Twisting Her Fate
Chapter 54

Connor sits in his study working, he cannot wipe the smile off his face, while he has always been hardworking, putting in long hours and living under a life of stress so that the pack can flourish and the members can live well. He has never been so happy at work. Sometimes there is a random flair of joy when a big deal he has been working on goes through, but then he will look at the photo of his family on the wall and he can nearly hear his father's voice, 'Is that all there is to life, son?' 'Don't get so busy trying to make others lives better that you forget to have one yourself' and the joy will diminish. Now he sits with a smile on his face and all his father's words that usually bring him back to reality have faded out because he knows that there is nothing that his parents would have wanted more than for him to find love.

Not only would there be no words of discouragement, Leilani would have been accepted into the family with open arms, his mother would be organizing a wedding and his father would be listing out a step by step plan of how to win the heart of the fair maiden. There would have been no doubt about him choosing a mate instead of going with the moon goddess's plan, because they only wanted one thing for him and that was for him to be happy.

They were a strange alpha family, valuing something so worthless to some as the most important. Love and family were always the most important to them. Sometimes Connor feels like he is doing them a disservice by working so hard, but if it all leads to Leilani, if all the things happen and all the hard work, all the choices lead to her, then he knows he did the right thing.

Connor looks at the door as he senses Terrance approaching. As usual, the door is slammed open without a knock and Terrance runs in. Connor looks on in amusement as Terrance shuts the door behind him. He is bubbling with excitement, nearly to the point that he is shaking, which is an improvement from the flat appearance of yesterday when reality set in about his first time away from his mate.

Terrance's violet eyes are particularly vibrant when he is excited and it is rare to see him in such a condition.

"Okay, knock, knock, ohh come in Terrance, you look happy. What has you so excited?"

Terrance just waves off Connor's blatant sarcasm with a wave of his hand.

"Who has time for such formalities?"

Connor's good mood is only elevated by his friends joy which is near infectious.

"So if there is no time, you are still wasting an awful lot of it"

"I just had a phone call"

Connor nods for Terrance to continue, everything Terrance does is laced with dramatics and, as his only real friend, Connor gets hit with most of it.

"Just tell me already"

"It was from the doctor of the half moon pack. It seems that the alpha needs something to stop him being affected by the mate bond"

Connor's eyes light up, understanding now what would make Terrance so happy. These schemes against the 'evil fated' have the big tick of approval from Terrance and now that he is going to be pulled further into the game, he is even more so. "This is good, but also interesting"

"How so?"

"Most of the pain has been aimed at Maggie. Gabriel has only been allowed to feel it a hand full of times, probably the amount of times that I learned to build up my tolerance to it"

"Well, the doctor was asking about side effects of prolonged excessive use, when asked what he meant by excessive use he said that Gabriel wants to be immune from the bond at all times"

Connor is surprised, he has had months of the pain and beyond the first few times, it is only a mild discomfort. There is no way he would resort to numbing the pain completely, it is pointless and seems way too weak. Can Gabriel really not handle it? "What did you say?"

"I said that it has never been used in such a way and has not been tested as such"

Terrance taps his chin, his eyes staring blankly at the white wall before he continues.

"I was thinking that since they are already asking about side effects, even though I know there are none, maybe we could add some"

"I am listening"

Terrance is nearly laughing, his eyes are shining with mischief.

"What about making him get kidney stones? Temporary blindness?"

Terrance walks to the desk slamming his palms on the table, his violet eyes are so vivid that they are nearly glowing.

"I have got it, what is the best way to mess with a man like that?"

Connor shrugs, still thinking that beating Gabriel into the ground would be the best way and by far the most satisfying.

"Mess with his manhood! What about a little er*ctile dysfunction, or maybe a little premature ej*culation?"

"Lets see what Leilani wants to do"

Terrance can only agree, they all don't like Gabriel, but it is but to Leilani how much she wants him to hurt.

In the hotel, Hudson stares at the screen with a complicated expression on his face. Leilani glances up from her work, she is very intune with how the brothers are feeling. She rarely has to intervene now, but back then she was always there, could always sense when it was getting all too much, she could always tell a long time before anyone else could.

"Are you okay?"

"I found something"

Hudson's voice is soft and slightly hesitant. The boys all look up and Leilani moves closer to Hudson. Usually, if he finds something, he celebrates in some way or at least doesn't look like a child that broke someone's prized possession and is trying to work out how to let them know.

"What did you find?"

"So I have traced the various contacts back, focusing mainly on the man that she was meant to meet. Most of them turn up with nothing, just the average deviants, nothing that stands out much. Except for my main focus, I can't find much from there. I can't find the owner of the actual account or any information. Every trail on the search for the actual owner just leads to a bunch of dead ends, but the problem is the other people that he has contacted..... Who the account has been used to contact over the years" "What is the problem?"

Hudson draws up a bunch of different photos, all blondes of very similar ages, but one stands out a lot. "Is that Evie?"

"It is"

Silence prevails as they all s**k in a deep breath.

Evie is a girl that disappeared from the face of the earth approximately four years ago while they were still in training. Titan used her and her case as an example of why, no matter how good investigation or how hard everyone involved tries, sometimes things don't work out, sometimes no matter how much experience you have, sometimes a good result does not prevail. It isn't from lack of trying. It isn't from lack of experience. It is just from lack of evidence and lack of trails. Sometimes, no matter the push, sometimes an insurmountable road block is in the way and every way around is filled with more road blocks.

Evie was or is, no one knows. Nothing ever came of the case, so no one has any idea if she is alive. She has been presumed dead long ago. Evie was a seventeen-year-old alpha daughter, beautiful and very loved. She had even met her mate, who was the alpha of a pack that was close to the borders touching her birth pack. He was dating her until she was able to get her wolf and be marked. He found her before she even felt the bond. But three days before her birthday she disappeared without a trace. Two whole packs were mobilized in the search for her but it was just like she disappeared off the face of the earth.

Hudson clicks into the conversation. It is much the same as Rolalie's, the nice girl exterior hiding a lot different internal, the photos a lot more depraved than Rosalie's, Evie in a lot of compromising positions with a lot of extras. The group look between themselves, this being a lot bigger shock than Rosalie. Evie was painted as an angel and she had a mate in waiting. Having photos of her being with so many men is surprising, but they look past it, everyone has their secrets and everyone is entitled to live their life. She wasn't mated yet, so it is probably not so bad. Hudson scrolls back to the last two messages.

"Meet me at a cafe and I am waiting in my car. That sounds very close to the same thing that Rosalie received"

Hudson taps on the timestamp.

"It is the same day she disappeared"

Leilani runs her hands down her face, letting out a large sigh.

"Well, the impossible task just turned gargantuan."

Leilani can only massage her temples thinking through the implications.

"Lets research the other girls contacted and find out the depth of what we are dealing with"

With a heavy heart, Leilani scribbles down the names of the other girls and she and the others set to work on them while Hudson continues his frustrating attempt at trying to find out who the owner of the account is. The faces of everyone in the room turns increasingly grim. All the girls are missing, every single one on the list.

Not all the girls correspondence is the same, some sweet and innocent, some saucy. The variety is large, apart from the fact they are all she wolves, all around a similar age and all beautiful. Most of them are blonde but there are a few variations. Hudson throws his hands up in exacerbation as he hits another dead end. It is the early hours of the morning when a ring tone breaks through the silent and suffocating room. Leilani looks at the screen.

"Connor, give me some good news please"

Connor notes the fatigue in her voice, assuming that she hasn't slept either, he has been waiting for her call and when it didn't come he decided to take a chance and give her a call.

"I have Terrance with me and we do have some good news"

Leilani puts the phone on speaker and Connor runs through Terrance's idea. Leilani looks at the memories and photos of the latest girl they found was missing. Connor's news would usually be exciting, but it is hard to celebrate in the circumstances. "I will give Terrance the reins on this one. All the ideas are amazing, just don't make it too obvious."