Nursery music played ominously as I made my way down the hall, drawn to a room I hadn't yet explored.

It was raining outside, providing little light in the dark house.

Well this was creepy.

I pushed on the door, exposing what it was inside.

All at once it all stopped, the music, the rain. Like I'd stepped into another world.

A crib was pushed into the far corner, and sunlight streamed into the room, making it pleasantly warm. I cautiously approached the crib. It had a bundle of blankets inside.

Something felt off, wrong.

But I couldn't stop my feet from moving.

Once I reached the wooden frame, something that was clearly older than I was, I realized there was a little boy in the crib, he was giggling up at a little mobile.

Then I felt it.

This undeniable feeling that he was mine.

But the blonde, that's what threw me off. Neither me nor my parents were-

Klaus.

Despite how I might try to reason my way out of it, he was the only one I'd been having sex with the last few months, and the little boy clearly had his dimples.

Amanda had been pregnant the day she'd been beheaded.

We all thought the baby would die when she was turned into a hybrid, but it hadn't.

As far as anyone could tell, it was a normal werewolf pregnancy.

Something dripped onto the boy's face, but he seemed unfazed by it, continuing to giggle and reach upward.

Upon closer inspection, I realized my own, decapitated head that dangled from the mobile.

"You really thought I'd let you live? After the secret you kept?"

I spun around to find Klaus, absolutely covered in blood. It was almost exactly what he looked like during the hybrid massacre almost a year ago.

"What secret?"

Instead of answering, he plunged his hand into my chest.

o[]xxxxx[]:::::::::::::>

I sat up, clutching at my shirt as I desperately tried to get air back into my lungs.

What the fuck.

It all seemed so real.

Klaus was awake and his hands were on me and it was too much.

"Don't touch me."

He pulled away before I could even finish my sentence. "What is it?"

I ran to the bathroom, shutting the door behind me.

Everything in me was screaming that the dream was right, that I was pregnant. But that was impossible. A dream wasn't reality.

I just had to check, I was already a week late and I was starting to get nervous. I swear to all the gods, if it was a fucking sign...

Shit.

No blood.

A cold dread curled in my gut. "Klaus." I moved to lean my head against the door. "We need to go get pads. I'm running low and my period is gonna start soon."

"Maverick." He muttered through the wood. "Come out."

I could stay in here, could hide away. But he would either break down the door or threaten me.

If I was pregnant, and I hoped to the gods I wasn't, I couldn't have a baby with him. I wouldn't subject the kid to this kind of life.

They deserved to go outside, go to normal school, something better than what I had.

But it wouldn't solve the hybrid problem outside my door. He wouldn't go away. Not until he thought he got what he wanted.

I twisted the handle.

Klaus stood on the other side, hands resting on either side of the frame.

"I said I needed period stuff."

"What were you dreaming about?"

"Klaus. Blood is going to be coming out of me, rather unwillingly, it could literally start any second."

That gorgeous muscle in his jaw ticked. "I'll go."

"I don't like those products you get me. Expensive does not necessarily mean it's the best."

He rolled his eyes. "Fine. Get your shoes."

"Can't I go alone? I'll be back, I promise."

His brow rose. "Trying to escape?"

I let out a huff, trying to put on a show of annoyance, like I wasn't fucking scared out of my mind. "No. Didn't I show I wasn't a flight risk? I could have tried to bolt the second the boundary wasn't up. Hell, do you think I haven't noticed you didn't put it back?"

He leaned closer. "Go. Get. Your. Shoes. Before I change my mind." I knew I'd crossed some sort of line, but I was already on a roll.

"You're impossible!" I threw my hands up. "I've been stuck by your side for so long I don't even remember what it's like to not have you in my space!"

Klaus didn't say anything, merely grabbed me by the arm and began dragging me down the hallway.

It didn't take a genius to figure out where we were going.

"Wait. No. Please, I'm sorry." I tried digging my heels in, to struggle in any way I could, but it was no use. I was going where he wanted me to go. "Klaus, please."

If I went in there, the shadows would get me.

Frustrated tears welled in my eyes, and there was that little voice in the back of my head telling me that I deserved this, that I knew I was making him mad.

He forcefully pulled me into his side when we made it in front of the door.

The cursed door.

And I was trapped.

"I think you've forgotten how this works, love." His voice was deceptively calm. "I could shove you in this room for weeks, forget that you're even there."

"Please." I sobbed, and I hated how I could be reduced to this by the thought of some bland room.

"I could ignore your screams and your pleads for mercy." Klaus grabbed my jaw, making me look. "Take away your freedom to roam these halls and sleep in my bed."

He was dangling his words in front of me.

"Say the word, little tempest, and I can make your stay quite unpleasant." He taunted.

Oh how I wanted to break his neck. Make him feel the same fear I felt. I just didn't want to go back in there.

I needed to do something, say something that would get me to the store. I needed a pregnancy test. "How do I stop this?"

"Tell me what you were dreaming about."

So I did.

I told him what he would believe, a story of sorts, more like a memory of the day I became a wolf.