I joined Rebekah in the lounge and gave her the glass of bourbon she'd asked for.
"Becareful. Your limit isn't what it used to be." I warned her and she smiled at me before taking the glass. I turned and looked up at the painted portrait of Rebekah, in her original body, that Nik had hanging between his and Elijah's.
"That is just not my chin, Nik. It was much more delicate." Bekah pouted making me smile.
"The only delicate thing about you, sister, is your ego." Nik told her causing her to turn to him with a sarcastic smirk on her face.
"Well, placed next to the behemoth size of yours, certainly!" she told them and we all laughed before Elijah's voice broke through.
"Could we dispense with this fascinating dispute for just a moment and return to the subject of our supposed long-lost sister?" Elijah asked.
"There's not much to discuss, Elijah." Bekah sighed. "She said she was Freya, and then she darted off into the night."
"And you believed her?" Elijah asked.
"Well, I met the girl in a mystical loony-bin- she could be anyone telling any lie. But, she did seem... familiar, somehow." Bekah told us.
"Then how is she still alive?" Nik asked frustrated before rolling his eyes and starting to pace anxiously around the room. "A question, as ridiculous as its possible solutions, given this family's annoying predilection for cheating death."
"I dunno, Nik, I'm just telling you what she said!" Bekah shouted at him.
"Did you happen to ask if your witchy aunt is still alive, by any chance?" I asked her.
"I barely had a chance to process-" Bekah told me before Nik spoke over her.
"On the list of obvious questions, it would be nice to know if the woman who placed a curse on the first-borns daughters of this family is still breathing air." Nik pointed out.
"Well, let me just turn back time and do it again to your liking, then!" Bekah told him annoyed.
"Enough!" Elijah shouted over them. "Both of you. If she is who she says, we'll find out soon enough. For now, it remains imperative that no one learns of Katherine and Nikolas's existence. This has been our salvation thus far."
"Unless Hayley's husband-to-be starts flapping his gums." Nik said before smiling. "Perhaps I should take preventative measures and separate him from his head?"
"Jackson will do nothing to jeopardize that wedding." Elijah told him.
"And neither will you." I reminded him.
"Hayley's getting married?!" Bekah gasped in confusion. "Well, what in hell else did I miss?"
I made my way out to the Bayou and stared at a broom sitting on the porch of Hayley's shack. I picked it up before going towards Hayley and Jackson's scent.
"Why is there a broom on your porch?" I asked them confused.
"Uh, why do people keep doing that?" Hayley asked slightly confused and annoyed Jackson smiled widely. "Seeing as I'm not much of a "sweep while the soup's cookin'" kind of gal." Jackson just smiled wider as he chocked back a laugh.
"Well, back in the day, it wasn't easy getting a preacher out here. So, if you were engaged, and you couldn't wait... then the community would let you jump the broom." he told us.
"Jump the broom?" I asked him confused.
"Couldn't wait for what?" Hayley asked him. Jackson could barely hold in his laughter and gave Hayley a significant look. Hayley and I shared a puzzled look before Jackson started chuckling. I quickly dropped the broom once I understood the meaning.
"Ah." I nodded awkwardly.
"Oh!" Hayley said soon after.
"Yup." Jackson chuckled.
"I would have been happier with a panini press..." she said and he started laughing hysterically.
"It's just a tradition!" he told her.
"Yeah! Got it." she said uncomfortably. We all stood in awkward silence for a moment before Hayley pointed to the tree branch in his hands. "So... what are you working on?" Jackson stood up and moved onto the porch, where he walked towards a sheet-covered mound in the corner.
"Oh! I started on this for your little girl when you three lived here before. Now that she's alive-" he pulled off the sheet, revealing a half-finished baby crib made out of wood with a crescent moon carved into the headboard underneath it. "I figured it was time to finish it." I moved to the crib and smiled in amazement as I ran my hand over the cresent moon. "Something else... I'm getting word from a few packs outside of Louisiana? They wanna be here for the wedding! They want in on the Unification ritual!"
"I thought the ritual only affected the powers of the wolves in our pack?" Hayley asked confused.
"Unless they recognize me as their Alpha. Then your power becomes their power!" Jackson told us excitedly.
"You think their Alphas will step down and bow to you?" I asked him. "What Alpha would do that?"
"They're coming here today to do just that." he told me.
"Wow." I said amazed as Hayley looked around, clearly overwhelmed by this news.
"They want what you have, Hayley. I mean, we all do. I mean, a couple of weeks after the wedding, you are gonna have one hell of an army to protect your children." Jackson told us. I looked back at the crib and smiled.
"They can come home." I said softly.
I leaned on the shack watching Jackson wrestling and playing with a handful of young children, and I couldn't help but imagine my own children playing with them. They were pulling at his arms and legs trying to get him to fall over as he laughed happily with them. I turned to see Hayley join me and laugh with them.
"Imagining your own children?" I asked her with a small look.
"Speaking from experience?" she asked me and I smiled sadly. "Nikky..."
"It's fine, Hayley. They'll be returning home soon." I reminded her.
"With an army of super wolves at their back." she said and my smile turned to a smirk.
"Oh, ho ho ho!" Jackson said still with the kids.
"Hey, that's mine! Go to the water!" one of the boys said.
"Last one there's a rotten egg!" another said and most of the children rushed over to the lake, but one young girl stayed behind and kept tugging on Jackson's arm to try to knock him over. He picked her up and swung her around, but when they say us he just laughed and put her down, patting her gently on the head before she ran off to join the others.
"Wait for me!"
"Looks like I've got some competition!" Hayley said as we walked to him making him laugh.
"Unfortunately for Daisy, I am a one-woman kind of guy." Jackson told her.
"The meeting's taking place at Mary's." Hayley said changing the subject.
"'Kay." he nodded. I looked at the woods around us sensing someone nearby.
"You two go ahead! I'll be right there." I told them smiling. Jackson and Hayley smiled at me before joining hands and leaving for Mary's Cabin. Once they were gone, I vamp-sped over to a wooded area nearby, where I shoved Marcel catching him off-guard.
"Ahhh! Whoa!" Marcel looked at me nervously putting his hands up to try and show me he wasn't a threat. "Wait! I'm not here to hurt you!"
"Stalking me is a funny way of showing that. You're lucky we're friends, or I would have killed you." I told him.
"Okay, remember our friendship when I tell you why I'm here. Finn sent me to get your blood." Marcel told me.
"Why would Finn want my blood?" I asked him confused.
"I assume he needs it for a locator spell... to find your kids." he assumed causing me to gape at him.
"No." I gasped before looking back to the wolves to make sure they weren't listening. "How does he know?"
"He put two and two together." he told me.
"Where's Finn now?" I asked him.
"I don't know. He said he'd tell me where to meet him later. But listen- I gotta give him something. He's killing one of my guys every hour until he gets it." Marcel told me and I thought for a moment.
"I need to call Nik." I said before pulling out my phone. I quickly dialed Nik and waited.
"What is it, Nicole?" he asked me annoyed.
"Finn knows." I told him making him go silent. "Marcel is here to get my blood for a locator spell."
"I'll call Elijah. Handle things on your end." he told me and I looked to Marcel.
"Consider it handled." I told him before hanging up. "Come with me and stay out of sight."
I joined Jackson and Hayley once I made it to Mary's Cabin.
"Wolves are bonded by what is most important to us. The earth of our territory. The blood of our packs." Mary said as she walked to the other Alphas.
"We have a problem." I told the couple.
"What's wrong?" Jackson asked me.
"Too many ears." I said looking to the Alphas, who were each pouring a handful of grain into the bowl to symobolize the merging of the packs. "But, I need some of your blood." They both shared a puzzled look. "It's-it's a stall. I'll explain later." Jackson nodding in understanding as Hayley took my hand in hers for comfort.
"Well, your timing's perfect." I looked to see the Alphas each taking a blade and slicing open their palms to bleed into the bowl in turn.
"Mixing these elements, we irrevocably bind ourselves to one another, creating a new Crescent pack. I ask each one of you- do you renounce your Alpha status?" Mary asked them. The Alphas all knelt in front of Jackson. Mary brought the blade and the bowl to Jackson, and he sliced his own palm to bleed into the bowl. Mary left with the bowl and I collected some of Jackson's blood discreetly.
I went back to Marcel when my phone went off.
"Nik, I have Jackson's blood all ready to go."
"It was a ruse." he told me. "Finn is already going after Nikolas and Katherine."
"Call the safe house!" I told him as I joined Marcel. "Warn them!" I hung up and turned to Marcel. "Nik said not to bother. It was all just a plan to keep us distracted. He's going after her, I have to get there." I said turning to leave. "Six hours... There's no way I'll make it before him..."
"Whoa, wait!" Marcel said pulling me back to him. "You said so yourself, it's six hours away. Finn's already there."
"I can't just stand here and do nothing, Marcel!" I shouted at him.
"You listen to me- there is no way that Elijah is gonna let anything happen to your kids today! So, go help Hayley and Jackson build the army that'll help keep them safe tomorrow." I sighed anxiously before nodding and going back to the wolf couple.
When I made it back to the Alphas, I saw Jackson about to stake a vampire.
"No!" I called out before speeding to him and trying to stop them. Marcel intervened and broke the neck of the vampire.
"We just need to keep them at bay until Finn's spell is breaks." he told us as Hayley joined us.
"It's a hell of a spell!" Jackson complained.
"Get the Alphas to the cabin. I'll hold them off." Hayley told them.
"No, we can't have anything happening to you. Go with them. Keep them safe." I told her before fighting the vampires.
"Try and keep my guys alive." Marcel called to me.
"I'll do my best." I told him before punching a vampire in the face. I snapped the necks of two of them in a row with one hand, but they just got back up. Two more came up behind me and I spun, kicking them as hard as I could. I watched as one of the vampires going into a pile of wood. I stared at the piece of wood through his heart and shook my head before turning to see Gia glaring at me. "I don't want to kill you, Gia." Suddenly, Gia fainted before she could do anything, Marcel just barely catching her before she hit the ground. We looked around to see the rest of the vampires crumpled to the ground. I threw a confused look at Marcel.
"They broke the spell."
