Eloise woke up the next day with a renewed sense of purpose. She was determined to face this and knew that the first thing she needed to do was talk to Jensen about this Claim. She had to know what was expected from her and how this was going to affect her life.

She took a shower and got dressed. Coming out of her room and into the living room, she found a young man sitting in one of the kitchen stools.

- "Good morning." - Eloise greeted carefully.

- "'Morning, Miss Anderson. My name is Alex and I'm here for your protection." - The young man said, a kind smile on his lips as he stretched his hand for her to shake.

- "Nice meeting you, Alex. And please, call me Eloise or Ellie."

- "Will try, Miss. Is there anything I can help you with?"

- "No, thank you. Just grabbing something to eat. If you don't mind me asking, where's Misha?"

- "Misha is in the hallway and David is in the firescape. We switch every few hours for safety reasons."

- "Ah, I see. Do you think it would be possible for me to talk with Misha? In the meantime, I'll make us all some breakfast."

- "Yes, Ma'am. I'll get Misha for you."

Eloise saw Alex leave as she went into the kitchen to start making breakfast. She was in the middle of getting all the ingredients she needed when someone clears their throat behind her, making her turn towards the sound.

- "Good morning, Misha."

- "Good morning, Miss Anderson. Alex says you wish to talk to me?"

- "Yes. Would it be possible to see Jen… I mean, Mr. Ackles? I have a few questions and I have a feeling that he'll be the best person to answer them."

- "I'll make the call, Miss Anderson."

- "Thank you, Misha. And after that we can all eat some breakfast. I'm guessing that Alex and David can't leave their posts so you decide how you guys want to do it, whether one at a time or in their respective posts, okay?"

- "Thank you, Miss Anderson, but you don't need to bother with us."

- "It's no bother at all. I'm already making breakfast for myself, so it's definitely no bother at all."

Misha smiled and thanked her, before taking his leave to call Jensen. Eloise focused on the task at hand, making sure not to burn anything and wondering how her talk with Jensen was going to go. She had a million questions swirling in her mind, most of them answering themselves, but there were still a couple she needed to ask Jensen if this was ever going to work.

A couple hours later, Eloise was sitting in an office in Jensen's home. He had asked Misha to bring her there so they could talk privately and safely, and so she could have a sense of what it was like being a part of his world. She didn't know what that really meant, since Jensen told her that a Claimed person wasn't really part of their world, basically being kept in the periphery of it.

Pushing her bouncing leg down with her hand once again, she kept looking at the door waiting for Jensen's arrival. She had been there for forty minutes already and was now thinking that maybe that conversation wasn't going to happen at all.

The door suddenly opened and Eloise saw Jensen walk in, telling his men to not bother them. She stood up, and waited for him to come closer, before greeting him, her stomach now tied in a knot.

- "I'm sorry to keep you waiting. I needed to take care of something and ended up taking a bit longer than I expected."

- "That's okay. I wasn't waiting long."

- "You know I can tell when people are lying, right? It kinda comes with the territory." - He said, a playful smile on his face, clearly meant to make her relax.

- "Fair enough. But I promise it wasn't that long."

- "Okay. Misha said that you have a few questions for me?"

- "Yes. I want to know what is expected of me as a Claimed person. If we're going to do this, I need to know what being Claimed entails and if there's anything I should be doing, or not doing, as someone who was Claimed."

- "Well, for starters, if anyone asks, yes, we're together and I have put a Claim on you. No matter who it is that asks, you'll have to stick with it. We don't know if the person that's asking isn't a spy for Elijah or someone else."

"We're going to have to be seen together to sell the idea that we're a couple. That includes going out to dinner, or attending events thrown by other families, or just walking around town."

"Ellie, you also need to know that some people might not like the idea of you being Claimed, especially people in town. There are a few people there who hate me and my men, and they make their hate known by bullying those closest to us."

"Some people might make their hatred known while you're working because they know that's when you're most vulnerable. Don't let them get under your skin. I promise that once Elijah is no longer an issue, I'll release you from the Claim. And if that doesn't happen, I'll even help you disappear if need be. I hope it doesn't come to that, but you never know."

"Ellie, bottom line is that you can keep doing your normal life, the only difference is that now you'll have two bodyguards and we're going to have to spend a lot more time together, not just during our talks in the diner's parking lot."

- "Okay, so… It's pretty much like a normal relationship, with dates and haters, plus a couple of bodyguards. Got it."

- "I wouldn't have said it better." - Jensen chuckles at the simplistic way she had put it. - "Ellie, for what it's worth, I'm truly sorry I put you in this situation in the first place."

- "Don't. I get it. You did what you could do to keep me safe with diplomacy. And when that failed, you did the only thing you could think of. I have to say though, this is the last thing I ever thought I would be doing."

- "What do you mean?"

- "Well, as I told you before, being around mobsters isn't anything new to me. I grew up surrounded by them. What you don't know is that, the real reason I left New York was because my father was trying to marry me off to a local, low level mobster. My mother, who was always against the idea of me getting involved in that world, was the one who sent me away. I haven't been home in ten years because of it, and now here I am, being Claimed to save my life and becoming a part of the same world I have been fighting so hard to escape."

- "I had no idea, sweetheart. I wished that there had been another way, I swear."

- "I know. But what it's done is done and now we just have to focus on making sure Elijah, and everyone else, believes it."

Eloise smiled at Jensen, sitting across from her, and watched him smiling back. They stayed in his office a while longer, getting the story of how they met and how they came together straight. Soon enough it was lunch time and Jensen decided to take her out for lunch, taking the first step towards letting everyone know that it was true that she was now Claimed by him.

Eloise knew that things weren't going to be easy, but she had to give it her all. After all, her life depended on it. She had asked Misha to tell her about Elijah and, after some convincing, he told her exactly what Elijah's reputation was and she would be lying if she said that it didn't scare her. She had to make it work, no matter what.

But things were not as simple as Eloise had hoped. And soon enough she was going to find out just how dangerous both Jensen's world and Elijah really were.