Fighting Back

Giselda
I looked around the small area as I followed Gerry toward the small, dilapidated cabin. I just hoped that inside it would be more liveable than the outside led me to believe. As I looked around, I plotted as many different escape routes as I could on the short walk up to the door, where he turned to me, meeting my eyes.
“Are you ready?” He asked, and I got the feeling that he was asking me something more than if I was ready to go inside.
“Yes,” I answered, pasting a smile onto my lips.
He pushed the door open, gesturing me inside. Before I could even step inside, the scent of sex in the air choked me. I looked up at Gerry, who was watching me closely. I turned back to the cabin, walked inside, and immediately started to panic when the faint scent of blood reached me through the haze of the aroma of sex. I glanced at him again as I crept deeper into the cabin while I scanned the room I was in. Suddenly, he gripped my elbow to lead me to a room off to the side. As soon as he threw the door open, a whimper from inside the dark room made my heart ache.
“Please, Gerry, not again. I can’t do this again. If you’ve ever loved me, please don’t make me do this,” Annie begged, making me shoot Gerry a furious glare.
What the hell was he doing to her? A light was flipped on, and I uttered a small cry of shock when I saw Annie huddled on the bed. Every visible inch of her exposed skin, and there was a lot, was covered in bruises and wounds. I rushed to her side, running my hands over her body while she shoved at my hands, struggling to open her eyes. I turned my head to pierce Gerry with a livid glare.
“What in the hell did you do to her?!” I growled.
He shrugged, smirking. “Exactly what she deserved. Now, shut up and get naked. I didn’t bring you here to care about her. I brought you here to pleasure me.”
Trembling hands touched my face. “Giselda? Is that you?” Annie whispered.
I pressed her hand against my cheek. “Yes, Annie. It’s me,” I told her softly.
She threw herself into my arms. “Is Logan alive?”
I was ripped away from her so hard that I was thrown across the room and hit a wall while a roar made the very walls tremble. Annie started screaming, and my head whipped around to see that Gerry was tearing into her with his claws, leaving deep wounds on her body, blood pouring from each of them. I leapt to my feet as Angel took control, pushing our aura out fast and hard as I ran over to them. Gerry’s body locked up before he toppled to the side, completely unconscious. I kicked him hard in the side as I passed him on my way to Annie. I knelt beside her quivering, broken body, talking softly to her as I pulled out 6 syringes full of Logan’s blood. I quickly injected her with all of them before crawling into bed next to her, cradling her in my arms.
I gently rocked her back and forth while Logan’s blood healed her. It wasn’t enough to heal her completely, but it would decrease her pain as well as the swelling and close the bleeding wounds. When her hysterical sobs finally ceased, I kissed her cheek, still rocking her until my heart finally slowed back to its original rhythm.
“Annie, we need to get you out of here. Come on. Let’s go,” I told her.
Her hand shot up to grip my wrist as she shook her head vigorously. “No! I can’t! He will kill Logan if he hasn’t already,” she cried.
I sat up to look down at her. “Annie, listen to me. If this keeps going on, he will kill you. Let me help you. Let me take you away from here. Come back to Havana with me, so Logan and I can protect you.”
“Logan’s alive?” She sobbed.
“Yes, Annie, and he wants you so bad. He loves you. Please, come with me.”
She shook her head, making tears fly from her eyes. “I can’t. H-he said that there is someone at Havana that is watching Logan and will kill him. I don’t want to be the reason he dies.”
I narrowed my eyes on her. “He said he had someone watching Logan in Havana?”
“Yes.” She gripped my face tightly. “Listen to me, Giselda; tell Logan that I love him. Tell him…” She took a deep breath. “Tell him that I want to come to Havana, but I can’t allow him to die because of me.”
I reached up to grip her wrists. “Fuck, Annie! I can’t leave you here.”
“You have to. I’ll be okay. He won’t kill me.”
I glanced at Gerry angrily. I wasn’t so sure about that. He was out of control, but I could see the determination on Annie’s face, and as much as I wanted to just use my aura on her to come with me, I knew that would put a nail in our relationship. I sighed.
“Listen, I can make it to where he doesn’t hurt you anymore while I figure out if he truly does have someone in place in Havana. As soon as I figure that out, I will be back to come get you. Promise me that you will keep your head down until then.” I met her eyes. “I will be back for you in a few days. We are working on a few different things right now as we speak. Can you hold out for a few days?”
She nodded, trying to blink back tears. “If it means that Logan is safe, I will make it.”
“Good. Ok, now listen, I can’t hold my aura for long. At least not at this strength. And I have a few things that I need to do before I leave.”
She looked up at me curiously. “Can I help?”
“Sure, if you want.” She carefully got out of the bed, and I cursed under my breath before hurrying across the room to where there were two suitcases open on the floor. I groaned when there were only clothes for Gerry inside. I grabbed a large shirt along with a pair of basketball shorts before taking it back to Annie, who gratefully took it, putting them both on.
“Thank you, Giselda. It’s been a long time since I was allowed to wear clothes,” she told me.
“It’s my pleasure, Annie. Now, we have to get him on the bed,” I told her. “I hate to ask, but I need to know what he has been doing to you.”
As we struggled to put Gerry on the bed and get him changed into a clean outfit, she told me about all of the abuse that she had been suffering under his hand. By the time she fell silent, I had tears running down my face, and I was seriously debating if I should just kill him.
“Giselda?” Annie called softly, drawing my attention back to her.
“Yes, Alpha Sow Annie?”
“Why are you here? Are you his fated mate?” She asked, studying my face.
“Yes,” I admitted as I brushed my fingers through his hair. “But he is not who I want as a mate. I love him, but I can never be with a man who shows his ‘love’ in such ways. The only reason that I am not killing him right now is because your brother wants the honors.”
“Osprey wants to kill him?” Annie shrieked. “He knows about us?”
I nodded. “He does, yes. He is pissed at Gerry because Gerry aura’ed him to attack Scarlett.”
“WHAT?! IS SHE OKAY? IS THEIR BABY OKAY?!”
I smiled softly at her. “Yes. She is fine, as is Osprey and their baby. That leads me to the next thing. I have two potions that I need some of his blood for,” I told her as I pulled the vials out of my pocket. I held them up, and her eyes widened. “Is that what I think it is?”
“Depends. What do you think it is?”
“Is that the potion to make someone immune to another’s aura?” She asked, pointing to one. “And that one is the antidote?”
“Yes, it is.”
Annie climbed onto the bed before digging a claw into his claw without hesitation. She gently took the vial from me before opening it so she could catch some of his blood in it. After she handed it back to me, she sighed.
“I wish I could take some of that, but if I did, he would know that we did something and would probably kill me on sight,” she said.
“He won’t lay another finger on you. I promise.”
‘And he wouldn’t. I would make sure of it,’ I thought to myself as Angel began to move through Gerry’s mind, filling him with guilt over the way he had been treating Annie and weaving false memories of Annie and I making love with him.
After those memories were created, she placed the final one of him walking me to the door, giving me a kiss, and waving to me as I shifted to leave. Before shifting her focus, she erased the memory of him saying that he wanted to watch me kill Molton while placing the thought that he was wrong about my relationship with him. Finally, she coated his mind in a command to treat Annie with respect and a doting love. I wanted her to put it in his head that he should let her go, but I knew that if she did, he would know something was tampering with his mind, and I was afraid that he would kill her. When I pulled back, I smiled at Annie.
“Okay. That should do the trick,” I told her confidently. “Now, for the last thing…”
I opened his mouth before pouring the entire vial of the antidote into it. His body jerked once, and I prayed that meant it worked. I leaned down to kiss his lips, closing my eyes as tears filled them. After a moment, I pressed my cheek against his.
“I love you, Gerry, and I wish that we could be together. I always dreamed about my fated mate, but you destroyed that. There will never be a loving-mate relationship between us. It’s not possible. When this is over, I will say goodbye, and I will mean it.”
I straightened up, smiling sadly at Annie. She walked by my side to the door where we both paused. She turned toward me, instantly wrapping her arms around me tightly.
“I’m so sorry, Giselda. You didn’t deserve this. I had no idea that you were his mate,” she whispered, her voice full of sadness.
I patted her back. “It’s okay, Annie. Just stay strong. We will come get you within 72 hours.”
“Do you promise?” She sniffled.
“I swear to you. 72 hours tops, and Logan and I will both come for you.”
“Okay.”
I squeezed her tighter. “When you falter, just think about Logan and the Havana sleuth.”
“He’s the only reason I’ve made it this long,” she confided.
“I know, Annie. I know. Just a little bit longer, I promise."