Twisting Her Fate
Chapter 111

Gabriel is awoken by a knock on the door. He rubs his hands over his face, quickly looking around, trying to work out what is happening. His head is pounding and his mouth is as dry as a desert. His tongue feels like sandpaper against his lips and he can't even remember the last time he actually consumed water that did not come in the form of a melted ice-cube at the bottom of a whiskey glass. His breath smells like a mixture of stale beer and vomit. His back hurts and his neck is slightly kinked. "What is it??"

He yells through the solid door, his voice has a harsh edge to it, it isn't because he is angry, it is just his body feels like it is falling to pieces around him.

"The meeting will be starting in half an hour"

"Yes, that's fine. I will be there"

Gabriel leans back in the chair staring up at the white ceiling, repeatedly scrubbing his hands over his face in an effort to wake himself up and rid himself of the last effects of the copious amounts of alcohol that he has consumed.

Gabriel is in no hurry to rush to the meeting. He is the alpha of this pack. He dictates when things happen. He is not even sure why Lance thinks it is within his right to call meetings like this. Everything should be running through Gabriel. Gabriel is the alpha, not Lance. Gabriel should be the one making decisions. The meeting starts when he arrives, not the other way around.

Gabriel takes his time sifting through a bit of paperwork but not really accomplishing anything. He wants his father to wait. It is his rebellion against the man. He really needs to sit his father down and tell him who is the boss. Lance needs to understand who the alpha is. Lance handed over the title years ago. Gabriel has been running the pack for long enough now that his father can just get out of the operations all together.

While it will be a bit more work, Gabriel doesn't like the fact that Lance can hold anything over him. He wants complete control and Lance out of the picture.

As the alpha of the pack, he shouldn't have to answer to anyone.

Gabriel manages to make it like a game, just seeing how long he can actually stretch it out, not knowing that no one is really waiting for him and no one really cares.

Gabriel goes to his room and finally gets in the shower at the same time as Ryan is arriving in the meeting room. It has been set up as a large banquet. The tables are set out in a luxury formation with a defined head of the table. Ryan is sat to the right of Lance, who is sitting in the centre.

Lance was meaning to catch up with Gabriel throughout the day, but when Gabriel made no attempt to contact him or make himself known, Lance decided to do it all in front of everyone to save some of the drama.

Lance doesn't even know that Maggie is within the pack. He assumed after the disgrace of the morning and the very obvious falling out between the two. The fact that Maggie is not even part of the half moon pack and has not been informed about the meeting leads him to believe that she is not going to be in attendance.

There is not a place made up for her at all.

There are three seats at the head and Lance in the centre. Gabriel is due to be on the left and Ryan on the right.

Ryan sits with Jameson on the other side of him. Jameson just sits waiting for the action, speaking quietly to Ryan. It is hard to believe the two have only known each other for such a short time. They have bonded instantly.

Both the men look young and energetic. They have cleanly pressed suits of similar to dark colors. To an unaware observer, anyone would believe that these two were meant to be alpha and beta of the same pack their whole lives and have grown up together how a usual pairing would go.

The entrees have started to be served and there is still no sign of Gabriel at all, but no one in the room even acknowledges the fact. Gabriel has made himself so scarce for the last few weeks that he is just naturally starting to become unrequired by the pack. No one has been able to go to him with issues, he doesn't head up the training. Jameson covers everything with the warrior, patrols and training.

When the pack members do see Gabriel around, he has been in a bad state and that big production with Maggie at the punishment pole, no one knew what happened and then she was just released in the morning. The whole pack is slightly jittery. Wolves are pack animals and they require a strong leader. Without that ultimate leader, there is heavy unrest.

The pack members move to eat, seeing Lance being so relaxed about the fact that the alpha has not even deemed this event important enough to make an appearance, and then the young man sitting on Lance's side. He has the air of an alpha, but he is a stranger. The head of the table is receiving all sorts of curious glances.

Ryan doesn't bend under the pressure, his shoulders remain square, his back remains straight, his lips set in a thin line as he eats the food in front of him. He will never bow under such pressure, he has grown up as the future alpha, he is used to attention. While Adrian was a loving father, he equipped him with everything he needed to be a good alpha.

Adrian always said an alpha at home with his family is a different man than the pack needs, it is okay to be those two different people.

In the room, Gabriel stands at the foot of the bed with a towel wrapped around his waist looking at the full three-piece suit that someone has laid out for him. He frowns. For what purpose does anything in the pack need to be so fancy? Isn't it just a dinner?

Gabriel pulls on the pants and the shirt rolling up the sleeves to expose his strong forearms. He leaves the cummerbund, jacket and tie on the bed. They are lucky that he is even dragging his hungover a*s to this thing, it would be way too much to expect him to get dressed to this level.

Maggie pushes her way into the room. She has another room in the house that she uses to store all her hair and makeup things, as Gabriel hates the clutter in his room. Maggie looks immaculate. She looks better than she has ever looked before, yet Gabriel doesn't even give her a second look as he squeezes past her to get out of the door.

Maggie hurries to catch up.

"Aren't you going to say anything? Don't I look like the perfect Luna?"

Gabriel frowns heavily but doesn't say anything, he doesn't slow down his pace at all to accommodate her, just walking with the same brisk steps. Maggie tries to grab his arm to fall into step beside him but he evades her clutches.

He still has not come up with a reasonable solution of what to do with this woman. He doesn't want to appear heartless, yet he cannot admit all the wrongs that she has committed under his watch. He is still trying to work out if the fact that she can give him strong pure alpha pups is enough reason to overlook all the rest.

All he knows is that she will never be his mate, she will never wear his mark and she will never be his luna.

"Gabriel, slow down a little, I know we have had our problems..."

Gabriel scoffs harshly as he walks, not slowing for a second as the woman stumbles repeatedly on the descent down the stairs.

"Problems? I think we are a little beyond that. A problem would only be scratching the surface of the quagmire of sh*t we have found ourselves in"

"I know it looks bad now, but all these years I have been by your side. I know we can work this all out and we can get back to what it was before"

Gabriel just laughs. Now that his eyes are open, he is not sure that it is possible to go back to what it was before. Everything is a mess now? How can he get a relationship that he found was truly built on nothing back?

The fact of the matter is he doesn't even want to try. He is best to cut his losses at this point and make a clean break. He has no need for this added stress.