HER: Novel by Nicole Maria Navarro

Dread 7

In this moment I was uncomfortable. I had never felt out of place until right now. I was furious and I felt stuck in place as I was seated between Thalia and Adeline. Addy was playing with her doll as silently as possible so she wouldn't rattle off her uncle. Sebastian was gripping the steering wheel so hard I figured he would have broken it already. To make things worse the doors in the back were both on child lock.

Everyone in the truck seemed tense throughout the whole thirty minutes that we drove out of town. Violet tried making conversation but it was no use. Sebastian had cut her short and gave her that look that said 'just don't'. He threw glances at me through the mirror every other second to make sure I was still there and not trying to throw myself out of the tall truck with my daughter.

As he drove my eyes strayed outside only to see the same color of his eyes out int the pines. The woods were beautiful here but the tension in the air was suffocating me. I felt re-strained and irritated. He didn't talk, didn't bother to give me a chance to talk and that was the worst of it. I shouldn't have to explain the reason for my child. She was everything I had. Everything that I couldn't bare to lose. The poor child had been through enough while in my belly and I didn't need her to endure anything more. She would never experience that sort of neglect from a person because she deserved so much more than that.

There was pines everywhere and every time we got deeper and deeper into the woods I wanted to just run. It was amazing to look at and I knew that to be out there running free of worry was something that I had yet to do. We were headed deeper into woods and soon enough we came up onto a trail that was wider and led off the rode. We came upon a small village with the all kinds of cute sized houses. The pack house was ginormous. It was the first thing you saw when you came into the paved driveway. It had a big front porch that wrapped all the way around it. Kids were running, some in wolf form and other older wolves playing with the little ones. Mothers seemed to be yelling at their kids to not stray too far out. The wide drive way went around in a donut shape with nice little flowers planted in the center.

I heard the click of the lock going off and whipped my head towards Sebastian who slammed the door as soon as I was going to ask him a question. Addy jumped off of the huge truck as if it was nothing and all I could think about was how I was going to get Thalia down from here. I slipped off the truck a little shaky and the aura changed as soon as my feet were planted on the floor. Mothers were looking in my direction, men where tense and the children that were running around came to a halt. I went around the truck and saw Sebastian still standing by the drivers door. I opened the door and saw Thalia peacefully asleep. I tried to reach over and unclip her seatbelt. My foot stood on the steps of the truck only to slip as I struggled to unhook the entire carseat.

"I got it." I hear a grumble and soon I can feel Sebastian's body heat. I tense as he gets a hold on her carseat handle and he brings her down from the tall truck. I try reaching for the handle but he pulls away slightly so I won't carry it.

"I said, I got it Isabella." Sebastian's green eyes look at me as if to say 'I won't hurt her'. I give him a quick look over and nod my head just slightly. He turns around towards the back of the pack house where there's nice trimmed bushes on each side of the long side walk. I tense up and stop. Sebastian turns around giving me a questioning glance as to why I stopped. Little kids in their wolf forms perked their ears at the sight of the car seat being covered by a light pink baby blanket, mothers sniffing the air as to who me and Thalia were.

"Isabella..the house is this way." I look up towards his confused gaze and rush up towards Thalia's side as Sebastian leads the way. The house was beautiful, it had a pretty dark beige color to it and underneath the windows nice swirly bars were placed under them. The two story house had a big front porch with a flower bed in front of it and a tall fence that wrapped around the back so you had personal space, for a man to be living alone it was well kept. We took steps to get to the front and Sebastian moved before me to open the dark Maroon colored door.