Chapter Ten
Gabriel wasn’t angry. But Gabriel wasn’t happy, either. Gabriel was being practical and safe, taking his time with his movements and announcements to his rogues and followers. There was only one problem: Gabriel had no patience.
None.
Gabriel paced around the decrypt castle in Ukraine that he was staying at, forever hating the place. He missed the castle he had in Scotland. That luxurious castle, full of history and glamor, had been his resting place for a few months before Gabriel and the demented Hann and his Moonlight Maine Pack members forced him back on the run. And Gabriel really hated this castle in Ukraine.
Uninhabited in the last six decades, the place took the cake if one was looking for a new set for a horror movie. Gabriel absolutely hated it. While most would probably think that he loved the gloomy atmosphere, he hated it. He liked the nicer things in life, and if he could be staying at his castle on the French Riveria, he would. Ukraine smelled of death and despair in the forest surrounding the castle, and he hated that there were no paintings on the wall.
How he longed to walk down a corridor full of art and paintings to make him feel at ease. How he longed for the times when he didn’t have to deal with the disgusting rogues that came from every part of the world to see him. To look at him. To understand their fearless leader.
Oh, well. He would play whatever role that got the job done. Even if that meant meeting people that he used to belittle with just a look. He had revenge to enact, and he would take whatever help he could get.
He couldn’t wait to get his revenge and enact the final punishment to Michael. To Hann. To everyone.
“The rogue we sent to Maine on that lone wolf mission has been captured alive, Elder Gabriel,” one of Gabriel’s Elders said behind him.
Gabriel was currently in what used to be a library a very long time ago. Now, it was quite literally nothing but torn apart furniture and broken windows. Just being in the room made Gabriel’s heart ache with so much pain. How he missed luxury. He was a luxurious type of person – and he always had been.
He hated Michael a little bit more as he thought of all of the luxuries that his enemy probably lived in.
“Which rogue was that, again?” Gabriel asked as he strolled around the room, letting the sunlight bathe his pale white skull from the shattered window. He hated this place. He wanted to leave.
A voice at the back of his head told him to just stay calm. It will all have been worth it soon.
“The big one,” the other Elder responded, almost seeming to grunt. Elders didn’t care for regular shifters or rogues. They were all the same. However, Gabriel needed rogues on his side in this battle, so he had to play nice. But that didn’t mean the rest of the Elders with him were happy about it. “He’s the only one we sent. Cold killer, that one. Had plenty of deaths on his hands before he even became a rogue.”
“Ah, yes.”
Gabriel knew exactly who he was talking about now. The rogue had wanted to come into contact with Gabriel a few weeks ago. Gabriel thought the brute was an utter tasteless shifter that just longed for killing, but he could use his strength and anger and direct it toward his friends over in Maine.
“It gets worse,” the Elder told him as he walked deeper into the room. Gabriel closed his eyes and seemed to revel in the little sunlight that came through that shattered window. “He didn’t even take anyone down before he was there. And we have our friend Michael to thank for that.”
“Of course,” Gabriel sang, his eyes still closed. He lifted his hand to dance and bathe in the little sliver of sunlight. Oh, Michael. Continuously ruining all of Gabriel’s well laid out plans. Not to say this little stunt was a plan – he just wanted that rogue gone and doing something.
The little idea itself was one that Gabriel had on his trek from his gorgeous castle in Scotland, which he found himself longing for more and more each day, to the little, beat up and about to be torn down castles that littered Europe. They were abandoned. They were full of creatures like bats and rats. But Gabriel had to live in his castles.
Even if they were falling apart. A regular house or apartment just wouldn’t do.
The plan itself was for any rogue out there who didn't have the patience to sit around and wait for the next big uprising to occur. Gabriel planted the idea of lone wolf attacks, from rogues around the world, in the hope to bring more people over to the fight. There were many rogues around the world that had dismissed Gabriel, and Kaiser before him, because of their loner status. They didn't want to join in with these other rogues – and a lot of times, these uprisings of rogues would turn into the rogues turning on each other in rage. A bunch of psychologically insane shifters who have torn away from their pack, with some mental consequences at times, tended to bring about violent tendencies in the most innocent of situations.
Gabriel knew that he needed these rogues on his side in some way. He needed to grow his ranks, somehow. And in this way, rogues could do whatever they wanted, to whoever they wanted.
The goal was disruption and destruction within the shifter society. It was plain and simple. What better way to reach this goal than to cause packs to be on alert on a continuous basis?
It was a shame about the rogue being caught alive in Maine. Of course, Michael would want to question him. That rogue wouldn’t tell anything, though, simply because he didn’t know anything. He was too crazy to be anywhere high in the ranks, and when Gabriel met with him earlier, he made sure to leave his normal habitat so that no one would even know which castle or town he was in.
He didn’t want Michael in on his living situations. Michael had come very close to finding Gabriel in Scotland. He didn’t want that to happen again.
Not when he was planning so much for his dear old friend.
“It’s all right, my friend,” Gabriel finally told the Elder behind him who was waiting for a response. Gabriel turned around, white eyes open now, and walked to the other Elder, pulling him into a little side hug as they walked out of the sad little library. “He was a small price to pay in the grand scheme of things. While the Moonlight Maine Pack, and the rest of the little shifters around the world, are so focused on these new attacks, we will be patiently building up our next uprising.”
“So, you are going to start another one? Are you sure this one will even work?”
It took everything in Gabriel to not snap the neck of the Elder right then and there. He hated being questioned, and the hint of disbelief in his voice made Gabriel’s skin crawl. He had to take a deep breath and compose himself before he answered. He couldn’t bear to lose any other Elders on his side. He needed them. For now.
“Yes, my friend. This time… this time we will taste victory for ourselves. This time, we will bathe in their blood and they will hear our battle cry. And we will win.”
Gabriel laughed as he left the room, squeezing the Elders’ shoulders as he imagined what it would be like to taste the blood of the alpha of the Moonlight Pack. Oh, Hann's blood would taste so nice. A victory would taste so nice.
He just had to be patient, and everything would work out just how he planned. He could hardly wait.