Twisting Her Fate
Chapter 72

Gabriel wakes in the morning. His eyelids slowly fluttering open to see the visage of his own room. Not recalling much about the night before, having no idea how he made it back to this location at all. date, Leilani, the standoff.

He groans heavily as he tries to lift his body up, a whole day of training couldn't give him the muscle pain that he is experiencing right now, exacerbated fully by the remaining pain in his heart, the pain that brings it all back, the night, the ball, the girl, Connor's The girl that he threw away so ruthlessly to die somehow not only survived but is praised by all the packs, somehow has grown into the most beautiful girl that he has ever seen, somehow managed to take out..........Maggie.

Gabriel sits up with a start, Maggie did everything he told her not to do and then she managed to get taken out with zero resistance, stayed down for so long....... That cut, that oozing blood.

While he is hungover and he was obviously incredibly drunk, his memory is hazy but the smell of blood and her trying to hide her cut is still vivid in his mind, something about witchcraft.

An alpha blood would not heal that slowly, one of the main draws that Maggie has is the fact that she is an alpha blood, the fact that when he finally decides that he needs a heir, Maggie can produce a top quality one.

He can sleep with any blood class, even a human. That doesn't worry him in the slightest, but he wants the future alpha of the pack to be alpha blood, pure and true. It secures the future of the pack.

What he saw last night makes no sense. He has met her parents. They are both quality alpha blood. Her brother is strong, his aura is strong, he screams alpha strength.

Gabriel drags his hands down his face, groaning heavily. Why is everything an illusion? Why is the weak girl strong and why can't the strong girl heal?

Gabriel can only throw back another vial of the serum to deal with one problem at a time, laughing as he does it, he has to drink this sh*t because that girl is in love with the man that he was feeling all smug about besting? Is it poetic justice?

If Gabriel couldn't feel the raw emotion he would think the two were just f*cking with him. Gabriel looks at the bottle of serum. Connor mentioned something about the serum. They threw him off the trail by losing the same stuff? Well f*cking played!

From everything he knows about Connor, it does not sound like something he would waste his time with. So this was Leilani? The girl that couldn't ever look him in the eye for fourteen years, dared to play such a game? How can she be so different? It is what he cannot wrap his head around, the familiar numbness takes over that dull ache offering the relief that he has been craving.

Leilani is a problem that he can solve later. Right now the problem is the woman he is meant to be marrying in the very near future.

Whether or not she can get over this hurdle is purely up to her blood. Gabriel links all the warriors.

'Find and capture Maggie and tie her to the punishment pole. Let me know when it is done'

Gabriel has some research to do while his order is carried out, he needs to replace out everything there is to know about L. Know your enemy and all that, they have an unfair advantage as they have been playing a game that he didn't know that he was playing. Now he knows, he can play just as hard.

Meanwhile, Maggie is hiding out waiting for her parents. Her father always has a way to get her out of every situation. Finally, on the horizon, she sees their car enter the pack, breathing a sigh of relief as she comes out from her hiding place.

As soon as she emerges, she is taken into custody and taken straight to the punishment pole, kicking and screaming. While she has been expecting something similar, she wanted her parents to arrive first so either her dad could tell her or the plan or hopefully talk Gabriel down, her father is the best at glossing over the truth. Maggie is all out of ideas as everything she seems to come up with keeps digging her into more trouble.

Maggie just makes one last ditch attempt to stop herself being tied to the pole. Once someone is tied, it is rare that they go unpunished, her parents are so close.

"What are you doing? I am your future luna. Unhand me"

"Sorry Maggie, alphas orders"

"As your luna, I command you"

"You know that won't work until you have that mark. Your order means nothing to us"

Maggie curses her father's slow driving as she tries to put up a fight to stop her hands being cuffed together around the pole, but it is futile, there is no way she is strong enough to resist.

Maggie sinks to her knees, big tears roll down her beautiful cheeks and she looks especially weak and pitiful, but it doesn't earn an ounce of sympathy.

"My parents are right there, you have to release me"

"You know the rules. Only Alpha Gabriel has the power to release you"

Maggie grits her teeth. The last person she wants to see right now is Gabriel. But Maggie can only bluff.

"Well, call him then. I am sure there is some sort of misunderstanding and he will punish you all when he arrives for daring to treat me so roughly"

The warrior who has already linked Gabriel and has already received the reply.

'Good now make sure she stays put. If anyone releases her they will have me to answer to'

Smirks, Maggie really is lost in wishful thinking.

Smirks, Maggie really is lost in wishful thinking.

"He is already on his way"

Maggie's eyes light up as her parents car finally pulls up in front of the pack house.

Simon and Astrid pull up at the half moon pack. While Simon apologizes like he does every single time, while he looks regretful and so sincere like he does every single time and Astrid replaces a smile like she always does, the hurt cuts deep.

After just looking at the photo of Cora yesterday and having her mentioned in such a way today makes her feel like she replaced Cora with Maggie, but it was never the case. Cora was irreplaceable.

It doesn't mean that she doesn't love Maggie. How could she not love a daughter she raised for so many years? But she never wants it to be like she replaced Cora. That would not be honoring her precious daughter's memory, it would mean that Cora's short time on the earth was worthless.

Astrid still feels like lying to Maggie is wrong. Maggie is twenty-three years old. Isn't it about time? Maggie should have known years ago. Is it really worth pretending to be something she's not in an effort to not hurt her feelings? Is it fair on her biological parents that she never knows of their existence at all?

Is it better to be caught up in a lie forever and never know the truth? For Maggie to never understand what she is and why she can't do what she thinks she should be able to do? Isn't that worse? Isn't not knowing worse?

All Astrid's thoughts fly out the window when she sees her precious daughter tied to the punishment post. She has never seen a punishment handed down within the half moon pack but she has seen Simon deliver punishment, how could Maggie, who has been doted on and held in caring hands, protected from all hurt, possibly survive something like that?

Astrid sobs as she moves to jump out of the car and run toward Maggie. Simon grips her wrist and holds her in place. Astrid looks back at him with eyes full of desperation, wondering why he wanted to stop her.

"If you actually want to help her get some of those vials down her throat, now that she is on the pole, I will be surprised if I can get her released, but no matter what punishment she receives, if she has the vials she can heal fast enough to keep her from feeling the full extent of it and also keep her secret safe"

Astrid's voice is lined with grief whereas Simon just looks at the whole situation with an indifferent expression.

"Her secret is not important now, keeping her safe is"

"She will never forgive you if you destroy this for her now. She has grown up to believe that she can be Luna. If you take that away from her, it will be like killing her with your own hand."