/AN: Okay, so here's chapter 7: The Bitch Is Back. Hope you guys enjoy it! PS. This chapter has been edited.

Disclaimer: I have never owned The Darkest powers trilogy.

Last Time:

The sound of a fight echoed through the house followed by the sound of a loud thwack! "Stay here." Derek said as he quickly, but silently exited the room.

"Like hell." I mumbled I followed him out to the top of the stairs, confused at what I saw. Mason was panting, his hand still holding the baseball bat that was usually kept by the refrigerator in the kitchen. Unconscious, by Mason's feet was a familiar looking woman.

"Lauren?"/

Chloe's POV

Simon came up behind me, rubbing his eyes. "Is that Lauren?"

"Why is Mason holding a baseball bat? And who is Lauren?" Lucy asked.

Kit and Marlee came down the hall. "What the hell is going on?" He looked over at Mason. "Is that Lauren?"

"My words exactly," Simon said.

Kit ignored Simon and walked over to Lauren's unconscious body. "How hard did you hit her?" He asked Mason.

"Hard enough," Mason mumbled.

"Would someone please tell me who this intruder is and why we're treating her like a friend?" Marlee stood in front of Kit, her arms folded across her chest.

"She's my aunt." I replied simply.

"She's still alive from what I can tell. Just out cold." Kit said. He turned to Marlee. "Lauren is Chloe's aunt. She traveled with us when our group first formed a few years ago."

"Why'd she get kicked out?" Lucy asked.

"She didn't. She left." I told her. I wasn't too fond of the way she left either.

"Why'd she leave?" Marlee turned to Kit.

"Lauren left because she couldn't handle Derek's condition and what it entailed." Kit said, preparing to say more.

"Simon interrupted. "That's only half of the reason. Lauren left because she was convinced that Derek was a monster and didn't like the fact that he and Chloe were together. She was a total bitch about it."

"Anyway…" Kit gave Simon a look. "She clearly came here for a reason. So let's move her to the living room."

Marlee stopped Kit. "Hold it, you have no idea where she's been for the last, what? Year and a half? And you're just gonna let her in?"

Kit glanced toward me. "We've been keeping in touch." I rolled my eyes. Marlee glared and Kit sighed. "If it makes you feel any better, I'll tie her up."

"Fine."

Mason helped Kit move Lauren to the couch in the living room, binding her hands and feet with rope. When they were finished Kit said, "Kids, stay here. I'm going to go have a word with Marlee." Simon, Lucy, Mason, Tori, Derek and I spread about the room. Derek and I took a spot on the other couch. I sat in the middle, close to Derek. Mason pulled up a chair from the kitchen and sat it beside the door frame. Simon and Lucy sat next to each other on the floor. Tori, who had come in, in the middle of Marlee and Kit's argument, took the love seat by the window, curling up on her side.

"So are you going to tell us anything else about your aunt, other than the fact that she hates Derek?" Mason asked, his arms across his chest.

"There's nothing really to tell other then the fact that se used to work of the Edison Group." I replied, snuggling close to Derek who wrapped his arm around my shoulders.

"BORING." Mason rolled his eyes at Tori. "Let's talk about something fun." Tori said from her spot on the couch. "Chloe, do you want the baby to be a boy or a girl?"

I blinked. "I haven't really thought about it… a boy I guess."

"Why?" Lucy asked.

I shrugged. "Girls seem more high maintenance and needy."

"It could be twins." Derek said out of the blue.

I looked at him in horror. "Don't even joke," I said.

"Who's joking?" He asked.

Before he could say anymore, Simon started in. "It's a known fact that natural werewolf pregnancies generally come in pairs or threes. I don't think it goes past that but who knows? Maybe Derek's got demon sperm—"

Derek chucked his shoe at Simon's head as Simon rolled on the floor laughing his ass of. "Not even funny, Simon." I replied.

"Despite Simon's false accusation of demon sperm, I was serious about the baby being twins. It's about a seventy percent chance for twins and a fifty percent chance for triplets." Derek said.

"I don't think it's twins. I really don't." I said. I really hoped not.

Derek raised a brow. "Wanna bet?" He asked.

I was in a particularly good mood and had a good feeling about my take on the conversation. "Yeah, alright. What are the stakes?" I asked.

Derek smirked. "If everyone else joins in the bet, the losers owe fifty bucks each. If you or I lose?" He leaned into my ear. "We get to do whatever we want to each other. No exceptions." He whispered so no one else could hear. My eyes widened. What the hell had I gotten myself into?

I swallowed. "Deal."

"Who's in?" Derek asked.

Tori jumped up. "I'll go get the bet jars and the white board!" When Tori returned she had a T chart made. At the top on the left side, was Derek's name and on the right, Chloe's. "Blue capped jar is Derek's. Red capped jar is Chloe's. If you think CHloe's right and there's only one baby, place your money in Chloe jar and write your name on Chloe's side of the board. If you think Derek's right and it's twins, place your money in Derek's jar and write your name on Derek's side of the board."

Mason, Simon, and Lucy placed their bets, putting their money in Derek's jar. "Sorry Chloe," Lucy said as Marlee and Kit came back in.

Tori had a disgusted look on her face. "You people sicken me." She placed her money in Chloe's jar."

"What's the bet this time?"

"Derek thinks they're having twins. Chloe doesn't. Wanna join in?" Tori asked.

"What's the wager?" Marlee asked.

"Fifty each."

"You kids drive steep bargains," Kit placed his bet in Derek's jar.

Marlee rolled her eyes. She placed a fifty in Chloe's jar. "Unlike some people, I believe in a mother's instinct."

"At least somebody does." I said.

Behind us, a groan was heard. Lauren opened her eyes. "What happened?"

Kit helped her sit up. "Do you know who I am?"

Lauren looked at Kit. "Kit Bae. Who the fuck hit me?"

Mason smirked. "That would be me."

Lucy turned to Mason. "What were you doing down here at two in the morning anyway?"

"I was hungry." He mumbled.

Lauren's eyes widened. "Chloe, where's Chloe?"

I waved from where I sat. Lauren tried to get up and I tensed. Kit pressed her back into the couch. "Let's just take it easy. Why are you here?"

"You told me in your last email that Chloe was in a car accident. What you failed to mention was that she's pregnant."

"How does she know?" I was shocked.

"Oh, what? Did you think I wouldn't find out about your ungodly mistake?" I felt Derek squeeze my hand firmly. "Don't listen to her. Stay strong." The gesture said. Lauren pulled out a folded up piece of paper from her jacket pocket and handed it to me.

I took it.

"Pregnant teen runaway escapes authorities after near death car accident." I looked up. "It's a news paper article." I swallowed. What else would it say about me?

"Go on. It gets better." Lauren seethed.

"Chloe Saunders, 17, a runaway who has been missing for two years, was brought in to Riverside Methodist Hospital on November 1st. She had been traveling with two accomplices who appeared to be close in age."

"Accomplices? I wasn't aware the we're criminals." Tori said, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"You've been truant for two years and are underage. Our short schooling lessons don't count in the eyes of the law. To them, you're just runaways." Marlee replied, waving for me to keep reading.

"In a double hit and run, Saunders had sustained a crushed arm, a severe frontal concussion, and multiple broken ribs. Upon arrival, the runaway had gone into cardiac arrest several times, ultimately leading to a coma. Taking further tests, it was discovered that the missing teen is about three weeks pregnant—"

"Dammit… I can't keep my god damned mouth shut…"Simon flopped on his back. "Someone rip my tongue our, would you?"

I continued. "Three days after being admitted, Saunders awoke and was reported missing again a few hours later. The property was searched thoroughly, but no sign of the expectant teen was found. Head doctor in the ICU, Francine Harold, 37, didn't report seeing anything unusual before Saunders' disappearance.

More information is being gathered on the runaway's whereabouts as authorities search for her.

It is suspected that Saunders is traveling with a group of about seven or eight people and is considered armed and dangerous. Officials warn to approach with caution." I groaned. "Well, shit."

Kit sighed. "Unfortunately, this happens. No one knows where we are, so we should be fine for the time being." He turned to Lauren. "Now why are you here?"

"Chloe is pregnant. You think I'm going to sit here and do nothing about it? Clearly, you aren't responsible enough to keep a bunch of teenagers from fooling around. And I know for a fact that those two aren't responsible enough to take care of a child. They aren't even smart enough to use protection!"

"Oh for the love of god." Tori rolled her eyes.

"Here we go…" Derek pinched to bridge of his nose.

"And you!" Lauren turned on Derek. He looked up. "I'm surprised you're still her. Shouldn't you be long gone by now?"

Derek let out a laugh. "See, that's the thing, Lauren, You don't know the first thing about me.

You never took the time to learn anything. If you had, you'd know that I love Chloe and I'm not leaving her. Oh, and you might want to catch up on the things before you go shouting accusations on other peoples intelligence, or you might be the one making yourself look dumb."

Lauren rolled her eyes. "It won't matter in a few hours." This got everyone's attention.

Simon jumped up. "What are you talking about?"

"As soon as the clinic opens up, I'm taking Chloe to get this… mess, taken care of." Lauren replied.

It was my turn to jump up. "You don't mean—"

"Yes, that is exactly what I mean. You're not keeping this… thing."

Derek was in front of Lauren in an instant. Kit got between them. "Look, let's talk this out. This is a delicate situation and it needs to be handled as adults, not like bitchy two year old."

"There's nothing to 'talk out'. Chloe's not keeping the monstrosity and that's final."

"Don't I have any say in this? It's my body. You can't force me to have an abortion." I said.

"And I sure as hell won't let it happen." Derek's eyes blazed with hate.

"You have no legal ri—"

"I have every legal right to my child. You do not want to play this game with me, Lauren. You won't win." They were inches from each other. I could see the look in Lauren's eyes. She was afraid, and I knew that Derek could see it.

"ALRIGHT, you two." Kit shoved himself between Lauren and Derek. "Derek, take a seat. You as well, Lauren. Marlee, stay here with me. Everyone else head back to bed."

"Like hell, I'm going back to bed. That's my niece or nephew this bitch is trying to kill! I don't think so." Simon stood his ground.

I could tell Lucy, Tori and even Mason weren't going anywhere either. Kit rolled his eyes. "Fine. If you won't go to bed, stand outside the door. At this point, I don't give a shit. Just give us some privacy." He kept his tone even, but I knew when Kit was pissed. I'd been around him long enough to recognize his tells.

Reluctantly, Lucy, Simon, Mason and Tori exited the room, Marlee shutting the door behind them. "If we could all just have a seat?" Marlee took seat in the chair that Mason had been previously sitting in. Kit sat on the arm rest of the couch and Lauren sat on the couch opposite.

"Lauren, I'm Marlee Hasich. I've been traveling with Kit and the kids for a little over a year now. If you would allow me to explain the gravity of this situation to you—"

"I already know the gravity of this situation. My niece happens to be a dumb ass." I felt Derek tense beside me.

"Calm down," I whispered, low enough so only he could hear.

"I'm afraid that isn't the case. I'm assuming you know of Derek and Chloe's mate bond." Marlee said. She kept her voice calm but I could tell she was just as pissed off as Kit was.

"Unfortunately."

"And I'm assuming you know that there are two stages—"

"Yes I know the stages of a werewolf bond." Lauren interrupted.

Marlee snapped her eyes shut in annoyance. "I'll let you in on a little secret. I'm not Kit. I don't believe in peace over violence. I'm only doing this so there's less stress on Chloe. So if you insist on interrupting, I'll skip the formalities and politeness and kill you where you stand. I am not in a good mood." Lauren didn't respond.

"As I was saying. There are two stages to a werewolf mate bond. The bite, which is the start of the bond, and intercourse, which completes the bond. Chloe and Derek had completed the first part of the bond before I arrived. Kit informed me this was around the same time you left the group. Chloe and Derek had both told me that they intended to wait until Chloe was ready for sex to complete the bond. As you can imagine, Kit and I were thrilled with that choice.

However a few weeks ago, things became complicated. Chloe was attacked and nearly raped by a rogue werewolf. Luckily, Derek stepped in, in time. Unfortunately, Chloe was shot in the leg. The next day when we arrived here, I managed to remove the bullet. It wasn't until later that I realized that the wound was suspicious. The muscle had already started regrowing around the bullet. I had to clip away at muscle tissue to remove it. I didn't think anything of it then because we had been traveling for so long.

The next morning, the wound was completely healed. For a werewolf, this would've been normal. For a human, an injury like that should've taken a month to heal. Possibly longer. Upon further examination, I discovered that the werewolf venom, which should've just stayed in her system marking her as Derek's, was slowly killing Chloe. This can happen sometimes between human/werewolf mates. It's fairly common. The only way to stop the venom from killing Chloe within the month, was to complete the bond through intercourse.

Of course as you already know, this led to Chloe's pregnancy. However, there was another side effect of the completion of the mate bond that we didn't foresee. It doesn't happen very often… generally only once every couple hundred years. The completed mate bond did stop the werewolf venom from killing Chloe. Unfortunately, the chemicals reacted in such a way that instead of killing her, it began turning her into a werewolf. This is most likely why Chloe didn't have a miscarriage from the accident. So you see, even if you did have the power to force an abortion on Chloe, her body wouldn't allow it."

Lauren didn't say anything for a minute. "There must be a way to reverse this process and destroy that child."

Derek went ridged. I squeezed his hand. I could feel a mixture of emotions rolling off of him in waves. Anger, hate, fear. The woodenness of his posture told me that he was fighting to hold himself back. At first he made no movement. For every second that he didn't squeeze back, or glance my way, the worry that he might actually rip Lauren's head from her shoulders grew stronger in my mind. After a minute that seemed to stretch a century, he clutched my hand, telling me that he was still in control.

"There isn't a way to reverse Chloe turning into a werewolf. Their mate bond is permanent. It cannot be severed, even by death. Werewolves, like natural wolves, mate for life." Kit said, glancing at Derek. His questioning eyes turned to me. I nodded back at him, confirming that the situation was under control for the moment. Kit gave a slight nod back before returning his attention to Lauren and Marlee. He continued.

"Not to mention that you'd need very special tools to perform a werewolf abortion. Tools a regular human abortion clinic wouldn't have."

"No, but I bet Miss. Hasich over here does." Lauren glared at Marlee. "You're a doctor, right? You talk like one." She sneered.

Marlee smirked but the gesture held toxic venom. "If I did, I wouldn't tell you. And if I did, I wouldn't do it."

"Oh, is that so?" Marlee nodded. Lauren crossed her legs and folded her arms, leaning back into her seat. "Well, I think it would interest you all to know that Chloe's father is flying in from Berlin tonight. He's been informed of Chloe's predicament and agree to meet here."

"You called my father? You put my dad in danger by telling him where I am?" I stood. Lauren had gone too far. "Who the fuck do you think you are? Why the hell do you think I haven't contacted him at all in the last two and a half years? I was protecting him! And then you go and ruined everything that I worked for." If I wasn't pissed before, I sure as hell was now.

"Chloe, he's known about supernaturals for a while now. When I wouldn't tell him what was going on, he went in search of answers himself. He knows everything." Lauren replied.

I left the room. I wasn't dealing with this right now. I opened the door and wiped sweat off my forehead. My fever was back. I walked past the kitchen, were the rest of the group was at, and went up the stairs into our room. I flopped on the bed intent on going back to sleep.

After a few minutes, Derek entered the room and shut the door. "Hey, are you still awake?" He asked softly.

I sighed. "Unfortunately." I sat up. "What's going on?"

Derek sat next to me. "Dad's told everyone to go to bed. He set Lauren up on the couch and dead bolted the lab so she can't get to any of Marlee's tools. Kit and Marlee are taking turns watching her for the rest of the night. They don't want her to sneak up here and cause us anymore issues. It's been decided that the conversation will pick back up in the morning after your dad gets here."

I rubbed my hand down my face. "I haven't seen my dad in almost three years… what am I gonna say? 'Hey dad, sorry I haven't called in a while. Good to see you. Guess what? I'm pregnant and turning into a werewolf?' Somehow I don't think that's going to go over well." I laid my head on Derek's shoulder.

"We'll figure something out. For now let's just go to bed." I nodded and we shut out the light. Derek curled up next to me and wrapped his arm around my waist. He hand lay sprawled protectively across my abdomen. "I'm not gonna let her take our baby away. Not ever."

"Kit and Marlee won't let it happen." I said, placing my hand over his. "I won't let it happen."

I don't think we slept at all that night. Both of us were too stressed out. So we just laid there in a comfortable silence, enjoying each others company.

When morning cam we went through our morning routines and headed downstairs. The smell of cooking sausage and bacon wafted through the air. Immediately a wave of nausea hit and I stopped. "Are you gonna be okay?" Derek asked. I stood there unsure of what my body was going to do. And then I collapsed to the floor spewing my guts into a bucket that had been conveniently placed in front of me. I could feel Derek beside me, carefully hold my hair away from my face.

"Looks like I got here just in time." Simon handed me a proper towel and gingerly removed the bucket from sight.

"Ugh, that's gross." I said, standing again, Derek helping to keep me steady.

"Hey if it brings me a niece or nephew it'll be worth it." Simon gave a reassuring smille.

"Okay, I'm gonna go freshen up and stay away from the kitchen." I replied.

"Do you want me to go with you?" Derek asked.

I shook my head. "I'll be fine. Go eat." Derek nodded.

Derek's POV

I watched as Chloe went up the stairs. I turned to Simon. "Thanks for that. I don't think she would've made it to the nearest trash can."

Simon nodded. "Like I said, all a part of the process. And don't thank me, thank Marlee. She's the one that had me rush out here."

We walked into the kitchen and I picked up a plate. There was a large bowl of eggs, a mountain of sausage, and two piles of bacon, along with about thirty biscuits. I made sure to grab some of each before taking a spot at the table beside Mason.

"Is Chloe gonna be okay?" Lucy asked.

"She'll be fine. Just a bit or morning sickness, I think." I replied. Lauren didn't say anything, but watched me like a hack. I was not going to deal with this all day. I looked at her.

I swallowed what food I had in my mouth. "If you have something to say to me, then say it. I'm not going to play this secret 'I hate you' game that you seem to have up your sleeve. So either tell me what you want to say or stop staring at me like I'm a criminal." I said in a partially civil manner. Lauren looked away.

I quickly finished breakfast and went to find Chloe. I found her laying on the couch in the living room. "Hey, you want something to eat?" I asked sitting on the arm rest of the couch.

"Some buttered toast, maybe?" she replied.

"Okay, I'll be back." I kissed her and left for the kitchen.

"So when is Chloe's dad supposed to be here?" I heard Marlee ask.

Lauren shrugged. "He just said he'd be in today." I made the toast and brought it to Chloe.

I opened my mouth to speak when there was a knock at the front door. "That's probably him," I heard Lauren say from the other room. I looked to Chloe, who had stopped eating.

"Well, shit. This day just keeps getting better and better…"

/AN: Okay so there you have it! Lauren's back and, (shocker), she's still a bitch! Lol. I'll update soon as I can. Leave a review please! :)

-Kit/