Twisting Her Fate
Chapter 98

Gabriel sits at the bar, drowning his sorrows, drinking away these feelings that shouldn't be there. All these feelings that he shouldn't have regret, uncertainty. It's nothing that he has ever felt before. They are all feelings that he should not be having. He is strong. He has no room for regret. Pesky thoughts should not invade his mind. Lots of decisions are made, he has no room to second guess himself on the smallest thing. It is just done. He's a leader. He is meant to lead a big group of people. If he is starting to second guess himself on something that is so important, then will people start to lose faith in him as a leader? Will they respect his authority? Will they trust him to make the right choice about other things?

The bartender looks at the man strangely. Gabriel doesn't even have the mind to go to a werewolf bar.

The girls that were surrounding him have disappeared slowly as Gabriel doesn't want the humiliation of having to do that again until he works out what is wrong.

The human bartender has just watched the man down bottle after bottle of spirits, enough to send any human straight to the morgue, but Gabriel just sits there rubbing his face looking miserable. The bartender has to wonder whether his manager has been watering down the spirits because this type of thing is just not possible.

Gabriel indicates at the bartender another bottle and the bartender is hesitant to give it to him. He has drunk so much already. Will the man actually die on his watch? Gabriel just glares at him, slamming a large stack of money on the bar.

The barman hands over the next bottle. Sometimes, in this world, money speaks louder than common sense.

"Is everything alright? Do you need me to call someone?"

Gabriel sneers and indicates to himself.

"Do I look like I should have problems?"

The bartender looks at the man who is clearly not short of money, he has a handsome face and has one of the most well built bodies he has ever seen. From a quick glance, Gabriel looks like he shouldn't have a single care in the entire world, but sitting alone in a bar drinking enough to supply an entire frat party by himself hardly seems like the actions of a happy man.

“|

guess not"

"Exactly because I am better than nearly everyone else out there"

"Nearly?"

Gabriel snarls as he lifts the bottle of spirits to his mouth again.

"The nearly thinks he is better, but he isn't. I can have everything I want, he only picked up my discarded goods and now is acting all high and mighty about it"

The bartender watches the man in front of him. He has seen people less coherent after one shot.

"That is no good man"

"Do you think it is possible that something you discarded to get so much better or was it always good and you just never paid enough attention to notice?"

"I guess people can change. The amount they can change would probably be limited, so it is probably a little bit of both"

"You didn't see her, he didn't see her. Anyone would have done the same, she never should have been for me"

The bartender can only nod and is thankful when more customers walk in.

'Gabriel, you have to be back in the pack tonight'

Gabriel laughs to himself in the near empty bar, causing the few people present to look at him as he drinks heavily from the bottle once more.

'Sure dad, like I will willingly walk into another lecture from you, what's done is done. Just get over it, I don't want to talk about it anymore'

Lance in the half-moon pack located on the upper level of the alpha house, looking out from the floor to ceiling, glazing out at the trees hoping to catch sight of Ryan. He would have thought the boy would be back by now. The way it is going, both of his sons are turning out to be a disappointment.

'And you call yourself an alpha? Gabriel, you are a sniveling little pathetic excuse for a man. Are you just going to stay away wallowing in your bad choices while I run the pack?'

'Do whatever the f*ck you want old man, does it sound like I care'

'It sounds like you are a decadent fool. Be here this afternoon or I will send people to drag you back'

'I would like to see you try'

Gabriel looks at the shelves of spirits in front, the LED lights glittering through the various colors of glass and liquids. His eyes are hazy and he is swaying heavily on the bar stool, but it would still take a small army to restrain him and take him back to the pack against his will.

'Gabriel, you are twenty-five in only a week, it is about time you start acting like it. I will go out and drag you back myself if that is what it takes'

'You are just a pathetic f*ck that couldn't even keep his mate alive, she would rather jump to her death than be with you. You talk about mates with me. Are you even qualified? How well did that work out for you?'

'Watch your f*cking tongue Gabriel, you are not invincible, your title is not ensured'

'No one will take it from me'

Lance laughs harshly, he was slightly hesitant to reveal Ryan to Gabriel, slightly hesitant to remove Gabriel's title, but now all he feels is joy.

'We will see, just be here later and everything will become clear'

Gabriel just ignores his father as the bottle gets tipped back once again. Clear? What is meant to become clear? Is he meant to know what to do?

Suddenly, he has an urge to back to half-moon. He wants things to become clear, he needs his direction to become clear. He nods his intoxicated head to himself, smiling dumbly as he stands, grabbing any bottle that still has some liquid remaining in them before walking out of the venue and straight toward his car with wobbly steps, laughing slightly to himself.

"Clear?"

There are not a large number of people on the street as it is still school time and work time, but the man still attracts a lot of attention as he hugs glass bottles while talking to himself. It is rare to even see a man as good looking as Gabriel, but at the moment he looks so unkept, he looks borderline psychotic.

"That is all I need, something clear, just clearing, clear, clear.........leeeeeeear"

Gabriel falls into the driver's seat of his vehicle, starting up the engine as he chugs back another bottle, putting the car into gear and driving away from the bar.

***

Oscar carries Maggie to the cabin without a single pause, without looking at her and without explaining himself. He doesn't even like the thought of carrying her, but he needs to know some things and the sooner he knows them the better and waiting for her to regain her footing or having to walk behind her while she talks about all her own issues and dawdles along.

"Where are you taking me?"

They are not heading toward the pack house and only now Maggie realizes that there is something wrong with Oscar. There is no sunny smile from him, he isn't asking about her problems, he isn't trying his hardest to solve her issues, he isn't showing concern for her at all.

Oscar doesn't answer, just looking straight ahead as he walks. Oscar still doesn't say a word. He knows that he shouldn't blame her as none of it is really her fault, it is only her existence that caused it, nothing more, but he can't help feeling the animosity towards her. He blames himself as much as he blames her, he is feeling a whole lot of hatred toward himself, so it is only natural to feel hatred towards her.

He breathes a large sigh of relief when, finally, the secluded cabin comes into view once more.

The feeling of seeing the cabin again is completely different for the first time. The first time was only about an hour ago. It feels like an entire lifetime has passed or maybe in that time he managed to get reborn. He walked into the cabin with a clear idea of his family, he walked out with a dead father, a sister that he never got to grow up, now understanding that the man that he never thought much of, is not his father, only a distant relative, he wasn't a bad father, he was actually just an atrocious stepfather. Maybe that is how it feels when the truth comes out, such a life-defining truth, it is slightly like getting reborn with a whole new identity.

Suddenly, he has lost the people that he thought were family, but it actually comes as a relief. A relief that his strange obsession with Lani was actually for a purpose, trusting his instinct like that and it actually being for a reason, being for something so important. All it has taken is one stack of paper for him to accept a girl that he has never spoken more than a few words to as his sister and a girl that he has regarded as his sister for his whole life to become nothing more than a stranger.

Maggie turns her head, viewing the run-down cabin in disgust. She had no idea that something so dilapidated was even on the Amber pack. The cabin is nothing like the lavish places she has lived, between the alpha house and then pack house in the amber pack and the half-moon pack house.

"Why hasn't dad demolished such a monstrosity?"

Oscar curls his lips as he looks at the woman in front of him that has managed to live a life of luxury in the place of his sister. The whole thing, Simon's whole scheme is disturbing.

There should have been a happy family of four nowhere near the amber pack. Simon robbed them all of that opportunity. There are so many layers to his deception, the knowledge curls his stomach, it is sickening.