Author's Note: Sorry it's been a while. I've been majorly focused on the novel I'm writing so I can make deadline and everything else sort of fell away for a bit. I'm getting really close to the end of the novel though, so with any luck I will have a little more free time in the not so distant future to wrap this fic up for us all. :) Thanks to my prereaders MissSherrie and Elohcin for helping me find some of my errors. Also a big thanks to my WC ladies for their input and to all of you for your reviews.

Now to pimp something completely different…one of my twific besties has spearheaded a fundraiser called Finding Your Voice: Fandom Fights Mental Illness. Contributors will get exclusive access to a compilation of one shots and beginning chapters by some of Twifics best and brightest, and I'm throwing a little something into the pot as well. If you're interested in helping, please go check out the blog (findingyourvoice-ffmi .blogspot .com/)

Chapter 19

"I don't want to go back," I whined, wrapped up in Damon's arms in the bed we'd spent most of our week and stared out the window that looked out onto the lake sparkling in the moonlight. It was a full moon and Damon had already suggested the maybe we should go back a day early, worried about Werewolves. Thankfully, I talked him out of it. I was desperate to savor every minute we had as a couple before the rest of the world encroached on our lives again.

The past week had been the best of my life as I saw parts of Damon I never expected, which just made me love him even more. Every night I fell asleep in Damon's arms and every morning I woke up with his head resting on my stomach, a peaceful look on his face as he listened to our baby's speedy little heartbeat even in his sleep. I sat still and listened to the same rhythm he was hearing, smiling at the absolute miracle that our baby turned out to be. It boggled the mind, but it was a glorious world of enigma.

I felt him sigh against me as his fingers twined through my hair, twirling it around and around before letting it fall and picking up another piece. "I feel the same way, sweetheart, but unfortunately the world and what's coming isn't going to just disappear if we bury our heads in the sand and ignore it. It's time to go back home and prepare."

I pushed out my lower lip and rolled closer to him, burying my nose in his chest and inhaling deeply, savoring the distinctive scent of Damon…my husband. That was so hard to wrap my head around, yet so awesome.

Damon pulled me up to capture my lips again as his hands smoothed across my flesh. I whimpered, more than willing to submit to him again. The freedom of being in the middle of nowhere was so wonderful. I hadn't even realized I was feeling a little self conscious about what others, in particular my Vampire brother-in-law, might be hearing. Being away from everyone and everything was so freeing, and we both took full advantage of that freedom to be as loud as we wanted. Tonight however, Damon's hands moved slowly, almost reverently, drawing out soft sighs and caresses of his body in return instead of loud moans and animalistic panting his touch so often created from within me. We moved together slowly, gazing into one another's eyes, in a joining that was deeper than just bodies. When we both met completion, he kissed me softly before rolling onto his back, pulling me with him to rest on his chest. I sighed, curling up and falling asleep almost immediately, but I didn't get to stay there long.

I wasn't sure of the time, but it was well past midnight when an insistent pounding on the front door, pulled us from our sleep. Damon dashed downstairs, me following as I wrapped myself in a robe. I reached the top of the stairs in time to see my aforementioned brother-in-law standing in the doorway, quickly telling Damon that we were in danger and needed to leave immediately.

Damon let out a curse before looking up at me with fear and flashing up the staircase to my side, tugging me with him into our bedroom. "I knew we should have left earlier today."

"It's really werewolves?"

"Yep. Apparently, they've caught wind of your existence and think you're going to solidify their curse, which you are." I felt sad as I watched the sarcastic armor lock back in place. "So yeah, the puppies are on the hunt and we need to get you back to the boarding house before they sniff you out."

I reached out to rest a hand on his arm as he began grabbing arm loads of our clothes and throwing them haphazardly in our suitcases. He paused to look down at me when I refused to let him go.

"I'm sorry. I should have listened to you."

He reached out to pull me against him, kissing my head, and running his hands down my spine. "Don't apologize for wanting to stay here with me. I'm not sorry. Even with this new situation, I still wouldn't trade a second."

I smiled tipping up on my toes to kiss him. He didn't let it last very long before pulling away and shoving a pile of clothes in my hands.

"I could kiss you all day, but I need you to get dressed so we can get you out of here. The mutts are only really dangerous during a full moon. I've already watched one person I care about be killed by their poison, I'll be damned if I let them get their paws on you and my baby. Hurry, babe, I'll take care of the rest of this. Go change and grab your toiletries."

I nodded, pausing to kiss his cheek one more time before dashing into the bathroom to change, wondering if the warding effects of the ring would work on wolves too. Then I thought about Emily's warning not to squander the power. It was always better to be safe than sorry.

After I was dressed, I laid my robe out in the bathroom sink and piled all of my toiletries inside it before grabbing the corners and tying them together to create a ready-made satchel before dashing back into the bedroom to see Stefan and Damon shoving the last of our clothes into the suitcases and picking them up.

Stefan led the way with Damon behind me as we went out and down to the cars when out of the darkness something large, hairy, and snarling jumped out into the light of the clearing heading directly for me. Damon and Stefan both pushed me behind them, taking position in front of me. It all happened in a split second as on instinct, I reached out in front of me to protect myself and the beast yelped. I opened my eyes to find it lying on the ground whimpering as Damon and Stefan snarled down at it.

"You come near my wife again and I'll rip out your hearts, one by one. Go back and make sure the rest of your little pack knows that!"

An instant later, I was shoved in the passenger seat of the Charger and we were disappearing down the dark dirt road as another set of headlights followed us. I struggled to slow my pounding heart as I watched the forest blur past me in flashes of light and then dark as the moonlight filtered through the branches in some places while not in others. I covered my mouth as the urge to throw up hit me, making Damon slow down and reach over, asking if I was okay.

I nodded weakly before rolling down the window for some air that seemed to help right away. When I was feeling a little less green around the gills, I turned back to Damon with a sigh.

"I'm sorry. I should never have suggested we stay. I've never seen a werewolf before. I pictured, like, normal wolves, not freaky monsters like that."

Damon shot me a crazy look. "Never mind that, I already told you who I feel about that. What I want to know is how you did it?"

It was my turn to look confused. "What did I do?"

His face went from confused to concerned. "You don't remember making him cringe and then lie down and whimper?"

I shook my head. "I had my eyes closed and held out my hand out of instinct wanting to stop him. I didn't do anything on purpose."

Damon scoffed. "Well you certainly did something. I've never seen an animal act…wait…I HAVE seen animals act that way before. When I was a boy, we had a wolf problem and we started hunting the packs around town. Father insisted I go along and learn to become a man. One time we found their burrow and happened to catch a battle for dominance between an alpha and another male. That is exactly how the challenger acted when the alpha wolf asserted its authority."

"And?" I asked, not following what he was getting at.

"And you said that you have werewolf bloodlines as well as Petrova and vampire. Maybe somehow all of those attributes are starting to come out. With your burgeoning strength and speed, plus that ring, you're definitely more powerful than any normal werewolf could ever be, making you stronger, and thus an alpha. When you exerted your will for it to stop, it cowered in fear of what it sensed, possibly even hurt from the intensity of your command."

I moved my hand back over my mouth, the other falling to my stomach as I felt ill again. Risking another attack, Damon pulled off the road in time for me to jump out and retch into the underbrush along the side of the road. Stefan jumped out running up to our car to check on me as I heaved and heaved until there was nothing left and then heaved again while Damon held my hair, rubbed my back, and explained his theory to his brother.

"If it's all the same with the two of you, I'd rather not test that theory tonight. Once she's feeling better again, let's hurry and get back to the boarding house. Elena, Caroline, and Bonnie have been surrounding the house with wolfsbane to keep them away for the night at least. We'll arrange some kind of meeting tomorrow. Hopefully if we reassure them that Bekah is not going to release the vampires then they might back off."

Damon snorted. "That's wishful thinking brother, but I guess it's worth a try. Otherwise there's going to be a whole hell of a lot of werewolf blood on my hands next month."

He turned back to me, handing me a bottle of water he must have gotten from the car at some point. I thanked him before rinsing my mouth and spitting into the brush before taking a few long drinks of the cold water. Damon massaged my neck muscles gently with one hand while scanning the woods around us. Finally, after another long sip, I turned back to the pair of them with apologetic eyes.

"Sorry. I'm ready to go now."

They both nodded before we all got back into the cars and resumed flying down the road, but every once in a while I would get a glimpse of a lanky dark form moving within the shadows. Wondering if Damon was right, I frowned into the night and sent an order to back off and not come back until noon the next day, giving them instructions on where to meet us and promising pain on anyone who stepped one toe on our property that night. The dark forms disappeared, leaving just our cars speeding down the lonely back roads in the direction of Salvatore property and the protection of the boarding house.

When we arrived, there were absolutely no signs of werewolves anywhere. I stood on the porch and closed my eyes, relieved not to sense anything out of the ordinary. I stared out toward the edge of the property, not surprised to see a line of glowing yellow eyes lined up along the tree line.

"Stay," I whispered out loud before walking back into the house and following Damon up to our bedroom where we began to unpack before bed. I opened the door and stepped out onto the balcony, staring out toward the edge of the property again where only a handful of eyes remained, glaring in our direction.

Damon came out to hug me from behind, wrapping his arms so that he could rest his hands on my stomach while his chin rested on my shoulder.

"What you lookin' at, Bek?"

I glanced over my shoulder to smile at him. "Just watching the wolves stay off the property, just like I told them to do. Guess you were right after all."

He stiffened at first, his gaze following mine to see the glowing yellow in the black of the wooded property line. I felt him growl against my back until I patted his hand with a chuckle.

"Down boy. They've been following us ever since we left the cabin. After you shared your theory, I tried to see if I could make it work again, and it appears that it did. They have instructions to meet us at noon tomorrow. Until then, they can't step foot across the property line, or at least it seems that way. For tonight at least, we're safe…as far as the werewolves go that is."

Damon still didn't relax, even as I pulled him back into our bedroom and closed the doors behind me. Eventually I managed to get him to lie down, but he was not getting any sleep that night, and apparently neither was I. Instead, he rested with me all night, one ear on my stomach, the other listening for movement outside the safety of our home. On one hand I wanted to get the meeting the next morning over with, and on the other, I wanted to stay in our room with him like that for the rest of the month.