Promise Me, Scarlett

Giselda

I watched as Scarlett approached Annie on the bed while I anxiously hovered next to her. She began to run her hands over Annie’s body and I swallowed hard as the urge to step between the two of them surfaced. If I put my hands on Scarlett, no matter the reason, it would put Havana in a bad light. Suddenly, she turned to me with a bright smile on her face.

“May I have your hands, Giselda?” She asked.

“My hands?” I repeated. “Why?”

“I can feel your anxiety. Allow me to help you relax a little so I can focus on helping Annie the way she needs to be helped,” she answered.

I hesitated before holding out my hands to her. In seconds she had pulled me into her mind, where I floated on the waves of her intense, pleasant emotions. I couldn’t help the drowsiness that took me over as she wrapped peace, healing, and relaxation around me, keeping it tightly woven into my brain with her aura before allowing me to be sucked back into my own head. When her presence left, she tilted her head, studying my face.

“Hey, Giselda. How are you feeling?” She inquired softly.

“I don’t feel any pain, if that’s what you’re asking,” I snarled, making her eyes widen a little. I took a deep breath, pressing my fingers into my eyes. I took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Scarlett. I wanted that pain. I needed it.”

“Why though, Giselda? That pain will do nothing for you but bring you down and make you want to die,” she told me.

“It doesn’t make me want to die. I will die and that's that. I have already made the arrangements. Now it’s just waiting for the right time to do it. And that won’t come until after Gerald is dead, because that’s the only way we can protect Annie. So, please give it back to me. It’s the only thing keeping me from giving into the mate bond with Gerlad. Please, understand why I need it.”

She shook her head. “No. Not yet. We need to make sure that Annie is going to be okay and then I will. Give me two days Giselda and I will start to pull my command. Slowly, but I will pull it.”

I narrowed my eyes on her. “Alright, I guess. What are you going to do to help her?”

“I’m going to give her this,” she said, carefully pulling a vial out of her pocket.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Vine Keeper Annaria gave it to me to erase her memories for good. She won’t remember anything he did to her that was blocked by his aura. But she will continue to be immune to his aura. That is the name of the game right now. I don’t agree with erasing her memories, but this is where we’re at. She wants to not remember as bad as you want to feel the pain of losing Milton. And I have been given a way to make it happen, so here I am. Are you going to let me help her or are you going to stand there poised to attack me for touching her?”

“I’m not,” I instantly denied, making her raise an eyebrow at me.

“Of course you are. I understand why. All betas do the same thing when their alphas need to be protected and Logan made her your primary.” She shrugged. “Your Bruin blood just makes your need to protect her worse. Just don’t hurt me and we’ll be ok, alright?”

I jammed my hands in my pockets. “I swear I won’t hurt you, Scarlett. This whole thing with Gerald just has me even more suspicious of everyone.”

“It’s okay. I get it. I do. May I continue?”

I lowered my head. “Yes.”

She slowly reached over the bed to open Annie’s mouth before pouring some of the potion into her mouth while she rubbed her throat to force her to swallow. She kept repeating the actions until all of the contents were gone. She then sat on the bed next to Annie, and I knew she was in her head, trying to weave good feelings into her mind like she did with me while I watched her closely, looking for any flutter or suspicious movements on her face. I wasn’t sure how long it took but when she finally opened her eyes, they were full of pain and exhaustion. I reached out to steady her, and she leaned on me heavily with her eyes still glued to Annie.

“He hurt her so much,” she whispered. “How could he do that to her? She was innocent. All she did was love him and he did so much to her. How could he do that to her? To you.”

I hugged her tightly. “It’s okay, Scarlett. It’s not your fault or mine or Annie’s. This is why we need to kill him so he can’t hurt anyone else again.”

She gave me another sad look before saying, “He’s coming for you two. I know he is. I thought the vines would have killed him but they didn’t. He turned up just outside of Realm. He–”

“It’s him! Oh my Goddess! How could I have not known. Logan and I heard rumors of sleuths being attacked, but we weren’t sure. I compiled a list of sleuths that have been attacked. I thought it was weird that the only sleuths that were being attacked had alphas that went to Annie’s college. I had an inkling but I wasn’t sure, now I am.” I sat down on the edge of the bed next to Scarlett. “Why can’t he just let us go?” I whispered.

“Because he’s not Gerald anymore. I don’t know this man. He’s not my sweet hearted baby brother anymore. He will never be that boy we all loved growing up.”

I sighed as I leaned my head on her shoulder. “Yeah, so I’ve heard. Annie said the same thing.” I fell quiet for a moment listening to our heartbeats to soothe my sadness. “I wish I had gotten to meet that Gerald. I think he would have made an excellent mate.”

She took my hand, squeezing it tightly. “For what it’s worth, Giselda, he loved you. That little boy was still inside him. Granted he was buried deep but I still saw him on occasion. I don’t think everything he did was a lie. I think he still had some moments where his actions and words were true.”

“It doesn’t matter now, Scarlett. I’m not his mate. I belong with Milton. He should have been my mate. Not Gerald.”

“Yes, he should have been, Gilda,” Annie murmured softly from behind us, making us both turn to look at her.

“Annie! How are you feeling?” I asked.

“I’m okay. How are you?”

“I’m great. Scarlett helped me while you were asleep,” I told her. “What do you remember?”

“I remember remembering and asking Logan to put me under, but I don’t remember what I remember now.” She glanced at Scarlett. “Did you do that?”

“Sort of. I was only the messenger. Vine Keeper Annaria sent me with a potion to erase your memories for good. She didn’t want you to continue to be depressed and hurting. So she gave me the potion and told me how to make sure you would never remember what happened. Then she wanted me to tell you, ‘You don’t have to remember to never make the same mistakes again. Be smarter than you were, Annie. Stay away from Gerald. He can’t be saved. He will never be the Gerald that you knew. He won’t change.’”

“I know. I never want to see him again, Scarlett. He’s hurt everyone that matters to me. He hurt Logan. He hurt Giselda. He hurt Havana. And every time he draws in oxygen, he hurts our family. I know that he has to die. At this point, I want to do it myself. I just can’t believe that he would act this way. That he would hurt the one person that was meant to be his partner in this life. Who knows how many other people he would hurt if we don’t find him and kill him.”

I reached over to take her hand. “A lot of people, Annie. He’s taken out several sleuths worths. He has truly gone feral now. There is absolutely no hope that he can be saved. I am so sorry. I wish it could have been different. I wish we could have the happily ever after that you tried so hard to build for all of us. It wasn’t you that kept us from it. It was him. It was always him. And I promise you that we will find him and we will kill him.”

Annie shifted on the bed to wrap her arms around my shoulders. “And you will bring his body back to Havana for me to eat?”

“Yes, if that’s what you want,” I told her.

“It is. When I was growing up, my family always ate the hearts of our enemies, and he is now my enemy.” She placed her hand over her stomach. “But I will just have to consume him after our child is born.”

My eyes widened. “Your child is Gerald’s?” I asked, groaning immediately when she nodded. “How can you be sure?” I inquired.

“While I was asleep, the Goddess gave me a vision. She showed me my child’s life. She showed me how she looked. She is so beautiful, Gilda. She has my hair and my eyes, but her bear, oh Goddess her bear, is a spitting image of her father’s. She has his eyes and that beautiful little patch of white fur that runs down his chest all the way to his tail. She has the strength of his feral aura without being feral. She is going to make a fantastic Alpha Sow between having my intelligence and her father’s ferocity. She is perfect,” she whispered as a tear rolled down her face.

I lifted my hand to wipe it away. “If she’s so perfect, then why are you crying?”

“Because there’s only one thing that vision didn’t show, and that is what is breaking my heart,” she said so quietly that her words were almost silent.

“Does it have to do with Gerald?” I continued to question her gently, not wanting to pry too strongly in case she didn’t want to tell us.

“No. He wasn’t in the vision. Not even one mention of him through the entire thing. And that made me happy. It made me so happy that she would never be hurt by him,” she answered.

“Then if you don’t mind me asking, what was so hard to handle?”

She lowered her head. “I also wasn’t mentioned or in any of the scenes. Neither were you or Logan.” She raised tear filled eyes to mine. “And that only means one thing.”

“What’s that?” I asked, dread already filling me.

“It means that,” she started to say before meeting my eyes, “we don’t survive. We don’t make it through ending Gerald. I pray that we do, but I don’t think we do.”

I hugged her tightly. “It can still change. We can do this and still survive if we’re smart.”

She shook her head. “No, Giselda. We don’t get to meet her. We don’t get to love her.” She turned her head to look at Scarlett. “But you do. Promise me that you will protect her and don’t ever let her forget us.”

Scarlett swallowed hard. “I promise, Annie. She will never forget you guys.”