Into The Mountains We Go
My thoughts were on Klaus as I teleported to him. As I thought about him, I could see him wandering through a densely packed wooded area, a few other people I could only assume were werewolves around him.
Usually when teleporting, we can only transport ourselves to places we had already been to or had a clear picture of where we wanted to go. It doesn't usually work when thinking about a person, but I knew, in this case, that just thinking about Klaus and wanting to be with him, would allow me to teleport to him. I knew it had to do with the strong bond we had, the link that continued to grow with every day.
It was similar to when Caroline was kidnapped and I knew where she was but didn't know at the same time. In that case, I just followed the tug in my stomach until it led us to her. With Klaus, I knew if I closed my eyes and thought about him and then wished to be with him, I would teleport to him.
Which was what happened.
I was in that densely packed wooded area, which was engulfed in the growing darkness of the oncoming evening. While it was dark, I knew it was raining, feeling the light drops of rain as they fell through the small gaps of the overshadowing trees. It was eerie because there wasn't any noise. There was no chirping of birds and no other woodland creatures to be heard either.
It was surreal.
I couldn't help but wonder where my husband was.
He was after all the reason I ended up here.
He must have been somewhere nearby or I wouldn't have come to this exact spot. Perhaps he was chasing after the wolves I had seen him with as I pictured myself here.
Taking a step forward I dropped my bag on the floor as my eyes darted around me. I was hesitant to call out for Klaus, afraid that something other than him would come for me.
The cold prickling of fear up my spine told me it wasn't right for me to call out for my husband.
It felt like I'd stepped into a horror movie.
Something shifted to my right. I felt it move before I saw the blur heading towards me. I felt the aura of death and life and knew it was the signature aura of a hybrid, the two auras mixed together. It was the aura Klaus and Tyler had.
My back was shoved into the bark of a large tree, a cold, wet hand pressing against my shoulder, keeping me in place.
Flocking my eyes to the burning yellow ones gazing fiercely at me, I furrowed my eyebrows and looked pointedly down at the bloody hand keeping me in place.
The hybrid jumped back, hissing out in pain at the burning of his fingers. He growled at me, taking a threatening step towards me, snarling as his eyes flashed, black veins growing under the vivid yellow-gold.
"I don't think you want to do that," I muttered softly, not even angry that he tried to attack me. He probably didn't know who I was. He didn't know he'd be long dead before he could even sink his teeth into me.
"I do," he replied, voice surprisingly soft but filled with the longing to consume my blood.
"Your new Alpha won't be happy with you." I gave him a pointed look, enjoying the look of confusion on his face. "Especially seeing as I'm carrying his daughter," I added, settling my hand on my stomach as said daughter started kicking violently.
"Not to mention," came Klaus' voice somewhere to my left as he made his way through the trees. "She's my wife." I felt him come to my side, his hand resting on my lower back as he stared down his new hybrid. "Step away, Nate."
It was fascinating to see Nate fighting with himself. The anger present as he bared his teeth, eyes glowing a brighter yellow with his anger, the veins shifting under his eyes as he tried to fight with his anger. It lasted barely three seconds before Nate gave in, stepping back and tipping his head to the floor in submission. He was accepting defeat.
At his display of submission, I felt other hybrids stepping closer. Their eyes looking on with interest as they watched Nate back off from Klaus.
"Let's take a moment to straighten things out," Klaus called out, gaining the attention of his new hybrids. "Ethel is off limits. No one touches her. Your job is to protect her and my daughter. If anyone puts a hand on her with the intention of causing her harm, you will be without that hand. If you speak in a way I find displeasing, you will be without a tongue. If you look at her with anything but admiration and loyalty, you will be without eyes. Am I making myself clear?"
Man, he really knew how to set the mood.
I could feel the looks burning my way, the thoughts on whether I was really worth Klaus' threats and I also had to stop myself from snorting in disbelief.
"As I said, Ethel is my wife, that makes her your Queen. You will always respect your Queen."
I didn't really know where to go from here. I didn't know what to say to be honest and it was kind of a little awkward. This was my first time meeting Klaus' new hybrid pack and I had the feeling I wasn't giving them the best first impression of myself.
"Because that wasn't awkward," I muttered, very aware that everyone was now looking at me. "As lovely as it is to see you protect, Niklaus, please don't threaten your pack into protecting me. I am capable of protecting myself." Not exactly what I wanted to say, but I had a feeling that this pack wouldn't respect me unless I was able to stand up for myself. "Before you bother arguing," I knew he was about to do it from the way his mouth twitched, "be a gentleman and take me to the closest diner, I'm in need of some food. I'm hungry."
I didn't know who was more surprised; myself or the wait staff at the diner.
Klaus did as I requested and brought me to the closest diner, which is how we ended up in a diner in a little town called Hudson's Hope. Klaus had found the latest members of his pack in the Rocky Mountains, Canada.
I don't think the wait staff here were prepared for us to come in as a group of twelve, all of us dividing off to different tables in the same section. I was honoured enough to get a table with myself and my husband.
"You weren't lying when you said you were hungry," Klaus muttered, watching as I dipped my fries into my strawberry milkshake. I was mildly amused to see the look of disgust on his face when I repeated the action with my pickles.
"Yeah, did you know growing a baby makes you hungry?" I asked, reaching over and taking the chicken wings resting in the basket in front of him. "You're kid is sucking everything out of me."
"Not everything," he mumbled, his eyes flicking down to my chest which caused my cheeks to heat up. I knew he was checking out my larger breasts and it sent butterflies to my stomach.
"Hey, eyes up here mister," I said, reaching over to grab his hand as the baby sent a rather harsh kick to my ribs. "I didn't think I was able to feel the baby this strongly at nineteen weeks."
"She's strong?" Klaus had a look of wonder on his face as I nodded at his question. I loved that he seemed so interested in the growth and development of his daughter.
Pulling my phone from my pocket, I pull up the calendar and look at the date, confirming that yes, I was almost nineteen weeks. September 8th indicated that I was three days away from being nineteen weeks pregnant.
"I have my twenty week scan on the eighteenth of September. Do you think we'll be back in Mystic Falls by then? I know Carrie wants to come with me." I paused and looked up at him, noting the surprise on his face. "With us, I mean. If you'd like to come with me, that is."
"I think we can arrange that," he said, a small smile appearing on his face.
"Great, that's fantastic." I don't know why, but I couldn't stop the smile from blooming on my face when he confirmed that he'd like to go to our baby's scan. "Talking about the baby, there's a few things I'd like to talk to you about in regards to our future, but I don't want to bring them up here."
"We will discuss it when we get back to the house."
"You have a house around here?" That seemed to surprise me.
"No." I wasn't sure if I was surprised by the snort that left his mouth. "I compelled the owner of the house about half an hour from here. It's a big ranch house."
"Why am I not surprised you compelled someone?" I was reminded of Henrik when Klaus gave a slight shrug on his shoulder, his usual smirk on his lips. Thinking about Henrik reminded me that I actually needed to tell Klaus about his brother. It made me lose my appetite and I dropped my chips and gave a little sigh. "I think we should leave now."
"Are you finished?"
"I've lost my appetite. There are certain things we need to talk about," I mumbled, feeling myself growing annoyed at the fact I'd completely forgotten about Henrik until then. I knew Klaus wasn't going to forgive me lightly.
"Okay, come on," he said, rising from the booth and offering his hand to me. I wasn't lost to the way his hand ran over my stomach, caressing the bump before leading me over to the lady behind the till. "We'd like to pay, love."
"Is that all?" the lady asked, her cheeks flushing as she took in Klaus' handsome, annoying face. Her eyes flashed to our intertwined hands before her eyes flashed to my face. I could only guess that she was wondering why I was with someone like Klaus, or the other way round actually. Why was he with someone so young?
"Can we have a slice of pie?" I asked, suddenly getting the urge to eat a slice of apple pie, especially because it was staring at me through the little glass cabinet thingy.
"Sure, honey, what flavour? We have apple, cherry, pumpkin and chocolate."
"Oh." My eyes widened in amazement at the flavours offered and I was slightly ashamed to say that I fancied all four slices. "Umm." I glanced up at Klaus and bit my bottom lip. I knew from the smirk forming on his lips that he'd read my mind and no doubt my conflicting emotions.
"We'll have a slice of all four, please," he said to the lady, chuckling slightly as her eyes drifted to my stomach.
"It's not my fault the baby wants them all," I grumbled, pouting up at him as he laughed again. "I should blame you."
"I'm sure you will, sweetheart."
Klaus wasn't lying when he said it was a big ranch house. I had no idea that you could make a ranch house this big and still keep it cosy and homely without overdoing it.
The house had eight bedrooms, a large kitchen that was joined on with a dining room and three separate living rooms. Each bedroom had its own bathroom and there were two more on each floor.
It was nice, but in comparison to my cottage it felt too big. It was an awful lot of room to take up when I could tell only one or two people actually lived here.
I watched in fascination as the hybrid's wandered off, some to the kitchen, some to bedrooms. I noticed that Nate followed a dark haired woman into the living room on the main floor.
"Come along, sweetheart," Klaus said, his hand resting on my lower back as he guided me towards a room down a darkened hall. Klaus gave me a small smile as he pushed open a door into what I could only assume was the master bedroom.
If I was to go by the larger than life bed which was covered in throw pillows and fluffy blankets. To be honest, the bed looked inviting and there was nothing more I wanted to do than lie in it, but I knew I needed to speak to Klaus about Henrik.
"This is your room," I muttered, taking note of the small things around the room that screamed Klaus, such as the sketch book by the bedside table, the painting of him I'd done months ago, and a sonogram print out of our daughter resting against the lamp.
"Our room for now." He was so clear in his words, a sureness to them that I was afraid I'd never manage to ever have. It was that sort of confidence I'd like to have for the rest of my life. The confidence that borders onto cockiness but has just enough respect to limit the arsehole.
"How long do you plan on staying here for?" my mind went to the twenty week scan I had due in ten days.
"We'll be back in time for the scan," he said as if reading my mind. To be fair, he probably was reading my mind at this point. I seemed to become such an open book when around him it wouldn't surprise me if I was sending my thoughts to him. "You said there was something you wanted to talk about?"
"About our future, yes." I nodded as I approached the bed and gently climbed on to it, smiling as it was as soft as I imagined. "There are some things I need to tell you and I'm not sure if you're going to like them."
"Have you betrayed me?" I didn't have to look at him to see the hurt and anger in his eyes. I could feel it rolling off him as he took a step closer.
"You would know if I did, Niklaus. That's not what I'm talking about."
"The only thing I'd be mad at you about, especially if it concerned our future." I couldn't help but look at him as a wave of sincerity washed over him. He truly believed it was the only thing he'd be mad at me about.
"I also believe you'd be mad if I made decisions about our daughter without talking to you first." I got him on that one as he gave a sharp nod. "The thing is, it has to do with our future, but not really at the same time."
"That makes no sense, love."
"I understand that!" I snapped, starting to feel stressed about how I was meant to tell him that the brother that had been dead for over a thousand years was now alive and kicking and was a witch. "Sorry," I grumbled, feeling ashamed because I knew it wasn't his fault and I shouldn't be taking it out on him.
"What's wrong?" The concern in his voice was really getting to me and I was ready to cry. These goddamn hormones. "Ethel?"
"Bonnie cast a spell to protect Elena from a ghost and it sort of caused the gateway between our world and the Inbetween to open and the ghosts were able to interact with the living. Turns out your brother Henrik could come back and he was staying at my place for a couple of days while the gate was open. I met my uncle Mason, whom Damon killed. He's my biological father's brother; Tyler's uncle too. Lexi, one of Stefan's friends, managed to come back as well. I even saw Luke when I went to the ritual sight to close the gate," I rushed out trying to say everything as fast as I could. I thought it would be best to act like this was pulling off a Band-Aid, doing it really fast to get over the pain.
I watched as Klaus put together the pieces, all the little hints and details making sense to him. I knew he understood it all when his frown was directed at me.
"Henrik was back?" I nodded at his question, preparing myself for the onslaught of anger I could feel building within him. "You didn't tell me! Why?"
"He didn't want me to. Rebekah doesn't even know," I argued, scooting back on the bed as he took the last steps that kept us apart. "Niklaus, think about it," I whispered, when his hands grabbed hold of my wrists and tugged me towards him.
"I could have spoken to him." I could see the sadness in his voice and I knew all the unspoken things he wished to say. He wanted to apologise to Henrik. To apologise for not saving him.
"There's something else," I muttered weakly, wondering how my husband would take the next bit of news.
"What more could there be?" I noted the climbing anger and wished that the news I was about to break would dissolve that quickly.
"So well, you see, I sort of touched some of these ghosts, Henrik, Mason, Lexi and Luke and well, when I err, when I closed the gateway, well, you see they didn't …. Errmm, they didn't do well, you know … move on."
Way to go Ethel.
"What?"
He was feeling as confused as I was.
His brows were furrowed, the tiny little frown between his eyebrows was ridiculously adorable and also stealing my focus.
"Basically put, I umm, well—"
"You said basically put, Ethel."
"Right, yes," I muttered, feeling myself flush as Klaus lifted my head, his fingers lightly lifting my chin to lock with his eyes. "Basically, I somehow managed to bring those four back from the dead."
Silence.
Utter and complete silence.
"What?"
This was not the reaction I was expecting.
"Those who were once dead are no longer dead? I don't know what happened but one minute they were ghosts and then when I closed the gate to the Inbetween they didn't cross over and somehow became alive again. I mean two of them are vampires so can they really be alive? Maybe it has something to do with them all being supernatural? Do you think that could be why?"
"Henrik was human," Klaus muttered, his body frozen and his eyes gazing off.
I've broken him.
I've broken the original hybrid.
"Oh, no, well you see, Henrik is actually a witch. When I brought him back, he was able to tap into the magic that he was due to get a thousand years ago when he was still …" I drifted off as Klaus' head snapped up, his eyes flickering back and forth. I could see that he was making sense of everything, connecting the dots.
"It makes sense," he finally muttered, moving away from me and pacing in front of the bed. "There had been signs, but I thought it was just Kol and his magic."
From what I had learnt of the Mikaelson children, Kol was the second youngest son. The fifth child born to Esther and Mikael.
"You said he's alive."
I was not prepared for the way Klaus was in front of me within seconds, grabbing hold of my shoulders, preventing me from moving away.
"Yes. All four of them are."
"Why?"
"Do you not listen? I told you I don't know why. Although, Henrik mentioned something about my ancestor Etheldred speaking to him before he came here. She told him he was going to be brought back " Perhaps it was time for me to reach out to them and get answers.
"We need to speak to your ancestors."
