Twisting Her Fate
Chapter 143

Connor leaves the fusion pack lands. He is not sure where he is going or how he made it anywhere. The road ahead is only a haze as his mind tries to wrap around the situation.

She has moved on. If it was so damn easy, why can't he? Why can't he go a single day without thinking about her, why does he spend every night just thinking about her without a single reprieve?

He truly thought that their love was stronger than this. She stayed away for a reason and the reason is that she moved on, there was someone else out there for her, someone better suited, someone that made her forget about him altogether. With his bag clutched in one hand and his bare feet walking step by step with no real direction in mind, his mind and his heart in a jumbled mess.

Connor doesn't realize how much hope he had been holding onto through all these years. He truly thought that they would be together in the end and all he needed to do was find her.

Connor walks until his feet are caked in a thick layer of dried blood, his wolf healing the cuts as quickly as he makes them, but it doesn't stop the leaves sticking to the thick sticky liquid.

Connor looks around, suddenly realizing he has somehow reached civilization again. The day is fading to night. He looks at the neon sign in front of him as it flickers to life as the first staff arrive at the closed club. He grabs the arm of one employee entering. "Can I get a drink yet?"

The woman eyes him up and down. He is by far the best looking man she has ever seen, even in his haggard state. Her face changes in contemplation.

"You will never get in past the bouncers looking like that"

Connor looks down at himself. He would be lucky to be allowed into a homeless shelter in the state he is in. They would refer him straight to the mental hospital. Connor nods and turns away without saying another word.

The woman watches the large back as he walks away, shaking her head in dejection.

"What a pity the beautiful ones are always crazy"

Connor walks to the closest cheap and nasty motel, the type of place they wouldn't even look twice if he was dragging a dead body behind him. He showers, washing the filth off him and dressing in the cleanest clothing he has, slipping shoes over his now immaculate feet.

Connor walks straight back to the club, the blue neon sign is scrawled in cursive, The Warehouse. There are two large bouncers now positioned at the door but they look like nothing as Connor's hulking figure approaches.

They let him straight through without a pause and he walks to the bar ordering two whiskey on the rocks. There is not a single other patron in the cavernous place. The handsome man disrupts the set up of the place as his presence draws all the attention of the employees.

Connor just stares at the glass of amber liquid in his hand, like he can feel her hand wrapping around his own, like he can still feel her lips on his own feeding him the liquid. He really thought they were meant to be, he has held out hope. Even though they have been separated for the three years, he truly believed that it could all be reconciled.

Now it's all done. He has to travel back to the stormy pack. Train someone up, lose his pack, lose his friends. Lose everything.

Connor closes his eyes. Sinking glass after glass of amber liquid. Feeling the burn, relishing in the fact, relishing in the fact that he can feel anything at all, feel something other than the heartbreak.

His wolf is just as devastated as he locking himself away. There has been three chances. Three failed opportunities. Now the stormy pack will no longer be in his name. He will no longer be an alpha. He will just be nothing. Just a waste. The heavy thump of music, the strobing lights on the empty dance floor. Just feel like his empty and so very hollow heart.

**11 months after separation**

Leilani feels pain in every part of her body. She can feel a large hand on her thigh and one on her knee with tingles emanating from the hand. She tries to work out where she is or what happened. But there is one thing she knows for sure as she listens to the beepings of the machines and smells a slight antiseptic smell of the medical room.

She is alive.

"... And then she kept asking me to choke her but I knew she was about to lose consciousness. So I release my hold and she kept demanding more and I was like why? What pleasure could you possibly get from it? Asphyxiating to the point that you don't even know what's happening anymore, I'm not into that at all..... I know I am a lot of things, a jerk, a douchebag...... I'm sure you have a lot better descriptive words to use about me....."

Gabriel looks at Lani hopefully, but like every day for six months. No matter what he says she doesn't respond in the slightest. He doesn't let it bother him. Just continuing what he's doing and talking. He has never been so free and so open with someone. The sad thing is the person can't respond or even listen, but it is nice getting it all out.

"... But I'm no r*pist. I'm not going to keep going after she is unconscious. So what's the point? Why even get to that? She was crazy. I definitely stay clear of her for that.... You know Lani, I am so glad you can't hear what I am saying. After six months, I am officially nearly out of s*x stories, so maybe now I can just read you books or something like I should have done at the start. Don't think too highly of me just yet, me being me, I will probably read you some smut stories...."

Gabriel continues to ramble on to himself, while he continues to move her leg up and down slowly massaging the muscles to prevent atrophy.

He is taking it as his own personal mission. He wants to see Lani pull through. He wants to see her back at her peak.

He feels like this is a new focus of his life and he is taking it very seriously, spending over two hours in the medical room every day and when he isn't doing that he is researching with Terrance.

He is not sure how much being around her is helping her wolf, so he has decided to give her physical therapy during the time.

Gabriel has never cared for anyone in his entire life, but he is actually incredibly capable of it.

"You have to wake up soon Lani, I can't stand the looks on your family's faces anymore. I never knew that a fully grown alpha wolf and a fully grown beta wolf, all with immeasurable strength, can actually have a sad puppy dog face, but they all do. I don't even think they know they are doing it, but the grief for you is felt each and every day in this place. I try and imagine what it would have been like with you there. I could imagine laughter and joy, but at the moment there's just a sort of hollow nothingness" Leilani presses the eyes that she has still not been able to open, closed even harder as fresh tears wet her long fluttering black eyelashes. Hollow, it is how she feels now. She can't feel her wolf. She is alive but her own actions killed her wolf. Tears run down each side of Leilani's face, which Gabriel doesn't notice as he moves onto the next leg.

"The twins are way too adorable. You should see the girl, Elena..."

Leilani's breath catches in her throat, realizing that she may have lost something but she has gained something more. Elena, she has a baby girl. She was thinking of names and had a list and that was at the top. Leilani wants to speak, wants to open her eyes, she wants to see her babies but she can't move.

"She is so beautiful, she has white blonde hair that is unreasonably long for a six month old, Astrid has been tying the front section into two little fountain ponytails. I say fountains because they are so cute and just stick directly out from her head, I mean I am not saying that I like cute babies or want to be a father or anything... We know after the example my father set that I would end up messing up a kid to be just like me...... But when Elena gives a massive toothless cheeky grin it could melt the coldest heart..... Not mine, of course. She has no affect on me.."

Gabriel laughs to himself as he thinks about the beautiful little girl that he would throw himself in front of a truck to save. He runs Lani's left leg through the series of movements.

"... And then there is Ace. He is definitely Connor's son. He has such a serious expression that I almost expect him to pull out a calculator and start doing my taxes. I am ashamed to say that the eyesight of a six-month-old actually scares me. I am sure he knows all my secrets.... Anyway, I guess you do too. At least you both can't talk yet to reveal them..."

Gabriel looks at Lani's face, seeing fresh tears. He stares at the wet face, all the times that he expected this. Now that it finally happens, he is at a loss of what to do. He blinks rapidly, his slightly shaggy blonde hair hanging over his eyes, obscuring his face. He drops the leg in shock and he starts running out of the room as fast as his legs will carry him. His near panicked voice, echoing through the empty space.

"Call Dr Jarvis, get Terrance. I think she is waking. I think Lani is finally awake"

Lani hears thundering footsteps as she finally opens her stormy blue eyes and stares at the ceiling.