Trying to Restrain Himself

Osprey
I nodded without bothering to look at Gerald. “Fine. Hold tight.”
“Yeah, like I could really go anywhere,” he muttered, pulling at his restraints.
I rolled my eyes as I walked out of the cabin. He wouldn’t be in this mess if he had been a little smarter and not slept with Annie, but he had and here we were. I shut the door behind me before walking into the trees to kneel on the ground with my head down.
“Vine Keeper Annaria,” I called. “I request an audience with you.”
The ground rippled beneath me before a large vine pod came up, opening immediately to allow our vine keeper to step out gracefully.
“Hello, Osprey. Have you decided?” She asked.
“Yes, Vine Keeper Annaria. I have,” I answered.
“Tell me, what route are you going?”
“I would like to keep him from going feral. Two of the three visions you showed me were of him being feral. If I prevent him from going feral, then Annie and Giselda can have the second vision like they deserve.”
“Is that your final answer?” She inquired.
I lifted my head to look up at her, trying to determine exactly what she was asking me, but her face gave me no clue as to what was going on in her mind, which made me wonder if I was making the right decision. I hesitated for a moment before nodding. If I started to doubt myself now, then I would never make it as an alpha. The most important thing an alpha could do was trust himself.
“Yes.”
She continued to study my face for a moment before nodding. “As you wish.”
She started to hum, and the sound washed over me, bringing me a sense of peace that I only had when I was with Scarlett. I watched in awe as another vine came up out of the ground to present her with a small vial. She took it carefully before running her hands over the vine, thanking it for its assistance. I stayed in place until she walked up to me, holding the vial out to me.
“I pray that the Goddess guides you, Osprey. I pray that this works out for you.” She paused and what looked like sadness crossed her face. “For all of you.”
I gently wrapped my fingers around the vial. “Thank you.”
She backed away from me until the pod was able to close around her, taking her back under the warm soil. I remained kneeling in place for a few minutes, debating on my next action. I knew what I wanted to do, but none of it was what everyone else wanted. Finally, I took a deep breath before standing up to go back to the cabin. Once inside, I silently crossed back to the bedroom door, listening to him mutter inside about being restrained. I threw the door open, slamming my aura into him to render him unconscious. When I was sure he was out, I stalked across the room to hit him once in the face with an angry fist before opening his mouth to dump the entire vial into it. I rubbed his throat to force him to swallow before sitting in the chair next to the bed to wait for it to take effect. I groaned as the image of Scarlett’s horrified face when I was attacking her floated through my mind, making both Godric and I even angrier.
After about an hour, I opened Elena’s link. ‘Are you busy?’
‘Kind of. I’m on a run with Toya and Jarrod. What’s up?’
‘I’m ready to start,’ I told her, glaring at Gerald.
‘Give me five minutes and let me get back to the sleuth house. Beanie doesn’t want me to do this without him to watch over me while I’m not entirely inside my own body,’ she said, chuckling a little.
I knew why she found it funny. The last time he tried to boss her around hadn’t boded well for him, and so he hadn’t had the balls to do it again, which told me that if he had done so now meant that he was extremely worried. Not that he had to. Being my best friend and beta, he knew me better than almost anyone else. Only Scarlett knew me better.
‘’Sprey?’ Scarlett’s soft voice filled my head, making me instantly happy.
‘Hey, Letti. Are you okay?’ I asked.
‘Yeah. Lena said that you guys were about to start rewiring Gerry. I just wanted to check on you. How are you feeling?’
I sighed, hating that she was worried more about Gerald than me, not that she would ever admit it. He was her little brother and when it came to him, I was just the big, bad, bully of an older brother.
‘I’m not going to murder him,’ I growled.
‘I know, Osprey. If you did, he would already be dead. I didn’t link you because I was worried about him,’ she chastised me.
‘Are you sure about that?’ I asked.
‘Very. I’m ready for you to come home. We are ready for you to come home,’ she admitted, making me anxious about why she wanted me home so badly all of a sudden.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘’Ummm, nothing.’
‘Scarlett, what’s wrong?’ I repeated.
‘It’s little Darling. She’s ready. Serena says that we have maybe a week before she arrives. I want you here for her birth.’
I narrowed my eyes on Gerald again. He had caused a lot of problems for me, but missing the birth of my daughter was not going to be one of them.
‘I will be there, baby. I promise. Link me immediately if you go into labor. I’m only an hour and a half outside of the sleuth. I will come home immediately,’ I promised.
‘Okay. Please be safe. I love you,’ she whispered.
‘I love you too, Letti.’
No sooner had our link closed than my link with Elena opened again. ‘Ready,’ she said.
‘Alright, let’s go. I need to hurry up and finish.’
‘Well then, get to it!’
I quickly forced open Gerald’s link, pulling Elena into his mind with me so I could use her aura too. I walked up to Kraven with my aura spread out to force his compliance, which he immediately tried to fight before submitting to. I rolled my shoulders back as he began to lead me through his memories from the moment his obsession with Annie started up until the last time he saw her. I wrapped his obsession in a thick self-hatred mixed with guilt while I shored up his time with Giselda with regret and hope. As I moved through his memories, I was shocked to find the level of love for both sows. They were both loved deeply by Gerald in the same way, even though Annie’s was darker, more possessive.
I came to the last memory where Annie had fallen out of the window, replaying it over and over again to make sure that each strand of it was woven with avoidable heartbreak. Once I was done with reworking all of his memories, I reviewed them all again, making sure that the new feelings were so deeply entrenched that there was nothing in the world that could change them. As I pulled out of his mind, my exhaustion made itself known. I needed to sleep before I went back in again. I wasn’t going to leave anything to chance, and the next few days were going to tell us if this was going to work or not. I yawned as I settled back in the chair to nap.
‘Goodnight, brother,’ Elena whispered before fading out of our link.
‘Goodnight, Lena, and thank you.’