The unplanned trip

ANNA'S VIEW

I can't believe we are heading back to Develonte's Peak in the car with Drake on the wheel. He barely spoke when we left. His eyes solely fixed on the road. "So this means I am no longer banished from Develonte's Peak?" I asked him. "No, your exile has been cut short." He gave me a brief glimpse before his eyes went back on the road.

"I wonder how everyone has been since I left and who took my place at my old job."

"You will soon find out if we get there in one piece," he reminded me. Drenmore was still on our tale. I briefly forgot that as I sat in close proximity with Drake. It felt magical to be alone with him in a tiny car. "Do you think he knows that we are on our way to Develonte's Peak?"

"I don't know!" He answered me honestly. "That's the reason I left New York immediately. It was a pity that all the flights were booked out."

"Fourth of July! It's the busiest time of the year, and everybody comes out to Develonte's Peak for the celebrations."

"Anyways, as long as he believes we are still in New York, we are safe," Drake assured me.

"Why does he want me dead so badly?" I questioned Drake. "You will know soon enough." He replied to me. His answer didn't make sense. "I am scared for Mathew. Is he all right?" I hated leaving him alone, but as Drake said, we couldn't take the risk. "Mathew is fine. I spoke to the nanny this morning, his temperature dropped," Drake informed me.

"That's good. I wish I was there to cuddle him." It made me feel sad that I couldn't be there for Mathew. "He will be fine. He has the werewolf gene. He doesn't need his mommy cuddling him. I didn't, and I turned out amazing."

"A little rough around the edges." I added on. That remark amused Drake a bit. "Not a little, my dear, a lot." He corrected me with a slight grin on his face. He softened up a little, I could see. He was a little funny too, which I thought was cute.

"You see, I didn't grow up being cuddled and cared for. As you know, most of my life I grew up without my mother," he revealed. "What happened to her?"

"She was killed by natural causes- an illness." His answer wasn't very coherent. I felt like he was concealing the truth about his mom from me. "Drenmore and I grew up practically by ourselves from a very tender age."

" I can relate. I lost my mother in a car accident when I was ten. It was heart breaking, but I was fortunate that I had my dad there. He was amazing. He played the role of both parents. I didn't feel her loss so much because dad was there until."

"Until he was killed by a member of my family," he interrupted. I lowered my head. "I am sorry for what my brother had done," he said, sounding sincere. "Don't mention it. It's not your fault, your brother turned out to be a monster."

"It's actually my father's fault," he revealed. "He was cruel to us and always pitted us against each other. That is one of the reasons that Drenmore hates me because I always beat him whenever our father gave us one of his stupid challenges."

" I am sorry that you had to grow up that way," I said. "Me too. That's one of the reasons I wanted you alive. I didn't want my son growing up in a cold, hostile environment." He confessed to me. " I want my son to have his mother around. It's a sacrifice I am prepared to take." I noticed that Drake was emotional when he revealed parts of his childhood to me. That explains his tough exterior.

I was touched by his motives but a little disappointed, which caught me off-guard. What did I expect him to say? That he has feelings for me? I couldn't expect him to tell me that even though I desperately wanted him to tell me that. I was being delusional if I thought he had an ounce of feelings for me. "I am glad to hear that you want me alive because of our son," I said.

"Yeah! But it's worth it," he said. "Thank you," I told him, with emotion in my voice. I looked away at the window. I didn't want him to see me with tears rolling down my cheeks. At that moment, I felt stupid for thinking that Drake had any feelings for me. I was glad, though, that he opened up to me about his childhood.

"Our son has your eyes," I said to him. "Is that so?" he replied, sounding not so interested. "Don't you want to get to know Mathew? I know that you two haven't been properly introduced." He kept silent with his eyes on the road. " I don't need all that right now. All I have to do at present is keep him safe so that one day, he succeeds me."

"A father will be nice for a kid." I pointed out.

"It would be, but not for me. I am a lone wolf. I don't do the family thing. We wolves don't have feelings in us other than hate. "Must it be that way?"

"There's no other way," he shrugged. "We are built like that. That's the reason, I never married, and never will." He gave it to me straight. The thought of me and Drake being together was completely dashed. He made sure that I got the message loud and clear.

"Don't get me wrong. I will care for our son, but don't ask me to do the whole father-son thing with ball games and all that crap. That's not going to happen. I will see him once in a while, but that's it." Drake made it clear that he didn't want to be apart of Mathew's life either.

"If I want to get a replacement father-figure in mind for our son, I assume it wouldn't be a problem?" He looked at me and frowned. "Do you have someone already?" He inquired. "Not yet, but maybe in the future, I suppose," I said. He didn't look all that thrilled.

 "You're a grown woman, Anna. I can't tell you who to date, but bare in mind, our son is a werewolf, and I don't think any man is going to take it lightly," he warned. "If your supposed partner finds out, he may have Mathew reported to the society."

"Do you think that there are societies everywhere?" I asked. "You bet, across the world. It's a secret, just like werewolves," he informed me. "I didn't know about that," I shrugged in disbelief.

"It's true. I hate to break it to you, sweetheart; life's never going to be the same as you knew it. When you gave birth to Mathew, you brought in a world of problems for yourself." He told me coldly. "I don't think that Mathew is a burden as a matter of fact- he is the best thing that ever happened to me."

"I didn't mean it like that. Mathew is probably a great kid, but he won't ever be average, and he isn't going to have the average childhood, you're dreaming of."

"I don't like average." I smiled at him. "I know you don't." He retaliated. The conversation ended like that until we heard a strange sound coming from the car. "What's that?" I panicked. There was smoke coming out of the car. Drake cursed under his breath.

 "OH SHOOT!" he yelled. "Why is their smoke coming out of the car?" I raged on. It was a bad sign. I didn't know much about cars, but I knew that smoke from a car meant a mechanical error.

"I don't know. I'm no mechanic, but it doesn't look so good," he said. His facial expression transformed instantly. "I think I'll pull over and take a look at it."

"Maybe you should," I suggested. I prayed that it wasn't something too serious.

He opened the hood of the car and looked at the inside. By the look of his face, it wasn't very pleasing.

"I'm afraid I have some bad news. Look like we are not going to Develonte's Peak any time soon!" He announced. "What are we going to do?!" We were in the middle of nowhere, and it was dark and scary. "I'll figure it out, don't panic," he instructed. I was afraid that we were going to be ambushed by an animal or some masked killer. I could hear the coyote's howling. It seemed they weren't too far from us.

We were officially stranded with no food or water. We were in the midst of trouble as a rogue dog came toward Drake. I yelled as Drake ordered me to stay in the car while he was face- to- face with the savage dog.