"Beautiful." Rylan tried to wake up Adeline who was deep asleep beside him.
She blinked slightly and he smiled, moving the hair from her face. "I know you're awake, beautiful."
"I don't want to get up." She told him, pulling a blanket over her head.
"You can sleep in the car, beautiful... But you need to pack a bag, we're leaving in a few hours to go and meet your mum."
"Why do I need a bag?" She asked, yawning and rolling over.
"I've booked a hotel room, we're going out for drinks with your parents tonight and having breakfast the next day." He told her proudly. "I've moved all the meetings and I rang your mum and planned it so that you would have more time with her... I've got everything covered, I just need you to pack you're bag and get ready so we can leave on time."
"How long have you been awake?" She asked looking at the clock. It was only just gone 7...
"A few hours more hours than I'd like to admit... I couldn't sleep." He said and she sighed. "I know, I should try and go back to sleep, but I wasn't tired, and I just wanted to do something nice for you."
She sat up and kissed him gently, before pulling away and swinging her legs out of bed. "Thank you, Ry."
"You're welcome, baby." he told her standing up and walking to the door. "I'll meet you outside, I've got a few more things to do."
"Okay." She said as he walked away, and she began to get ready.
On-time, just an hour and a half later, she took her overnight bag to the car and closed the door behind her.
Rylan was standing with Brody and his mum, Brody's mate was standing with them.
He looked so happy, he spotted her and came over, taking her bag from her and putting his hand protectively on her back. Adeline had never really looked at Brody in detail, but he was very muscular, and looked so much more content with his women round his side. She was a beautiful red-haired lady, with a soft face.
"This is Ava, Brody mate." She smiled, and he looked proud of his mate, she was pretty.
"Adeline." She replied smiling back at her, she stayed with them while Rylan put her bag in one of the land rovers. There were 4?
"Ry, why are we taking 4 cars?" She asked as he came back, putting her hand round his back and into his back jeans pocket. He put his arm around her.
"Guards..." He looked up.
"Is that necessary?" She asked and he nodded.
"Just in case... There's an actual set of guards and then there are some guys coming to help out with me, you won't notice they're there." He told her, kissing her forehead.
"Are you ready?" He asked and she nodded, she had a backpack with her too, which she picked up before walking with the others to the cars.
"We're all in the middle car, guys," Rylan told them and everyone piled into the back.
"You're upfront with me, baby." He pulled her into a quick embrace and kissed her gently, before pulling away and leading her to the car door and opening it for her. He went round to the driver's side.
"Everyone ready?" He asked. They drove in silence for a little while before they all made their conversations.
"Excited?" Rylan asked, placing his hand onto Adeline's thigh.
"Hmm.." she turned her head to face him.
"We're checking into the hotel first, then we'll go meet your family."
"Are you coming shopping with us?" She asked.
"No, we're going to go to the pub and watch the football for a few hours... Then we'll come and meet you for dinner and we can go and get changed before we go out for drinks." He told her and she nodded.
"They'll be lots of guards following you around today, so we'll introduce you to all of them when we're in the hotel before we go... If you don't recognize any of the people following you, ring me and I'll confirm if they're one of the guards or not...." He told her and she nodded.
"Don't drink too much before we go out together later." She told him and he chuckled. She held his hand on her leg.
"I won't, baby... But I won't get drunk too easily, hybrid perks. the alcohol just kind of wears off after a few hours." He told her and she smiled, nodding.
"Do you need any money?" He asked and she frowned quickly shaking her head.
"No, I have money, Ry."
"Can I not even buy your dress?" He asked innocently, he kept his eyes on the road.
"What dress?" She asked.
"You need a dress for the ceremony. White. And you need bare feet, remember? Have you never been to an alpha ceremony?" he asked.
"No..."
"Well, add that to your list. I want to buy you nice things, maybe we could come with you for a little while first and I'll buy you something nice..." She didn't respond. "Please, Baby. I want to buy you things, the money we will get from the pack is ours, not just mine." He pointed out and she shrugged.
"If it makes you happy... Fine." She gave in and he smiled, squeezing her hand.
They realized Ava was quite shy on the way to the shopping centre, she didn't talk much but she was polite.
"Adeline, Ava's from the AlderTree pack too, that's where you're from right?" Brody told her and she smiled. "I thought maybe you might already know each other."
"No, Brody. Alder is quite small, but it's not that small." She replied. "Whereabouts did you live, Ava?"
"I- I haven't moved yet... But... I live on the Eastside." She said quietly, her hand was gently in Brody's.
"Oh okay, I'm from the south, so closer to Rye wood." She explained.
"I like it... it's nice and calm and quiet."
"Hmm, much more than here." She said squeezing Rylan's hand, which was still on her thigh. "There's so much drama over here," Adeline said quietly and Rylan nodded.
"It will sort itself out, I promise." He told her and he raised her hand to his lips to kiss it softly.
They drove for another few hours until they got to the hotel, they parked and got out of the cars, taking their bags into the lobby and checking in.
It was quite modern, white and black walls, grey marbled counters and an exceptionally large chandelier. The doors were open, and it smelt like fresh air, very inviting.
"Can I take the booking name, please?" The woman at the desk asked Rylan, she was trying to push her chest out.
"Rylan cooper."
"And how many rooms did you book?" She asked, looking for the booking.
"11. 5 exclusive suites and 6 normal suites." He said confidently, he wrapped his arms around Adeline and put his hand in her back pocket, just as she had done earlier. Her eyes were wide with shock of how many rooms they had.
"Okay, that's all set. You paid online. Thank you, sir. I'll get those keys sorted for you." She said walking away and winking at him.
He looked down at Adeline with disgust. "Ew." He mouthed and she smiled, snuggling into his chest.
"Here you are, Sir." She looked slightly horrified that I was so close to him, she passed him 11 sets of keys that were all on keys chains and Rylan took everyone into the practically empty lounge.
"Shut up." He told everyone, the guards got quieter. "Let's sort out these rooms. We're in the exclusive rooms, I and Adeline are in room 128, Brody and Ava are in room 129, my mum is in 130 and Adeline are parents are in 131, and Taylor and Ryan are in 132. There are three rooms on either side of those four, at least two in each room, please. You can squabble between yourselves." He put the 6 normal keys on the table and passed the others their keys.
"I want everyone in our room in 15 minutes, we need to do a quick brief. Room 128... Don't forget... Go." He told everyone and he turned to Adeline.
"Look behind you." He told her and she turned around wearily, her parents and her little sister had just walked in and were walking towards them.