It relieved him more than she probably knew to hear her say that she would likely not fully understand his world, even with years and years of experience. It showed that he wasn’t the only one hopelessly lost in the transition as he felt he had been. Noah felt as if he had been giving up a lot of himself to better fit in the mold set for him by Elann, and willfully put there by himself. It was a mold that he thought would better their relationship, and he thought she would grow fonder of him if he was more human-like, more like her. Even though she constantly told him she loved him as he was, it was hard to believe her all the time, even if he did trust her.

It their trust was measured by the length and love of their relationship alone, his friend Liam would far surpass her. Years he had been with Liam, and in those years he had managed to expose the young man to what snippets of what Kelvic life was like. Liam was just as curious as Noah to a point, constantly questioning the Kelvic on what was outside the walls, how he saw the world from the sky, and more. Noah’s bond with Elann was a great strengthener to the trust between them, but his man’s mind questioned the sense behind some of her words at times.

Her near whining put him off. Noah was truthfully growing increasingly frustrated with her, and her display was more discomforting than its opposite. He believed he was patient with her as well. It was when she pushed his own boundaries did he feel he could lash out. He felt he was easy to get along with; no one else had run into this much conflict with him ever before, but then again no one had spent this much time in his company as Elann had. She said she was desperately trying to learn his world but had spent few times with him outside the walls of Syliras, only going hunting with him the first time because he asked it off her despite her knowing it was one of his favorite things to do. As he had said, he felt he was more immersed in her world than her his. It didn’t matter to him if his world was a minority, or if it was too dangerous, it was the world he lived in.

Elann including herself in his family wasn’t all too comforting either. She was not officially a part of his family dynamic, regardless of their marriage or not. Noah’s family, his pack, was not bound to the rules of gods or the legality of marriage. It would be determined when they arrived in Zeltiva, when his father, brother, and sister would examine her. For the longest time Noah had been without an alpha – he had been solo. Now that he was returning to Zeltiva that would change and he would be subordinate underneath his father again, and by association Elann would be as well. So far as his father was concerned, Zeltiva and the surrounding woods belonged to him, the dire wolf.

She didn’t want to be a cage to him, wanting him to find freedom in her, and wanting to find it in him. Her looking away, her tears, made him click his tongue in some annoyance. He looked ahead again, keeping a loose hold of her hand.

“Stop it,” he said unsmilingly. “You’re not a cage. You’re just frustrating sometimes, and very, very confusing, and kind of annoying. You haven’t felt any jealousy because they haven’t asked anything of me. I didn’t go hunting with them without you, and they were almost always over your house when they would come. They did everything without me.” He looked over to her then, briefly. “I think it will be different when we get to Zeltiva. You like to stay inside, and sometimes that is nice, but I want to go to the parties with my sisters, and I want to go to the taverns with my brother, and I’ll want to go hunting with my entire family again.”

Noah took a breath, filling his chest. “I don’t know how my brothers, my father, or Jocelyn are going to feel about you. I hope that they like you, but I do not know.”

It made him squeamish at the thought of his brothers, Jocelyn, and his father not liking Elann. If they didn’t there was nothing he could do about it, nor would he really want to. Their opinions were theirs, but they wouldn’t influence how he felt about his bondmate. He allowed himself to be bonded to her for a reason, and still saw those reasons in her despite her presentable confusion and untimeable blindsiding with sudden issues. Still, he was unsure if his kin would see the same light he saw in Elann’s brilliant eyes.

“If I gave up on you, or myself, you would know,” he said, facing front again.

Noah was speaking quietly, yet was being blunt at the same time. He knew it, but he was speaking how his father and eldest sister would speak to any other human. He was speaking from the heart and it held a hard truth with it. There was no intent to deceive Elann, nor would he want to. She did not want him to fly away, wanted him to stay there and talk to her. Now he was, and he wasn’t folding beneath her crying. He was hearing her points, but had many of his own to rebut with. The Kelvic wasn’t going to hold them back either. If his wife wanted to engage in this conversation with him, then he would do so in spite of the ache in his legs and arms to be rid of it.