Ivy was rather satisfied with herself even though she had brought suspicion up herself by admitting to being aware of what Gabrielle had done.
Growing up in the pack and she had seen and wanted Adrian Black. Indeed who hadn’t? He was not only the heir to the pack but also exceptionally handsome and courteous.
But he had only ever had eyes for the Black sisters. Madly in love with one and eternally mad at the other. Ivy had contented herself with the idea that she would find her mate and grow out of her immature feelings for Adrian.
She had been half right. She had fallen out of her immature feelings for Adrian but she had never found her mate so she had decided to focus on something else instead. Consolidating power.
Her father had always been an ambitious individual and she had gotten that from him. Then Adrian had gone on to grant the Elders with more power. If she had been born a man, she would have taken the reins of this pack.
However, she had been born a girl and her pack was nothing like the Primo pack. For how modern and tolerant they seemed, the pack had never been ruled by a female wolf and would never be ready for that sort of change.
Even her father only supported her to gain more power for himself thinking her a weak-willed she-wolf who was madly taken in by Alpha Adrian.
She was nothing like that but then what did parents really know of their children? She had only one goal she was wed to now. To become Luna, pregnant then widowed in quick succession.
She would rule the pack in the stead of her child, the closest she would ever come to become to becoming Alpha. Until she changed the laws of the Mountain Coast.
She recalled the trial and smirked. The look on Luna Ava’s face had been priceless. The look on Gabrielle’s face was far worse.
Well, she had warned Gabrielle of what would happen if she refused to back down.
Now all that was left was for her to remove Ava and claim her true position as Luna then Alpha of the pack.
******
“Someone is here to see you.”
Gabrielle stood up quickly.
It must be Ava. She had been waiting for her sister. They had so much to talk about. Gabrielle was more than thankful for Adrian’s interference in sparing her life.
She knew he had done it for his mate but it didn’t erase her gratitude. She wanted to apologise to Ava for all she had done before they shipped her off to whatever location the elders decided on. That had been Adrian’s concession to them. Even he wouldn’t know where they sent her.
Her mind drifted and she wondered how her mother was doing. She knew her mother was not the sort of woman to just collapse because of some shocking news so she wondered if something was wrong.
“Gabrielle.”
Gabrielle paused.
“Cynthia? What are you doing here?”
She was still unsure about how she felt about her old friend. She had been there for her even going as far as begging on her behalf endangering her life. However, on the flip side, Cynthia encouraged a part of her that she wanted to control. To tame.
“To see you. Before they took you away. I heard you leave in five hours.”
Five hours. So soon. It was almost like the pack couldn’t wait to be rid of her.
Cynthia drifted closer so Gabrielle could make out her features in the dimly lit room through the bars.
“I never expected this from Ava though. I apologise. It was my mistake. Maybe if I had figured it out sooner I could have done something. Anything.”
What was Cynthia going on about?
“What are you talking about?”
Cynthia’s eyes widened with incredulous disbelief.
“Don’t tell me that you didn’t figure it out?”
Gabrielle continued to look at her blankly.
“Ava is the reason you are stuck in here and about to be banished from the pack.”
Gabrielle shook her head.
“No, it was obviously a calculated plan spearheaded by Elder Elvis and Ivy.”
“Yes, it was but didn’t you wonder how exactly they got the intel on you? How did they know that you drugged Ava when only the both of you knew about it after Shawn’s death? And the phone call… Ava was the one who asked you to wait in Adrian’s office, wasn’t she?”
Gabrielle opened her mouth to object again but began to think about it. Really think about it. The only reason she had been in Adrian’s office to pick up that suspicious call was because she had wanted to talk to Ava. Ava who had never made it to the meeting.
“No.” She denied it again, it was more of a reflex than anything. “Ava would never do that to me. She simply isn’t that sort of person. Besides, what reason would she have to do that?”
.
Cynthia moved even closer.
“You nearly wrecked her mating bond, you nearly had her ousted from her position of Luna and you are wondering why she would do it? You had become a liability and she couldn’t take the risk that she would one day be out in another situation she would be unable to control because of you.”
Cynthia rocked back the feeling of betrayal almost inundated her. She hadn’t been the best sister but somehow she had thought that maybe before she left she would be able to make everything right by Ava.
To make up for what she had done. Unknown to her that Ava had already exacted her own pound of flesh.
Cynthia seemed to realize that she had done more than reveal the truth too late.
“My apologies, Gabrielle. I’m sorry I didn’t know…”
“Thank you for your support Cynthia. You are a good friend. I’m sorry for what I did to you years ago.”
Cynthia smiled at her with tears in her eyes.
“Don’t worry about it. I forgave you almost immediately afterwards besides I was wrong. You are also a good friend, Gabrielle. I will miss you.”
When Cynthia left, Gabrielle found herself crying.
********
“What do you mean she won’t see me?”
Ava must have raised her voice without her knowledge because the guard in front of her bowed apologetically.
“I apologise, Luna. Gabrielle Black has asked to not see anyone most especially yourself before she is transported out of here.”
“She is my sister! I have a right to see her.”
After her talk with the doctor, they had done out to see that the procedures her mother was undergoing were over and that they could see her.
Her mother had looked so tired and drained when they went in but her voice and her eyes had been clear when she asked.
“Gabrielle? Did she really do all those things they said?”
Alex was silent but Ava spoke remembering the state of her health.
“Of course not.”
Her mother caught her hand and looked her dead in the eye as her father looked between them uncomprehendingly.
“I gave birth to you, Ava. I can tell when you are telling me a direct lie.”
Ava froze and exchanged glances with Alex who nodded subtly. She couldn’t bring herself to lie again to her mother so she told her everything.
She had told her everything and watched as the news shocked her father and mother. Even if her mother had heard about it before, it was one thing to hear it from a stranger and another thing entirely to hear it from Ava.
“How could you keep this from us Ava? After your marking of Adrian, you promised us that this wouldn’t happen again. That you would stop keeping things from us. Alex, did you know about this?” Her mother asked with cheeks wet with tears.
Ava felt guilty that she had put Alex in the middle of this impossible situation. She felt grateful that they had sent Zinora home to get a change of clothes for their mother.
She wanted to apologise to tell them that she was so sorry that she didn’t know how exactly everything had happened so terribly and that she’d only wanted to spare their feelings but she realized she was also angry at her parents.
“What about you, mom? You hid the fact that you were sick from us. And Dad? Dad was injured in the rogue attack and no one thought to tell me about it. Why am I the only one getting castigated for keeping a secret? Am I not also allowed to protect the feelings of my family?”
Tears wet her cheeks as she spoke and her father took her hand.
“Ava.”
It was just one word but it made her break down in tears and bury her face in her dad’s shirt.
“I’m sorry, dad.”
“Me too, Princess.”
Her mother joined the hug and then Alex joined the hug and Ava had never felt more loved.
They didn’t talk about Gabrielle or her mom’s illness or her father’s injury. They just stayed there for some seconds.
Ava had left her parents in the hands of her brother and Zinora before rushing over to see Gabrielle when she found out from Adrian that she would be taken away in three hours. They couldn’t part on this note.
It was only now that she realised how right Cynthia had been about having a talk with her sister and now that she had come to the realization that she would rather try to trust her sister and be betrayed than to not try at all, Gabrielle didn’t want to see her.
Had she disappointed her sister by not coming to her defence and preventing her from being sent away from the pack?
The guard was very apologetic but he didn’t let her through. Luna or not, the prisoner had rights. Maybe she could have pushed harder. If Adrian had been here, they would have caved for him after all but shame and pain stilled her hand.
The shame of how powerless she was in this situation even though she was the Luna of the pack and pain from the fact that her sister didn’t want to see her.
Was this how it would end between her and her sister?