Twisting Her Fate
Chapter 91

Lance pulls up his car to the half moon pack. Ryan has been so focused on the blood that has dried on his hand that he hardly noticed, the reality of the situation is just starting to hit him. He is with his biological father, his mother was just killed and now he is pulling up to an unknown pack that he has heard so much about from his father, nothing much good. "Why did you bring me here?"

"Gabriel has made too many mistakes. I want you to start training to take over"

"You want me to challenge him?"

"No, he has done enough to be forced to stand down"

Ryan looks into Lance's eyes.

"Have you ever thought to ask what I want?"

Lance laughs slightly as he looks at the young man in front of him.

"It doesn't matter what you want, it is what is your duty to do"

Ryan scoffs.

"Father of the year, you haven't even addressed the fact of what you have done and I am just meant to bend to your will?"

Is Lance stupid enough to believe that Gabriel will just hand over leadership willingly? Isn't this just throwing Ryan into extreme danger without a single regard for his safety?

"What's done is done Ryan, there is no point dwelling on the past"

"Is that why you have given up on the son you have raised?" "You don't understand"

"I understand enough, you raised him, you taught him your values and now that he did what he did, he did what you taught him, he treated everyone else as worthless and suddenly it is bad because he got caught" "My values...."

Ryan interrupts him with a sneer.

"Yes your values, are you telling me that you taught him to appreciate the mate bond? You slept with my mother to spite Adrian, was that while your own mate was alive?"

Lance cringes slightly and Ryan puts two and two together.

"Let me guess, your little act of revenge, the reason I came to be is the reason that your own mate died? Those are the values that I am talking about. You can't criticize Gabriel for following your example" "You don't know what you are talking about, you have only listened to Adrian's one-sided view of things"

"What is the other side? Are you going to tell me that you value mates, that you wouldn't have done exactly what Gabriel did? Did you teach him how to value a mate? Did you tell him how to take responsibility for his own actions?" "I did" Ryan laughs.

"Does he know about me?"

Lance looks out the windscreen at the pack house, keeping silent and that is all the answer that Ryan needs.

"If you took responsibility for your own actions, I wouldn't be just arriving now. I wouldn't be here to take over the pack when you feel like you have no other option. I would have grown up with the pack that I am supposed to lead, I would have a relationship with my so-called brother that I am meant to strip of his title. I wouldn't come in as a hostile, an outsider, looking like I am power hungry and don't know my place in the world. I wouldn't come in as your dirty little secret, born of such a disgusting sin"

Ryan doesn't give a chance for Lance to answer, but Lance doesn't have a reply. Ryan is nothing like him in the slightest, he is nothing like Gabriel. Ryan opens the door, stepping straight out and leaning down.

"I am going for a run. Don't come to me, I will come to you if I feel the urge, but don't wait for me, it won't be anytime soon"

Ryan slams the car door so hard that the whole vehicle shakes. Lance watches as the man who is still only in a pair of shorts runs off without looking back. He was expecting that Ryan would be thankful. Half moon is a lot better pack than what he was set to take

over.

At the very least, Lance was expecting that Ryan would just be like Adrian and just take everything that Lance says as law.

Gabriel, who is sitting in a bar drinking shot after shot, enjoying the women shamelessly throwing themselves at him, felt a little something, but he is so inebriated that he doesn't notice another alpha crossing the border into half moon, doesn't notice that his life is about to get a whole lot worse, has no idea that the one thing that is keeping him sane is the fact that through it all he is still the alpha of the half moon pack, no matter what happens no one can take that title from him.

Ryan runs through the trees, throwing punches at random trees until he senses someone watching him. He swings around with a snarl.

"I told you to leave me alone you old f*ck...."

Ryan pauses when his eyes land on Jameson instead of Lance. Jameson quirks his eyebrows in amusement.

"I am not sure why you are running around punching trees in the pack, but I was just wondering why you are here?"

"Does it matter?"

"Slightly, I am meant to be on border patrol right now and you are an unknown wolf within the border"

"Ohh yeah that makes sense"

"So not going to answer?"

Ryan has no desire to state the reason he is here just yet, he can only shake his head.

"Okay, well how about an easier one? Why are you punching trees?"

"I would like to be punching a certain face, but since the trees are on offer, I can only do that"

"Fair enough, I have that feeling too"

Jameson has been on a double border patrol. He wants to punish himself for the loss of Karina, for not being able to get her justice. Maybe punching trees would give him momentary comfort, but it still wouldn't make up for his oversight. "So who are you?"

"You are an invader into half moon and you ask me who I am?" "Pretty much"

"I am beta Jameson"

Ryan instantly frowns, turning away and looking out at the trees.

"Ohh, another one of them, did Lance send you?"

"Why would Lance send me?"

Jameson didn't really sense a rogue vibe from the man, hence why he is standing having a conversation instead of calling in backup to haul the man to lock-up. Rogues rarely just run around in their human form looking well fed and defined, he has an alpha aura and is a couple of years younger than himself.

"Aren't you just his lacky?"

Jameson grimaces, he understands what the title means, but he hates being thrown in the same category as Gabriel and Lance.

"Sometimes things aren't exactly what they seem"

Ryan is watching Jameson, he notes all his facial expressions.

"Tell me about it"

"I can't"

"Go on, tell me yours and I will tell you mine"

Jameson watches the young man whose anger seems to have halved. He is not sure why, but he feels that he is trustworthy.

"Okay, let me take you to a place"

Jameson and Ryan sit side by side on the edge of a cliff, their legs dangling off the side.

"My mother told me this is where the ex-luna jumped to her death. No one comes here, but I like to. I often wonder if everything would have been different if she didn't do what she did"

Ryan grimaces as he looks at the jagged rocks below. He always watched his parents, who he thought were so in love. He always assumed that he was a product of that love, to replace out he was actually a product of such a fatal sin. It is a tough blow.

Jameson doesn't notice Ryan's expression at all, as he just speaks, everything that has been sitting heavily in his heart, feeling like he is meant to be in his role but having no connection with the people that he is meant to be loyal to, feeling out of place with the way they do things, to the expectations with the future luna. To his failing with Karina. Once he starts, he just can't stop and Ryan just listens intently as Jameson pours out all his grievances.

"Maybe I wasn't meant to be the beta of Half Moon. I can't stomach the corruption. I heard Lance actually call out Gabriel on all his sh*t, but the fact of the matter is that Gabriel is the alpha and there is nothing that I or anyone else can do about that" "Actually, that is where I come in"

Jameson looks at Ryan.

"You?"

"I haven't introduced myself. I am Ryan Hutchins, future alpha of the river bend pack. Well, I was until yesterday when I discovered that Lance, who I thought was my uncle, is actually my father" "Ohh"

Jameson grimaces, instantly regretting his decision, the position of beta that he was not sure he deserved is lost like that. "Nothing like that, I hate them"

Ryan proceeds to tell his story. Jameson listens carefully. Ryan is thankful for a listening ear. The closest person to him has always been Adrian, but he can't talk about this with him, it would cause his father too much pain. "What do you want to do?"

"I don't even know"

Jameson stares out at the trees below, the vast emptiness.

"The leadership of the half-moon pack needs a shakeup. Maybe I never felt close to Gabriel because I was never meant to be his beta, I was meant to be yours. Whatever you decide, I will stand with you" "Thanks Jameson"