Bloodlines: Fated Mates (Book 6 Of The Regal Eclipse Pack Series)

Chapter 18

Ian sat back in his seat once they were on the plane and stared out the window, wondering how long it would be before he returned to Washington. It was home, or at least it had been. His life was about to drastically change.

He felt Aria take his hand in her own, and he squeezed it gently, still watching the clouds. Once the plane was high enough, he looked at her.

"Are you regretting this?" she asked softly.

He could plainly see the concern on her face. "No. I'm just a bit nostalgic. It's time for a new chapter of my life. One that you star in."

She smiled at him.

"I'm also nervous about this," he admitted.

"About what?"

"Meeting your family." It was the other thing in the back of his mind. He knew what she'd said about her family and having human mates, but still. What if her dad took one look at him and said no? He could do that, or at least Ian thought he could. He was King.

"Meeting my dad?"

She was perceptive. "Yeah."

"He's not going to tell you that we can't be together. He believes very strongly in the mate bond. He's not one for arranged matings. If you're my mate and I'm happy with you, that's all that matters to him," she said.

"She's not wrong, Ian," Noelle spoke up. "Our father will be happy that she has a mate and probably more happy that you're not an Alpha."

"Oh." That was a surprise. He'd half wondered if her father would prefer her mated to an Alpha.

"Alphas are much too complicated," Aria told him with a smirk. "You'll see."

"Okay." Maybe it wasn't a bad thing that he wasn't a human. He was still nervous about meeting her father though. He had seen him once when Arlo had taken over as the Alpha and that has been a while ago. He'd been seventeen at the time. He hadn't been around the Alpha King enough to actually form an opinion of him, hadn't actually been around him at all. He'd just seen him at the ceremony. The family had been more focused on his brother, Jesse, who was becoming the Gamma, replacing his father. He realized both his father and Jesse had met the King and wished he had too, or he'd at least asked them about him. But he supposed he was about to get to know the man.

Aria had pulled out a laptop and was busy typing away on it and he glanced over to see what she was doing.

"I'm making notes about our visit today. I'm about to become a pack liaison. Though I suppose we need to talk about that," she mused.

Ian glanced at Nick. The man didn't seem to be paying any attention to them, as he was on his laptop as well, but Ian had a feeling he was listening to every word. His gaze darted to Noelle to see that she had her head resting on his shoulder and was asleep. "So you'll just go visit packs all the time?"

"When needed. You can come with me if you'd like. Our leadership is stretched a little thin right now with all of the pups that have recently been born. Nick is kind of running things along with Noelle, of course, and the Gamma, Elijah."

"I'll have to become a werewolf first."

"Yes. It's just all the way around safer." She looked at him

That made sense. Given that then he'd be not only a werewolf but also immortal. That was going to take some getting used to. "Does silver affect you?"

"Not the way it does a regular werewolf. It doesn't burn us but if it's injected into us or we take like a silver bullet, it'll slow us down from healing. But it can't kill us." She turned her attention back to her laptop.