It was early in the morning that we left, two days after me crying in the kitchen. Silas had dropped the twins off with Jeremy for the time being. Jeremy was more than willing to watch the boys, he had lost time watching Darren grow up, so he was going to take any chance he could to spend with me or them.
Jeremy had sent Darren to his grandparent's farm when he was a kid, not long after his mother had died, in fear that Darren would be targeted by whoever had killed her. That and his greaving process had taken a lot from him. Jeremy and Julie had spent years trying to start a family, and only after they had their first child was she taken away.
Everything around here happened for a reason. Darren told me stories about being at his grandparents, he didn't spend much time at their house. He didn't like the farm, he told me how he spent most of his time next door, trying to control his own grief and demons.
Things with Jeremy and Darren had been rocky for years, Darren resented him, and he had every right to do so. He felt abandoned. But then I was adopted, and the twins were born and things slowly started getting better between the two. It wasn't perfect, but they were trying.
I wish she was still alive, his mother. I could only imagine what a change it would have made in his life, and Silas. They would both have grown up together, they'd be friends, they'd do stupid shit together. Once they hit their age of maturity Darren would realize they were mates, he would care that Silas didn't realize and try and figure out why. They'd know about Lucca sooner. How so much of this would be different. Would I be here? Would Charles have had a reason to come to the pack land if Lucca didn't do his job? Sure, he came here to get the jewels off of Symon. But things would be different, maybe Symon would have told Silas about the jewels sooner and he'd be ready for it. He'd had gotten rid of them.
Those stupid jewels, they weren't anything special, or not as much as Charles made them out to be. They didn't do anything for shifters per-say. They were more useful for werewolves because with the jewel you could shift into anything you saw fit. Anything of normal size, you couldn't become a mouse or something small like that. The smallest you could shift would be a large breed dog. But the last thing Charles wanted was a wolf to have that power. He hated wolves, he spoke dirt about them all the time. I cringed thinking about it, shaking my head as I watched trees pass by the window. The jewels also helped to heal, made things faster, easier. Still painful but did numb you more than a regular healer's crystals would.
I took a deep breath, looking forwards as my dads sat in the front of the SUV, both of them talking about something I didn't bother listening to with my headphones stuck in my ear.
It made me nervous having them both leave the land, the Alpha, and the Beta leaving the territory never ended well. But they both reassured me that it was fine, that they had people watching out. Like Elis, Ivan's older brother, he was in charge while they were away.
I tried to let that ease me as we drove the twelve hours north into Canada. We were headed to Jasper. Silas said he didn't want to stop very much so the three of us were taking turns driving. But so far Darren hadn't given up the wheel even though we'd been in the car for nearly six hours.
"I'm getting hungry," Silas said as the music paused with a track change. I took a headphone out. I was starting to get hungry too, we had snacks around us, and Darren reached back grabbing a small bag of chips, and tossed it towards Silas, who just rolled his eyes. "I want real food," Silas turned and looked back at me. "Are you sick of junk food? Do you want a real meal?" I nodded my head and looked at Darren's eyes in the rearview mirror. Darren huffed and shook his head.
"Fine, next pitstop. But that's not an invitation to let you drive." Silas shook his head this time, before pointing towards a sign that had a McDonald's poster.
'That's not real food.' I signed to Silas. He let out a small laugh
"No, I guess you're right, maybe the next diner, what do you think Dare?"
Darren shrugged, "I'm good with chips honestly,"
"You plan on driving the whole way and only eat chips?"
'Body needs fuel.' I typed into my phone, letting the text to speech echo in the car.
"I hate when you two gang up on me," Darren said with another huff, turning the wheel of the car to the next exit into a small town that sat on the edge of the highway.
"One quick meal, then back on the road. I want to be there before nightfall tomorrow."
"Remind me never to plan a road trip with him again eh?" Silas said with a smirk looking at me, I smiled back, slinking back into my seat, putting my earbud back in, and listening to the end to Chasing Cars.