After unpacking, I spent the night snuggled with Kai in his bed but swore I wouldn’t do so with his family here. The next morning we were making breakfast when Emma knocked at the door.

“Hey.” I answered the door and saw an ornate gold-lined paper in her hand.

“Special delivery,” Emma said and came inside handing the paper to Kai.

He glanced at the paper and nodded.

“So?” I offered.

“It’s from Shamus. Sadie has set a date for her mating ceremony. Our pack is invited but we don’t have to go.” He was trying not to show any emotion, but I gathered that wouldn’t be the greatest political decision.

“Don’t both packs usually go to a mating ceremony when two wolves from separate packs marry?” I queried.

“They do,” Kai said after a long pause.

“But it’s understandable if they don’t attend when the old pack’s Alpha dated the bride for six years and has a new mate,” Emma threw out there.

“Six years!” I shouted louder than I intended.

“Emma.” Kai growled. Emma looked down at her feet mumbling an apology.

“Jesus,” I continued, “that’s a mini marriage.”

“Six years to a werewolf isn’t a long time,” Kai offered.

“Which reminds me,” I pointed my finger at Kai, “how old are you? How does this aging thing work in the werewolf world?” A six-year relationship was a big deal. No wonder Sadie left the pack. Her wolf had found her mate but did her human side still love Kai? I brushed off the thought.

Kai grinned, seeming to enjoy the change in topic. “I’m quite old in werewolf standards, over two hundred years old. My mother, father, and I are some of the oldest werewolves around today. We have survived because my father quickly became Alpha after his change and built a strong pack in Delhi. Then my mother was able to bear children. Having thirteen protective children in a large pack will keep you from getting killed in a fight.”

Two hundred years! Two centuries. Whoa. I was dating an old guy who looked like he was in his late twenties.

Emma stepped forward. “We don’t know much of werewolf aging, but it seems that you age normally until about twenty or twenty-five years old. Then your aging stops until you meet your mate. Once you are mated, you age together, but very, very slowly. It might take fifty years for you to look ten years older.

My mind was reeling. “You stop aging until you are mated?”

Emma nodded. “We think it has something to do with fertility. Some of us never find our mates, but if we are lucky enough then it can take a very long time. A werewolf can only have so many children before becoming sterile. We go through menopause just like humans.”

“But we don’t die of old age?” I queried.

Kai shared a look with Emma. “The few wolves old enough for us to test that theory on have asked their pack to kill them. It seems that after so many hundreds of years alive they just crave an end,” Kai told me.

“That’s horrible,” I said. I was unsettled by the whole idea.

“My parents were in their forties when they were changed, so they look about fifty today. Since they mated, they have aged only about ten years in the two hundred they have been wolves. Some seem to age faster. We just don’t know.”

I shook my head. Wow. I looked again at the pretty wedding invite.

“We will go to the wedding and support Sadie.” I hadn’t meant to say it so final, like a command.

Kai tilted his head to the side at my words and raised his eyebrows. “As you wish.”

Maybe being mates really did make us equal.

Family

I paced the house wearing foot marks into the carpet. Kai went to pick up his family from the airport and I stayed back. Kai didn’t think it was wise for me to be in such a public place since I was being hunted by vampires and witches.  I had unpacked my room and cleaned the kitchen. All of the things I hadn’t unpacked yet or that I wanted to sell, were in the garage. It felt weird to be living with my boyfriend. That’s a huge step in a relationship that you usually make after a year or more of dating. I had known Kai a few weeks. I face palmed my forehead. What was I doing? I was so in love. Common sense flew out the window!

Just thinking of Kai made my stomach flutter. I told him I loved him already? Oh my God, and he said it back. It was like I hadn’t just gotten the Lycan virus and turned into a werewolf. I got some lovesick mating virus and all of my logic and normal tendency to push guys away went out the window!

I heard a car door shut. They’re here! I felt sick. Trent was probably as nervous as I was. He had Skyped with Diya the night before, but they still didn’t know each other very well. We told Trent we would let Diya settle in and then we would call him over.

I could hear voices at the door and Kai’s key was in the lock. Oh God, I was going to be sick. Why was I so nervous? I was only meeting my 200-year-old mate’s mother and only sister. Didn’t he say something about a brother coming, too? The door began to open and I panicked. I ran down the hall and into the bathroom.

I shut the bathroom door and ran the water. I looked into the mirror and smoothed my blonde hair. I was wearing light make up and had my pearl earrings on. I decided on dark blue skinny jeans and a bright teal, long sleeve sweater. Why was I so nervous? I had met my other boyfriends’ parents before. ‘Because he is your mate. You love him,’ my inner wolf whispered to me. She was right. I did love him. I was nervous because I cared. This was a serious relationship and I wanted his family to like me. I wanted them to love me. I didn’t have a big family.