A/N: Still floored by the response. Haha. Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed. I hope you enjoy this ;)
Thank you to justanotherfiveminutes for beta work :)
Edit: I took out a line because I completely forgot about a time line event. So, just a reminder for this story going forward (and it's totally my fault that it became confusing), Katherine is still in Elena's body, and no one knows.
Thank you Bex for (probably accidentally) motivating me to finish writing this chapter. :P
Enjoy!
-Angie

"I need to talk to you guys," Caroline said frantically, bursting into Elena's dorm room.

Though both of the other girls didn't really attend college anymore (having been too late to register, and there were some things that even compulsion couldn't fix), they had compelled the housing office for three singles side-by-side, and for the RA to ignore the fact that there were two residents that didn't technically attend the school.

"What's up?" Bonnie asked, looking up from the book she was reading on Elena's bed.

"It's Klaus," Caroline said, sinking down into the beanbag chair in the corner.

Elena's head snapped up from what she'd been looking at on her laptop and she closed it and turned to Caroline. "What about Klaus?"

"He thinks...Well, I mean, I guess it's true. We're-we're mates," she said, whispering the last word as though it was a filthy secret that she couldn't even bear to admit out loud.

"Mates?" Bonnie asked incredulously.

"Yeah. You know, werewolf mates."

"Can you break the bond?" Bonnie asked immediately.

"According to this witch I talked to, it's unbreakable, but every spell has a loophole, and...I just need to break it."

"Is the mating bond even a spell?" Elena asked, frowning.

Caroline deflated. What if the bond was unbreakable? What if she was stuck with Klaus forever?

No.

She was Caroline motherfucking Forbes, and she would break this stupid bond if it was the last thing she did.

She just needed more information.

"I don't think so, but I can ask Klaus about it. Maybe the information he'll give me will give us a hint."

"What's the mating bond like, anyway?" Elena asked, cocking her head to the side.

Caroline bit her lip, debating the pros and cons of telling her friends. They both knew that she'd had sex with Klaus in the woods (courtesy of Elena), but she wasn't sure how well they'd react to it.

"Well," she began slowly, "Apparently there are different forms the link can take. So like, there are side effects."

"What kinds of side effects?" Bonnie asked, raising an eyebrow.

"We can feel each other's feelings sometimes."

"What do you mean?"

"When I was really angry, he said he felt it. And last night I felt this weird sadness, but there wasn't a reason for me to be sad, you know? And he can feel it when I have sex with someone, apparently. And he's so...possessive. And I am too, and it scares the crap out of me," she said, her words slowly speeding up as she talked.

"He can feel it when you have sex with someone?" Bonnie asked, wrinkling her nose.

"Yeah, that's kind of invasive."

Caroline shrugged helplessly. "I've never felt it. I don't know, he could be lying."

"Or he could be celibate," Elena said, grinning.

"I find that hard to believe."

"Why?" Bonnie asked curiously.

"Because...Well...He's evil, but I have eyes, okay?"

Elena laughed. "Yeah, okay, but he still really likes you. If he still wants you after you guys screwed in the woods…"

Caroline frowned in surprise. Elena was being surprisingly nonchalant about this whole thing. Something felt off.

It wasn't the first time she'd had a weird gut feeling about Elena, but she just sort of wrote it off to feeling upset about her break-up with Damon. Caroline was honestly over the moon that her friend had finally broken up with that asshole, but she knew better than to say anything.

"Elena, shut up," Bonnie said irritably, before turning back to Caroline. "Is there anything else?"

Caroline bit her lip. "Well...He came to Whitmore to see me. You know, to tell me all of this stuff. And whenever I'm near him, I feel this weird pull."

"So you want to fuck his brains out," Elena said, smirking.

Caroline huffed. "Look, we just need to fix this as soon as possible, okay?"

"Look, don't take this the wrong way, but why?" Elena asked. "I mean, I know you said that he feels it whenever you have sex with someone else, but it sounds like a good deal to me. The most powerful person on earth loves you unconditionally, you'll never have a boring sex life, from what it sounds like...Besides the fact that he's evil, I see no repercussions to this."

"Yeah, exactly, Elena. He's evil."

"Plus, he said something to me about not being able to connect with other people, and I think he's right. Jesse and Tyler both didn't feel like romantic attachments. I haven't had a real crush on anyone since that day in the woods," Caroline admitted.

What if I break the bond and I still can't feel anything for anyone?

"Look, find out more information about the bond, and we'll try to figure out how to break it without any repercussions, okay?" Bonnie said soothingly, getting up to put a hand on Caroline's shoulder.

"Okay," Caroline agreed. "I have class today, so I'll call him tomorrow."

XXX

Klaus heard the opening notes to the ringtone he'd picked for when Caroline called and immediately rolled over and picked up the phone. "Morning, Sweetheart," he greeted, inwardly patting himself on the back at the gravelly morning voice.

"Klaus," she said, though he grinned at the fact that her voice had a breathy quality. "I want to talk to you. About this link thing."

"Of course, Love. Anytime. I'm staying at the–"

"Not at your hotel room," she said immediately, and he smirked.

Worried you won't be able to keep your hands to yourself then, Love?

"All right. Where, then?"

"Take me out for brunch."

"Where?"

"Cassie's Diner. It's on the corner of Elm and–"

"I know where it is. I'll be there in half an hour."

"Okay," she said, before abruptly hanging up on him.

He smirked to himself.

He took a shower and dressed, trying to figure out the best way to handle the inevitable stream of questions. He suspected that she wanted to break the bond, and though he knew that it was unbreakable, he wanted to show her that she wouldn't want to.

He decided that honesty was the best policy. If she couldn't break the bond anyway, there was no point to holding back information. He wanted Caroline to be happy with him, and Caroline seemed to be fond of honesty.

When he arrived at the small diner, he saw Caroline in a booth towards the back and immediately started over to her.

"Good morning," he said again, gesturing to a nearby waitress for coffee and picking up a menu.

She was staring down at her menu, clearly determined not to meet his eyes. "Do you know what you want, love?" he asked, keeping his voice low and gravelly.

He saw her twitch slightly, and he smirked to himself. Watching her react to him was going to be the best part of his morning.

"Yes, I think so."

He waved over the waitress, a plan forming in his mind, and gave the girl a dimpled smile.

"Good morning, my name is Sasha and I'll be taking care of you this morning. What can I get you?" the waitress asked, apparently determined to be casual.

He let his voice drop an octave to one that he knew for a fact made women fall over themselves to help him. "Good morning, Sasha," he said, grinning as Caroline stiffened across from him. "I'd like the blueberry pancakes."

"Of course. Um, anything to drink with that besides coffee?"

"Just water's fine, love. Thank you."

Caroline's eyes snapped up to glare at him. He smirked at her, knowing that his behavior was ringing all of her possessive alarm bells, and that she was just itching to stake her claim. Knowing his Caroline, she would do everything in her power to stay casual. To not let the bond win.

He was determined to change that.

"I'd like the buttermilk waffles, please," she said politely.

"Anything else?"

"No, thanks," Caroline answered with a tight smile, handing the waitress her menu.

He gave the girl his as well, though he made sure his hand brushed hers, watching Caroline's reaction through the corner of his eye.

Her eyes were closed, and she appeared to be doing the deep breathing exercises commonly taught to new vampires by their sires-if they bothered to stick around long enough to help the fledgling through the transition-and smirked to himself.

The fact that her control was that shaky was a good sign.

"So," she started, her voice casual, "Can you tell me more about the side effects of the link?"

"You'll have to be more specific love," he said, waiting patiently for her eyes to flicker to his.

She licked her lips unconsciously, and he felt his cock twitch at dart of her tongue running over her lips. "What side effects do you know for sure that we have?"

"I only know the ones that I've experienced, but as far as I know, we have the emotional link, the instinctive possessiveness, being alerted by a sharp pain if you are pleasured by another, and arousal when in close proximity," he listed.

He let his voice wrap silkily around the words, allowing them to drip with innuendo and keep them from being the least bit clinical. Her breath hitched, and she stared determinedly at her iced tea. He could smell the arousal pooling in her core, and he briefly inhaled, closing his eyes while he did so, knowing that she'd hear it.

"Okay."

He saw her jaw set, and she looked up, her eyes narrowed, pulling the iced tea towards her and wrapping her lips around the straw, making eye contact with him, her eyes dark. The message was clear: Two can play this game.

She pinched the middle of it lightly between two fingers, her lips bobbing up and down on the straw as she sucked the iced tea through it, licking her lips lightly when she withdrew. He couldn't help but lick his lips as he watched her, and if he hadn't had supernatural hearing he wouldn't have heard the breathy moan that escaped her lips as she pushed the glass away from her to make room for their food.

She smiled and thanked the waitress politely, Klaus doing the same, although he added a slight roughness to it, and he could faintly hear the rough fabric of Caroline's jeans brush against itself as she rubbed her thighs together.

She poured a pool of syrup on her plate and held her silverware delicately in her hands, carefully cutting her waffles into neat sections and spearing a piece with her fork, dragging it through the syrup until it was dripping and bringing it up to her mouth, catching a few drops on her tongue to prevent the syrup from dripping, before putting the piece of food in her mouth, pulling the fork out slowly.

Klaus's eyes were glued to her lips, and his cock was now straining against the front of his pants uncomfortably. He shifted, trying to give himself some relief, but Caroline seemed to have noticed because she took another piece and let a drop of syrup fall onto the creamy skin of her cleavage visible through the top of her blouse. She put the fork back on her plate and caught the bead of syrup with a finger, bringing it up to her mouth and sucking the syrup off her finger tip.

He groaned audibly, and when she removed her finger from her mouth and grabbed a napkin, he let his eyes close for a fraction of a second. She dipped her napkin in her water glass and dabbed at her cleavage with it, cleaning it of the sticky substance, leaving a trail of water slick against her breast, catching the light.

Her eyes were still fixed on his face, her lips parted slightly, and her tongue darted across them to lick up excess liquid.

He could smell how wet she was simply from trying to seduce him, and he had never been so turned on in his life. "Caroline…" he whispered, a warning tone prevalent in his voice.

"Niklaus," she whispered back, her eyes teasing, and he growled at her, knowing his eyes were flashing yellow.

She clearly thought that she had the upper hand, and he couldn't have that. There were certainly times when he let her take charge, where he let her lead, but this was not one of those times. She was challenging him, and he had to make her submit.

"Don't test me, Caroline."

She took a sip of her iced tea, not answering him with anything but the curve of her lips as she sucked the liquid through the straw, draining the glass completely.

He leaned forward over the booth so that they were close together, and from the hitch of her breath he knew that she felt his proximity to her. "Do you like putting on your little show for me, Love?"

Her tongue darted out to lick her lips again, though he suspected that it was more of an unconscious movement that a provocative one. "Do you like knowing that I'm hard for you under the table in a room full of people? That I can smell how wet you are for me between your legs?" he whispered roughly.

She panted slightly, her eyes dark with lust. "You know how much I want you, Caroline, and you're trying to take advantage of it. So know this, my love, my mate, I would like nothing more than to take you from behind on this table, your face pressed into the surface while I pull your hair and pleasure you between your legs, to hear your muffled screams as I slam my cock into you, and I make you come around it over and over until your juices are dripping down your thighs. I want to claim you in front of all these people and make you shout my name for the world to hear so that they know you're mine."

She moaned loudly enough at his words that a man at a nearby table sent them a confused look before turning back to his meal, and Klaus smirked at her.

"But I won't," he continued.

Her breath hitched, and gave him a strange look that was a combination of relief, arousal, and...disappointment? He grinned widely at her. "I won't, because the next time I fuck you, you will come to me. You will spread your legs for me and beg for my cock in you, for me to make you scream. I want you to accept your place by my side as my mate, to crave it. I want you to submit to me, Caroline."

He could see her chest rise and fall with her shallow breaths, the scent of her soaking pussy wafting up to his nose, and he inhaled it, licking his lips. He took a deep breath and let it out, pulling out his wallet. "Did I satisfy your curiosity, my love?" he asked at a normal volume, his grin wicked.

She glared at him. "I'll never submit," she said quietly, her eyes burning into his.

He let his lips curl up to give her a dimpled grin. "We shall see, won't we?"

He put a fifty on the table, not bothering to calculate how much the brunch would actually cost, and prepared to get up to leave, pausing before he did so, knowing that he'd have to speed out to make sure no one got a glimpse of the straining bulge in his jeans. "And do keep calling me by my full name, Caroline. I love the way it sounds coming from your pretty lips."

He left before she could answer.

XXX

She felt her cheeks flush as she sat in her car outside the diner, trying to calm herself. She should have known better than to try to bait him. Her pussy was aching and wet and empty and there was a huge part of her that would like nothing more than to speed after Klaus and insist that he take her. Hard.

But she wouldn't. She was determined, if not to break the bond, then at least to not give into him. She started the ignition and pulled out of the parking space, making her way back to the dorm. Once she'd gotten to her room, she locked the door and wriggled out of her jeans, throwing her blouse and bra into the hamper in the corner, and flopped back on the bed. She slid her thong down her legs and immediately began circling her clit with her finger, trying to find some sort of relief, before pausing.

Could Klaus tell when she pleasured herself? Or just when she had sex with other people? She bit her lip, rubbing her thighs together to try and relieve the ache in her dripping pussy while she thought about it. Sure, he could have remained celibate, but there was no way he could have gone without touching himself, especially since the time in the parking lot. And anyway, she'd done it when she got home since then, and he hadn't mentioned anything. Considering that he hadn't exactly been shy earlier about saying what he wanted to do to her, she suspected that she was safe.

She spread her legs and continued to rub her clit, fingerfucking herself with the other hand and whining slightly when she couldn't get deep enough, before turning over onto her knees, fucking herself deeply with her fingers. She moaned into her pillow, grinding herself against her fingers, letting her fantasies overtake her.

In her mind, Klaus was behind her, the heat of his naked body pressing against her own, his cock slamming into her, his balls slapping against her as he fucked her hard. He was muttering the filthiest things to her, telling her how good she felt and how much he wanted her...She bit her lip, drawing blood, feeling herself getting closer to the edge until she tipped over it, screaming Klaus's name into her pillow, thankful that it muffled her voice so well.

She pulled her fingers away, slick with her own juices, and let them rest on her blankets while she caught her breath. She knew she should feel guilty for fantasizing about Klaus, but she justified it to herself.

If thinking about him got her off, that's what got her off, and it's not like anyone would ever know unless she told them. Her mind was a private place. She rolled over onto her side, letting herself come down from her high completely before she grabbed her chemistry textbook for a bit of studying.

She took a well-deserved study break an hour or so later, and when she looked up again, the sky was dark. She yawned, stretching, and started binge-watching a new television series that Bonnie had recommended, falling asleep a few episodes in.

The vervain burned her wrists and mouth as she found herself tied to a chair in a classroom at the school, Evil-Alaric looming in front of her. She felt the tears pricking her eyes, and was only half aware of what Evil-Alaric was saying, the words seeming to fall out in blurry slow-motion.

She was terrified, her undead heart beating quickly in panic, and she screamed, though it was muffled by the vervain soaked cloth in her mouth, and–

She was shaken awake, thrashing around at the sudden contact, though the person that had woken her managed to hold her down. "Caroline? Sweetheart, open your eyes. It's me. It's just me, you're safe."

"What the hell, Klaus? Why are you here?"

"You were having a nightmare."

"What? Are you spying on me in my sleep now?"

How long had he been there? Had he seen her touch herself earlier? When she screamed his name?
"No, actually you called me," he said irritably.

"What are you talking about?"

"I was painting in my studio, and I got a rush of blurry images of Alaric Saltzman, along with a foreign feeling of terror. I assumed that you had been kidnapped, but I decided to check here first, as that seemed suspiciously like a memory, and you were having a nightmare, so I woke you."

"You were watching my dreams?"
"Not on purpose. I suspect that you were frightened, and so you instinctually reached out to me."

"Is this normal? It didn't say that this could happen in the book…"

"Well, I've never seen a reference to it, but if I had to guess, it would be that we are both vampires, and as vampires have the ability to enter other people's dreams–"

"We can communicate through dreams," Caroline finished, starting to panic. "I don't want you in my head."

"If it's any consolation, I didn't exactly mean to enter it."

She glared at him, and he shrugged.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yes. You can go now," she said.

Now that her panic was winding down she was very aware that he was shirtless in her bedroom at night, and she was only wearing a large t-shirt and lacy boy shorts. She felt her face start to flush.

"Leave."

A smirk stretched across his face. "Are you sure you want me to go?"

"Yes."

"Suit yourself," he said, turning to leave. "Good night, my love."

"Leave," she said, trying to fight down her smile at his attempts to be charming.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Leave me a review so I know how you feel about it. The only way I get better is through feedback :)
Hugs!
-Angie