Damon hardly waited for her, flashing beyond the treeline. Caroline followed quickly, though the dread sitting in her stomach weighed her down. She didn't need a guide to dodge through the trees - she could feel herself drawing closer to Klaus with every step. The ground underneath her feet was dry and the undergrowth cracked and crunched with every step.

Just beyond the creek, the forest opened up to a hollow clearing. Caroline saw Klaus before the others. He stood in the centre and his eyes met hers the second she came into view. Even from 30 yards, she could clearly see the way his jaw tensed up.

It was when she looked past him and saw Stefan and Elena that she stopped still. Before she had time to form a conscious thought on the matter, blinding pain split across her temples. Caroline's knees buckled and she held her head in her hands.

Her cry of pain was cut short as Bonnie's indignant tone cut through, "stop it! You promised she wouldn't get hurt."

The aneurysm stopped as suddenly as it had started, and Caroline opened her eyes slowly. The first thing she noticed was the white circle of grainy powder surrounding her. Nervous eyes edged up to where her friend stood side by side with a taller, older women holding a grimoire which looked far older than anything Bonnie had lying around.

"Calm down, child," the unfamiliar woman demanded with a cold tone.

"That's nifty." Damon commented, eyes flitting between Caroline's circle and matching one which had appeared surrounding Klaus.

Caroline scrambled to her feet, eyeing where Klaus rubbed his temples. She tried to step forward but found herself unable to escape the circle. It was as if a perspex wall had trapped her in, though nothing was visible. The fear sparked in her gut at being held.

"Bonnie?!" she called, the sinking feeling of betrayal curling inside as her friend failed to meet her gaze.

"Gloria!" Klaus growled, as vicious as Caroline had ever heard him. She could feel his dread now, echoes of his anxiety bubbling in her own chest. Klaus was scared. That terrified her.

Without even a glance, the tall woman turned to Bonnie and handed her a side of the grimoire. "Let's begin." Together they started chanting with a low grumble, loud enough for Caroline to hear though it was in a language she couldn't understand.

"I'll have your head for this, witch!" Klaus shouted, hands colliding against the barrier. Caroline was dismayed to see that he nor the circle containing him moved.

"Elena?!" Caroline called, pivoting to see where she stood half shielded by the brothers.

Unlike Bonnie, Elena met her gaze with wide, apologetic eyes. "I'm sorry, Caroline. This is for the be-"

She thought that Klaus might have yelled something but she didn't catch it. Without warning excruciating, burning pain struck through her feet and well into her shins.

It rocketed up from her soles, firing through every nerve on the way to her head and she could do nothing but howl at the viciousness of it. Nothing, nothing she had ever felt came close. No amount of gore, stabbing or burning compared. It felt like forever too, the bite as it crept up her legs, growing in coverage but consistent in its brutality.

She was lost to the world. With her eyes tightly shut and the ground beneath her, no sound could possibly have cut through the shock of pain. And then - after long, horrific seconds - it eased. It didn't leave, not by any stretch of the imagination, but for a second it stopped growing. Then it drew back, losing ground until she could stop screaming and catch a sobbing breath.

Panting shakily into the ground, Caroline's body protested her movement but the adrenaline coursing in her veins told her in no uncertain terms that she needed to get away from the clearing. She opened her wet eyes and pushed up to sit. The stabbing pain through her feet told her that - despite all the will in the world - walking would be impossible.

Her eyes found Klaus easily, hunched over on his knees but seemingly okay. She noticed the circle around him had disappeared and the moment that he looked up to meet her gaze, their attention was diverted elsewhere.

With an unceremonious thump, Gloria's body hit the ground. While Caroline jolted at the heavy sound, she soon realised why.

Next to Bonnie where the witch once was, stood Kol. With a lazy smile he nodded to Klaus, holding up a bloody looking wrist. "Thought you'd like to have a chat with her later, hmm?"

Then all hell broke loose. With an incomprehensible yelp, Damon flashed across the clearing straight for Caroline. While she leapt to her feet and braced herself, the action caused her a great deal of searing pain. She needn't have. From the right of the forest bursting through the treeline came a wolf moving just as quickly as any vampire could. With a crunch it took Damon down, gnawing deep into his shoulder. Caroline fell back to her knees as he cried out, both of their pain too much to bear.

Stefan moved quickly then, stepping away from Elena to flash towards his brother. The wolf pulled away instantly, leaving Damon wide-eyed and panic stricken in the dirt. The wolf flashed in front of Caroline and skidded as it turned to face the vampires. It sat low on its front paws, primed and ready to strike.

Stefan didn't spare it a glance on the beeline to his brother, but was intercepted not by the wolf, but by Klaus. Caroline couldn't help but gasp as the pain in his feet echoed in her own along with something far more vicious stirring in her chest.

In a split second, Klaus squeezed one hand around the Salvatore's neck. With a wet squelch, he thrust a hand into Stefan's chest.

"Klaus!" Caroline called in blind panic.

Elena's call was a second later, human eyes struggling to keep up with supernatural speed.

No one moved. His back was to her and the tense muscles under his shirt twitched angrily. She could feel him too. Feel his vicious, vicious rage, his own pain, his lingering fear. Yes, she felt it, but it was coupled with the prospect of further bloodshed - of Stefan, someone that she loved quite dearly, who'd taken her under his wing from the day she woke up in the hospital and showed her how to live in spite of the monster underneath her skin.

"Klaus, put him down," she called though the anxiety laced her tone.

The wolf was tight against Klaus' skin, begging to be let out and relentless in its pursuit of freedom. He hardly registered her words as he grappled to maintain a hold of himself. There was no logical thought in the argument, no reasoning for sparing the doppelgänger, the Bennett witch or the Ripper's lives when they had hurt his mate. His wolf wanted unbridled bloodshed, to eliminate any and all threats. Klaus wanted to let him.

She called out again, but it was the echoes of her pain which really caught his attention. Stefan's nails scraped weakly at his wrist, and while Klaus' eyes were very much open, he found himself not seeing much. With a vile, wet noise, he pulled his hand away - empty, but blood soaked.

It wasn't Caroline's calls, nor the vague memories of a past friendship which let him swallow the wolf down. No, it was the single truth that a heart removed would be too quick a death for someone who had wronged him so severely. He'd take his time with Stefan someday when he had Caroline safe from harm and well out of earshot. He needed the doppelgänger too, if the Immortality Spell was to be performed anytime in the next few hundred years.

In his chest he could feel Caroline's relief, but he felt none of his own. With a flash, he broke Stefan's neck and threw his body to the ground. With slow, human steps he turned around.

While the doppelgänger stared doe-eyed at Damon's deadly bite frozen in her shock, the Bennett witch was terrified. Even from across the clearing, he could hear her heart beating as Kol snatched the grimoire from her and read with morbid fascination.

"Calm, brother," Kol said casually, but Klaus' responding growl had him raising an eyebrow.

The wolf crouched in front of Caroline seemed to recognise that the threat was put down. It stood up on all four legs and turned around, nuzzling at her hand until Caroline looked down at it. It was black all over with a deep chocolate shine and eyes as dark as night.

Flabbergasted, Caroline looked up when she heard Bonnie speak. "It… it wasn't supposed to hurt. It was just going to unbind you."

Kol snorted loudly and let himself grin at the way Bonnie startled. While he was quite partial to a Bennett witch, he preferred them with a little more intuition. "And tell me, did Gloria let you read this little charm at all?"

Bonnie's struggle to form words told Caroline all she needed to know and while her friend's wide, pleading eyes tugged on her heartstrings, it was hard to focus on anything but the sharp and throbbing pain in her feet.

Looking up from the grimoire, Kol gave Klaus a steely look. The returning growl was loud and uncontained. Klaus flashed to Caroline, side stepping the wolf to kneel by her. Wordlessly, he slipped hands under her and lifted her into his arms.

"See this line right here?" Kol asked conversationally, leaning over to Bonnie to show her what he could see.

Bonnie's gasp was harrowing. "I didn't… I didn't know. Caroline?!"

"Yes, you'd have killed her in quite a horrific way. It's impossible to unbind mates, by the way, but I'm sure old Nik already mentioned that and you chose to ignore it. Besides, I'm quite certain he is immortal."

"Klaus?! Klaus you have to save him!" Elena's panicked voice was punctuated in the way that she came to her senses, running over to where Damon sat, dazed and staring at a wound that wouldn't heal.

Caroline pressed her forehead into Klaus' shoulder and breathed in the scent of him. Her feet hurt, but it was far easier to ignore curled up in his arms.

"Go, Nik. I'm sure I can ensure that all our new friends get home safely." For once, Klaus was immensely grateful for Kol's ability to read him like a book.

The wolf at his legs was looking intently at him. With a sharp nod to it, he took long strides across the clearing. "Don't kill the vampires yet." He ordered in Kol's direction, tightening his grip on his mate.

The doppelgänger's shrieking followed him out, "I'll do anything! You can have some blood, I'll give you it!" and while Klaus would have considered that bargain weeks ago, now it seemed unthinkable. Every instinct told him to get Caroline away from the clearing, away from those who had tried - consciously or not - to harm her. Besides, when he wanted the doppelgänger's blood, he'd take it.

As soon as he reached the treeline, he flashed out of sight.

Caroline didn't pull her head from his neck until he set her down. Blinking blindly as her eyes acclimated to the light, she briefly caught sight of the interior of his car before a bloodied wrist was pressed to her mouth and her eyes slid shut once more. The scent of his blood alone was intoxicating, but the taste was euphoric.

She sank her fangs in without hesitation and held open the wound as she swallowed. Almost instantly her feet felt better, the pain no longer stabbing and shooting up through her shins. She could still feel his though, faint but very much present. As the pain plateaued, she pulled away with a quiet, "thank you."

The door slammed shut and then to her left another just a few seconds after. She felt him start up the engine and move off before she blinked her eyes open once more.

The shock had her numb and shaking where she sat. It was some time later that the pain in her feet faded. Glancing over, she watched him gulp down a blood bag while steering with one hand. Klaus was visibly tense, grip tight and brow furrowed. The aggression rolled off of him in waves, but she felt no fear.

"Where are we going?" she asked quietly as she saw the back of the 'Welcome to Mystic Falls' sign fly past.

"Away," he grunted.

Caroline opened her mouth to protest, but Klaus cut her off with an authoritative tone. "Don't fight me, Caroline. Not now."

She didn't like orders at the best of times. Her chest still felt tight and uncomfortable, her head too hot and her skin too cold. "What-"

Klaus cut her off again, not with words, but with an almighty growl which filled the space and shook the air around her.

That cleared the fog in her mind just a little and she sat up. "Did you just growl at me?!" she snapped indignantly, turning in her seat to take in his profile. She was cold. Definitely cold, with the AC blasting and only her tank top and shorts to cover her.

He didn't answer but Caroline saw the way his grip tightened even further, white knuckles on the wheel.

"What just happened?!" she hissed, shutting the AC off. Clarity was returning quickly, events sorting themselves straight in her mind in the absence of pain. "Oh my god, Bonnie. Elena? We left them there?! With Kol?!"

Still he offered no response.

"I swear to god if he hurts them I will find a way to end him, Klaus! And Damon got bit?! You have to cure him. Stop!"

Even at the threat to his brother, Klaus kept his eyes on the road ahead. He drove quickly and the roads were graciously quiet in the early morning.

Caroline tried to calm herself with deep breaths. "Klaus?" she tried in a more measured tone, "Klaus, look at me. Take me home."

"No," he said firmly.

"Take me back. Now."

"Why?"

"Because that's what I want you to do."

"How can you be loyal to people who betray you without hesitation?!" Klaus hissed.

Caroline braced herself but refused to look away from him. "They're my friends."

"They were going to kill you, Caroline! There is no such thing as breaking a soulbond! If your so-called-friends had read the spell they were casting then they might have realised that. Instead they gave you a death sentence."

Caroline stilled. "You were scared... I could feel it."

Klaus didn't deny it.

"But you wouldn't have died."

"No," he breathed.

And the realisation dawned on Caroline suddenly. She'd only noticed his fear three times before. It felt foreign and terrifying and the memories had stuck with her.

The first was the night Kol was attacked. In the few moments before Klaus had realised that it wasn't Caroline who was hurt - when he'd laid his hands on her before checking himself - she'd felt his fear. She hadn't realised it at the time, couldn't have explained why she felt his dread so viscerally, but it was so obvious in hindsight.

The second was when Alaric had taken her and she'd known - she'd just known - that Klaus would come for her. She'd been so distracted by her own fear, her own raging panic, to notice his echoing in her chest.

And then just an hour ago with her life on the line. The all-consuming fear that she had felt from Klaus wasn't about the threat to his own life or the pain of the spell, but of the threat to hers.

Caroline didn't know how to react to that. She turned to face the open road and resigned herself to her thoughts.

A few hours later when the sun had risen in the sky and the AC had to be switched back on, Caroline struggled to keep her eyes open. With the adrenaline faded and the pain gone, the way that her night's sleep had been cut short caught up with her.

She hardly noticed when Klaus pulled into a long, winding driveway. They were in the middle of nowhere, just rolling hills and stretches of dense forest to be seen. He parked in front of a house, large, but not as grand as his mansion in Mystic Falls. Pale yellow in colour, with wide windows and a painted white veranda above the double doored entrance.

Without a word, he hopped out of the car and Caroline blinked at the sound of the door slamming. Then he was opening hers to slip gentle hands under her body.

"I can walk," she muttered, but he lifted her anyway.

Caroline didn't have the energy to be irritated with him, nor to overthink his affections. She nuzzled in close to his neck and let him carry her.

Just moments later she was lowered onto a soft bed.

"You're tired, love. Sleep now. We can talk later," Klaus muttered, moving to the windows to draw the curtains tight.

She kicked off her shoes and crawled beneath the covers, but her heart lurched as he turned to leave her in peace. "Klaus?" she called.

He turned at the doorway. Caroline reached to the other side of the bed and drew back the covers.

In spite of his wolf's need to run loose, in spite of his own personal urge for violence, in spite of the fact that he couldn't sleep then even if he tried, he shut the door before climbing into bed beside her.

Caroline awoke alone some time later. She lay still for a while, listening to the quiet, indistinguishable noises from the rest from the house while trying to find some semblance of peace in the brutal betrayal that she couldn't ignore anymore. It wasn't that she could have died, although that certainly didn't do anything to make her feel better. It was that she'd asked both Bonnie and Elena specifically to keep her secret. She'd trusted that they'd respect her wishes, that they'd have enough faith to let her make her own choices. Instead, they'd sided with some witch they'd never met before. Did they really think her that incapable, that stupid ?

It was raw and painful in her chest, and not even the soothing scent of the sheets beneath her could lull her back into a pleasant dream. She got up, shifting to the en suite to find fluffy towels in the cupboards. After showering quickly, she covered herself in a towel and traipsed back into the bedroom. Her pyjamas were filthy and there was no chance that she was going to put them back on. While she wanted to go downstairs and asked permission to borrow something, she could hear the murmurs of a conversation and didn't feel like meeting someone while she was half naked. Instead she opened the wardrobe to find something - anything - less dirty than her pyjamas.

The scent of him was overwhelming and there was no doubt that everything in it belonged to him. Trying not to think about the recent revelations in their relationship, she pulled a pair of sweats and a plain t-shirt on, tying her wet hair up to dry in the Virginia heat.

She padded downstairs and stilled when both occupants of the kitchen turned to see her. Besides Klaus was a thin woman with dark hair cut to her shoulders. She didn't speak, but Caroline recognised her instantly. Close up, the woman who so frequently hid in the trees by her house and the wolf who had ripped through Damon's shoulder shared the same colouring.

"It was you?" she breathed.

Her bodyguard didn't respond, but moved to walk out of the door when Klaus dismissed her with a wave.

"Thank you." Caroline called, but the hybrid didn't stop.

Then she was left alone with a quiet house and Klaus' intense gaze fixed on her. She took in the marble tops of the kitchen, the light wood colouring of the floor and the gentle grey fabrics which were dotted around. It was so unlike his Mystic Falls home that she wondered if it was his at all.

"Hi," she said finishing down the last few steps to be level with him.

"Hello, sweetheart," he replied, and Caroline didn't miss the way his hungry eyes lingered on her attire.

"Is it okay? I would have asked but I heard you had company."

"It's fine." It was great actually. While Klaus had tried to tire his wolf with a long run in the forest outside, it still delighted in her wearing his clothes, being covered in his scent.

Wordlessly he shifted to sit on the couch, gesturing at the spot next to him. For a second it reminded her of that time outside the Grill when he'd asked her for a chance.

She sat but found herself unwilling to meet his gaze. Instead she stared down at her hands, picking fruitlessly at the clean skin around her fingernails. "This was my fault."

"No," he replied, so much calmer than he had been in the car that morning.

"I told them. It's my fault."

"And I told the witch."

Caroline glanced at him and was relieved to find that his eyes held no malice. "Who was she?"

"Gloria. I thought she was an ally when I told her about you."

"She couldn't have told Bonnie what would happen." As she spoke, his gaze turned darker and his brow furrowed. "I know you don't believe me, but I know her. Bonnie wouldn't have done it if she'd known."

She could tell that he had wanted to interrupt her in the speed with which he replied. "I believe that Gloria would not have told them the consequences of that spell, Caroline. However that doesn't account for their idiocracy in trusting an unfamiliar witch."

And Caroline knew that. She knew that her friends had done something so awful, something which could have left her mother without a daughter. And as much as she had tried to reason with herself there was not an excuse that she could find to acquit them of the wrong they'd done. Hearing his words, it hit her in the gut. The hollowness sat heavily and the change didn't escape Klaus.

"What is it, sweetheart?" he asked gently.

Caroline tried so hard to keep herself calm, but the anxiety bubbled wildly. She couldn't stop replaying the hours and hours that she'd spent feeling guilty for betraying them . When she had went behind their backs and caused their plan to fail, she hadn't realised that their loyalty to her was as fake as the stake she'd planted.

Damon and Stefan were understandable - their loyalty to Elena trumped all else. Elena herself had her life threatened, and while Caroline wouldn't have made the same choices, she could empathise enough to understand why Elena would betray her.

But Bonnie stung. Bonnie, who she's specifically told in no uncertain terms to leave her bond with Klaus alone. Bonnie was supposed to be her best friend. Caroline couldn't understand why she had done it.

Klaus could see the tears welling in her eyes and desperately wanted to pull her into his arms. He usually showed better restraint, but with the echo of a threat to his mate still lingering in his mind, he threw hell to the wind. She went easily, wrapping her arms around his shoulders as he pulled her onto his lap. With her face buried in his neck, Klaus felt the sadness in his chest and in the wetness which soaked through his shirt.

"It's just going to keep happening, isn't it?" she whispered. "Now everyone knows. Tyler might have told someone who's told someone else. They won't stop, will they?"

"No."

"So what do I do?" she breathed, clinging to the way he stroked at her hair. Caroline didn't want to die. She didn't want to go running either, leaving her mom human and vulnerable. The fear only made her cry more, an outpouring of raw emotion at the trainwreck her life had become in a matter of weeks.

Klaus swallowed hard. He listened to her shaky breaths and weighed the pros and cons in his mind. In the end, it was her hiccuping sob which convinced him to come clean. "There is a way for you to be safe, love. Like me."

"A hybrid?"

"An Original," he breathed. She didn't move from her hiding spot, and he was compelled to fill the silence. "The Immortality Spell."

It was a while before she spoke. "What would that mean?"

Klaus fought the smile from his face because despite her sadness, he knew she was considering it. "Survival," he said easily, "the only problem is that it requires a rather rare artifact that I had Gloria looking for, but she's hardly in a position to help me look now."

"What is it?"

"A white oak stake."

The way Caroline's body tensed up had him coaxing her with gentle hands from where she was hidden. Klaus watched her flitting eyes and felt the press of her hands against his chest.

"I thought you destroyed them all?" she whispered.

"All but one," he replied, wiping away the tear tracks from her cheeks, "I thought that it had resurfaced when Kol was stabbed. Alas, just a replica."

Caroline sniffed at that, looking down at her hands.

Klaus covered them with his own. He couldn't help but think of how beautiful she was even under unfortunate circumstances. "Make no mistake, Caroline. If this is what you want, I will find it for you."

She nodded once, but didn't meet his eye. "I need to call the school."

"Already done," Klaus said, his heart sinking at her dismissal.

"My mom?"

"She knows that you're safe."

She met his gaze then, quite taken that he had thought of that too.

Klaus stared into her eyes - dry, but wide. It took a long minute before the sadness crept up again. He pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her back and holding her against his chest as she choked on a sob.

"You're safe, Caroline. You're going to be safe," Klaus whispered.

It was later that evening that Caroline mustered the strength to go for a walk. Klaus had assured her that it was quite safe on the compound, spelled by ancient magic to be untraceable and guarded by a handful of his hybrids. It was beautiful too, all green trees opening on to golden fields. She'd left her phone at home and was surprised by how free she felt away from the endless string of texts.

She walked alone, though the scent of the clothes she was wearing soothed her anxiety over it. It had been hours since they left Mystic Falls and she had spent most of the day worrying (and then regretting worrying) about her friends back home. She cared very little whether Damon lived or died, but Bonnie and Elena were - at their core - good people.

The only thing which could take her mind off it caused equal distress - that she was now hundreds of miles away from the real white oak stake. She hadn't hidden it nearly as well as she'd need to if Klaus was on the hunt, or even if her friends started looking for it. The only thing which soothed her was that to the best of her knowledge, her friends thought it to be destroyed.

And then there was Klaus' offer of true immortality to consider. The magnitude of being bound to him was finally starting to settle, and she found herself terrified at the thought of his enemies. Thousands of them, all wanting her head.

The fresh air and stunning landscape was working wonders on her mood when she was distracted by a feeling deep in her gut. It wasn't painful per-say, it didn't stab or ache, but it was a definite, strange sensation she'd never felt before. While it stopped her in her tracks initially, when it soon faded Caroline kept walking and didn't think much of it.

Just a little while later as she passed a wooden barn straight out of an old movie, it happened again. This time it was almost a cramp and she gasped aloud at the tightness in her stomach. When the feeling eased, it was replaced by a faint fear in her chest which she knew wasn't her own. With fast feet, Caroline headed back to the house to find Klaus.

Pressing open the front door and slipping inside, she could feel that he was close. As Caroline wandered through each room, she called out for him and the lack of reply spurred her to move more quickly. The dread only grew and her search became more fantic.

Heading up the stairs she almost tripped over him when she hit the landing.

"Klaus?!"

He was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, elbows resting on bent knees.

"What's wrong?!" she asked, crouching down beside him.

Klaus didn't look up, not even when she touched his shoulder and paused at how unnaturally hot he felt. "I thought I had more time," he breathed and Caroline stilled at the tone.

"You're freaking me out, what is it?!"

Caroline's jaw dropped at the fear which crossed his expression. His curls were wild and unkempt against his forehead and his lips were pressed in an unhappy line. As she sat down on the ground, she stroked across his temple and then, as he leaned into her touch with a whimper, held his head in both hands and guided his gaze to hers. Then she got her answer.

"I'm going into a rut."

A/N: Since we don't have author's notes here, I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who has left a review on this work. It is so so so awesome of you and means the world.