"Miss. Elizabeth, it is important that you choose your words carefully as you speak with your Uncle. Im sure you recall that the last time you spoke with him there was an air of tension." Jacob said to her carefully, as he prepared her for the video call, having her seated in the same room where she saw her Uncle last in front of a laptop idly waiting to be utilized.
"Of course." she replied dully, knowing his elaborate selection of words was contrived in a way to curb any chance that she may say something which would alarm her family and cause them to take action. She also knowing that if she did say anything concerning that it would result in turmoil for both parties.
The master beta watched her carefully before he gave a brief nod acknowledging he believed she was clear on his gentle suggestion. Jason sat across the table from her watching her face as Jacob reached in front of her to click the call button on the skype screen, the ringing sound seeming to reverberate around the room.
The repetitive chimes sounding for a few seconds before the call was picked up and Alpha Ryan along with Uncle Dominick appeared on the screen, their faces showing shock initially from her done up appearance and then changing to relief as they saw her unharmed face.
"Elizabeth." Uncle Dominick sighed out with a deep exhale. "How are you?"
"I am as well as can be expected." she said with a gentle shrug, a small smile forming as she took in the familiar faces staring back at her on the screen. "How are you? And how is Aunt Shelly?" she asked back quickly, finding a new energy now that the call had become a reality.
"We are both well, but terribly worried about you. She didn't talk to me for days when I didn't bring you home, but she's coming around now." Uncle Dominick replied, showing to her that Aunt Shelly still was the one who held the reigns in the relationship.
"I understand you were upset earlier." Alpha Ryan stated frankly. Jacob and Jason exchanging looks to each other which went unnoticed by Elizabeth.
"I was." she said with a small nod, her eyes looking between the two men in the room as if soliciting an appropriate response.
"Are you alone?" Alpha Ryan questioned noticing her eyes diverting off screen.
"I am with the Alpha and the Master Beta." she said back, Jason exhibiting a slight narrowing of the eyes as he was called the Alpha, finding it rather impersonal.
"Have them leave. This call is between us." Ryan said sharply, knowing full well the men could hear his firm tone.
Elizabeth's eyes traced a line in between Jacob and Jason in a questioning manner, her lips slightly parted as if she was unsure how to proceed. It would be impossible for her to make them leave if they did not want to do so on their own accord, but she also didn't want to deny Ryan and have the call cut short due to their presence.
"It's fine Elizabeth." Jason said in an equally firm tone, remembering once again just how annoying the older Alpha was. "We'll go get some coffee, enjoy yourself." he said with a nod, his body betraying his words as he reluctantly rose from his seat and motioned for Jacob to head to the door with another nod.
"Call if you need anything." Jacob said, as both the men slipped through the entrance of the room and closed the door behind them.
"Are they gone?" Ryan asked, looking at the pale blonde on the screen and taking in her demure new look.
"Yes, they left." she said back, her eyes now returning to the screen, leaving the door from which they exited.
"Pick up the computer and rotate it so I can be sure you're truly alone." the alpha directed, airing on the side of caution.
Elizabeth did as Ryan said and picked up the laptop, moving her form from the main view of the screen so that both of the men could take in the empty room as she spun, sitting down after a slow full rotation.
"Good." Ryan said in satisfaction. "Now you can speak candidly. Why were you upset earlier?" his words succinctly getting to the point.
"Uh... I.." she hesitated in thought. She didn't want to go into the details of how devastated she was at having unprotected sex, especially not with Ryan and her Uncle. It was a level of uncomfortability that she didn't want to approach at any point her life. Deciding to skip the catalyst of her recent strong emotions, she decided to give them the result of that action. "He took my clothes... I think he threw them away." she said back, a small sting forming as she recalled the incident in the closet where she was eventually injected with a sedative.
Ryan and Dominick looked at each other, and then returned their eyes to the young woman with quizzical stares. Both thinking that there was more to it than what she was relaying to them.
"I see you're wearing clothes right now..." Ryan stated in a leading manner.
"They're not mine." she said back quickly. "He had someone pick them out for me, but they are not mine. I don't know where my clothes are." she said trying to make clear her thought process but only further confusing the men who watched her from the glowing screen.
"So... he bought you new clothes?" Uncle Dominick asked, still unclear on what could have been so devastating to cause her symptoms to appear.
"There is a whole closet full of clothes, but they are not mine." her tone was becoming more firm as a light frustration began to brew within her at how they were not grasping the concept of her distress. "Shoes, jewelry, handbags.. All of them are not mine. I want my clothes back."
"I'm not understanding Elizabeth." Uncle Dominick said showing that he was still lost. "He took your clothes away... providing you with new clothes, but you feel as if they are not yours?" his eyebrow arched as he looked at her, wishing his wife was here to explain the female brain and how it processed information.
"They were my clothes!" she said, her upset growing stronger as she almost began to spit out her words. "I picked them. They were my choice." she was beginning to feel almost as passionately as she had been during the incident, her words depicting to the men that the matter wasn't about clothes at all, but about her own sense of identity.
"Okay Elizabeth, calm down." Ryan said with a hand going up in the air in an attempt to placate her from afar. "Is there something else you're not telling us other than him buying you new clothes and discarding your old ones? Has he hit you?" the Alpha prodded along trying to find another reason for her upset.
"No. He hasn't hit me." she said, looking down to her fingers which were once again nervously fidgeting within her lap, frustration still brewing from their lack of understanding.
"Is he feeding you?" Dominick asked as a follow up.
"Yes.. he makes me eat." she said looking back at the screen as she recalled all the times Jason prodded and sometimes commanded her to take in sustenance. "He has a cook." she added, her mind recalling the high quality of the food he provided.
"Master Beta Jacob informed me that you both mated and that you are now marked." the Alpha said in a very direct manner. "Is this correct?"
Her face immediately assumed the color red from a deep seeded embarrassment, her eyes once again falling back to her lap where she gave a brief nod opting to not say anything as she had no words.
"And... you were willing?" he said very carefully as Dominick looked to the side of the screen finding the same uncomfortability Elizabeth was currently experiencing with the new topic.
"....yes." She looked back up to the two men sitting on the screen, finding this to be probably the most awkward moment of her life. "But.." she then hesitated.
"But?" Dominick's head snapped back so that he could look back at his niece and take in her face looking for any sign of showing her thoughts. "But what Elizabeth?" he asked his voice more eager as he waited in anticipation only building from her clear hesitation.
"Well..." she looked up the ceiling with tears beginning to form at her lower lashes. "H-he..." she looked back at the screen to take in their faces which were now leaning in closer to the monitor waiting for her to speak further. "He didn't use a condom... and..." she literally was trying to force the words out, but she was once again at a loss.
"And?" Ryan pushed further as Dominick was in a moment of cringe from her spoken words.
"And.. I don't want to get pregnant...But I think he wants me to.." she said without going into descriptive detail of how he came deep inside of her.
"... Elizabeth." Ryan said with a long sigh as he took in the contents of their conversation. "I understand that this has been very hard on you. You have been thrown into the very world we had tried to protect you from, and the challenges you're currently facing are no doubt accelerated due to the status of your mate, but unless there is something else you're not telling us... we cannot help you. It sounds as if he is taking care of you, and I say that begrudgingly, as I find Alpha Jason to be rather obnoxious... but nonetheless, it seems your struggles are just from failing to adapt to your new life style."
"But what about my clothes?" she asked in dejection.
"They are clothes." Dominick said with a large sigh in finality, realizing that there was no true rationale that was reasonable enough to cause them to fight and bring her back home. "And now you have new ones."
"What about... pregnancy?" she said losing her ability to form structured questions.
"If you don't want to fall pregnant, don't have sex. He didn't force you the first time, and I doubt he would do so in the future... But he is an Alpha, and he is in need of an heir, pregnancy will ultimately be unavoidable. Especially, since you're in the beginning of your heat." Ryan said back matter of factly, watching the woman contort her face as she took in the brevity of his words.
"My what?" she gave a quizzical expression as she looked between Ryan and Dominick in obvious confusion.
"Are you unaware?" Ryan asked back, his voice slightly concerned by her reaction.
"Unaware of what?" she asked back her voice growing a little more in anxiety.
"They didn't tell you that you are in the beginning of heat?" Ryan questioned back analyzing her face as they progressed in the conversation.
"What is heat?" her heart began to race as she was now being exposed to another element of her new reality in which she was blissfully unaware of.
"Oh, for fucks sake." Dominick said with a shake of his head and looking down at his lap, annoyance in his voice from her lack of awareness on the subject. Her heat being a topic he had thankfully avoided as it had never presented when she became a womanly age.
"They should have told her." Ryan said to Dominick in the same frustration with a lower volume that was still audible to her ears.
"Told me what?!" her own voice reaching frustration, not to a level she normally would have found without the medication, but it still being clearly present in her tone.
"Well..." Dominick began to rub at the back of his neck, wishing Shelly was here at the moment to guide the conversation. "A shewolfs heat is... a time where... well..." his cheeks growing rosey as he tried to form the words appropriate enough for the birds and the bees talk.
"It's a time where the shewolfs body is the most receptive to becoming pregnant. A shewolf can get pregnant outside of heat, but heat is indicative of her body's readiness to bare a pup." Ryan took over the conversation in recognition that Dominick was unable to lead it. "It typically runs three weeks, the second week is where pregnancy is most likely to occur. Have you been excessively hungry lately? Are you craving sweets?"
A light bulb clicked within her brain which answered Ryan's questions without words. Her hunger which presented earlier seemed almost insatiable and she currently found her stomach grumbling now.
"I'll take that as a yes." he said with a nod. "You're going to experience up and down emotions from insecurity to giddiness, from giddiness to hostility. It is all normal, and just details your heats progression. In the second week... you will.. Well, you will find your mate most desireable." Ryan said as he looked away for a moment, preferring to keep his words elusive and not go into details. "You will find it very hard to be away from him, near impossible, actually. The third week is either the start of your pregnancy, or the shedding of unserviced eggs resulting in what a human would consider a normal period."
"Well, how do I stop it?" she asked back quickly, knowing in certainty that she absolutely did not want a child at this point her life.
"You can't." Dominick replied stiffly, shifting from side to side in uncomfortability. "It has to run its course."
"I don't want to get pregnant." she said back even quicker with panic in her eyes.
"The only way you can avoid pregnancy in heat is to be away from your mate, otherwise... Pregnancy will most likely occur. In the second week your body will do everything in its power to conceive, mental resistance will be futile and probably non-existent." Ryan said back in certainty.
"... He wont let me get away." she said in ultimate sadness, her chest feeling heavy as she looked down at her nervously wringing hands. "I told you... he wants me to get pregnant." her now being absolutely certain that Jason would be taking advantage of her unfortunate predicament.
"Elizabeth, I know that you find this extremely upsetting, but we cannot interfere in this matter." Ryan said in caution, his tone grave.
"Well... he let me call you. Maybe, you can suggest I come home for a visit?" she asked looking up at the two men with a little sparkle of hope in her eyes. "Just until it passes?"
".. I will suggest it, but know now that there will be no way he will accept it." Ryan said back, not allowing her to hold onto that hope and making it clear that she needed to face the reality of the situation in order to prepare herself for its eventual happening.
"At least try... please?" she asked as if she was almost begging.
"Of course." Ryan said back firmly, knowing that their conversation was now over and that he would need to reach out to Shaded Mountains leadership to have a frank conversation about the one that had just transpired.