Twisting Her Fate
Chapter 39

Out on the road, Gabriel's incredible speed mixed with his erratic swerving and unhinged behavior resulted in the fact that when the pain hit, the pain was so blinding, worse than anything he has felt previously hit. He lost control of the vehicle and careened wildly off the road. Crashing the front end of the vehicle into a large tree trunk.

His unseatbelted self ended up smashing the steering wheel hard before flying out the front window. Sprawled in front of the car with shards of glass hanging out in every direction. Blood pouring from his body. Arms bent in the wrong direction. A bone sticking out of his leg. The car smoking violently beside him as the fuel leaks onto the ground, sparking a massive explosion.

Gabriel's unconscious figure is thrown from the blast. More damage occurring to his body in the process, but still nothing that he won't heal from. All the links from his pack members receive only static back from his shut down mind. He is faring a lot worse than Maggie, he himself in no condition to help anyone out.

It isn't till daybreak that Gabriel comes around, adjusting his bones so that they heal and starting the time-consuming job of picking the pieces of broken glass from his skin.

His back is still full of it, but instead of worrying about it, he searches the forest floor for his phone. Finally, his hand wraps around the device in between pieces of his scorched car.

Gabriel rips off the half melted shockproof case and is surprised that the phone inside looks relatively undamaged.

He closes his eyes before he starts searching through old emails, years and years of old emails until he finally comes across the one he is looking for. He copies the number down and presses it into his phone.

Within the confines of the elite training, Titan groans as the phone beside him starts ringing. He releases his tiny button of a mate from his warm embrace, rolling over to pick up the phone.

"Elite training. You are speaking with Titan"

Gabriel fidgets uncomfortably as he listens to the gruff voice at the other end of the line.

"Hello, my name is Alpha Gabriel of the half moon pack. I am calling to enquire about one of your past students"

All the sleepiness that was surrounding Titan is easily blown away and Titan nudges Andrea awake, who was already stirring from being taken out of her warm cocoon.

In the bed with the mobile phone sitting between the two, one large and one small face on either side of the phone as they listen.

"And who exactly are you enquiring about?"

Gabriel can't really expect them to know who the half moon pack is, if Leilani was any other student, any ordinary student. They know every other student by name, but they don't know their origin story. Once entering the elite training, their pasts means little and only their futures are focused on. They know the original packs of their elite squad because it is their responsibility when training the group for their special task to know. They have spent more time with that group than the others before and after. They don't know the others as much as they know their elite group, there are just too many students with too many backstories with too many sob stories to keep track of them all.

Not because the two are heartless and don't care, just because it is too much to take, so much hurt. The dark past needs to be put behind to look at the bright future.

"I'm enquiring about a girl who was sent to you from my pack seven years ago, Leilani"

Titan and Andrea have been kept up to date on the goings-on of what the group are doing within the stormy pack. There is no pressing work so they allow it. It is not as if Gabriel does not deserve it.

Andrea just thinks the whole thing is hilarious and has made Levi give her a day-to-day, play-by-play and it has been her source of entertainment in the middle of the depressing, yet highly satisfying job that they have.

Titan is not about to say straight out that he knows who Leilani is, because they still have to keep the secret of elite training and if a bunch of people get sent there to die and the training is so ruthless. Why would he even remember each and every student that came through? That is what all these packs are looking for. They're looking for the student's death. They are not looking for growth. They are not looking for enrichment or any positive outcomes. It is just their vague and roundabout way of ensuring a person's death. It is the good guy facade on something so dirty and so evil.

The gentleman's way to kill, or as Titan calls it, the coward's way to kill, let someone else do the dirty work and wipe your hands of the deed. As long as the job is done, that is all matters to them.

To Gabriel, Titan is nothing more than a glorified hit man that is meant to take out a problem, an exterminator to fix their so-called pest infestation, a broom to sweep their dirty little secrets under the carpet.

In Gabriel's case, it is a little dirtier than normal. If Titan could jump down the phone and snap Gabriel's neck it would be for the best.

He is impressed with the boys restraint that they have managed to hold up until now, he knows how much Leilani means to those boys so the fact that they can speak to a man that has hurt her so much in such a calm manner is commendable and truly shows how much they listen to her.

So killing the alpha or a little game play. He knows his favourite group took the right route. He was expecting this call sooner or later and Hudson had let him know that it was going to be sooner as they were well aware. Booking the room under Leilani's real name was probably going to get exposed.

It matters little because it is impossible to replace the Lani unless Titan releases her information that her trail stops dead at elite training and that was their plan, just to add to Gabriel's psychological torment. "Leilani who?"

Gabriel is suddenly at a loss for words. He can't seem to remember her last name. He searches through his memories of her, which are very few. Most of them, include a lot of violence and hateful words against her, he paid very little attention to her before and even less attention to her after he found out that he was fated to her. "That's right, she doesn't have a last name. We didn't bother giving her one"

Titan's urge to get in the car and drive to Gabriel, beating his face into the ground, rises to an exponential level. The fact that Gabriel could say something so heinous so casually, like the sweet Leilani didn't deserve a last name, like she deserved the fate that she was given. Andrea's little tiny fist is clenched, she may be tiny, but she is as much as my little pocket rocket as Leilani is. You can't judge a book by its cover when it comes to Andrea and she increasingly wants to bring down her wrath on the man.

She doesn't need Titan to fight her battles for her. She doesn't hide behind her gigantic mate. She is more than willing to beat Gabriel up herself for speaking of Leilani in such a dismissive way. It is so disgraceful. "I'm not sure if I know such a name"

It is somewhat the truth. It has been a lot of years that they have just called her Lani.

"She was a bit of a nothingness girl, so I'm not surprised that you don't remember her. She had white blonde hair that was reasonably unique if that might just ring a bell"

Titan looks at his small mate who is red in the face, veins popping. This is nearly at the peak of anger that he has ever seen her in. He isn't much better himself, but it is so visually obvious on her. "And Alpha Gabriel. What exactly are you calling about?"

"I want to replace out if she is dead"

Gabriel says in such a heartless way, but only he knows he's interested. Not in her well-being. Just proving the fact that she is gone. The rest of it is just in his imagination and some wild unexplainable coincidence. "Why? As you said, it has been seven years"

"I'm just interested"

"Are you planning on coming and collecting her ashes?"

"So are you confirming her death?"

"What made you think that?

"Well, if I'm collecting ashes didn't she die?"

Gabriel is getting more and more frustrated by the man on the other end of the line. Andrea and Titan can hear his frustration and it is giving them the slightest bit of joy after the terrible phone call that has been.

"I was just asking a question about what it matters to you? Why do you care whether she is dead or not? What is your purpose?"

It is not as if Titan and Andrea have not received these phone calls before. They are very few and far between because no one really cares about the death of their so-called family or friend or pack member, but this one is particularly frustrating and particularly disheartening. It was bad enough before, but knowing that this man is talking about his fated mate in such a way is just mind-boggling.

Gabriel, who has a pounding headache, still has hundreds of cuts over his back, his heart is still radiating a slight dull ache that seems to be getting larger and larger and he is talking to this man thinking that he is asking a reasonably simple question, yet all he is getting is the runaround in return.

"Look, whatever your name is, we sent her there. We paid for her to be there. We have a right to know what happened to our investment"

"Investment? I thought you said she didn't deserve a last name?"

"Fine. I deserve a simple answer about whether she is dead or not because of the money we paid"

"Sorry we cannot release any information about our attendees due to privacy concerns" "What the......"

Titan just hangs up the phone in the middle of Gabriel's rant. Andrea high fives him and they lay down side-by-side holding each other close while they got one up in the end. It is still devastating to hear that someone can talk about their mate in such a callous

manner.

The mate bond that the two share is everything to them. So for Lani to not have someone special out there for her when she deserves so much, it hurts them just as much as it hurts her. Maybe even more so, because they know exactly what she is missing out on.