A Meeting with Tension

Antony stood outside the cave, waiting for the Romanian pack to be alone. With four other packs from other nations there, it was not the time to sit in on something as big as lycan politics. Once the last of the other packs had turned in for the night, he entered.

Constantin, the alpha of the pack, greeted Antony like a welcome friend, though this would be the first time the pair were meeting in person. They sat across from each other. Antony noticed that the woman he saw the day before was nowhere in sight.

"You are sure she is your mate?" the elder asked.

"Yes," replied the prince. "However, I will do what is necessary to prove it."

"No need. We have your bride waiting. Though, I believe my poor mate and daughter are struggling with putting the wedding dress on her."

"Excuse me?"

"A formality. Though, we do expect generous compensation for handing over one of our most skilled fighters-"

Antony jumped up. "She is not a bargaining chip and I will not bind her without consent! To even consider this kind of arrangement is dishonorable and disrespectful to not only myself but to her!" Two men in the back tried to keep their faces like stone, but the ends of their lips curled into smiles. "She comes of her own volition or not at all!"

The alpha remained calm "relax dear prince, I can see your emotions are still unstable at the moment, I should not have joked, what i was going to say was grand babies" He said in a calm tone " Ana has been like a daughter to us and my mate is already mentioning grand babies" he said with a sigh "i was going to say we do expect generous compensation for handing over one of our most skilled fighters, a grand child or two would do, I hate to think you think of me as such a cruel alpha that i would seriously ask for something in return for one of my owns happiness. Alpha or not even i do not have the power to interfere withing the natural order of things such as mating, its one of our most sacred laws, we cannot interfere with true mates." he said still calm

Antony caught a whiff of a scent, one that had not let him sleep the night before, and calm stole through him. He sat down, saying, "Forgive me, but my father would tell me that some Alpha would try to bargain for goods, services, women, and/or land. The thought of my lifemate being treated in such a manner did not sit well with me. Our correspondences should have told me better than that, knowing your generosity and understanding towards my people."

"We have both been generous and understanding toward both out kind, allies mean nothing if the respect is not given by both parties, I appreciate you meeting with me first , I know you are on a time limit , as it was explained to me by your second" he said shifting a little "I know our kinds are different in many ways and this being one of them, as you can imagine a female lycan would not be like a female Carpathian or human, you have your work cut out for you, but seeing as your already a leader that should help" he said standing up and grabbing a book that was near by "This is everything we a have about Anastasia, it goes back to the very first day we found them, her and her brothers" he said handing it to him "dont looked so shocked, lycans can adopt too" he said with a mirk " I figured it might help you in the long run to have that, i have a feeling you might need it, but as i was saying...yes we are different, but something out kind has in common is we mate for life and when we find our mate its intense, even if some do not treat their mates as they deserve," he said sitting back down "for us it more animalistic, we don't feel that connection until after we have mated so everything in us screams to mate as quickly as possible, usually at first we have the urge to run in wolf form with each other and sometimes we cant help but to get right too it, and Ana is already very instinctual and she is a warrior in our pack, she might be very aggressive until she is claimed" he said "my advice is to let her set the pace and try to remember she is still young in the sense that she might not be able to control herself as well as others who are older , so be careful because a lycan in heat is very aggressive and over stimulated until the union is complete "

"I would not want to impose my will upon her in any way," Antony said, setting the book down. "Usually, we would learn about our lifemates by being with them. As tempting as the book is, I'd rather not use secondhand knowledge if I can help it." He heard Erik groan in his head. "Now, can I see Ana? I do not mind a run, but we will have a rather annoying shadow."

I'll show you annoying! Erik growled.

"If she is ready to see you she will be waiting outside, One last warning prince, if she seems to be challenging you don't lose that challenge, its not uncommon for some males to have to dominte their mates so they accept them, it part of our nture and she wont hold back , its not in her nature, I dont wish for you to get hurt because your trying to be gentle" the alpa said standing up "she is outside" erik said

"I thank you for your advice," said Antony. "Erik, put the book down."

"I'm keeping it for you, just in case," his second said.

"Let's go meet my lifemate, formally this time."