Twisting Her Fate
Chapter 152

Connor strokes the damaged skin on her shoulder where his mark is placed, three fated and finally a mark. Connor can see the others that were surrounding them slowly disappear which he is very appreciative of the fact. He knows that they will want to talk, he knows that they will want to celebrate, he wants to too. But for now, it is nice to have a moment just between the two of them.

Just a couple reconnecting after years apart, after so much separation and so many events.

There is silence between the two as they enjoy each others company for a peaceful time. The sun has risen in the sky, bathing the loving couple. They both know there is a lot to be said and a lot to be done, but for now they just want to enjoy each others company and Lani needs rest.

Finally, Connor pulls the shirt over Lani's body and stands up, lifting her small body into her arms. Her cheek naturally falls to his chest as he holds her close. He holds her like she is the most precious treasure in the world and to him she is. This whole thing is surreal. He is her fated, he has children. This morning he was wondering how he was going to go on and now he has so much, so much more than he ever could have dreamed when he started out on this journey.

"Would you be worried if we just went and hid somewhere and caught up on everything that has happened? I want to spend time with the kids, but first I'd really like to get to know something about them. I want to know everything that has happened and I'm sure you would like to know something about me"

Connor didn't miss the look of shock on her face when she saw him. He didn't miss the way her eyes moved quickly to his unmarked shoulder, all of it happened so quickly. He is trying to put together the puzzle in his head, but there are so many pieces missing that it is impossible to see what the image is. There are three years of blank for him and he is not sure if it is the same for her.

There has been no point that Leilani has been unwilling to see him since he stood in front of her, so what happened in that time that would cause her not to reach out to him. Why would she look at his shoulder? Did she still believe he was with Evie? Leilani very quietly agrees, there must be a lot that she is missing in between her leaving that day and seeing Connor and Evie together at that time. The only way Connor would be able to mark her as if he doesn't already have a mate and looking at his bare shoulder, it can be seen to be true.

She feels so stupid that she missed so much information and she jumped to so many wrong conclusions.

Leilani rests into Connor's strong chest and he moves forward swiftly like he is not carrying a single thing. Leilani points toward the trees and Connor follows that direction until he comes to a small body of water.

It is safer out here than in the house. The kids will be aching to finally spend time with their father. So, in the house it would be impossible to not be disturbed. This is a place that no one else knows about where Leilani would just go to get away and reflect for a while, as she has done so many times before.

For someone that was so strong to suddenly lose it and have to work so hard to get back only a quarter of what they were before, sometimes the looks of worry and the looks of pity were a little too much.

Having her job reduced from the main character on a mission to suddenly being the remote support. Even the idea that the first six months of their lives the twins got on just fine without her, she thought that the mother role was irreplaceable, and then to the point that she wasn't even sure whether she was the role model her kids needed when there were so many better options surrounding them.

Whenever she started to second guess herself and whenever she needed twenty minutes just to regain a little of who she was. Regain that confidence in herself.

She would come to this place, it seems perfect because when she is in Connor's arms she is starting to second guess everything, all her decisions along the way. Connor looks out at the beautiful scene in front of him, the water is shimmering under the sunlight, the trees are blowing gently in the breeze, bringing the fresh scent of the woodland with it which in no way detracts from the mate scent that is emanating from Leilani, just combining to add an extra depth. The moment is so perfect.

Connor sits on the ground and arranges Leilani so that she is sitting on his lap as he leans his back against the tree. He is sure that he would be uncomfortable in any other circumstance but here now, with the love of his life, his precious marked mate, he might as well be sitting on a bed of clouds.

"I want to hear everything Leilani. Don't skip a single moment"

Leilani proceeds to tell him what happened from the moment she walked away that night, wanting desperately for him to chase her but knowing that she was doing the right thing by letting fate have a chance to come together, to replaceing out about being pregnant, meeting her family, to replaceing out she was having twins, being ready to see him, till the doctors words, the months of pregnancy where she was just withering away, feeling like it was her fault the whole time, thinking that if she had of never allowed the serum then it wouldn't be that way, then making peace knowing that her act saved those girls and her final act of her life was going to be to bring two lives into this world and she was actually happy with that.

Right through to waking up and somehow it was so much harder than dying because she felt sad that her choices killed her wolf, but somehow she was able to live, but it didn't mean that she wasn't left with survivor guilt.

Right through her brothers and how they are doing and then finishing with the most important part, the children. Connor listens carefully, taking in every word, knowing how much she went through, knowing why she stayed away, knowing that the love she had for him was no less than the love he had for her. He takes a moment to process the information before launching into his own story.

From what happened that night, chasing her, passing out due to Maggie's death, searching for her, going to the elite training, all the things that Leilani already had pieced together from Gabriel, Titan and Andrea's stories before she refused to hear anything about Connor anymore.

Through Evie's training and progressing the Stormy pack, through taking all of Alpha Liam's land when he disappeared and the beta had come to beg him to take it for the stormy pack before someone else moved in.

Lani nods. Of course she knows about Alpha Liam's disappearance, Simon didn't really hold out for too long on the others that had joined the disgusting act. While they hadn't played a part in the disappearance or incarceration of the girls, they did add to the poor girls torment. They may not have known exactly who they were doing but they knew the girls were there against their will and they still played their part. It only seemed fair that the squad put them somewhere against their will. Lani doesn't say a word though, just listening to Connor's story.

Connor continues through Madison's deplorable act, through to Evie's defeat of Damon and death of Madison, to the rejection with Evie.

Finishing with how he finally found her, how he lost confidence after hearing one word that was obviously taken out of context, to fate playing with them again and seeing her on the dance floor that same night, not realizing she didn't have her wolf and when she told him to leave.

"My question is, if you didn't know it was me, why did you let me do those things to you?"

"Would you believe me if I said I wanted to shamelessly use you because you felt so much like my true love?"

"You used me because I felt like me?"

Lani is starting to feel so much more like herself. Without her wolf she was struggling to feel like herself at all. She couldn't replicate that same confidence that was there before. Now she feels whole and sitting in her mate's embrace with his mark on her shoulder, she feels like she is truly back.

"Logical I know. How can I have a one-night stand with the same man that I have had one with before, with the same man that I love?" Connor chuckles.

"Well, I am glad that I got the privilege of being your last two one-night stands, and even more so, that I get to spend my entire life with you"