I stood on the front porch of the manor leaning against one of the white pillars as I watched mover after mover enter and leave the house carrying more and more furniture out. Rebekah stood in the foyer in astonishment as they carried the coffins that were in the cellar outside and set them down on the cobblestone. Klaus had compelled them to come and remove the furniture and coffins from the manor. My unbound blonde hair blew in the wind as I observed the situation quietly through narrowed eyes as the morning sun began to appear from behind the grey clouds. Insects chirped and screeched in the trees and grass and the smell of the moist bog traveled on the phantom wind. The metallic and coppery taste of blood from my breakfast still lingered on the tip of my tongue as I waited patiently for Elijah.

"Absolutely not." Rebekah protested as they lugged out a gorgeous cherry wood coffee table. "I paid for that."

"Please." Elijah's voice sounded as he walked down the steps to the foyer. "Never paid for anything in your life." Rebekah scoffed.

"I hardly see how that's relevant. Nik is just punishing us."

"Well, we've hurt him, deeply, it would appear." I tore my eyes away from the moving truck and looked through the doorway at Elijah, struggling to keep my face adamant as I scanned his attire. He was wearing dark jeans with boots and a deep dark navy blue over coat. I cleared my throat and looked down at my feet before he could catch me staring.

"We believed the worst about him. The one time in a million when the worst wasn't actually true."

"You ready, Elijah?" I called into the house, still looking at my feet as I toed to wooden boards. Elijah's footsteps sounded as he began to walk out the door, but his little sister stopped him.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"To ensure that Hayley doesn't suffer for our mistakes." Elijah informed her. "Niklaus is feeling vindictive. We cannot trust that she is safe." Elijah walked past me, and I followed off the porch to his car.

TO

I moved with the shadows of the back hallway of the compound that led to the back gate to the alleyway as I followed Hayley's scent and Diego's voice. The hallway was dimly lit so much that most of the time you could only make out a person's silhouette. My tongue and mouth was dry, thirsty for blood whether it be for vampire or human, at this point I didn't care. The fingertips moved along the ridges of the wall as I balanced my weight on the balls of my feet and moved silently with Elijah behind me.

"Going somewhere?" I heard Diego ask Hayley. Before Hayley could answer, Elijah rushed in and grabbed Diego by the back of head and slammed him to the ground, knocking him out. Hayley looked from Elijah to me and back again, eyes wide and filled with shock but there were still a hint of relief in those brown eyes.

"Elijah." She breathed. "Hayden. You shouldn't be here."

"I couldn't just leave you with Klaus." I told her.

"Klaus has his guys watching me."

"I wouldn't worry about them." Elijah said as two vampires were thrown out of another side hallway unconscious and Rebekah stepped out of the shadows and casually stepped over her victims and strutted over to us.

"Come." Rebekah ordered as she began to walk towards the back gate. "We mustn't linger. Let's get you someplace safe."

"No." Hayley protested, taking a step back from us and I looked at her in confusion. "You don't have to worry about me. I'm fine. I've been deemed under protection by the almighty Klaus."

"That doesn't matter, Hayley." I informed her, taking her arm in my hand, ready to drag her out of this compound if I had to. "I'm not leaving you here to be anywhere near that half-breed."

"Hayden, it's the werewolves who need help. He ordered a wolf hunt as some jacked-up peace offering to Marcel's crew. You have to help them."

"Out in the bayou?" Rebekah questioned her, astounded. "Do we look like a bloody vampire rescue squad? I think you should be grateful we came to save you." Hayley ignored her as she gripped my forearms in her hands and stared intensely at me with pleading eyes.

"Listen, Hayden, please. All my life, I've wanted to know who my real family was, and just as I find out that they're out there in the bayou, Klaus orders them killed. You want to help me? Help my people, please." I closed my eyes and groaned.

"You are killing me, woman." I growled at her lowly through gritted teeth.

TO

We headed through the bayou woods towards the shack that Hayley, Elijah, and I stayed at during his fever. It was a cool day. Comfortable enough to wear a jacket. It wasn't its usual Louisiana muggy, humid day. The sun was covered by clouds and there was a gentle breeze coming across from the water. There was a scent of rain that the wind carried meaning that it was going to rain soon. We could use it. We arrived at the shack to see a group of vampires destroying everything. Flipping over tables, tearing up tents, breaking chairs. There was a firepit in the center of the wreckage that was still smoking meaning that there were werewolves here at some point, but they must have just left before the vampires got there.

"Hey, they were obviously just here." Diego snapped at the other vampires. "Fan out, find them, and bring me some heads." Rebekah and Elijah vamp sped into the clearing behind Diego as I stayed behind to shift into my wolf form.

"I'd rather you didn't." Elijah said nonchalantly with his hands causally in his jacket pockets as Diego turned around to face the two original vampires.

"What the hell are you doing out here?"

"I've come to suggest you seek other hunting grounds."

"Suggestion noted." Rebekah slowly walked up to Diego until she was just inches away from him.

"Well, Diego, it would be such a shame to have to rearrange that pretty face." Rebekah muttered as she lifted her hand to touch his face, but he grabbed her wrist to stop her movements.

"What the hell you care about wolves?" I finished shifting into my wolf form as someone appeared out of the trees next to me. Before the vampire could disappear, I launched myself at him. He didn't stand a chance in hell as I wrapped my teeth around his throat, tackling him to the ground. He squirmed and fought as he struggled to breathed but I held tight as I dragged him down the hill and out into the clearing. Diego took a step back from seeing a large white wolf heading towards him. With a single effortless bite down, I severed the vampire's head from his body, the two pieces falling to the ground in front of me.

"Generally, I don't. However, this particular clan is not to be touched. Good-bye." I let a menacing and threatening growl as blood dripped off my chin. Diego looked around at the vampires and signaled with a wave of his finger that is was time to leave.

"Nothing here, anyway." Diego whistled and the vampires listened to him as they all vamp sped out of the clearing and disappeared into the woods.

"Great." Rebekah smiled, spinning around to face Elijah. "I guess our job here is done." Elijah became exceedingly still as he listened to the woods around us.

"Not quite." He muttered before speeding off into the woods with Rebekah and me following him. We stopped to see a woman with a cloak on with pale blonde hair. She had a pale long face with electric blue eyes. "We're not here to harm you." The woman removed the hood of her cloak and I recognized her as the woman that was watching us through the window of the shack when Elijah was infected with werewolf venom. "Hello again. Eve, was it?"

"One of Hayley's littermates, I presume."

"Hayley sent you here to protect us, didn't she?" The woman voice was a soft soprano tone. "Tell her we appreciate the concern, but we've been looking out for ourselves for a while now. Nobody finds us unless we want to be found."

"Well, we found you, so—"

"Like I said—there's something I thought you and your family should know about." Eve pulled out a piece of parchment and began to unfold it and laid it across a stump as we surrounded her to look at it. "We're surrounded by twenty thousand acres of swamp. The ones born here know it like the backs of our hands. We'll be fine, but here, newcomers from out of state, not Hayley's and my kin, but word spread about that baby of hers. Lot of werewolves want to see this miracle pregnancy for themselves, only now the vampires are out looking for blood, all these werewolves new to the bayou, they might not know where to hide."

"You say that like we're supposed to care."

"Believe me, you're gonna want them kept alive."

"And why is that?" Elijah inquired.

"See for yourself."

TO

Nighttime fell across the bayou as I traveled through the woods. I continuously sniffed the air trying to find a scent, but these wolves were good. They knew how to hide themselves. Elijah and Rebekah were going from campsite to campsite for any signs of the werewolves while I patrolled the outskirts of the bayou. I followed Elijah's scent back to the campsite that they were last at and snorted at them as I approached them. Before either one of them could say anything to me, screaming and shouting sounded to my right and I jumped as a pack of people came running into the clearing with vampires hot on their trails. Diego was of course at the head of the group. Elijah sped over to him and grabbed him by the head and pulled him off a werewolf.

"Uh!" Diego grunted as Elijah fisted his fingers in his black hair and held onto him tightly. I growled loudly enough that it made all the vampires stop their attack and I paced in front of the group of vampires herding them back to allow the werewolves to disappear into the woods and back to safety. I licked my chops, deciding which one to eat first if one of them decided to step out of line. Elijah continued to hold Diego by his hair.

"Darling, we're gonna have to stop meeting like this." Elijah purred. "This is how rumors begin." Elijah threw Diego back to the group of vampires. "You can go now." None of them made a move to leave. "Perhaps I'm not making myself clear here. This is a threat. In precisely three minutes time, your little hunting party will become the prey." I scraped my paw against the dirt and snorted, baring my teeth to validate his claim. "Now, based on your recent failure to subdue my baby brother Niklaus, this despite a better that 100:1 advantage, I recommend you heed my warning." I charged at them and roared, teeth clicking together and causing the vampires to back up and leave.

"Impressive." Rebekah praised him.

"Well, I thought the situation demanded something a little dramatic." A werewolf groaned in pain behind us on the ground as he struggled to stand up and look at us.

"Who are you people?" He questioned us. Elijah walked over to him and took the man's necklace in between his fingers, turning it over as if it were the most fascinating thing he ever saw.

"I would say the better question is, who are you?"

TO

"I stink of the bog." Rebekah whined as we walked into the manor. My fur felt heavy with the humidity of the bayou and my paws were caked with fur. I was looking forward to a hot shower and a fresh change of clothes. Before I could make a move to head upstairs, a voice to our left had my blood running cold as we turned to see Klaus sitting at the piano.

"Serves you right for your pathetic attempt to undermine my rule." Klaus growled, glaring at us, a hint of yellow flickering in his eyes.

"Nik, listen."

"When I order werewolves to be hunted to extinction, I expect you to stand aside and let the blood flow."

"How delightfully democratic of you." Elijah taunted him as he tossed the ring that he found on the werewolf to Klaus who caught it with ease. Klaus turned it over in his hand, examining it. "Do you recognize it? Perhaps you don't. It has been a thousand years since you last saw it grace the hand of our mother. The ring was in possession of one of the very wolves whose extinction you just ordered so, naturally, I questioned him. He spoke of a legend, a legend wherein long ago, a chief of theirs had fathered a child to a very powerful witch. Their mythology further states this child, a son, was later transformed into something this clan had never before seen, something werewolf and vampire."

"Nik, we're trying to make amends." Rebekah told him gently. "We found remnants of your family, the bloodline of your true father, and we saved them from being slaughtered the hands of the vampires you command.

"Niklaus, your ambitions have come before this family for far too long. I beseech you, please come home."

"What home, this pathetic substitute?" Klaus questioned him, signaling with his hand at the manor. "You see, despite all your doubts, all your attempts to thwart me, I've reclaimed our true home. I took back the entire city."

"You have the audacity to boast of your victory when the mother of your child remains your prisoner?" Klaus rolled his eyes.

"It all comes down to the pretty, little wolf, doesn't it, brother?"

"Stop it, both of you." Rebekah snapped and Klaus stood up from the piano and held up the ring to Elijah's face.

"Even if this is what you say it is, I had had enough of family to last me a lifetime." Klaus set the ring down on the smooth, shiny black surface of the piano. "Why would I possibly want any more?" Klaus pushed Elijah and walked out the front door.