Chapter Twenty One

Christian sat on the couch in his apartment while dressed in a suit. He wanted to keep his meeting with Alexa professional. He did not want any misunderstandings. He only wanted to be educated in this pack law and that was it. He did not even know such a social structure existed until he was told about it. He only wanted to know what it meant and how it affects him in relationship to his father's pack. He agreed with his father on one thing, he needed to do whatever he could to protect the ones he loved.

Alexa and Taylor stood in front of Christian with their heads and eyes lowered. Christian sighed.

"Doing that is mistake," said Alexa.

"We are showing you respect and you responded disrespectfully."

He reminded himself that he would listen and take his education seriously.

"What is the proper response?"

"You tell us to raise our head or gently touch our right shoulder to communicate it is okay for us to look at you."

"Raise your head."

Alexa and Taylor raised their heads and looked at Christian.

"Simply saying rise is fine," she said.

"Rise."

"That is only required with royalty. Once your father announces your identity, it will be important to know how to address your subordinates," she said.

He nodded his head and kept his mouth shut. His father planned to reveal his identity? How would that affect his family? Corin had to know that such news would bring all kinds of unwanted attention to Christian. If that was what his father planned to do, he would need to convince him not to go through with it. Knowing what little he knew about the king, he doubted he could change his mind. Alexa's presence was proof of Corin's influence.

Taylor sat down on a chair. Alexa would be Christian's main tutor. Taylor would offer additional information when needed. Also, Taylor had not adhered to pack law for over a decade and he did not want to give Christian any misinformation.

Alexa started from the beginning. She told him the story of their existence as she was told as a child. He listened intently to her. It was a bit unnerving as he never took his eyes off of her. Her wolf wanted to lower her eyes, but she reminded her that the prince wanted to hear her and submitting would actually make the prince angry. Her wolf didn't want that and kept her attention on the task at hand.

A werewolf's lineage varied. Not all regions had the same origin and now intermixing had affected their genetic structure as well. Christian and many of the people under Corin's rule descended from Europe. The world was filled with supernatural and natural creatures. Supernatural creatures spent most of their time fighting each other to the point of near extinction. Vampires, werewolves, fairies and other powerful spell castors fought each other for dominance.

"Wait, there are fairies, vampires and spell castors too," asked Christian.

"Yes."

"Wow."

"Shall I continue, sir?"

"Yeah, go on. I do want to talk about them later."

The humans were not even thought of, they had no real power and their presence was nothing more than collateral damage. Christian did not like how werewolves viewed humans. He was beginning to understand how their prejudice against humans was fostered. She said eventually their kind's numbers dwindled and the human population outnumbered all other worldly creatures. Some created their own realms and left. The werewolves were left here amongst humans. A few packs began to fight amongst themselves for food or some wolves wanted to restore the balance between them and humans by killing the humans. He straightened his posture. She quickly said that such wolves were hunted down by both wolves and humans alike and killed. Many of the misconception of werewolves came from the wolves that wanted to do such a thing. He slightly relaxed back into the couch. Someone had to take control. Werewolves no longer had a true enemy, but their aggressive nature still remained. Alpha wolves formed their own packs and enforced an organized social structure that mimicked the natural wolf structure.

"Pack law is a set of social rules that address the hierarchy within a wolf pack. These rules keep us from tearing each other apart and drawing unwanted attention to ourselves from humans," she said. "You may think we're violent and have continuously killed each other, but pack law has lessened such acts of violence."

Christian simply smiled and did not comment. The Blue Lounge was filled with aggression. Those wolves were bottled up. Maybe it was different in other environments, but he was not indoctrinated into the importance of pack law as Alexa. He would objectively judge and use what he needed from this social hierarchy. She said pack law had a number of rules, but there only a few rules that informed the other mandates.

Werewolves were born as alphas, betas and omegas. There were wolves that were labeled as alpha-omegas, but they tended to die as young adults. Such wolves had the alpha aggression, but the strength of an omega. Many lost their lives during a challenge. She stopped speaking and shifted her eye toward Taylor. Was Taylor an alpha-omega? That would explain his shifting demeanor. He could have been raised to believe he was an omega so he wouldn't get himself killed.

"Is something wrong," asked Christian.

"I'm sorry. Nothing's wrong, I'll continue," she said.

Werewolves were all born into a certain class. Alphas usually begat alphas; betas wolves beget betas and so on and so forth. Alpha-omegas came from alpha parents and were sometimes abandoned. As children, most groups kept to themselves until the age of ten, when intermixing was allowed to help children develop their place in the pack structure.

Christian could only imagine what that meant. Were betas and omegas simply bullied and bitten for the rest of their lives?

She stated gender was not an issue among werewolves. A beta male must submit to an alpha female or that alpha female has the right to put that wolf in his place and kill him depending on the offense. An alpha female was physically stronger and faster than a beta or omega male. They would not survive a challenge.

Challenges and attacks were taken very seriously. Christian asked what was the difference between a challenge and an attack. He thought they were the same thing. She said a challenge was an official request to fight. It was considered honorable, involved witnesses and the wolf can choose to let the defeated opponent live. An attack happened when another wolf shifted or hit another wolf without letting them know. It was seen as cowardly and that wolf had every right to kill the other wolf without any consequences unless they were a royal enforcer or a royal guard. Taylor cleared his throat. Alexa smiled inwardly. She had just reminded Taylor that she could have killed him that night.

Finding a mate was very important moment in a wolf's life. Choosing and being accepted by one's desired mate grounded wolves. They tend to focus on their family and protecting them. They're less likely to challenge others unnecessarily. Some say this keeps wolves in control better than pack law itself. Anna, Christian thought. He mentally shook the thought from his mind. Anna could not be his mate. His wolf was simply infatuated with her for some other reason.

"Do you have any questions so far," she asked.

"Not really, no."

"Do you mind if I ask you to paraphrase what I have said to you so far?"

He smiled at her. He knew she was terrified of his power and position, yet she still took her work seriously. She was willing to offend him just to make sure she was doing her job right. It still did not make the request any less offensive.

"Corin's pack stem from Europe. Before the other supernatural creatures left, we fought with them. Pack law was created and evolved due to werewolves' need to blend in and stop killing each other unnecessarily. The three main structures are: alpha, beta and omega, alpha-omegas are considered rare outside of the one sitting behind you."

Alexa and Christian looked back at Taylor. Taylor looked away.

"At age ten all of the wolves in that particular pack are allowed to interact with each other so they can learn to practice pack law literally. The main rules of pack law stem from social hierarchy, challenges and fights."

"Good, we can continue," she said.

"Please do."

Alexa allowed Christian to avoid talking about mating. His tryst with Anna was off limits.

Anna arrived at the airport and waited forty-five minutes for her mother to pick her up. Her mother apologized for being late and used her husband's injury, yet again, as an excuse. Anna smiled and hugged her. She did not want to seem ungrateful. It was a free trip. She only wished she knew earlier and she would have eaten something at the airport. Anna's stomach growled while hugging her mother. Her mother pulled away, they both looked down at Anna's stomach.

"Is that you," asked Carla.

"Yeah, I'm hungry. Can we stop someplace and get something to eat on the way?"

"Of course."

Anna was allowed to buy a small burger from a fast food restaurant. Carla already had a meal ready at the house.

When Carla and Anna walked into Carla's home, Anna was greeted with a weak hug from Bob. He was trying to give her a half hug with one arm while trying to keep his other hand on the one crutch he was using. Anna hugged him back, but quickly moved back so he could regain his balance properly. She did not want him to break his other foot. He asked her about the flight. She said it was fine. Silence filled the room. Carla was the first to break the silence by telling Anna that she can put her suitcase in the upstairs bedroom. Anna gladly left to do that.

Lunch was delicious. Anna just hated doing small talk with her family. This was not the type of conversation a child should be having with her own mother. She noticed how her mother would rub Bob's back every now and then. It was a sweet sign of affection. Bob tried to act upbeat, but Anna could tell he was still in a little pain. After they finished eating lunch, Bob politely excused himself to the bedroom. Carla and Anna were left at the table alone. Carla poured Anna and herself another glass of wine. Anna refused to let her mother drink her under the table so she accepted it. She took a sip of it for good measure. Carla drunk half her glass and placed it back on the table. Carla reached over and held one of Anna's hands in both of her hands.

"So, what's his name and what has he done you?"

Anna looked down for a moment. Part of her was ashamed to admit that she may have made a mistake. Kate told her that dating was messy, but Anna thought she could avoid it. Christian had taken ahold of her and she didn't know how her feelings for him could have grown so quickly. He seemed as though he was feeling the same way and that scared her a bit. If they both were falling for each other fast, then neither of them could ground the other person. She tried to think of how she could talk about her time with Christian without breaking the non-disclosure agreement. She really wanted to hear her mother's thoughts about him. She felt she needed to make another decision this weekend. She wanted to decide whether to continue her relationship with Christian Grey.

Thanks for reading! Don't worry; I am keeping the main beats of the story. Anna just wants more from Christian now and if she decides to comprise, she won't be happy. She needs to decide what's best for her. Interestingly enough, Christian is opening himself up to more intimacy as well.

I really like to write about world building (I hope that sentence makes sense – writers will know what I am talking about, lol). So writing about pack law was really fun for me. I wanted to dedicate a full chapter to it since a lot of you were interested in learning about it.

As always, I appreciate your comments, reviews and constructive criticism. Have a great weekend!