RECAP: Caroline is one of the strongest creatures in existence, not only because she's a witch / succubus hybrid but because she's officially 'fed' on her five makers at least once — a descendent of the witch who created the spell to make succubi as well as Klaus, Elijah, Kol, and Rebekah. Relationships are confusing but working surprisingly smoothly. Caroline is taking a lot of time off school to learn to be a witch and to protect herself. Caroline's mother is taking a lot of suspiciously and spontaneously awarded dream vacations for one… And Klaus has just confessed that they're mates. One week after his confession, Caroline is with Elijah as she looks back on her conversation with Klaus.
Also, HUGE SHOUT OUT to anyone who nominated Inferno or Wrecked under the Best Action Adventure or Best Original Concept fiction categories in the Klaroline Awards this year! You can check out all the other noms and submit votes until 8/4/16. Thanks so much for the nominations, it really does mean the world! :D
-Chapter 14 -
One week later...
Make no mistake about it, though it was undoubtedly the fanciest one she'd ever seen, Caroline was looking at a gymnast's balance beam. Elijah stood directly across the room from her, eyes trained on her, so he could take in even Caroline's most minute responses as her hands deftly trailed over the soft luxurious patent leather of the horizontal beam down to the hand carved cherry legs that supported it. It had clearly not been designed to gymnastic standards — long enough for each of her legs to be stretched out completely in either direction and secured and only as tall as, um well, Elijah's waist.
"Well I'm sorry to say I haven't done gymnastics in years," Caroline said with a smirk, glancing up at him flirtatiously beneath her eyelashes. Elijah had promised her earlier in the week that he'd have a surprise for her today, so she'd dressed accordingly in a conservative but sexy little black off-the-shoulder Valentino paired with the red pumps she'd bought with Bekah that he now loved so much. Being here for, almost officially, a month, Caroline had definitely started to figure out each of the Mikaelsons' things, by now. And one of Elijah's — humorously enough, BDSM stuff aside — was seeing her all cinched together like a billionaire's personal assistant.
"I think that's beside the point when you have continued dancing and cheerleading for years," Elijah smiled back, knowing she was partly genuinely a little intimidated by this gift. But she was going to have to try it out; like most things Elijah or Niklaus got for her, it was custom made.
"Still," she said, biting her lip, "I know I'm flexible but even I've never had to hold a split this long…"
"No one has even specified how long 'this long' is yet," Elijah reminded her, the amusement evident in his voice.
"It's however long requires… restraints," she replied, fingering one of the leather cuffs attached to one end of the balance beam and shooting a nervous glance towards its twin at the far end. The moment her finger touched it, she could tell Elijah had somehow imbued it with lilly, likely by finishing the leather with its oil. Her fingers buzzed with a numbness and weight as she touched the cuff.
Suddenly, Elijah had vamp sped to her side, making Caroline gasp when he lifted the hand she'd been tracing over the leather and brought her fingers softly to his lips.
"You forget, sweet girl, that a good dominant always knows exactly what his submissive can take," he told her, his eyes reassuring.
Initially, Elijah hadn't really taken to the mainstream / modern vernacular of his kink until he'd finally gleaned just how helpful it was for introducing Caroline to the world. He still often forget how young she was despite the maturity and depth of her desires. Caroline had the astounding ability to coax whatever she needed from him before she even had an inkling of what it was that she needed. It made her seem more experienced than she truly was — quickly strengthening succubus powers or not.
And, most recently, when getting glimpses into the innermost workings of her mind as they fed from one another, Elijah had learned that one of those things Caroline wanted without knowing it was more restraint. Something about having turned into the strongest creature in the word — not to mention the fact that she got stronger as time went on — had brought out a side of Caroline Forbes that made her long for something beyond domination; she wanted to be completely helpless. It was so opposite what she actually was… Elijah could understand the appeal.
"So," Elijah breathed, pulling her firmly into his chest so he could breath into her neck and feel her soft skin growing warmer beneath his lips as he spoke, "Why don't you hop up?"
The change in his tone and demeanor was incredibly subtle — just a touch rawer and more demanding. Caroline was only starting to learn through trial and error of when to keep teasing and when to start listening to what Elijah wanted and when. Now was when he wanted her to start listening so Caroline dutifully took a step forward with her back still to him, head bent down as she waited for him to begin unzipping her dress and then strip the rest of her.
"Not this time, I think," Elijah said, casually, and Caroline heard him begin to roll up his sleeves behind her, "Keep everything on. Gods know, that dress you've picked out is short enough already."
And then he was slapping her smartly on her upper thigh from behind, just beneath the curve of her ass, making Caroline squeal in surprise. Oh she'd known he'd have something to say about that dress, despite the fact that it didn't show any cleavage or even any of her back. She'd known and she'd done it on purpose. There was a certain type of playful behavior that Elijah strictly reserved for private between the two of them and Caroline craved it and would do anything to provoke it from him.
Elijah stepped back and watched as Caroline sauntered over to the beam in her heels, swinging first one leg over and then the other, so that she was straddling the beam from the side. Before actually making the move to push herself up to balance on it in a full split, Caroline took a chance with his patience and sense of humor and began to rock her crotch back and forth over the beam, pretending to ride it and moaning when the cool leather actually did rub against her sensitive lips and clit through her silk panties.
"That's enough," was all Elijah had to say to make Caroline stop her motions. She looked back up at him with faux-pleading eyes and a pout, only to see him staring back at her with resolved amusement.
Looking lower, she couldn't help but grin. Elijah was hard as rock beneath his unusually casual slack pants. This was where the brothers could be so different. Klaus would have been content to watch her get herself off while pleasuring himself directly in front of her in turn. Kol, of course, would have watched without doing a damn thing, ensuring that she only ended up infinitely torturing herself while he laughed at the predicament she'd gotten herself into.
Bekah would be right up here with you… she couldn't help but think before refocusing her attention on the man in front of her. Elijah was staring her down, his brow furrowing a bit deeper each second that she didn't immediately comply to his demand to stop.
Continuing to pout, Caroline stopped her rutting and raised one leg up to slip an ankle into one of the beam's cuffs. She was only able to stay standing on the other leg because of the added height provided by her heels. Caroling carefully reached over to do the buckle on the clasp of the cuff, already finding it near pointless. The lilly in these things had been designed by Elijah to hold her down with ease. They were heavy and the buckles to secure her almost weren't necessary.
Still, he loved watching Caroline put on her own binds when she could.
When she finished, her right leg was positioned in the air at such an angle that it completely reveaved the now-dripping triangle of black lace that had once aimed to conceal her pussy. Caroline purposefully readjusted her stance to show off more of herself and Elijah groaned; they could both feel her hooking him in.
She gestured down to the remaining cuff for her left ankle, "I'm going to need help with this one."
"Of course, my sweet," he replied softly, half-hypnotized at the site of her already.
Elijah slipped around behind her again, pressing a hot kiss to her neck but surprising Caroline when she finally felt him undo part of her dress's zipper in the back.
"I thought you wanted it on," Caroline gasped out as his cool hands traced over her exposed back as the zipper slowly slid downwards, leaving a trail of shivers in their wake.
"Partially," Elijah agreed as he slipped her arms out of the off-the-shoulder straps and pushed the dress just a few inches further down her torso, "But I do think it would be a shame to leave your exquisite breasts free from the attention they deserve."
That being said, he didn't undo her black balconette bra; instead he reached around to gently graze a hand over her supple skin and dip teasingly between her cleavage. The move forced Caroline to let out a heady moan and arch her back forward, attempting to press a breast into his skillful palms. But Elijah growled at the wanton response and wrapped an arm almost too tightly around her waist, forcing her behind to press savagely into his erection while he warningly bit lightly into her neck.
At the feeling of the tiniest amount of her blood begin to drip down her neck, Caroline really had to restrain herself from bucking into him, but Elijah was moving on with his process. She felt him push the already shorter-than-short hemline of dress upwards to bunch up around her hips.
"Are you ready, my love?" he asked. Before she could reply, Elijah was cupping her core with one hand to support her as Caroline was lifted upward and guiding her other leg off of the floor and into the opposite cuff on the beam until she was in a full split. With vampire speed, he clasped the buckle shut and she was well and truly locked in.
If it'd been a regular beam, Caroline wasn't sure how long she would have been able to keep balancing in a split like this with no support behind her back. Elijah's custom-made present was quite a bit thicker, though, making it easier to sit upon. Nevertheless, Caroling was surprised when she felt Elijah's hands trace up her sides to slowly lift her arms above her head. He reached above both of them and further lowered a silk scarf hanging from a chain in the his ceiling that Caroline hadn't noticed before.
She didn't even need to feel it wrap around her hands to know what it was; the dusty rose color of the silk gave it away, as usual. Elijah didn't bother supplying her with restraints she could simply break after all.
"How do you feel?" he asked her, coming around to the front of her to eye her what was exposed of her body now that she was completely strung up.
Caroline shifted as much as she could under the weight of her restraints, testing it out.
"Fine," she said after a few moments of testing, "It's not that much different than… what's that yoga pose? Monkey pose?"
Elijah smirked down at her amusedly, loving her still so human and young way of looking at things.
"I will admit some of the inspiration for crafting this particular device came from the Kama Sutra," he said, the words rolling off his tongue as smooth as the silk twisted around her wrists, "And hopefully you'll enjoy this quite a bit more than yoga."
They shared a long heated look after that. This was Elijah's favorite part and she knew it. The part where she was first completely locked into place, barely able to move.
The part where she'd more than willingly agreed to submit to him completely.
It was a stark contrast to what she'd shared with Klaus maybe just a week or so earlier.
You're my mate.
Somehow, Caroline had known. That knowingness, the lack of surprise, hit her so squarely in the gut when Klaus told her, that she supposed she must have frowned accidentally. And her expression threw Klaus off guard and into a whirlwind of explanations, none of which she could hardly hear or make sense of in his rush.
"I'm not saying that I expect your nature now to change and…- look, I understand that succubi don't have mates so I'm one sided in this but-" Klaus was stammering.
"-It's not one-sided," Caroline interrupted softly.
Finally the panic in his eyes receded and he sat up to look at Caroline in the eyes.
"What are you saying?" he asked.
"I think… I think I knew that I was your mate. I think I've known for a long time," she replied. "A-and, I think you're my mate as well."
This made Klaus frown, "That's impossible. At least, it is now. You could have shared this bond with me when you were still vampire but succubi cannot have mates. It is part of their curse to never be able to develop a truly monogamous bond, particularly one that is infinite…"
"But I'm not just a succubus, Klaus," Caroline said, working it all out in her own head as she spoke, "I'm also a witch."
At this point, Klaus completely parted from Caroline to lay at her side, looking quizzical.
"You're saying you can feel our bond?" he asked, after a brief moment to contemplate.
Caroline needed a moment herself to examine everything she was feeling before responding truthfully, "Half of me does. The witch half feels our mate bond stronger than anything I could have ever imagined."
At this point, despite the fact that Caroline was telling him everything he wanted to hear, Klaus had to stand up and pace to clear his thoughts. Finally, he turned to her from his pacing to explain what was troubling him.
"Any person with were lineage feels that they have a mate… they feel it in their very bones," Klaus said. "And even before I became a hybrid and was able to access my werewolf side, I always knew I had a mate. I also always knew, for centuries, that my mate hadn't been born yet."
Now it was Caroline's turn to be floored and she made a mental note to research the werewolf mate bond with Bonnie in further depth later.
"And when I was still just a vampire, after I met you, something shifted," he said.
"You knew from the moment you met me?" she asked, standing to come beside him as he paced. Caroline wrapped her arms around his torso, immediately bringing him to a calm. He stopped to rest his chin upon her head, tucking her more firmly into his side.
"Not exactly," Klaus replied. "I got a sense that my mate was near from the moment I returned to Mystic Falls, even in Alaric's body. But at the time I was still so focused on breaking my curse that the feeling was… inconsequential to me. I didn't care if my mate was close."
When Caroline looked up at Klaus to frown he chuckled back down at her. As far as he remembered, Caroline back then was every bit as disinterested in him as he was of finding his mate.
"It wasn't until your birthday, the day I gave you my blood to heal you," he explained. "That's when I knew I had found you. And that's when I decided I'd have to do everything in my power to woo you."
"Woo me, huh?" Caroline asked, "That's one word for it."
"Don't be unfair, my love, everything worked out for the best," he chided gently.
Caroline shrugged in a noncommittal agreement.
"But you just said you think you've felt our bond for a long time, that you've known for a long time," Klaus continued, pushing her. "Since when?"
"I'm not sure… since I was a vampire. Maybe even since the same night you knew, on my birthday," she guessed, "Though I was obviously loathe to admit anything to even myself. But, well, there's a reason I first came to you the night I was transitioning again. I told myself it was because the succubus who turned me had suggested I see you out but, even at the time I knew that wasn't the only reason."
Klaus leaned down at that moment to kiss her sweetly, parting her lips with his tongue and adoring the soft gasp it elicited from her. When they parted, Klaus brought a hand up to cup the side of her face, looking down at her with almost unbelieving gratefulness.
"And to think… if we hadn't tracked down the Augustus witch and had you feed from her, our bond might be lost forever," Klaus murmured.
"Like if I wasn't half-witch, the bond would have been closed?" she asked.
"I can't say for sure, you're the first of your kind after all," Klaus said, "And it may be worth looking into with Bekah and Bonnie the next time you meet to practice. But I believe so as that was part of how we designed the succubus curse to function."
"No monogamy," Caroline said.
"No monogamy," Klaus agreed.
"And that's, uh… well, that's still the case?" she asked, looking a little sheepish. When they'd started this conversation Klaus had begun rambling about how he knew this didn't change her basic new nature… but now that she'd confessed she could still feel their bond?
Klaus lifted her unsure gaze to meet his by cupping her under the chin, "The last thing I would ever request of you, is to do something that put your two halves at odd with one another," he said. "I love you Caroline. Every part of you, every side of you, and all your desires."
She leaned up on her tiptoes to kiss him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck as she did.
"I love you too, Klaus," she said and she realized it was for the first time, "So before I go running off to indulge in my new lifestyle, I'd like to make love to my mate."
He growled when she said that, his eyes darkening with the possessiveness he so often kept hidden for her benefit. And Caroline squealed when he was suddenly hoisting her up bridal style to carry her out of their training room to go back upstairs.
"As my lady commands," he said.
Present day...
It was a scene she couldn't help but replay over and over in her mind, even now while Elijah had her trussed up like this. Unfortunately, Elijah had a sharp eye for when her attention was waning and he demanded nothing less than her full focus when they were together.
The sharp sting of leather on her upper thigh brought her back to attention.
"Where has your mind wandered, little witch?" Elijah asked, more thoughtfully than displeased. "Surely to orgasms haven't worn you out already?"
Caroline blushed at his teasing tone, shivering when the ends of the cat-o-nine tails Elijah held in his hand began to gently run up from her thigh, over her mound and up to her breasts. She moaned as a familiar heat began pool between her thighs yet again.
"No," she bit out, holding back a moan. So far her only relief on this damn beam had only come from Elijah's deft fingers. But she knew that it had been designed to sit at the height of his waist for a very particular reason, and that was to fuck her. "I'm not worn out, you've barely let me get going…"
Her tone held a telltale hint of pleading that Elijah took great pride in as he stalked around her, letting the leather tool caress every inch of her skin as he did so. A gentle but firm whack of the whip at her back made Caroline's body jolt forward. The soft kiss of the leather left a barely discernable pink marks in their wake, just enough to let Elijah know it had surprised her without hurting her.
"Then what is it, hmm?" he prodded. "Where do you keep escaping to in that pretty head of yours?"
"Klaus," she whispered. "I'm thinking about Klaus."
A flicker of insult flashed on Elijah's features that he quickly masked, not that Caroline would have seen anyway, while he was behind her. He had to remind himself that any jealous he might be feeling was superfluous. Caroline was still curious about exploring her mate bond; she'd only just confirmed its existence, after all.
He dropped the leather tool to reach around her from behind, pressing her back into his now bare torso. He'd chosen to lose his shirt right before her second orgasm, knowing that seeing him without being able to touch him would drive her mad.
Elijah kissed the side of neck and cupped one of her breasts in each hand, steadily stroking the pads of his thumbs over each pert nipple.
"Well," he said finally, once she was sufficiently worked up and mewling for him again, "How about we invite him in then? I'm sure you're as curious as I am as to what he'll make of your newest restraints."
Caroline groaned in primal need at the thought of both of them again, especially when she was so weighted down with lily to bind her that it was actually preventing her from being able to feed whenever the urge struck her. Elijah would probably only allow her that luxury when he decided they'd finished this game.
A knock at the door startled her and Elijah chuckled.
"Come in Niklaus," he said immediately, knowing well that Klaus would have been able to hear everything that had been going on in here since they first began.
The door swung open, "I thought I heard my name," Klaus began, joking as he first stepped into the room. But his cocky demeanor was quickly lost as he went slack jawed at the sight of Caroline, legs spread before him.
Elijah smirked. He'd known that Caroline would enjoy his new gift but apparently it pleased his brother as well.
"She is a lovely little bird we've caught for ourselves, isn't she?" Elijah asked.
"Beautiful…" Klaus breathed back before slamming the door shut behind them.
So that chapter was a bit of a tease in terms of how much actual sex we saw but, considering we've had a lot of super smutty chapters, I wanted to try something that left you with room to fill in the blanks on your own. Not to mention, this chapter has been long-awaited and I needed to get it out so I could move on and keep writing.
Gentle reminder (is this getting old?) that this is an angst-free tale! As much of a happy-polyamorous relationship that's being constructed here though, even perfect poly families have to deal with some fights and fleeting jealousies and insecurities. Those will be explored on occasion.
I mentioned before that not every chapter will serve as a one-off smut chapter but that, at some points, we'll get to little mini-series sets of chapters with self-contained adventure-smut plots. One of those is coming up! Next chapter we'll be jumping ahead in the future just a few months or so further to a more dramatic plotline that will likely play out in something like a 3 to 5 chapter long arc. There will still be lots of smut and plenty of fluff, but it'll be a little more balanced with an actual plot, lol.
Thanks again for reading, reviewing, faving, and liking! Update of Wrecked is next on my to-do list.
