AN: I know I usually only do one or two stories at a time, but I love this idea and I can't get it out of my head. Klaus is emotionless, mostly, so he won't be treating Caroline very well for a long time. I think this is the longest chapter I've ever written to be honest.
The time will come when the wolf will take away the Princess of Light. She will drown in the darkness but the darkness will burn. Time will pass before the thought of healing will come to her once again. When the wolf returns, the light will suffer. True evil will take her form and she will know true pain. But she will learn true love also and that will defeat the evil. The wolf will learn new ways and the light will never be lost again.
Warnings: Depression, non-con to a point, violence. I'll give more warnings if I need to.
The castle had been stormed without warning. The knights at the gate and patrolling the wall were unprepared for a full scale invasion. Word spread through the castle, but it was not enough. The princess ran through the corridors with her guards towards the hidden exit, but found it blocked. The enemy's men came from all directions and the princess found herself with her back against a wall. Her men were slaughtered and she stood alone, facing an enemy prince. "Pretty little bird, nowhere to go," he sang lowly as he held a dagger to her throat.
"Come now, darling, don't glare. It ruins that pretty little face of yours." He pouted with false sympathy and she snapped.
Her hand moved fast, moving the dagger from her throat, then the other came to punch him in the face. He staggered back from shock and she kicked out, her foot finding his sensitive spot between his legs. "You bitch," he seethed, coming at her a moment later with a limp. A hand flew out and grabbed his shoulder, shoving him away. The enemy king had prevented her death by his brother's hands, but she knew that she would die in the end anyway. She would either become a prisoner or a trophy queen. To be a prisoner meant being killed in a public execution or to die from the conditions. To be his trophy queen meant to die within herself.
"Kol, take your men and return home," he ordered coldly with a meaningful look. It appeared to be the latter of her options. He turned then to her. Cold grey eyes met her own burning blue ones and he smirked at her.
"If you fight me, I will punish you in ways you cannot even imagine, sweetheart," he purred, grabbing her arm and pulling her close to his side. He leaned in so his lips brushed the shell of her ear.
"If you're compliant, I may just give you pleasure you cannot begin imagine instead." Bile rose in her throat and she turned her head from him. That only brought a deep laughter from him, short but enough to bounce off the stone walls and echo. It was as if her own home was mocking her. His grip was tight on her arm and she grimaced as he tugged her along to walk beside him.
If he were human, she may have had a chance of escaping him since he hadn't bothered with restraints, but his inhuman strength made it impossible to even turn without his direction. The floors were slick with blood and she relied upon his hold to keep her upright. She kept her eyes forward, unable to bear looking at the men torn apart on either side of her, piled up against the walls in pieces. Servants, most likely, would end up burying them. Any surviving knights would be imprisoned. She felt sick at the thought. She was the Princess of Light. Her world had no place for bloodbaths and slaughter like the realm of darkness these monsters came from. Hopefully, he would be rid of her once the novelty wore off. She would drown in the darkness. The Oracle told her as much. The words of the blind old woman surrounded her and she was lost in them.
The time will come when the wolf will take away the Princess of Light. She will drown in the darkness but the darkness will burn. Time will pass before the thought of healing will come to her once again. When the wolf returns, the light will suffer. True evil will take her form and she will know true pain. But she will learn true love also and that will defeat the evil. The wolf will learn new ways and the light will never be lost again.
To be honest, the only parts she really focused on was 'drown', 'suffer', 'true evil' and 'true pain'. That had frightened her for the past two years to the point of uncertainty. Waiting for two years for this evil to bring her pain was unbearable, but now she knew it was close… she would rather wait. Especially in the hands of King Niklaus, the ruthless hybrid with no humanity. He was cruel and she despised him with all she was. His hand on her burned like betrayal to her parents; she allowed this monster to take her without fight. She supposed that she was already a disgrace. Her kingdom was in ruins, no doubt, without her knowledge. These monsters had to have ransacked the villages on their way. Such was their nature, to destroy and shed blood. There was nothing human left in them. Stories of their war, bodies torn apart, monsters of the night… they haunted her. Her innocence had been pushed by the stories she heard when she was a child. Growing up, they never ceased to bring a coldness through her body and a sickness to her stomach.
Klaus watched as she lost herself in thought. The emotions flooded her pale face and he wondered how she could do that. How could she allow herself such vulnerability? To show every emotion she felt on her face rather than hiding behind a mask. He'd seen the fire in her eyes and the downturned lips when she was angry, just before she'd attacked Kol. He watched her flinch, corners of her eyes narrowing and bottom lip bitten to hold back a whimper, when he grabbed her. He watched the sadness overcome her, the shocked but somewhat blank expression passing over her face. Her lips had parted a little and her eyes filling with tears. He wondered what she thought to bring on such brokenness. She was indeed a pretty little bird, as Kol said, but there was much more than that. Something about her stirred something within Klaus and it honestly frightened him. He pushed her towards the carriage and Elijah helped her inside before turning to him.
"You remember what the Oracle said, Niklaus. Do not do anything stupid," he said quietly before moving to his own carriage. Klaus rolled his eyes and hopped in, slamming the door shut. The princess flinched and he turned at the movement. "Tell me your name," he ordered, his voice low and quiet but loud in the silence of the carriage. She turned to him with a small frown on her face and he sighed. "Your parents have hidden you and your brother well. Whilst we found Matthew, it has been most difficult to locate any existence of you. Happening upon you was merely chance, an opportunity we could not pass." She looked away then, out of the window to the forest surrounding the castle. They were sparing her the image of her villagers watching her defeat, if there were even any left.
"Caroline," she told him with a soft voice, a tone so quiet and lost that he almost felt pity. He tilted his head and watched her. "Do you understand what is to happen to you?" He asked, waiting but receiving no reply. "You are to become my wife in a week's time. You are required to fulfil your duties as queen and be by side. You will be compliant, submissive, and polite."
She turned to him then. "Or else?" She prompted, glaring at him. He admired that fire burning within her. "Or else I shall punish you accordingly," he answered with a smirk. "You are also to fulfil your duties as my wife and provide me with an heir in due time." She tensed, her face falling in horror. "An heir? You are a vampire! You cannot have one, nor do you have use for one. An heir is to carry on the legacy of your family when you pass. You shall not pass as you're a vampire," she exploded, breathing erratically.
"I am the Original Hybrid, sweetheart. That means I am part werewolf as well as a vampire. That allows me to produce heirs. As for the purpose of my heir, it is a means by which I can control more land. You and our child will only answer to me, which means that I will be able to hold more power through the extension of our union. Understood?" She swallowed thickly but nodded.
"I understand. You want to use the only child I will ever have because you're a tyrant," she spat at him. Lunging forward, he grasped her chin in his hand tightly and made her meet his eyes.
"You will do what is expected of you and you will not defy me. If you do anything to abhor the chance of producing an heir, I will torture you until the witches find a way to fix it and then I shall take you until you are with child. Is that understood?" A moment later, she spat in his face and he moved away from her in disgust. Releasing her chin, he wiped his face and glared at her with glowing yellow eyes. Moving too fast for her to see, he struck her across the face. Her body fell to the side and he took advantage of it, flashing to hover over her as she lay beneath him.
"Do not think for one moment that I will not harm you," he hissed, gripping her wrists in one hand and holding her throat with the other. Squeezing slightly, he watched her eyes widen with fear. "I am a cruel man and I embrace that. Though I need your body, I do not need your heart. You can hate me with all that you are, but I will take you and you will give me an heir. There is nothing else that I need from you. Though, I do desire to break your will. A flame as bright as yours casts the darkest of shadows and I do so desire to see you completely at my mercy. When the times comes, I will take you and it will hurt you. I won't stop until you're with child. I may heal you, if you're good, but I will not stop. I respect your ways, and I give you my word I will not lay with you until we have sanctified our union. However, there are more ways than that to bring pleasure to a woman, even against their morals. Do not expect me to hold back if you deserve a punishment of the sort."
He flew off her a moment later, reclining as if he hadn't moved an inch and hadn't threatened her. Her heart was hammering in her chest and she felt sick up to her throat, the burning just longing to have her crying. She would not give him the satisfaction. She ignored him the rest of the way, not that it bothered him. He kept watching her, feeling nothing at the hand mark on her cheek. It is her branding, his mark upon her already. She was his and she will learn that.
The castle was shrouded in darkness as the carriage pulled up before it. Caroline's eyelids were drooping, though she refused to sleep in his presence. The monster opposite knew no boundaries and she feared what he would do with her alone and vulnerable in sleep. The stories of vampires entering dreams might be true, then even in sleep she wouldn't be able to escape him. Klaus left the carriage and stood in the door, holding out his hand to her. Her eyes twitched suspiciously, but that only brought pain to her red cheek. He took note of her hesitation and sighed.
"If you do not come out willingly, I shall have to drag you by the hair to the dungeons where you shall spend your first night instead of escorting you to your new chambers," he told her with an icy tone. She moved towards the door and reluctantly took his hand. "Must you always threaten me?" she seethed as she finally found solid ground. He pinned her against the wall of the carriage, hands on either side of her head. "Must you always resist me?" He returned, leaning in closely.
"There will come a time when you will not resist me, Caroline. There are things that I can do to you, sweetheart, that would bring a blush to even the devil's cheeks. And there will come a time when you are begging for me to do them to you." She tensed as his nose brushed hers.
"You said you wouldn't touch me until the night of our wedding," she whispered, voice cracking. "I said I wouldn't bed you, not that I wouldn't tempt you or make you writhe beneath me in any other way." She shuddered in disgust and flinched when he let out a deep chuckle, smirking at her.
"Niklaus!" Someone shouted from the door of the castle. "Coming, Elijah," he returned as he pushed away from her. "Come now, love. I'll show you to your chambers." She stared at his offered arm, holding back a wretch as she took it. There was no word she knew, that anyone knew, that could describe her feelings towards him. He was the first being she ever desired to kill, to torture slowly and rip out the heart of. His hand came over her own on his arm and tightened in warning. She flinched, but stayed silent and kept up with him as he led her to her chambers.
"This will be where you stay. Should you wish to leave your chambers, you must be accompanied with at least one guard. If you are to leave the premises of the castle and visit the gardens, there must be at least two guards with you. Do you understand?" She nodded and he finally released her. "Your personal servants will arrive shortly. Pick a dress from the ones provided. You will be joining my family and I for dinner. There will be other humans there, but they are unaware of what we are. They are foreign enough to these lands to have missed the stories of the monsters. I'd appreciate your silence tonight of the matter." She nodded once. "Or I'll be punished?" She quipped coldly, making him smirk cruelly as he leaned in.
"Or I will chain you to a wall in a private cell in the dungeons, strip you down, and whip your body until you're begging for my mercy." Shuddering, she simply threw open the door behind her and rushed in to the room as he laughed darkly. His hand caught her wrist and she span around, gasping at the pain from his sudden grip. He shoved his wrist in to her mouth and held her face in place with his hand around the back of her neck. Warm, sour blood filled her mouth and she screamed in to his wrist. Her hands were trapped between their bodies so she couldn't push him away. Her only choice was to swallow his blood. Once she had, he pulled away from her and stroked her healing cheek.
"Can't have the guests suspecting we aren't in pre-marital bliss, can we, love?" He offered before turning and walking in to his chambers across the hall from her. She slammed the door shut behind her and leaned against it as tears fell from her eyes. He was going to kill her, or she was going to kill herself. That was a certainty. On shaky legs, she managed to walk across the room to the archway where another room held more dresses than she could count. Most were too… alluring for a dinner with guests and she could only assume they were for Klaus' own enjoyment. They all appeared to be inappropriate until she was half way in to the room and they became more so, though they seemed to allow too much skin to show for her liking. He hands stopped upon a beautiful green gown and she smiled for the first time. It was most beautiful. Pulling it from the hooks it had been placed on, she walked back to the bed and froze.
A young woman stood with a nervous disposition in the middle of the room with a tub of hot water. "Your highness. Your bath is prepared," she murmured quietly. "Thank you," she responded, the girl's head snapping up in confusion. "What is your name?" The girl stammered a moment and Caroline felt herself deflate. Clearly, she had never been treated as a human before. "Anna, your highness," she answered quietly. "Anna, please call me Caroline."
Anna nodded with a small smile and helped her rid herself of her gown and prepare for her bath. The water was hot, but it did not burn her, only made her skin a lively pink. Anna explained that she was a vampire that had been with the Mikaelsons under the charge of Elijah. She told her about the siblings individually. Kol, the insane youngest brother. He loved bloodbaths and mayhem and women. He adored being adored and despised rules and being reprimanded. Rebekah, the little sister and youngest of them all. Always falling in love and always having her heart broken. Merciless to everyone but her lovers. Despises competition for centre of attention and any threat to her place as the most loved female amongst her brothers – especially Klaus. Elijah the eldest. In charge as the eldest and almost always butting heads with Klaus. Cam and stoic unless there is a threat to the kingdom or his siblings.
"I believe he is the most terrifying of them all," Anna admitted, "You always know what the others are about to do. They have their telling signs, you see. Klaus' eyes twitch at the corners and flash gold when he's angry. That is if he is holding back, otherwise he will make it known that he is displeased. Rebekah's mouth turns down at almost everything negative and her eyes grow wider just the slightest when she is about to strike. Kol, he is the hardest of the three to read. He smirks as if amused, but there's a dark flash over his eyes. Have you seen a vampire's face, Caroline?" Caroline shook her head, and a moment later Anna stopped washing through her hair and came to face her. Her pretty face turned monstrous and Caroline froze for a moment in shock. When Anna blinked, she looked human again. "Kol's eyes, the veins flutter down briefly. It is difficult to see, but if you know that you are looking for it, you might be able to spot it." Anna returned behind her and continued with her hair.
"Elijah does not even flinch. He makes no move, then suddenly there will be a heart in his hand and body on the floor. I have found no sign. He is a master of disguising his emotions, which I feel is most terrifying of all. But if you are in his good graces, he will be lenient and kind towards you. I do not fear you and Elijah coming to blows. The others maybe. If you are polite and interesting, Elijah may take a fancy to you and even protect you from…" she trailed off and Caroline sighed. "He may try to protect me from Klaus?" She finished, earning a sad hum of agreement in response.
Anna helped her into her dress after drying, then she sat patiently with her eyes closed with the relaxing feeling of Anna's nimble fingers at work on her long hair. About an hour later, she was ready to see herself in the mirror. A gasp escaped her as she caught her reflection. It was far different from her free floating yellow gown she wore at home.
Her breasts, for a start, definitely caught attention with the low rounded corset pressing them into rounded mounds. Her shoulders were bare, the sleeves beginning partially down her arms. The deep mint green was beautiful, contrasted with white embroidering on the skirt and middle section of corset with the block colour from the sleeves, bunched overskirt, and sides of the corset. The pattern was intricate, like chandelier-like flowers within ivy diamond. It was beautiful, if a tad too daring for her usual taste. Her hair was even more beautiful. Her plain curls were tighter, mostly falling over her back to her hips with a few reaching the top of her corset. Parted in the middle, the top was pinned loosely at the front to curl slightly and cover her ears. Tight curls bunched up at the top of her head and fell halfway down the back.
A loud knock on the door came and Anna answered it swiftly, allowing Klaus in to her chambers. Caroline caught his smirk in the reflection and sighed to herself. He did look handsome, for a monster. It seemed fitting he should wear red the colour of blood with black. His chemise, boots, and gloves were black with his doublet, trousers and coat a deep crimson. They didn't match, of course they didn't. Walking closer, she picked up her white silken gloves and slipped them on as she approached him.
"Do remember to behave," he purred, tilting his head at her. "I will. I have you threatening me every time I so much as breathe in a way you find wrong," she hissed. Moving at his inhuman pace, he pinned her against the wall by her throat.
"Do not test my patience, Caroline. I have very little of it anyway and I despise these ridiculous dinners Elijah forces me into. If you go against me and make a fool out of me, I will do as promised and whip you until you bleed." He pushed away from her and she gasped, coughing as she tried to breathe.
"Collect yourself and stand," he hissed, pushing her straight. "Put these on her." He thrust two boxes to Anna and moved to lean against the door frame. Caroline sat down on the cushioned seat in front of the mirror and turned her back on Anna. The reflection showed Anna placing a beautiful silver and emerald chain necklace on her collarbone, clasping it under her hair, before setting a matching small crown in her hair. Standing again with the jewellery secure, she faced Klaus. A true trophy in his eyes. He looked her up and down approvingly as she approached him, eyes lingering on her face and chest.
"Come on, love," he purred, fingers brushing her bared neck where the bruises were forming from his hands. Nodding, she allowed him to bring a few curls forward to cover them then took his arm. She would be compliant, submissive, and polite.
AN: What do you think? I'm working on the next chapter and it is going to get quite a lot darker in the next few chapters before it gets any better for them.