Royal obligations

The meeting with the Alpha king

With all the things that Christian had told her swimming around in her head, she was feeling light headed. Not really knowing what to expect from all of this, she decided to try to put it out of her thoughts before she would drive herself crazy. Especially since she was on her way with Christian to meet his father, who had somehow requested them to come to him, without Christian getting a call or a text that she noticed.

To say that she was nervous was a big understatement, according to Christian, his father knew something about her own father that would explain everything. Still not knowing if she believed that his actions were explainable she just could help thinking about what all this would mean for her mother. How would it work to be with Christian like she wanted to and have her mom in her life since lycans were living in secrecy. How would she be able to keep something big like this from her mom? She had never had any secrets from her mom, she always told her everything. Well that is until she met Christian, she had never found a way to tell her mom about him after that camping trip, because she wouldn’t have been able to explain to her mom why she felt she could trust him when she didn't know why herself.

The drive to Christian’s father was quick, before she knew it they were parking the car in the driveway. Her nerves were a mess and she had no idea what in the world she could expect from this meeting. Before she knew, Mr.Beck had opened the front door and was waiting for them to get to him. Behind him she saw that Trish was standing just inside the door herself seeming to be waiting for them as well.

Once Christian and Ella had stepped in the house, Trish gave Ella a hug, asking if she had a good time at the picnic. Ella nodded her head to which Trish smiled and said she hoped Christian had told her everything he needed, because if he had and she was still there with them it was really good news. Ella could only smile, not knowing if Christian had told her everything, but since he had told her alot, everything that she felt she needed to know, she knew that this was something she wanted. Before Ella could tell Trish that, Mr. Beck cleared his throat ‘Ella do you want to have this talk in my office? Or would you be more comfortable in the living room?’ Not knowing what she thought would be more comfortable, if either of these options would ever be comfortable, she just shrugged her shoulders ‘I don’t really know what kind of talk this is going to be, whether it’s a business talk, which would be better to have in his office, or if it is more of a family matter, which would be better to talk about in the living room’.

Mr. Beck just smiled and looked at Christian ‘She’s really smart, I’ve got to hand it to her. What kind of talk would you classify this as Christian?’ Christian looked at his father. ‘I would say this is a family matter so I would choose the living room where there are more comfortable seats.’ Trish smiled and put her arm around Ella guiding her to the living room while whispering to her that she couldn’t be happier that this was a family matter, she had hoped so much that she would be family. Ella could only smile as she liked the sound of that, her being family now. Once they were in the living room and Trish had asked for some coffee and tea to be served, Ella tried to prepare herself for what was about to come her way, without knowing how to prepare for something she didn’t know exactly what was.

'Ella, before we begin, what exactly did Christian tell you on your picnic?' Trish asked her. 'Umm he told me that he is a prince, that you are werewolves and have your own society and laws apart from the human society. He explained about mates and how the moon goddess chooses your life partners and that if mates claim each other they are bonded for life. He also told me that I'm his mate and how that could be since I'm human, that I have a dormant lycan DNA. He explained about the hierarchy of the packs and how that came to be.' Ella answered and hoped she hadn't forgotten anything important. Trish smiled at her 'so your picnic sounds like it was quite the history lesson. What do you think about all of this?' Ella thought for a few seconds before she answered 'It's honestly a lot to take in. But in a way it explained a lot of my feelings that I hadn't understood before.' Mr. Beck looked at Ella 'what feelings were you having that you didn't understand?' Again Ella thought for a while 'For starters I felt really comfortable and pulled towards Christian from the moment I met him, which is not something I'm used to. I have never been accepted my whole life and because of that I don't trust anyone except for my mom, Julia and her mom. Also I didn't understand why I was willing to tell him about my past and how the town treated my mom and I because of something my father did.'

When she had answered she felt her cheeks starting to blush, again not understanding why she felt comfortable telling his parents that she had grown up in a town who mistreated her mom and her. Christian, who sat next to Ella took her hand which calmed her immediately while his father spoke 'you said he explained about the mate bond and how our kind claims their mates. Did he explain how exactly that works?' Ella nodded her head but Christian answered for her 'I explained the difference between a claimed mate and married couples. She asked if she had a choice since we are mates to which I told that she did, thankfully she didn't reject me. I also told her how some lycans choose to leave our society and live as humans instead of their human mates becoming lycan.

Mr. Beck nodded his head 'good, but did you tell her that with you being a future king, there is no option of you two living as humans?' He now looked at Ella 'I'm not trying to discourage you, but I want you to make a fully informed decision as to whether or not you accept Christian. If you choose him, which I hope you will, you will have to live by our laws and be fully mated and claimed by Christian. By accepting him, you will in consequence be accepting a lot of responsibilities that Christian and you would have to fulfill together. Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you?' Ella nodded her head 'Even though Christian didn't have a chance to tell me any of the responsibilities I assumed that there would be a lot of responsibilities one would have to accept when reigning over a kingdom. But there is however one question that he evaded to answer and that was about how mates would claim each other, what that really meant.' Ella looked down on her feet before she continued 'I do accept Christian for who he is and want nothing more than to share a life with him but I cannot bear the thought of not having my mom in my life. She has no one but me and even though I know I would have to figure out a way to keep this huge secret from her I'd rather do that than to not be able to have her at all.'

Mr. Beck looked at Trish with what seemed to leave a hint of knowing look in both their eyes. 'Is that your only concern in all of this? Whether you will need to leave your mother?' Mr. Beck asked. 'Well yes because I know I can handle any responsibility as long as I have Christian with me and I can talk to my mom' Ella answered truthfully. Trish looked at her husband 'stop this now and start answering her questions or I will' she said sternly to which Mr. Beck smiled and nodded his head 'I just wanted to be sure she understood what she was choosing, that she wasn't making a decision without realizing what it entailed' he said to his wife. Now he looked at Ella 'Ok now for all your answers' he said 'first, you can have your mother in your life and won't have to keep secrets from her at all. Besides I believe she knows more than you think she does' Ella looked back at him confused but he just continued. 'I am going to tell you a story that I think you have heard before, at least to some extent.'

Mr. Beck shifted in his seat before continuing 'not so long ago, when we and your mother were your age and in college a member of our pack met his mate who was a human. He never liked being in this pack because he thought he was better than the other Omegas. He felt he deserved to be higher ranking than he was but being in this pack he had no chance of working this way up. The Alpha was set in stone here with me and the Beta was as well with my cousin and best friend. This man had always hoped I would choose him as my Gamma but since I felt he was a power hungry man who only looked out for himself that was not what I would ever do. Alphas, Betas and Gammas need to have a serving personality because they always need to think about the pack and what benefits everyone in the pack before they can think about what they want. This man never showed that he understood that so I chose my Gamma according to that. My Gamma is the son of Omegas but his servitude personality showed clearly. He always offered anything he could for the benefit of the pack. The power hungry man was not happy and as he graduated along with us and his mate, who he had never claimed, he chose to leave the pack stating that he would either win himself an Alpha position or start his own pack.' At this time some servant came to inform them that dinner would be ready in a few minutes. Mr. Beck thanked the servant 'we should move to the dining room and continue there' he said to them.

When they had sat themselves down at the dining table he started his story again. 'We didn't hear anything from him again but a few years later we heard that he had tried to challenge an Alpha for his position which resulted in him being sentenced to be a rogue. I followed up on him and learned that he had moved to a town not far from here and was trying to get power within it. But being new to the town and not having any wealth, he started to take loans and gamble with the money to try to start businesses. He was never successful and lost all the money, he kept taking more loans and when the bank denied him he looked to wealthy businessmen in the town. Again he gambled all the loans away and finally within two years he was in such a huge debt that he had no way of repaying he fled the town. But before he did that he married his unclaimed mate who he never treated with the respect she deserved. Having cheated on her multiple times with every wealthy business daughter who would look his way.' Ella looked awestruck since she knew this part of the story.

When the servants brought out the appetizers Mr. Beck took a little break in his story but continued as soon as they had left the room again. 'The man fled the town with the little money he had left, leaving his new wife and two year old daughter behind in his mess. Since they were married the wife was stuck with all his debts that were worth at least 20 houses so the woman had no means to repay it. She managed to negotiate the payments so she could afford rent and necessities for her and her daughter. But in order for that deal to be made she had to promise that she would not move away from the town until the debts had been paid in full. Leaving her daughter and her stuck in the town their whole lives since the debt wouldn't be paid in full until at least 50 years later. And that would only be accomplished with her daughter helping to pay off once she was old enough to get a job.' Ella's eyes started to water at this point because she hadn't known how severe the debt was and she knew that even with her getting a well paid job, she wouldn't be able to free her mom in 5 years like she had thought. Christian noticed that Ella was trying to hold back her tears and took her hand in his to try to comfort her while he interrupted his father 'do you know where the man went when he fled?' Mr. Beck looked at Christian 'no, I tried to find him and have never stopped looking but he seems to have either fled the country or died because I have never heard anything that would give indication of his whereabouts since.' He looked at Ella and noticed she was trying hard not to let tears escape her eyes. 'I understand that this is hard for you to hear and I want you to know that lycans who treat their mates this way are very few but unfortunately they do exist just like these types of men exist in human society as well. I also want you to know that I did try to help your mom but she refused saying she didn't want a hand out. She has always been a very proud and strong woman and even though this would not have been a hand out since your father was originally a part of my pack and therefore my responsibility as well. She didn't want to hear about it and I think she lost faith in lycans with your father and I can't blame her. When I saw your application for a scholarship I was so happy and I would have granted you a full ride even though you wouldn't have had top grades. But you had the best grades I have ever seen in my years so please don't feel like you didn't earn your place because you certainly did earn your spot.' Ella took her napkin and dried her eyes excusing herself 'I'm sorry, it's really emotional hearing about all of it and I just realized that my hopes of helping my mom and getting her out of the crappy town soon just aren't realistic. I don't know what to do because my mom works so hard and she is treated so badly. It is only Julia's mom who treats her well but her family is not powerful enough to influence others, besides the rest of Julia's family doesn't approve of them associating with us.'

Trish spoke for the first time since Mr. Beck started his story 'sweetie you don't have to apologize for anything. I understand how hard all of this must be for you to hear but do know that none of this is your fault and we want to make this right but we do need your help to convince your mom.' Trish looked worriedly at Ella 'I have spoken to your mother a few times since met her with you at the start of the semester and as you can understand she expressed her concern about Christian being lycan and that she didn't want you to experience the same thing she did. I understand her concerns as I would have them as well if I were her, but I have explained to her that Christian is nothing like your father and we would never allow him to treat you like that even if he tried. Not that he would mind you, the way he speaks about you tells me he respects you the way he should.' She smiled to Christian and Ella before she continued 'I have faith in the way that we raised him and I know he is a good boy who wants the best for you and your mom. And both Dominic and myself want that as well.'

This was so overwhelming for Ella that she didn't know what to say so she was glad when the servants arrived to take their dishes and tell them the next course would arrive shortly. She looked at Christian 'did you know about any of this?' She asked him. 'No I only knew what you told me but when I spoke to my parents about it I got the feeling that they knew something more. But they assured me that they would help us help your mom' he said. Ella knew he was telling her the truth because she somehow felt like she would know if he would lie to her. She had known that he wasn't telling her everything before the picnic and so she trusted her gut feeling now.

The servants brought out the main course, which was her favorite, roast beef and braised vegetables. She couldn't help the moan that escaped her mouth and smiled shyly 'I feel like it's Christmas, it's the only time of year that my mom would allow herself to treat us with a fancy meal like this' she admitted. Trish smiled 'we don't always have a three course meal but we usually have on Sundays but since this is the start of fall festival we have it today as well' she said. They started to eat and Mr. Beck looked like he was deep in thoughts before he looked at Ella 'do you think that you will be able to get your mother to accept our help with this mess? I have always hated that she is stuck in the town with this mess' he said with a worried look on his face. 'I don't know, but I will try. I think however that if we could present it as a loan she would be more acceptable to it, like you said, she is very proud and she feels like it's her responsibility to pay off the debt since she trusted my father' Ella said hoping that Mr. Beck would consider that. He smiled 'we can present it as a loan but I don't want her to pay it back. If she would be willing to accept the 'loan' and move here to this town we do need a talented bookkeeper like her for our pack. The current bookkeeper is retiring at the end of the year so I would love to get her for that job. We could say a payment would be deducted from her monthly pay but Ella, just know that would not be done since like it's not your responsibility to pay this, it's not hers either.' Ella just smiled and thought that this was a secret she would be willing to keep from her mom. ' I think that would work, even though I don't like keeping things from my mom, I am willing to keep this from her if it means that she can move here and be happy.' Mr. Beck smiled 'then that's what we will do. You talk to your mother as soon as you can so we can finally rectify this' he told Ella. Ella nodded her head and told him she would go home the following weekend and talk to her mom and tell her that she knew about lycans and that she had chosen Christian and would hope that her mom would move closer to them. Mr. Beck nodded his head and the rest of the meal went on with talks about what the fall festival would be and what activities they wanted to participate in.

When Christian and Ella went up to his room to sleep after a pleasant evening with his parents she was exhausted after an emotional day. But she was happy to finally have gotten to know the whole truth about her parents and about Christian as well. That meant that she was on her way to live a happy life with him and would be happy to share all the responsibilities with him that their lives would expect from them. What these responsibilities would be, she would learn in time, she just knew she was ready for them.