Twisting Her Fate
Chapter 69

Oscar looks inquiringly at his mother.

"And how many people do you know with the same hair colour as you? Because you should really introduce me to them so I don't make a fool of myself in front of people" "Well, I don't know many, but it doesn't mean there isn't some. What does it matter?"

Oscar is not sure how to answer his mother's question because he is not sure why exactly it does matter. That girl, she was important. He just hasn't worked out why yet. Oscar fumbles in his pocket, pulling out his phone and showing the photo to his mother. It is not very good and doesn't give much of a view of her face, but the hair color is clear.

Astrid stares blankly at the beautiful white blonde hair that is done in a braid, her hand reaches up and touches her own hair, her other hand holds her heart as that constant ache tears her apart. If only.

Astrid turns away, unable to look at the photo anymore.

"I am tired Oscar, I am going to go to bed before your father gets back"

Oscar can only nod, kissing his mother on the forehead. Astrid leaves and Oscar just stares at the photo again. Is it really nothing? Why did he want it to be something?

Astrid is not sure how she even made it back into the room. She usually enjoys the thrill of it, but somehow she is just standing in the room with her back to the window. She looks down at her hands that are shaking. She thought that after all these years it wouldn't hurt so much, but every little reminder hurts, it is a wound that will never heal.

Astrid makes sure that Simon is still nowhere near and goes to the guest room. Moving a couple of boxes that are stacked in the closet, she moves a floor board before getting out a box of photos and memories. She sifts through it until she pulls out one photo. A young woman with a smile on her face beside her stands a boy of three years old. Cradled in her arms is a baby in a pink dress with a large pink bow in her white blonde hair, matching the young mothers perfectly.

It is the last photo she has of Cora, the last happy memory of her. The next memory is cradling the mutilated four-month-old the torn flesh, the endless blood, Cora's clothing unrecognizable. Astrid's hand shakes and the photo flutters and falls to the ground, large tears drop onto the matte surface, it all feels like a lifetime ago.

"How beautiful you would be if you were alive, my precious girl"

Astrid quickly picks up the photos, storing them away again. Astrid wipes her tears, a twenty-one year old hurt. Astrid carefully places all the things back into place. They are her most precious treasures but she rarely can look at them. It is too painful. Astrid walks back to her room, hurrying to change and slips back into bed as she senses Simon getting close again.

Simon walks in sighing, shrugging off his jacket. Astrid hurries out of bed to get it and hang it up.

"Maggie has done something stupid at the ball and has nearly exposed herself and now Gabriel's fated mate is in the picture, so we have to head to the half-moon pack in the morning to see what we can salvage of the situation"

Astrid merely nods, she would usually say something, but after the reminder of Cora she is unable to communicate, she keeps her mouth shut, trying to keep all the hurt inside. Scared if she opens her lips all that she will reply is an anguished scream, all that bottled up hurt will burst forth and it will never end.

"Sometimes I just don't know what is wrong with that girl"

Astrid has tried her hardest to raise Maggie, but maybe she failed somewhere along the way. Maybe her heart wasn't in it or maybe it was just bad breeding, something went wrong somewhere.

"I am going to the study to do some work. Don't wait up for me"

Gabriel looks at Maggie for the longest time. She huddled in the corner of the vehicle as close to the door as she can possibly get, her face slightly sideways at an obscure angle, trying to hide the wound from Gabriel.

But no matter what she does, he is a wolf. No matter how drunk he is, he can still smell the fresh blood trickling in the semi-confined space.

The vehicle might be large and the space between Gabriel and Maggie might be the extent of how far they can escape from each other. It is still a sealed vehicle.

"I asked you a question Maggie"

It has been a full half hour since Gabriel last asked the question. If he wasn't staring directly at her still drinking heavily, she would think that he had forgotten what he asked.

But their intense eyes focused on her and her alone is enough to know that he did not forget the question and he is just waiting patiently for her answer, an answer that she cannot possibly give.

Thankfully, the wound has clotted and is almost healed, but the fact of the matter is that he watched the entire time and knows how long a very simple wound took to heal.

Maggie has been trying to think of a reasonable excuse but as per usual, she is drawing a blank. She has been caught completely unprepared by this development and everything that she thought she had regained is once again slipping through her fingers, looking completely out of reach.

"Maggie, do you not know me? Do you believe my patience to be limitless? Have I given you so much freedom that you think that you are above me, therefore you do not have to answer any of my questions?"

Maggie was thinking about using the excuse that there was something in it, but then she would still have to extract a thing and Gabriel would still see how slowly she heals. The only thing she can possibly think of is to lie. Digging herself down deeper and deeper into a pit of lies.

"I think that girl with Connor is a witch and she cast some sort of spell on me"

Gabriel throws back the rest of the bottle of spirits. He has moved on to vodka after finishing the entire bourbon and the remnants of the whisky that was left from the trip down.

Gabriel laughs as he throws the bottle onto the ground, heavy cracks appearing in the glass, but it does not shatter.

"A witch? That girl is a witch. That is what you think? That is the excuse you have come up with?"

"It is the only conclusion I can come to"

"So, after a full thirty-three minutes to come up with an excuse, all you have is that the girl is a witch?"

"It isn't an excuse, Gabriel. You have to believe me"

"Do you even know who that girl is?"

"No, how would I?"

"Because you have met her before Maggie"

"No, I have never met her before in my life"

Gabriel sighs as he runs his hand down his face in an aggressive gesture.

"What the hell is wrong with you? Are you that f*cking stupid or are you trying to play me?"

Maggie looks at Gabriel, who looks at her like she is lying, but she can not recollect meeting her. There is a sense of familiarity but that is it.

"I swear I've never met her before in my life"

Gabriel grabs the next bottle, which just happens to be tequila, dragging himself along the bench seat of the vehicle, moving closer and closer to Maggie in an aggressive fashion. His teeth are bared. "Come on tell me, tell me again that she is a witch"

"I didn't say that she is a witch, I just said that maybe she did something to me"

Gabriel laughs, drinking heavily from the bottle once again.

"So, in the split second that it took for her to take down my alpha-blooded future luna, she cast a spell on you to make you not heal when she is not a witch"

"Maybe she is a witch"

Maggie considers jumping out of the car to escape Gabriel's questioning but the car is travelling so fast that she would be lying on the roadside for two days trying to heal.

Gabriel doesn't keep moving, just sitting as far to the back on the side seats as he can without transferring to the backseat. He wants to be able to see Maggie's lies. But Maggie doesn't feel any comfort from the distance between them-Gabriel's ice-blue eyes are cutting into her, his aura is so suffocating that she feels like she might drown.

"Keep going Maggie"

"Maybe she put a potion on my head and caused it not to heal"

Gabriel raises the bottle, drinking the entire contents into his mouth. The liquid burns all the way down and all of the liquid is sitting so badly in his stomach, he hasn't eaten anything since lunch and even then, he was so angry about the events on the twentieth floor that he didn't even eat much. His brain is buzzing, even though a werewolf's metabolism will stop them from getting drunk too easily, Gabriel has consumed enough to kill numerous humans.

Gabriel's words are slurred as he looks at Maggie with hazy eyes.

"It is easy enough to verify"

He grabs the base of the bottle in his large hand and squeezes, the glass fracturing and finally exploding.

"Lets have a competition"

Gabriel holds up his hand that is full of small fragments of glass that are embedded in the skin, he grabs a piece of glass off the floor and grabs Maggie's hand sticking a large piece of glass straight in without the slightest hesitation. "Lets see who heals first"

Gabriel keeps hold of Maggie's hand and looks over her, his head swimming.

"Do you know why Maggie?"

His words sound more and more incoherent. Maggie looks at the piece of glass in fear and then up at Gabriel's eyes barely whispering her reply.

"Why?"

"Because you know who that is, you have met her before, she is Leilani. Don't you think I would know if the girl that lived in my pack for fourteen years was a goddess damn witch? Don't you think that someone at the ball would have noticed if there was a goddess damn witch wandering around?"

Gabriel's consciousness is fading.

"Don't you think I would have known if my fated mate was a witch? If she was a witch she might have held some value. Maybe then I wouldn't have done what I did"

Gabriel falls face first onto the ground, straight into the pile of glass lying on the carpet. Maggie didn't make out the end of his sentence at all. All that stood out was fated.

The name Leilani ignites a memory. The girl, that elegant woman, was the orphan girl that was sent to die?