A/N: Thanks for your response to the last chapter. I hope you enjoy this one :)
Thanks to Wifey, D, and Sophie for beta work.
Enjoy!
-Angie

Klaus was still gone, though he'd gotten closer to tracking the child that had been adopted by another family, and Caroline was driving Kol to rehearsal. The cast was almost through blocking the show, and they only had two scenes left to go before everyone started on their songs.

It had only been about twenty minutes before they got to the part that Caroline knew would happen sooner or later.

There was a part of her that was dreading it, and another part of her that longed to see Kol's expression. Sure enough, Kol's face pulled into a scowl.

"I beg your pardon?" Kol asked, his eyes flicking to the director.

"I said that you'll kiss her, say the line, and exit stage left," the director repeated.

"I can't kiss Caroline."

"It's theatre, Kol," Caroline snapped. "This is what happens in plays. You play a part of someone who isn't you. You aren't kissing me. Orin is kissing Audrey."

"Nik will not see it that way at all."

"Klaus isn't here. And anyway, I have to kiss Steve for like, ten seconds after our duet. With tongue."

"Have you told Steve to ensure his will is finished in time?"

"Not funny, Kol."

"What's going on?" the director interrupted.

"Kol's brother is my...boyfriend–"

Kol snorted at her choice of word, and she shot him a filthy look before turning back to the director.

"And he's kind of…" she trailed off.

"Possessive? Protective? A serial killer?" Kol suggested dryly.

"Not. Funny. Kol."

"Well, as Caroline said, this is theatre, and in theatre, you kiss people that you are not in relationships with in real life when you're both in character. It's perfectly normal."

The professor's tone was dry, and Caroline knew that he was completely unimpressed that he had to explain the concept of 'acting' to someone in a college theatre class, though he shot Caroline a pitying look.

"Nik will kill me."

"I'm sure that Klaus be fine with it," Caroline interrupted firmly.

Kol shot her the most skeptical look she'd ever seen him wear, and her lips twitched. "He listens to me. I can talk him down. You know that."

"Fine, then," Kol said, taking a deep breath as though he were about to go to his last meal before the lethal injection. "Pray for me, Caroline."

She snorted and walked back to take it from her entrance.

When the rehearsal was over, the professor asked her to hang back to help him clean up, and Kol indicated that he'd be right outside.

"I know that it's not any of my business, but if you feel comfortable, would you tell me what you and Kol meant when you were talking earlier? About...Klaus, was it?"

"What do you mean?" Caroline asked, a bit guarded.

Was he looking for information about how to kill him? Was he in league with some ridiculous witch cult trying to kill them? Had Klaus not been being ridiculously overprotective when he sent Kol in? Maybe she shouldn't have told him to wait outsi–

"Well, Kol seemed a bit nervous about a situation that you, as an actress, know is quite common. To be fair, you also seemed a bit conflicted."

Caroline frowned, wondering where this was going. "Kol and Klaus don't get along well, and both of them are kind of dramatic. This is definitely the place for Kol," she said, trying to make a joke, but her professor didn't laugh.

"Well, if you ever need to talk, I have office hours. If you don't feel comfortable talking to me, the resource center at Augustine Hall has a few really great people."

Oh.

"Oh, no, Klaus isn't...I'm fine. And Kol's fine. I mean, thanks for your concern, but–"

"All right, Caroline. Well, the offer's always open."

"Thanks," she said awkwardly, quickly putting the rest of the small props in their boxes and waving goodbye.

"You need to be more careful about what you say in front of other people," Caroline hissed as she led Kol back to the car.

"What do you mean?"

"I know you've been daggered since like, the eighteenth century, but beating your wife isn't something you openly admit to anymore."

"Seventeenth, actually, and I'll try to be more careful. Wouldn't want to have to kill your professor if he started making trouble."

"Oh my god, Kol, you are completely missing the point."

"You're right, I was. Wife?"

"They will never find your remains," Caroline mumbled, ignoring Kol's sharp laughter behind her.

XXX

"Hello, Bonnie Bennett," Kol said cheerily when Bonnie opened the door to her dorm room.

"Kol. Hi," she said, fighting down a smile at his greeting.

"Ready to go, darling?"

"Yeah," she said, turning and grabbing her purse from her dresser, locking her door behind her, and following him to the front of the building.

It was their third date, and Bonnie had to admit that he had been thoughtful, kind, and not at all murderous. He'd clearly taken advantage of his close proximity to Caroline to badger her with all kinds of questions, because Bonnie wasn't quite sure how he'd have known about her roller blading guilty pleasure, or her love of horror movies.

She'd promised not to judge him as much as possible and to rein in her self-righteousness (and yes, she admitted she was self-righteous, but everyone had their drawbacks, right?), and she thought she was doing pretty well at it. She asked him lots of questions about history and the time periods he had lived in, and he had a way of bringing all of his stories to life that fascinated her.

"What are we doing?" she asked, fastening her seatbelt and settling her purse on her lap.

"You'll see."

She refrained from shooting him a suspicious look, and instead tried to guess as the buildings went by while he drove her downtown.

"A dance studio?" she asked when they pulled up.

"You like to dance, right?" Kol asked, suddenly looking a bit nervous.

"Yeah. Yeah, I've been dancing since I was really little. I loved it."

"Good," Kol said, grinning. "You'll have to help me a bit though."

"You're a thousand years old. Shouldn't you know how to dance?"

"I can waltz and do other traditional stuffy dances, but this will be the first time I do modern ballroom dance."

"Ballroom?" Bonnie asked, suddenly a bit nervous.

"Caroline told me that you could handle anything dance-related, so I tried to pick something that I wouldn't be completely hopeless at. I didn't want to embarrass you. Bekah suggested it. I have no sense of rhythm."

"It wouldn't be embarrassing, Kol," Bonnie said, though she secretly felt warmth build in her at Kol's roundabout thoughtfulness.

He gave her a smirk that told her that he knew exactly what she was thinking, and got out of the car to open the passenger door for her, guiding her into the studio, his hand resting on the small of her back.

She'd thought originally when she heard of vampires that their skin would be cold, icy, and feel like death, but she'd since learned that vampires felt like every other person, besides the slight shock she got when trying to read them.

His hand was warm on her through her blouse, and she pretended not to notice the gentle circling of his thumb against her back.

The next hour was fun, and as Caroline had predicted, Bonnie picked the steps up very quickly and ended up guiding Kol through a lot of it, to her own amusement. There was a lot of laughing involved, and she vaguely realized that she was having fun, and she didn't mind.

The lesson went by very quickly, and he took her out for lunch before driving her back to her dorm.

"So darling, have fun?"

"Yeah," she admitted, not bothering to lie.

He gave her a wicked smirk. "Change your mind about me being an evil prick?"

"No," she said, and his face fell slightly before she added, "But I don't think I mind as much. As long as you, you know, keep up the good behavior."

"I'll do my best, though as I've said, I won't change for you. You can't fix me, Bonnie."

"You wouldn't be you if you did."

They were silent for a moment, and Kol nodded slowly. "So, darling. Dinner this weekend?"

"Sounds good," she said, giving him a wide smile, which he returned before looking vaguely conflicted about something.

She was about to ask what was wrong when he bent down to press a quick and chaste kiss to her lips before flashing off to his car and driving away, while she stood in front of the door, slightly stunned.

XXX

"You're home," Caroline said happily when she walked in from practice, bending over to pull her wedges off and drop them in near the door, smirking as Klaus stared very obviously down her dress. He was on the couch, pressed against one of the armrests as Bee took up most of the couch, regarding Klaus with interest, before jumping down and running up to Caroline, who bent to scratch her behind the ears. "Anything new happen?"

He had the silly grin on his face that he seemed to get whenever she said the word 'home', which made her smile back.

He stood up to walk towards her, grabbing her waist and pulling her to him, giving her a drugging kiss. She moaned softly, pressing herself against him and pulling back to press their foreheads together.

"Other than crossing another family off of our list? No. We only have one left to check, and she'll still be a doppelganger tomorrow. I thought I'd stop by for the night to collect."

"Collect? Collect what, exactly?" she asked, grinning.

"Tonight's the moon."

"Hmmm. I said I'd think about it."

"Yes, but when you said that your eyes were dark and you were shifting against the comforter. One would almost have thought you were aroused by the idea."

"Being aroused by the idea doesn't make me want to do it," she said, before taking a sharp breath as images of what Klaus wanted filled her mind.

He was fucking her from behind in front of a mirror, and her eyes were closed as her body shuddered in pleasure. She was leaning down on her elbows, begging him to go faster and harder, and his hands were gripping her hips as he fucked her.

She could feel the arousal pooling in her lower belly from the pictures, fading in and out like a badly lit movie, and she felt her core clench tightly in anticipation when imagination-her came.

"Is that really the face I make when I come?" she asked, wrinkling her nose and ruining the moment.

But she had to know, okay?

"Yes, and it's beautiful."

She scoffed, and he grinned unrepentantly, playing with the ends of her hair. "We don't have to, Caroline."

She bit her lip, resting her forehead against his shoulder. "I think I want to. I mean, it won't be rougher than anything we've already done, right?"

"No. Not at all."

She moved to slant her lips against his in answer, and his hands squeezed her waist and moved to cup her ass before his lips descended to her neck and collarbone, licking and nipping at her skin. She moaned loudly as he picked her up, his cock hard against her core, and sped them to the bed, throwing her down and climbing on top of her to plant rough kisses against her skin, ripping her dress and bra off impatiently and throwing them to the side, her thong following a moment later.

She was determined to give as good as she got, and pointedly ripped off his clothes too, making him grin as he ground himself against her inner thigh before kissing his way down her body to her breasts, tugging her nipple between his teeth before flicking it with his tongue while he palmed her other breast.

She moaned, her hips jerking, and he smirked before moving to hover above her and before she'd processed what happened he'd flipped her on her knees, his cock pressing against her folds.

"Do you want this?" he asked, and she could hear the strain in his voice, knew that not slamming into her and claiming her was taking every single ounce of his self-control.

"Yes. Fuck me, Klaus."

He gripped her hips to hold her steady as he slammed into her, both of them groaning as the slap of skin against skin filled the room. She gasped, clenching around him when he tugged her hair before winding it through his fingers and pressing her face down to the mattress.

She arched her back, pressing her hips higher in the air, and he moved his hands back to her ass, squeezing it roughly and moving faster.

"That's right, just like that," he said softly, dangerously, almost growling. "You're so fucking gorgeous like this, Caroline. I love the vision of you, your face buried in the pillows while I claim you from behind. You're so wet for me, Caroline. I love how tight and hot you are around my cock."

Her fingers curled into the comforter beneath them, and she moaned loudly as his cock hit a particularly sensitive spot, making her tense against him, pleasurable tension wound tightly within her.

"Yes, scream for me, love. I want to hear you moan while your face is pressed against the mattress. Do you like how hard I'm fucking you, Caroline?"

She tried to nod as best she could, gasping out a yes as she pressed her hips back against him.

"I love the way you clench around my cock, the way you moan for me while I take you. You're so fucking perfect on your knees for me, Caroline."

She felt her core ache with need and want as he hit her g-spot with every movement, his fingers digging into her hips in a painfully pleasurable way as he moved, and she was almost embarrassed by how needy she must sound begging for him and moaning from his every touch against her burning skin, but she couldn't bring herself to be.

"Scream for me, Caroline. I want the rest of the building to hear how much you want my cock, how much you want me, your mate."

She honestly barely registered his words through the overwhelming pleasure of his cock filling her, his body moving against hers. The tension built within her as she moaned his name, pressing back against him, and she was rapidly approaching the edge.

"The way you look while I claim you is so perfect, my mate. Mine. I'm going to mark you with my come, Caroline, and I want to watch it sink into your skin. I want to paint your arse and thighs with it and coat you with my scent. You belong to me, my mate. Your body is mine to own and to worship. Do you understand?"

"Yes," she panted out, her answer completely muffled against the pillow, though he seemed to have heard her as he sped up his strokes, and she could feel his balls slapping against her skin, his cock slamming into her hard and fast, the feeling of being full and whole overwhelming her as she clenched around him. The tension in her lower belly broke, and she screamed into the pillow as she came.

"Yes, come around my cock, love. Scream for me, for your alpha, your mate. Show me how good I feel inside of you, how much better my cock feels than anyone else you've had."

Her breathing was ragged against the fabric of the pillow, and the pleasure building within her was overwhelming and intense as she approached a second orgasm.

He moved one of his hands around her waist to rub her clit as he moved inside her, and she couldn't stop screaming his name, begging him for his cock, for his fingers on her clit, for more, and he seemed happy to oblige, her second orgasm crashing around her before she felt the momentary loss of his cock inside her and the feeling of his come dripping down her ass and the backs of her thighs.

She began to move, but he delivered a harsh slap to her ass, making her moan, an intense stab of arousal hitting her core. "Stay there," he said softly. "I want it to dry on your skin, to see my mark and scent on you.

She moved her face slightly so that she could gasp out an agreement, and he stroked her spine, making her shiver before collapsing next to her, pulling her to rest on him. She felt him stiffen underneath her, and crawled off of him. "What's wrong? Klaus, are you okay?"

He nodded. "Yes. Can you text Kol and Katerina to tell them not to come back tonight?"

"Why?"

"I'm being forced to transform," he gasped out.

"What? Why?"
"You accepted the bond, love."

"So you have to transform every full moon?"

"Don't know. Most likely not," he said, clearly in a great amount of pain. "Text Kol."

"That's so dangerous, though. You could hurt people," she said, starting to roll of the bed.

"Not if you're here," he said, pulling her to him.

"Klaus my phone is in my purse in the living room."

"Come back," he gasped out, and she heard the telltale sound of his bones cracking.

"Always," she said, pressing a kiss to his lips and trying not to look as she heard him shift.

She texted Kol and Katherine quickly before coming back, cautiously poking her head into her-their-room to see Klaus's body finish transforming, a snarling wolf in place.

She heard a sharp bark behind her and turned to see Bee snarling at Klaus, who looked a bit perplexed. Caroline smiled slightly and climbed on the bed, still a bit nervous, before slowly sinking down onto the comforter.

She smiled when Klaus nosed at her neck, moving to shield her with his body, and she knew that she should feel uncomfortably hot, but it felt perfect.

He didn't even growl when Bee jumped up as well, settling at the end of the mattress.

XXX

Caroline was exhausted from the beginning of tech week (otherwise known as 'hell week'), and she rooted through her purse for her phone as she walked down the front steps of the theatre building at Whitmore, half her mind focused on running through her cues and lines from memory, the other half wondering where the fuck her phone was. Growing frustrated with her lack of success, she stopped and bent down on the pavement so that she wouldn't have to walk while she was looking, and she heard someone call her name.

Turning she saw Frat Boy With The Tongue running up behind her.

"Hey," she said awkwardly, feeling like she should be embarrassed that she was still unable to remember his name (Klaus's announcement about their link totally overshadowed the rest of the day).

"I never got a text from you. I know you were probably giving me a hint and stuff, and it's cool if you were, but I just wanted to, you know, make sure you didn't want to go out again."

"Sorry, um…" she started, awkwardly pausing at his name and then pressing on. "Sorry. I have-I'm seeing someone."

"Oh, okay. It's cool. Thanks any–"

There was a crack of a neck snapping, and Frat Boy With The Tongue fell to the concrete, and she winced at the next sharp crack of his head splitting open against the ground.

Caroline barely had time to process what had happened before her neck was snapped as well.

The next thing she knew, she was dangling from her vervain-burned wrists in a room with a large, curtained window. She hissed in pain as she shifted, her arms already aching from holding her body weight in addition to the vervain ropes.

"Help!" she screamed, but her nose was quickly filled the pungent scent of burnt sage, meaning that the room was silenced.

"Don't scream. No one can hear you, and it just hurts my ears."

Caroline narrowed her eyes at who she assumed was her kidnapper, wriggling in her ropes, trying to break free, but the witch kept a safe distance before plunging a needle into Caroline's side.

Caroline hissed as flames licked at her veins under her skin, the poison flooding her body. "What did you do to me?" she gasped.

Wasn't she immune to werewolf venom?

"I told you when you came into my shop. I don't help vampires."

Caroline felt her breaths become increasingly more ragged, her vision swimming, and all she could do was shut her eyes as tightly as possible, and let the feeling of terror fill her.

XXX

To be honest, Klaus had almost forgotten what nausea felt like. Now that he felt it, though, he remembered the creeping feeling of a weight in the back of his throat, the jerk of his stomach as it tried to expel its contents.

In the span of a second, he felt an onslaught of emotions that most certainly were not his own, and when he closed his eyes to take a deep breath, and all he could see was the wall of a dark room, the painful pull of invisible burning ropes at his wrists…

Rage boiled within him as he realized Caroline had been kidnapped, but the more he let his emotions overwhelm him, the more she slipped away. The only way he'd be able to receive her emotional signals was if he calmed down to let them in.

His breath was shaking as he tried to concentrate, to pick up more details about whoever kidnapped her, to suppress his own anger and center himself to allow Caroline to communicate.

After a good ten seconds of his wavering concentration, he managed to calm his breathing down and focus on Caroline.

His mate.

When he opened his eyes, he knew where she was.

A/N: Cliffhanger! Sort of.
What do you think is going to happen? Anyone have any ideas or predictions? How was the Kennett date? Favorite parts? Any constructive criticism? I'm excited to hear your thoughts!
Thanks for reading ;)
Hugs!
-Angie