I stepped into the Lockwood Mansion. I stopped seeing some guys already in the entryway. All of their eyes turned to me. I got an uneasy feeling in my gut from their stares.
"Carol!" I called out. I heard the sound of Carol coming down the staircase.
"Oh good, you're here!" Carol said smiling.
"Um, who are these guys?" I asked, pointing to them.
"Looks like they arrived before we did." I heard Nik say behind me. It clicked in my head. These are his other hybrids. The ones Stefan had forced him to leave town.
"When did you call them?" I asked looking back at Nik.
"On the drive here. Now, where's your son?" Nik asked, walking in front of me looking up at Carol.
"I'm about to go pick him up from the hospital." I shook my head at that.
"The words hospital and hybrid don't go together." I told her.
"Tyler got shot by the vampire hunter in front of the entire town. We had no choice but to put up a front pretending he was recovering at the hospital." Carol then got a look of surprise on her face.
"Oh my. Derek." I looked over my shoulder to see Derek behind me. He's always been the stealthiest out of us all.
"Carol." Derek greeted with a smile.
"I brought a couple stragglers with me from Beacon Hills." I told Carol, "Now, do you have a photo of this guy? Nik and Derek are going to stay here on guard duty. I'm heading out for some surveillance." I announced.
"Yes, I can forward you the picture we took from security footage." Carol answered.
I smiled, "Perfect," I looked to Nik, "I'll let you know if I find him."
Nik nodded, "Be careful, love."
"I will. Don't try to kill each other." I called out as I walked towards town.
Cora and I walked around town while I had my phone out with the picture of the hunter on it. Megan headed to Mystic Falls High to scope out there.
"This town is so much bigger than I remember." Cora noted as she looked at the surroundings.
"Well the last time we were here with mom and dad would be when you were six or seven years old. I wouldn't expect you to remember much of this town." I answered.
I felt my phone buzz in my hand. I looked at the screen and saw Megan was calling. I answered it and put it to my ear.
"The hunter just left the school." Megan said straight to the point.
"We're on our way." I hung up and Cora and I sprinted down towards the school.
Once Cora and I were by the forest just outside the town both us lunged forward. When our hands hit the ground, we were already partially shifted and ran for the school.
We approached the back of the school in record time thanks to Werewolf speed. In the distance I saw Megan confronting the hunter. I saw the hunter use a move to force Megan onto the ground. He took something out of his pocket and straddled her on the ground.
"What is he doing to her?" Cora asked as we got closer.
"I don't know, but I don't like it." I increased my speed.
I let out a snarl as I got close enough. The hunter looked up in alertness and barely had time to put his arms up as I tackled him off Megan.
The hunter rolled on the pavement and what he was holding fell on the ground and rolled towards my feet. I let out a growl as my eyes glowed red. I heard Cora behind me and she let her own growl while her eyes glowed golden.
"More wolves." The hunter said as he looked at the three of us. He got up from the ground. He unhooked something from his tactical belt and threw it at the ground near us.
Cora and I hissed in pain and coughed as a smoke bomb with wolfsbane in it hit us. The wind eventually blew away the smoke and I felt my healing take over. The hunter was gone.
"He's a vampire hunter that knows about werewolves." Cora stated.
"Looks like that way. Megan you okay?" I asked looking behind me.
"Yeah." She answered and stood up.
"What did he do to you?" Cora asked in confusion.
I looked down at the syringe that rolled to my feet. I picked it up and saw it filled with blood.
Megan saw what I was holding, "I think he was trying to extract werewolf venom from me. He stuck that needle into my gums." Megan answered.
"It looks like he doesn't know enough about werewolves. He tried to get venom from the Venomless Species." I answered.
"Did you call us the "Venomless Species"?" Megan asked, confused.
I shrugged, "What? The two different species were never named. Venom Species and Venomless Species seem pretty fitting to me."
"Sounds good to me." Cora answered.
"I need to call Nik about this. He needs to know the hunter uses werewolf venom." I took my phone out and my pocket and selected Nik's contact.
He picked up at the first ring, "I hope you're having more fun than I am. I'm bored out of my mind playing bodyguard." I heard him say.
"Well I just had my first encounter with the hunter. He was at the school." I answered.
"See? You're already having more fun than me. I take it he got away?"
"Yeah, he used a wolfsbane smoke bomb to get away. My eyes were too busy burning to watch where he went." I answer with a snarky voice.
"He knows about werewolves then." Nik stated obviously.
"Not enough though. He tried to extract venom from Megan. He was sorely disappointed when all he got was blood." I said as I looked at the blood in the syringe.
"He's not aware of your species then. That gives us an upper hand then."
"Well he just met three of us. Don't know if that's an upper hand anymore."
"Did he see you fully shift?"
"No."
"Then we still have the upper hand." I heard a long pause on his end.
"Nik? Everything all right?"
"Yes, I just saw something very curious. Keep me posted, love. I've got to go." I stared at my phone in confusion.
"That was weird." I said out loud.
"What do we do now? We don't know where the hunter went. We couldn't get a scent on him thanks to the wolfsbane smoke bombs." Cora stated.
"The hunter came to the school for a reason. He was looking for vampires. He talked to Matt who currently has two bandages on him. I talked to him earlier. Elena's feeding from him." I gave Megan a look.
"And she's not healing him after?! I exclaimed.
Megan shook her head, "Matt won't let her. He doesn't want to risk dying and becoming one."
"That just painted a big red target on the school." I said with frustration evident in my voice.
"That's not all. Rebekah is throwing a huge party to ditch curfew. Half of the school will be there."
"That's a perfect way to stash werewolf venom in something like punch or alcohol. It's communal." Cora mentioned.
"Cora, Megan you two are going to Rebekah's party. Be on the lookout for the hunter showing up. He most likely will spike the drinks." I ordered.
"What about you?" Cora asked.
"I'm gonna head back to the Lockwood Mansion."
"Call me if anything happens." Cora and Megan nodded before we walked off in different directions.
I was walking towards the backway of the Mansion. I walked up the steps of the back porch. I stopped when I saw some random woman with brown hair and brown eyes sitting on the patio furniture and drinking scotch.
"Who are you?" I asked warily.
She looked over and me and her eyes looked up and down at me.
"Hm, you look like a badass. You must be The Allye Hale that Tyler has told me so much about." I furrowed my brows at her.
"You know me but Tyler has never mentioned...whatever your name is." I told her.
"The name is Hayley and I'm the wolf that helped Tyler break his sire bond to Klaus. Who I understand is your mate. I didn't get that at first. All the stories Tyler told me were pretty bad. Then I met him upstairs about twenty minutes ago. I can see you digging the accent and he's pretty easy on the eyes. Though I met your brother after. Now that was man just dripping with sex." My eyes flashed red at Hayley.
"You don't have much of a filter, do you?" I stated the obvious.
I was starting to get a suspicion as to why Tyler never told any of us about Hayley.
"I do, I just chose not to use it. Call it a quirk of mine." Hayley said in a smart ass way.
"Is Tyler inside?" I asked.
"As if any of the Hybrids would let him leave." Hayley said and rolled her eyes.
I didn't say a word and walked into the mansion, "Nice meeting you!" Hayley called after me. That had to be the most annoying and repulsive werewolf I have ever met.
"Ty!" I called out as I walked into the foyer.
I heard running footsteps. I looked up at the second floor and saw Tyler looking down.
"Allye. Hey." Tyler said and started to come down the stairs.
Once he was to the ground level with me, I flicked him on his forehead.
"Ow! What the hell was that for?!" Tyler asked, glaring at me and put his hand on his forehead.
"I just met Hayley." Tyler's anger vanished and he let out a sigh.
"Klaus told you." I raised an eyebrow at that.
"Tell me what?" Tyler proceeded to face palm.
"He didn't tell you. Great." He muttered.
"I can already tell the type of person that Hayley is and I just met her." I told him.
"You don't know her." Tyler defended.
"Ty, she told me to my face that my brother is dripping with sex. If that doesn't sound like a hormonal werewolf, I don't know what does. Tell me you did not sleep with her when you were away breaking your sire bond?" I whispered the last part.
Tyler said nothing and looked away, "Unbelievable. That is going to tear Caroline's heart in half, Ty."
"I know, I know. I lied about my background when I met Hayley. I left without calling or texting. She was just supposed-"
"To be a fling? What happens in the Appalachians, stays in the Appalachians?" I goaded on.
Tyler sighed, "Okay, yeah it sounds bad." I gave him a look, "Really bad." He corrected himself.
"Please don't tell Caroline." Tyler begged.
"It's not my place to tell her. You need to come clean before your guilt starts to eat at you. Now where's Nik and Derek?" I asked.
"They're not here." Tyler answered.
"Where'd they go?" I asked in confusion.
"Damon called my cell. Klaus answered it. Damon was trying to get me to help him go after the vampire hunter. He set a trap for him. Klaus and Derek both left to help Damon." Tyler said.
"When did they leave? Where did they go?" I asked quickly.
"About fifteen minutes ago and to the hospital." I rushed out the front door. Derek's car was gone. I rushed into my car to head off to the hospital.
I pulled into the parking lot of the hospital and looked in alarm at two to three fire trucks parked outside. I stopped my car and put it into park. I got out of my car and looked at the hospital. I could see blown windows and scorch marks on the outside of the building.
I saw a nurse heading my way. I quickly jogged over to him.
"Hey excuse me. What happened?" I asked him.
"There was an explosion on one of the floors. The fire department is looking into it now. If you have a loved one admitted right now, don't worry. No casualties or injuries." The nurse assured me.
"Thank you." He nodded and continued on his way.
"Allye!" I turned my head to see Derek jogging over to me.
"Derek, you're okay." I said and hugged him out of relief.
"Yeah I'm fine. You mind giving me a ride back? Klaus took my car after he saved the hunter." I frowned at that.
"Saved the hunter?" I repeated.
Derek nodded, "We had the hunter stuck with arrows attached to explosives. The hunter tried to blow us all up. I got out and so did Damon but Klaus and the hunter were nowhere to be seen. I came down to get my car and discovered an empty parking space where my car was supposed to be." Derek said, annoyed.
"Go ahead and get in the car. I'll be there in a minute." I told Derek and took out my phone. Derek nodded and walked past me. I dialed Nik's number and after a few rings he answered.
"Not cool leaving my brother stranded at the hospital after an explosion." I started off the conversation.
"Hi to you too, love." Nik answered.
"What is going on, Nik? Derek told me that you saved the hunter. Why?" I asked.
"Let's just say he's a hunter I haven't come across in over nine hundred years."
"Where are you now?" I asked.
"Currently heading to the Salvatore Boarding house. Stefan left me nine voicemails to get over there as soon as possible."
"You're seriously going to help Stefan. One of the people responsible for desiccating you in the first place!" I said angrily on the phone.
"No need to worry, love. The moment he tries something I'll rip his heart from his chest." Nik assured me.
I let out a sigh, "Just...be safe, please. I just got you back. I don't need another scare." I softly pleaded with him.
"I'll be fine, my love. I do want to talk to you later in person. It's important."
"All right. I'll see you later then. I love you."
"I love you too. See you tonight." I hung up the phone and headed back to my car.
I got into the driver's seat and closed the door. Derek eyed me as I put the car into drive.
"How does it feel by the way?" He asked me.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Finding your mate. The only other wolf I know that found their mate was mom. It's more rare than you think." Derek explained.
"It's like there's this invisible connection between the two of us. It starts off weak but it gets stronger and stronger each passing day. At some point, you can't bear the thought to be away from them. You want to be by their side every day. And the biggest thing is, you feel complete." I told Derek honestly as I drove.
Derek nodded, "It sounds like some very intense emotions."
"You have no idea." I said chuckling.
My shoes crunched on the fallen leaves as I walked through the forest with the stars and a crescent moon in the sky. It was in the second week of September and fall was in full swing now. Felt nice during the day and got chilly at night. I had my thicker jacket on as I headed through the forest.
I had gotten a call from Megan regarding the party. Just like Cora predicted, the alcohol had been spiked with werewolf venom. Rebekah and Elena were the only two vampires there. Nik sent me a text saying he cured Elena from the venom and that he was heading to a spot for us to meet. He sent me his coordinates and now I'm out here in the forest. I'm not sure why he wanted to talk out here rather than inside a building. I found a clearing in the forest and saw Nik leaning against a large boulder.
He saw me approaching and pushed off the boulder. "Evening, love. You remember this place?" He asked as we met in the middle.
I looked around and it slowly came back to me, "This is where we first met." I answered.
Nik smiled, "Yes it is. I thought I'd bring you out here for nostalgia sake."
I raised an eyebrow, "I somehow doubt it's just because of that." I knew Nik better than that.
"Correct again, love. I needed somewhere quiet and private to talk to you. Don't need anyone's ears listening in." I nodded, understanding now.
Nik held his hand, "Come on, let's go for a walk while we chat." I took his hand and he interlaced our fingers.
"Is this about the hunter?" I guessed as we started walking. Nik did save him from an explosion earlier today.
Nik nodded, "He's not an ordinary hunter. He's part of something called The Brotherhood of the Five. Back in 12th Century Italy, they were a highly skilled group of vampire hunters. They made public showings of executing vampires to the people. Word was starting to spread about the Original Vampires. We didn't know it at the time, but the Brotherhood already knew what we were." Nik started off.
"How would they have known that?" I asked. I pulled myself into Nik and hugged his arm and leaned my head on his upper arm as we walked.
"Rebekah had fallen in love with one of The Five. His name was Alexander. Elijah and I took that as a window to get more information from them. They were looking for creatures of the night so we felt quite safe around him wearing our daylight rings. Alexander had mentioned they had the ultimate weapon and claimed no vampire could survive." Nik continued.
"Well that sounds pleasant." I said sarcastically. Nik smiled and chuckled.
"Just wait till the end. Alexander told us he had this tattoo on him that would lead him to the ultimate weapon. That's where Rebekah came in for her part. Alexander was unwilling to tell us anything about the tattoo. Rebekah was more than willing to investigate." Nik started again.
"I think we're getting to the part where everything went horribly wrong." Nik started to laugh and looked at me.
"Can I finish the story, love? Then you can make all the sarcastic comments you want." Nik asked with a smile on his face.
I rolled my eyes, "I guess. Continue."
"As I was saying, Rebekah was investigating to find more information about the tattoo. We found out that the tattoo was really a map that led to a treasure and the sword The Five used was the key to read it. The night Alexander told Rebekah more about the map was also the night he and his brothers daggered all of us in our sleep. And as you already know that the dagger has no effect on me. I killed every member of The Five that night. I was furious at Rebekah as Alexander and his brethren would not have made a move unless she let her guard down and was vulnerable. Alexander had promised her something. That promise was a cure to vampirism. That was the weapon." Nik stopped walking and I looked in front of me in shock.
"An actual cure for vampirism." I said in awe, "If it does exist and you had all the pieces to the map, why didn't you already find it?" I asked, looking up at him.
"After I killed the hunters, their tattoo disappeared alongside them. For the next nine hundred years we heard nothing more about the Brotherhood. Until today." I let go of Nik's arm so I could fully face him.
"I met the hunter today and I didn't see any tattoo's on him." I told Nik.
"Yes, that's the problem. Apparently on the newest batch of The Five the tattoo is invisible and only selected few can see it. The hunter has already told me who can see it." Nik stated.
"Who?" I asked.
"Jeremy Gilbert, and lucky for us he's an artist. He can see and draw us the tattoo." Nik said.
"Um, small problem. Jeremy won't help us, he hates you." I reminded Nik.
"He does, but he'll help us if it means getting the cure for Elena." I didn't even think of that.
"Elena will be human again." I whispered.
"Which means I can turn you into a Hybrid again." Nik said and grabbed my hands.
"What about the legend?" I asked him.
"You heard Cora say it herself. It's an ancient legend that was spread by word of mouth. It has probably gotten mixed up over the past two thousand years. It could be false for all we know." Nik argued.
"So can the cure. The cure sounds too good to be true." I countered.
"Where is this coming from? Just a few days ago you were on board to become a hybrid." Nik asked with concern.
"That was before we found out about the legend of an immortal werewolf. We found a second option. Both the cure and the legend sound like a long shot, but you're betting on the cure. I'm betting on the legend." I informed Nik.
"Nik, I need to look into the legend. You know I don't really want to be part vampire. I had no other choice though, I had to make that sacrifice so I could be with you forever." Nik swallowed thickly as he stared at me, "But now there's another option where I don't have to be part vampire and I can still be with you forever."
"You find out about getting closer to the cure and I'll work on discovering more about the legend." I compromised.
"And if the legend is false? Will you still agree to become a hybrid as we originally planned?" Nik asked with fear hidden in his voice.
I took a step closer and cupped Nik's cheeks with my hands. I lightly stroke my thumbs on his cheeks, "Yes. I will. I'm not leaving you. Ever." I assured him.
Nik let out a shaky breath of relief. He gently grabbed my hands away from his face. He closed his eyes and leaned his forehead against mine as he held my hands to his chest.
"You scared me. Talking like that." Nik whispered.
"I didn't mean to. I'm sorry." I apologized.
I moved my hands out from his and pulled him towards me in a hug. He lifted his head for a moment before placing his cheek on top of my head and his arms wrapped around me. We stood there and just held each other tightly.
After another minute, I felt a wind-chill hit me and I tensed at the sudden cold feeling. Nik felt me tense and pulled away from the hug.
"Come on, love. Let's get you out of the cold." He kept his right arm around my waist and my left arm around his as we walked out of the forest together.
Derek and Cora are now in Mystic Falls meaning the official Hale Pack is now back together. She meets Hayley which in my AU her and Tyler did have a sexual relationship. Canon was pointing to all the signs of the two having that relationship. Then they reveal "Oh, we just pretended to throw off Klaus" was completely stupid in my opinion. Allye is told by Klaus about the Cure. Allye still isn't too keen on becoming a vampire but now she might have an option. Next chapter you'll be seeing more interaction between some of the Mystic Falls residents of the Hale siblings. Derek and Cora aren't going anywhere. They'll be around for the rest of the chapters. :)