Elena's Job

I smirked at him as he eyed me angrily. I tilted my head as I let him stew in place while I watched him. I could see his struggle and took a lot of pleasure in how hard he fought my aura to no avail. He wasn’t overcoming four of the strongest auras in our sleuth. When a slight noise came from outside, I narrowed my eyes on him.
“Sleep!” I ordered, letting our combined aura out.
His legs crumpled as his eyes closed. I let him hit the floor before kicking his leg, hard enough to immediately create a bruise. After assuring myself that he was not going to wake up, I jogged out of the room, leaving him in a heap on the floor. I may be going to let him live, as long as he behaved himself, but I didn’t have to make him comfortable.
I took a quick peek into the living room, double checking that all of our parents were truly still alive, even though I already knew that they were, because I had been in his head when he pulled his aura back. After sliding my eyes over each of their chests to make sure they were breathing, I left the house to walk around to where Logan was now, lying flat over the spot where the pod had buried itself.
“How is it going?” I asked softly, crouching beside him.
A small smile lifted his lips up. “I’m assuming good. Our link is getting stronger,” he murmured sleepily.
I eyed him as I reached for Annie’s link, letting out a breath of relief when she shoved me out. I patted his shoulder, chuckling.
“You handle this. I’ll handle the rest,” I told him, climbing back to my feet.
“Hey, Osprey?”
“Yeah, Logan?”
“When this is all over, I’d like for you and your family to come to Havana. I would like to officially ask for Annie’s hand in marriage and the right to claim her as my rightful mate and Alpha Sow,” he said.
I raised an eyebrow at him, even though he couldn’t see me. “You want to ask permission to claim her as your mate?” I repeated.
His small smile turned into a smirk. “Yes. Not that it would matter. I’m only going to let her go if she asks me to.”
I burst out laughing. “You are already so whipped.”
His eyes opened to meet mine. “There’s no other way to be toward your mate.”
I nodded in agreement, fully understanding what he was saying. When it came to Scarlett, I was more than whipped. If he treated our little Annie with even half as much love and respect as I treated Scarlett with, she was going to be fine having him as her mate. And that was all we hoped for. She truly was a good girl, and Logan seemed like a great guy. After the way he tried to protect Annie and had no hesitation about helping her recover, I was sure that he was going to be both a phenomenal alpha and mate. As I walked toward the forest, I reached for my group link with Beanie, Elena, and Scarlett, addressing my mate first.
‘How are you doing, Letti?’ I asked softly, sending love through our link to surround her.
‘I’m fantastic, ‘Sprey. I can breathe without constantly bumping into you,’ she replied, and I knew she was smiling.
I rolled my eyes as Elena’s laughter floated through our link. ‘Shut up, Lena!’ I growled. ‘Letti, I know I have been clingy, but—’
‘Clingy? You think you’re being clingy? No, sir! It’s not clingy. You’ve been like an insane stalker shadow.’
‘LETTI!’ I yelled, exasperated. ‘I’m sorry that you feel that way, but you have no idea how guilty I feel about hurting you, and even now that I know it was because of my asshole brother, whom you never did anything bad to, just because I was in his way, it absolutely kills me. I never want to see you hurt. And I certainly never wanted it to be because of me.’
‘I know, ‘Sprey. I was just teasing you. When are you coming home? I miss you.’
All of my anger died a quick death. ‘I’ll be home tomorrow, my love. I miss you too.’
‘Love you.’
‘Love you more, my beautiful Alpha Sow. Now, Lena, Beanie, I need you to come to Grimm Forest,’ I told them.
‘Why? Is everything okay?’ Elena immediately asked.
‘Yes, and no. The vines have taken Annie underground to heal, and—’
‘UNDERGROUND TO HEAL? WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED? WHERE IS LOGAN? HE BETTER FUCKING BE DEAD IF HE ALLOWED ANNIE TO BE HURT!’ Elena screeched.
‘No, he’s not. He is currently giving her his blood. She’s going to be fine,’ I chuckled.
‘How can you be sure?’ Beanie asked worriedly.
‘She shoved me out of our link. Now, on to Gerald,’ I growled. ‘He’s why I need you to come here. You were always better at winding commands into thoughts than I was. And we need these commands so deeply wrapped into every part of his mind that he doesn’t stand a chance of fighting it at all,’ I told them.
‘Alright, brother, I will come. Can you handle it until I get there?’ She asked.
‘Yes.’
‘Alright. Be there in a few hours.’
‘Be safe.’
‘You too, brother.’
‘Letti?’
‘Yes, ‘Sprey?’
‘Call Aunt Tara and Mona and have them stay with you until I get home,’ I ordered softly.
‘Already did. Just make sure that you come home to me,’ she commanded back.
‘I will.’
I cut the link to keep me from going straight home. After everything that we had been through, it was still difficult to be away from her. I shook my head to clear my thoughts as I stopped a few feet into the forest to strip my clothes off. I took a deep breath before letting Godric take over. Once he was fully shifted, he lowered his head respectfully to the ground, letting out a humming growl, asking the forest for some more aura-blocking potion. We were unsure if the Goddess would honor our request, but we still had to try.
For hours, we remained still in that position, with our head bowed and the light growl rumbling our chest. When Godric’s legs wobbled, I shored him up. We didn’t even drop our stance when Elena and Beanie arrived, immediately taking positions around the area to keep me safe while I continued to beg the forest for what we needed. As the sun began to rise the next morning, Godric wobbled again before his legs collapsed, sending us sprawling on the ground. While we struggled to push ourselves back up, the ground cracked in front of us.
We watched as it widened until a thin vine lifted three vials up out of the ground. The vines deposited the vials in front of us before disappearing back into the ground. Godric forced me to shift back, and I reached out to pick up the bottles, holding them carefully. Beanie walked over to me as I put my clothes back on with one hand.
“What is that?” Beanie asked curiously.
“It’s what we need to win. Come on. Let’s go.”
I draped my arm over my sister’s shoulders as we headed back to the house. “Are you ready for this?”
“No. Who is really ready to explore their brother’s memories of when he fucked their sister?”
I grimaced. “That’s not what I meant. I mean, are you ready to make sure our command sticks?”
“Oh, hell yes. I want them both to live happily. They can only do that if I am successful.” She looked up at me, and Beanie and I could both see her worry. “What if I fail?”
“You won’t. We got you, Elena,” Beanie reassured her.
“I hope so.”
When we got to the house, I led them straight past Logan, who was half asleep but still alert on the ground. Elena tried to stop to investigate the vines connected to his legs, but Beanie picked her up to carry her into the house. Once we made it back upstairs to where I had left Gerry, Elena raised her eyebrow at me.
“You didn’t move him to the bed?”
I kicked him in the balls angrily. “No! He’s lucky he’s even still alive. Scarlett and Giselda both want him to be alive. And we all know that Annie and our parents would want him to be kept alive too,” I hissed.
Beanie chuckled as he picked Gerry up to put him on the bed. “I get it, Osprey. I would want to kill him too.”
I shot him a grateful look before having him hold Gerry’s arm up in the air. I allowed one of my nails to shift so I could dig a claw into his arm. I carefully opened each of the vials so I could add some of his blood to them before shaking each one of them. I handed Beanie one of the vials.
“You and Elena both need to take some.”
After they both took a healthy swallow of the potion, Elena climbed on the bed to straddle Gerry. She glanced at me.
“What if I need you?” She asked.
“Just take what you need. I trust you,” I tell her.
She heaved a deep sigh before turning her attention back to our brother. “Alright.”
While she started to weave our aura through Gerry’s mind, I went downstairs to give all of our parents some of the leftover potion. I wasn’t sure if we would need them to be immune or not, but at this point it was better to be safe than sorry. Gerry had more than proved that he was insane. We should have known when he came home from school the first time, and his bear had changed his name from Geoffrey to Kraven. I should have definitely known. I blamed myself as much for not catching the shift in his mental stability as I did for hurting Scarlett. I was an Alpha by blood. And that meant that I should be stronger. My mate, sleuth, and entire family depended on me. And I could not afford to let them down just as much as they could not afford for me to let them down.