"Fixing" The Problem Part 1

*Potential Trigger Warning: Minor nonconsensual Fondling*
I waited for Annie to fall into a deep sleep before getting up. I tucked the blankets tightly around her before taking a step back to tug my clothes back on. When I was dressed again, I leaned over the bed to kiss her cheek as Kraven crept through our link to sink her deeper into slumber.
“I love you, Annie. I promise you that I will fix this for us.” I brushed her hair back. “When you wake up, everything will be better.”
Before I could crawl back into bed with her, I spun around on my heels and left the room, rushing down to the guest room where Scarlett and Osprey were. I stood outside their door for a moment, listening intently to the sounds inside before walking in. I strolled over to the bed, where I glared down at my sleeping brother.
“You think you’re so fucking special because you are going to be Alpha, don’t you? You think the rules don’t apply to you, but they do!” I snarled as I pulled him up so I was looking into his face. When all he did was snore, I chuckled. “I bet you never thought that your younger, weaker brother would ever be able to aura you, did you?” I punched him in the face before letting him drop back down onto the bed.
“Now, your mate, on the other hand,”—I let out a little growl as I leaned across the bed to sniff Scarlett—"is such a beautiful little trophy you have.” I let my fingers trail over her face before letting my hand drift lower to cup her breast as I glared at my brother’s sleeping figure. “You wouldn’t want anyone to take her away from you, but you haven’t given a damn about trying to take mine away from me! It would serve you just right if I slit her throat and let her bleed out next to you while you slept,” I growled before removing my hand off of Scarlett’s chest.
I took a deep breath to calm myself a little. I was beyond furious with him, and by the rules that governed shifters, I was more than entitled to take Scarlett away from him for interfering with my relationship with my mate. I paced back and forth in front of the bed while I talked Kraven out of doing just that. When he was finally calm enough to do what we came to do, I walked over to Scarlett’s side to peer down at her.
“Your mate is an asshole, Auntie! You deserve so much better than him,” I told her before opening our link for Kraven to cross over into her mind. I pulled him back, earning a growl from him. ‘Wait! We should do Osprey and Godric first. What if we are successful with Scarlett but not with Osprey? He would know we aura’ed her and would come for Annie even harder.’
Kraven growled in frustration but closed the link as I walked around the bed to stand over Osprey.
Kraven immediately opened my link with him before hurrying through it to bite into an unconscious Godric while I mimicked his actions on Osprey’s human body, pushing my venom into his bloodstream. There were two reasons we injected others with our venom. One was to claim our mates, and two was to make people submit to our auras easier. While our mates bore the unmistakable mark of our venom, everyone else wouldn’t show anything. When I was sure that I pushed enough venom into him, I extracted my teeth. I lowered my head so that my mouth was right next to his ear.
“You will leave in the morning, and you will not come back,” I growled, pushing my aura out to force him to comply. “On your way home, you will kill Scarlett. You will remove her heart, and you will eat it! After you are done, you will believe that the Goddess is punishing you for getting in between Annie and me. You will think you deserve it, and you will mourn for her for the rest of your fucking miserable days.”
When Scarlett shifted in her sleep, my eyes jumped to her. I watched as a tear rolled down her face, and I knew instantly that Serena, her bear, was awake enough to listen to me. Her hand moved slowly toward her stomach as another tear ran down her face, making me groan.
“Fucking Annie!” I growled before leaning back down to Osprey’s ear. “You will forget the events of today and instead remember spending the evening playing games and watching movies after patrolling. You will wake up in the morning and eat breakfast with Annie and me. Then you will take Scarlett and leave my house! You will attack her on the way home, but when she screams your name, you will stop. You will not kill her or your child. But you will still think you are being punished for involving yourself in my relationship with Annie. You will not remember that Annie and I are involved. You will not remember that Logan is Annie’s fated mate. You will not remember that Giselda is mine. In fact, you will stay away from both Logan and Giselda! When you get home, you will be content with the thought that you were wrong about Annie and me. You will think our relationship is nothing more than that of a brother and sister. You will not come back to our home uninvited.”
I waited patiently to reinforce my order in Osprey’s mind before moving back around the bed to Scarlett’s side to work on her. As I leaned down to give her my venom, Kraven moved through our link to do the same to Serena. I took a deep breath before kissing her cheek.
“I’m sorry, Auntie. I truly am. If there was any other way, I swear I wouldn’t do this to you. I just can’t let Osprey take my mate away from me. You either.” I paused as I let my aura out enough to take her over without hurting her fetus. “You will think you spent the evening shopping with Annie. You will think all you did was laugh, buy stuff, and talk about our sleuth and Annie’s classes. When you wake up in the morning, you will eat breakfast with Annie and me before you leave. Osprey will attack you, and you will wait to scream his name for a full minute while you try to escape. You will immediately accept his apology and explanation for why he attacked you. You will forget all about my relationship with Annie. You will think it is the same as it always was. Just a very strong sibling bond. You will forget that Logan and Giselda are our mates. You will stay away from both of them.”
I paused to take a deep breath.
“You will leave Annie and I alone. You won’t come back here unless you are invited.” I kissed her cheek again. “I love you, Auntie, and I’m sorry that you will be hurt.” I straightened up before stepping away from the bed. “But it’s better than being dead. You can thank Annie for that. She cares about our future niece or nephew.”
I walked out of the room, pausing with my hand on my doorknob as soon as I shut the door behind me. I sighed as I lowered my head to reach for Kraven.
‘Are we doing the right thing?’ I asked. ‘We promised Annie that we wouldn’t do this. I know we had to aura Scarlett and Osprey, but surely we don’t have to do it to Annie too. If she finds out that we did, she will surely leave us.’
‘She won’t find out,’ Kraven scoffed.
‘How can you be so sure?’ I inquired.
‘Because we will make sure that she never does. Annie won’t question us. We just have to make sure that she doesn’t have time to think. Use our mate bond to keep her distracted, and not even Marsha will want to look for our lingering aura signature,’ he answered.
‘Are we really going to do this to her?’ I repeated.
He sighed. ‘If we don’t, we risk losing her to Logan. She could wake up tomorrow and walk away from us. This is the only way that we stand a chance to keep her. Don’t you want that?’
I threw my hands up in frustration as I looked at my bedroom door. ‘Of course I do. I love her.’
‘Then you know that this is the only way we win.’
I sighed as I started to walk down the hall to my bedroom. ‘But is it really winning when we only won because we cheated?’
He was quiet for a moment until we walked into our room and saw Annie, sleeping deeply on our bed. He made me walk over to her to brush her hair back.
‘Any type of win that gives her to us is a very good win,’ he murmured quietly in my head.
I sighed as he moved through our link with Annie. ‘I hope you’re right, Kraven. I really do. Because if you’re not, we lose her without a doubt. And that is not something that I will be able to handle…'