Twisting Her Fate
Chapter 106

Maggie coughs awkwardly to cover her nervousness, her eyes flicker and her body does a strange sort of convulsion under Gabriel's all-seeing gaze, but she forces it all down and tries to act naturally. "What are you looking at? Are you once again stunned by my beauty?"

Gabriel looks her up and down in a slow and calculating manner before sneering and turning in the seat so that he is facing to look straight out of the windscreen, ignoring Maggie as he drags the door shut himself.

Maggie wipes down her clothing, trying to straighten out the wrinkles in the fabric like the movement will straighten out the never ending pile of creases in her life.

She breathes a secret sigh of relief. Since she found out the truth, she feels like everyone knows, like suddenly there is a tattoo of Omega on her head. She is so scared of her own truth that she lacks the usual confidence. While it was waning before, it is now nearly non-existent. Her desperation is all too obvious.

Maggie walks around to the driver's side door, gets in the car, gripping the steering wheel heavily as she takes a deep breath in, starting the car and not daring to even look in Gabriel's direction again, unusually focused on the road before her.

Gabriel doesn't even pay any further attention to Maggie, getting lost in his own thoughts. Thinking heavily about the fact that such a weakling like Leilani can become so strong, if he forced Maggie into training like he should have instead of letting her have it so easy for so long, with her alpha blood in superior breeding, wouldn't she be as strong and then wouldn't all the problems be solved?

Gabriel even wracks his brain trying to work out the color of Maggie's wolf. He can't even remember seeing it at all.

While Gabriel is off in a world of his own thinking of things that will never happen, Maggie thinks that because Gabriel's attention is away from her, that she has gotten away with it once more. As soon as this meeting is done, she will be Luna and everything will be fine.

There are so many things that Gabriel can't find out about. What her father has done, her lineage, the fact that there will be no treaty with the Amber pack, the fact that it is quite possible that Oscar hates her.

If Maggie could grab Gabriel's face and force him to mark her right this second she would. She was so close. There was only one week until she was meant to be marked anyway.

Maggie has waited nine years for this and now it's all crumbling in the very last week. How can she be reconciled with the fact?

The couple that is supposedly so in love and so close to marking each other, drive in a hushed silence. There is nothing comfortable about the silence, both of them with very different ideas in their head.

Finally, they arrive at the half moon pack. The place is buzzing with activity; caterers, decorators, a whole bunch of people that wouldn't usually be within the pack, everyone is too hard at work to even notice the two that have arrived. Both have very different thoughts.

Gabriel is wondering why they're having something like this which is looking close to the scale of when he took over the alpha role. It is excessive for a last minute, mid-week meeting that the alpha wasn't even included in the planning of. To Maggie, it's only further confirmation that this is a luna ceremony.

Maggie's excitement grows as Jameson walks forward to face Gabriel.

Maggie looks at Jameson speaking to him quickly.

"Do you know what this is all about?"

Jameson is sure that Maggie doesn't pick up any signals and doesn't understand the depth of despise that he has for her. He didn't think much of her before and he definitely thinks nothing of her now.

Of course, he knows what this is about, but he isn't about to say it. It is not his place at all. Lance is the one that did this. Lance is the one that can cop the fall back. It isn't on him or Ryan to take that from Gabriel.

Lance did the deed and he is the one instigating the whole thing. He needs to man up and own up to it. In a way, Jameson actually feels a bit sorry for Gabriel. He has been raised believing that he is an only child and that the alpha position of the half moon pack is just his guaranteed. No matter how much he stuffs up. As long as there aren't any outsiders who come in and take the position from him in an alpha battle, as long as he is strong enough to take them on.

It is fine, it is secured and his completely. But when there is a half moon pack bloodline out there that he never even knew about, it seems slightly unfair, but it is the best for the pack. It is even for the best that Ryan wasn't even raised within this pack. Maybe if he was raised here then he would be exactly the same type of person as Gabriel, but talking to Ryan and understanding Ryan, it is hard to believe that that would be a fact, but the change of circumstances could make anything possible. "I don't know"

Jameson speaks coldly to Maggie. He thought that she was just heavily promiscuous and that doesn't worry him. He doesn't want to be a part of it, but to each their own. If she wants to be like that and Gabriel is happy with that, then it is fine as long as they don't push that on and unwilling party. But to know that she's a cold-blooded killer, that is far beyond any tolerance. That is completely unacceptable.

Maggie doesn't even hear his words. Jameson could tell the truth and Maggie would still only hear what she wanted to hear.

Jameson looks at Gabriel, who looks like a wreck. The wounds may have healed but the blood remains. He smells like a spill tray under the beer taps that hasn't been washed in weeks, getting that stale sort of smell, that, mixed with the blood makes Jameson want to gag.

Looking at the man in front of him, he is not sure that this is the best time to talk to him about Karina, but there isn't going to be a better time.

"Gabriel, can I please speak to you?"

Jameson looks at Maggie in distaste before continuing.

"In private"

Maggie doesn't even care.

"I will go and get ready for the event"

Maggie skips off happily, having no idea what is in store for her. Gabriel looks at Jameson, the times they talk outside of official business is rare. Jameson looks serious, so Gabriel pushes down the drunkenness that is threatening to make him collapse on the ground. He tries to look like the professional that he is meant to be, he tries not to look like he is falling apart.

"What do you need from me?"

Jameson frowns slightly hearing the slight slur to the mans words. Gabriel's whole appearance is off putting and now his voice being like it is, he wonders how much the man will retain, but all he can do is push forward.

"It has come to my attention that there was a woman in lock up. Do you know anything about her?"

Gabriel thinks back to the pretty redhead that he just asked about a few days ago.

"Hmm, Karina, what about her?"

"Are you aware that she is dead?"

Gabriel straightens his spine and watches Jameson. His mind is buzzing and he is so hazy, his stomach is flipping in circles and all he wants to do is just vomit. "When did it happen? Why wasn't I informed straight away?"

Jameson looks at Gabriel who is swaying on his feet. He looks like a juvenile pretending they are sober, trying to cover up the fact of their underage drinking.

"It happened two weeks ago"

Gabriel tries to cover his shock. There are a lot of things that have slipped past him recently, so he is not really surprised, but he can't show that he cares little about the loss of a weak pack member. It is a pity to lose a pretty girl that he didn't have a run at yet. "And why wasn't I informed earlier? I can't check on every piece of the pack"

"I only just recently learned about it too. It seems that Maggie was the only one present when Karina decided to take her life by ripping her own face apart"

"It was a su*cide?"

"It seems improbable that she would take her own life in such a way with Maggie in the room"

"What are you suggesting?"

"Maggie is responsible"

"Do you have proof?"

"No, Maggie did everything behind your back, Karina was incinerated without an inquiry. You still didn't even know about it. If Maggie didn't have anything to hide then why wouldn't she have told you about it?" "But without evidence"

"I understand that, but she destroyed it all, she has had free run. The warriors didn't inform you because she told them not to, there was no proper process"

"It doesn't mean she did it"

"If you really think that she didn't do everything she did as a cover-up hoping that you wouldn't even notice at all, which you didn't for two whole weeks" "Stand down beta"

Jameson looks at Gabriel, feeling braver than he has in a long time. Gabriel might still technically be the alpha, but Jameson's wolf has already recognized Ryan as his alpha, which allows him to speak freely to Gabriel.

"If you want to close your eyes and pretend that nothing happened that is on you, if you want to share a bed with a murderer, if you want to allow her bed deeds to go unpunished, you have to live with that, we are leaders, not gods, we don't have a right to decide who lives and dies just because we feel like it. There has to be some accountability."

With that, Jameson turns on his heel and walks away, leaving Gabriel in spot reeling, trying to process what he just heard.