play and set the phone back down beside the speaker.
The music that came out this time was completely different. It wasn’t smooth or melodic in the way the previous songs had been. Instead, it was rough, distorted, heavy in a way that almost seemed to press into the air itself. The sounds felt rougher, more jagged, and there was an undercurrent of anger running through it that was hard to miss.
Niv flinched slightly at first. Her ears twitched, angling uncertainly as she tried to make sense of it, her head tilting just a little as she listened. This wasn’t like the other human music Juno had shown her over the past few weeks. She had learned that she liked the brighter, more rhythmic songs, the ones that were easier to follow and made Juno smile when she sang along. The ones from ABBA, and Michael Jackson had felt… good.
This felt different. There was something harsh about it, something that made her unsure whether she was supposed to like it or not. It wasn’t unpleasant exactly, but it didn’t settle into her the same way. It made her feel a little tense, like she was listening to something that carried a kind of emotion she didn’t fully understand yet.
She glanced over at Juno, then back at the speaker, then finally toward her mother.
Bahl, on the other hand, looked completely at ease.
More than that, she looked interested.
Her posture had shifted slightly, her head tilted just enough to show she was listening closely, and there was a subtle, almost approving look in her eyes as the music continued. The harshness of it, the rawness, didn’t seem to bother her in the slightest. If anything, it seemed to draw her in.
Niv blinked, a little surprised.
Juno had been right.
The Mother was enjoying it.
The low, rumbling sound of a vehicle began to carry up the jagged rock path, growing louder as it approached, and Niv’s ears immediately turned toward it as her attention snapped away from the music. She had learned that sound well over the past few weeks, the distinct noise of human travel things, and it always meant people.
“Juno, people,” she said, her voice quieter now, more alert than before.
Juno paused the music and pushed herself up to her feet, brushing her hands lightly against her legs as she looked toward the path with a small frown. “Alright, I’ll be back soon, I’m going to see who it is. Hopefully it’s just Barry,” she said, though there was already a hint of uncertainty in her tone.
“I will return to the forest. I will be watching,” Bahl said, already shifting away, her large form moving with surprising ease as she began to slip back toward the treeline.
Juno gave a quick nod. “Yeah, understandable. See you soon.”
With that, Juno moved toward the side of the house, and Niv followed close behind her without hesitation, staying near as the sound of the vehicle grew louder and louder, the crunch of tires over stone becoming loud and clear. They stopped just beside the wall of the house where they could see without fully stepping out, both of them watching as the vehicle finally came into view.
The moment Juno saw it, she swore under her breath.
It wasn’t Barry’s, and Juno’s ex was in the passenger seat..
Her whole posture changed in an instant, her shoulders tightening as something like dread flickered across her face. “Niv, please go hide. It’s my ex,” she said quickly, her voice low but urgent. This chapter is updated first at NovelPing.
Niv’s expression hardened immediately as she looked toward the vehicle. “Will protect you,” she said firmly.
“Niv,” Juno hissed, turning toward her more urgent this time, “go, come back later, please.”
There was something in her voice that made Niv hesitate, something strained and desperate, and for a moment she didn’t move, caught between what she wanted to do and what Juno was asking of her.
The vehicle came to a stop, the engine cutting out as the doors opened and two humans stepped out. Niv recognised one of them instantly, the same awful female from before, the one who had hurt Juno, and the sight of her made something low and unpleasant stir in her chest.
The other human was a male, unfamiliar, but his attention snapped toward her almost immediately, his entire body going still as he took her in. There was a shift in his posture, something tense and ready, and though his voice was quiet, Niv heard him clearly when he spoke.
“I’ll get the gun,” he said.
Juno didn’t react, she was too far and too focused on the woman in front of her to hear it, but Niv understood enough to know that things had just become far more dangerous than before.
“Juno! Get away from that monster now! I’ve come to save you!”
Marie’s voice cut across the yard, filled with that same sickly sweetness wrapped around something controlling and insistent, and it made Niv’s whole body shudder as soon as she heard it.
“Fuck off, Marie! I never asked for your help!” Juno shouted back immediately, her voice shaking with anger as she stepped forward, putting herself between the house and the two of them. She didn’t even look back at first, but then she turned her head just enough to catch Niv’s eye, her expression tightening. “Please hide. Please.”
There was something in her voice that made Niv hesitate, and even though every instinct in her body screamed at her to stay and stand beside Juno, to protect her from the bad human, she forced herself to listen. Her lips pressed together in a tight line before she gave a small, reluctant nod, then moved quickly around the side of the house, keeping low and out of sight.
She didn’t go far.
She stayed close enough that she could still hear everything, her body tense, ears angled toward the voices, ready to move the moment something went wrong.
“Juno?” Mike said, his tone uncertain now that he was closer. “This woman said you were in danger. Come here, I’ll scare off that monster.”
“Mike?” Juno called back, recognition flickering across her face. “No, put the rifle away, I’m not in danger. Actually, the only danger to me right now is that bitch you brought here.”
There was a brief pause, like the words hadn’t quite landed properly.
“What? No, I saw the thing with you. They’re dangerous, Juno,” Mike said, his voice lowering slightly as if trying to reason with her.
“The only danger she is to me is to my meat stores,” Juno shot back, her frustration boiling over. “Seriously, take Marie away. She stalked me across the country to find me. She’s a rotten piece of shit.”
“Juno! Don’t talk about your girlfriend like that,” Marie snapped, her tone shifting instantly into something wounded and disapproving, like she was the one being wronged. “I’m just here to help, you don’t know any better.”
Juno let out a harsh, disbelieving laugh.
“Mike, this is the shit I dealt with for seven years with her,” she said, dragging a hand through her hair, her voice tight with barely contained anger. “Please, if you have any sense at all, take her away from here. I’m probably going to need a restraining order, honestly.”
There was a longer pause this time.
“…Right,” Mike said slowly. “Well, miss, seems like you aren’t wanted here, so I’ll drop you off at town.” Then, after a beat, his voice shifted again, uncertain. “What about the… monster?”
“She scared Marie when Marie got violent with me earlier,” Juno said, her tone flattening slightly. “My cheek’s still bruised from it.”
“Seriously?” Mike said, the surprise clear in his voice. “Is that true, Marie?”
“It was the monster,” Marie insisted immediately, her voice rising. “It attacked her.”
“Oh, fuck off!” Juno snapped, the anger finally breaking through fully now. “And stop calling her a monster. She isn’t human, but you’re the monster wearing human flesh. Niv has treated me better in three weeks than you did in seven years.”
There was a sharp shift in the air after that.
“Give me the gun,” Marie said suddenly.
“Are you a basket case? Fuck no,” Mike replied flatly, clearly not even considering it. Then he looked back toward Juno, his tone softening slightly. “Juno, I’ll come back later and ask some questions, but if you say you’re okay, then I’ll take your word for it.”
“Fine! Just get her out of here!” Juno shot back, not even trying to hide how badly she wanted this to be over.
“I’m not leaving without Juno,” Marie said, her voice dropping into something stubborn and cold. “She needs me.”
There was a brief silence, then a quiet, almost resigned exhale from Mike.
“…Okay, I see what you mean,” he muttered.
Juno straightened slightly, her hands curling into fists at her sides as she forced herself to hold her ground.
“Last chance, Marie,” she said, her voice steady despite the tension running through her. “Get off my property. If you stay any longer, then it’s trespassing, and I’m calling the pigs on you.”
“I’m not leaving without you!” Marie said, her voice rising, that stubborn, suffocating insistence creeping back into every word as she took a step forward. It was as if she could simply force the situation to go her way if she pushed hard enough.
Juno felt something in her chest twist at that, not fear this time, but a deep, exhausted frustration that had been building for years and was now finally spilling over. She drew in a breath and steadied herself, forcing her voice to come out firm instead of shaking.
“Then I’m calling the cops,” she said, her tone leaving no room for argument as she pulled her phone out of her pocket. She didn’t even look at Marie as she spoke again, instead glancing toward the man beside her. “Mike, can you make sure she doesn’t get any closer to my house?”
“Yeah, can do,” he replied, shifting his stance slightly as he moved just enough to put himself more clearly between Marie and Juno, his attention now split between the two of them but his posture a lot more certain than before.
“Juno!” Marie cried, her voice cracking into something almost desperate now, though it still carried that same manipulative edge underneath. “I’m just doing this for your own good!”
Juno didn’t even dignify that with a response.
She had heard it too many times before, heard it used to excuse too many things, and she refused to let it get to her now. Instead, she focused on her phone, her fingers moving quickly as she dialled, bringing it up to her ear as it began to ring.
It only took a moment before a calm, neutral voice answered.
“Police, ambulance, or fire department.”
“Police,” Juno said immediately.
“What’s your address?”
Juno recited it without hesitation, her voice steady despite everything, her eyes fixed somewhere just past the two figures in front of her as if refusing to give Marie the attention she clearly wanted.
“Thank you, putting you through now.”
There was a brief pause as the line shifted, a faint click followed by a few seconds of hold music that felt far longer than it actually was, the tension in the air stretching each second out.
Then another voice came through.
“Hello, what’s your emergency?”
“Hello,” Juno said, swallowing once before continuing, keeping her words clear and deliberate. “I have a stalker that refuses to leave my property. I have given her several warnings of trespass.”
“Understood,” the voice on the other end replied without hesitation. “We have a car on the way. Are you in any danger?”
Juno flicked her gaze briefly toward Marie, then toward Mike, taking in the situation as it stood.
“Right now, no,” she said. “There is another man here who is keeping her away from my home. I should be okay though.”
“Understood,” the operator responded calmly, the reassurance in their tone steady and practiced.
Hopefully it wouldn’t be too long of a wait. Juno was extremely over this whole thing.