I held my blade out in front of me, daring any of those fuckers to come closer. Though, backed into a corner as I was, I probably shouldn't have been mouthing off.

"Poor little lone wolf." One of them approached, his fangs glistening. "You know we're pack animals."

"We are? I had no idea."

Screw the plan, if they took another step I was swinging.

They weren't coming near my baby.

Well babies.

I'd never been so happy to be sprayed with blood in my entire life than in that moment. Sam stood behind ugly number one, machete dripping. The other fell not too soon after. I set my hands on my knees. "Better late than never."

"Are you okay? Why are you breathing so loud? Did something happen to Bennett?" He fussed and it was actually kind of hysterical watching a grown man, who was covered in blood, worry.

"I'm fine. It's just a little harder to run, is all." I had to be so incredibly careful not to shake him.
Though it was nothing like when I was pregnant. I loved not feeling like I had a watermelon attached to my torso.

A very heavy, volatile watermelon.

I used to have to wear this special tape just to relieve some of the pain and I was not excited to repeat the process.

"C'mon, let's go get cleaned up. Dean's waiting by the car."

"Damn, I missed this."

"What? Being covered in blood and guts?" Sam laughed.

"No, hunting." Klaus would've never approved or allowed me within an inch of something so dangerous. "It's a different kind of freedom. It also helps to know that the douchebags we do hunt are evil." Other hunters usually did so indiscriminately.

It was actually kind of disappointing that the famous Winchesters were unusual in their world.

He shrugged. "I guess I was never really that attached."

"And I grew up in a backward wolf pack, totally worth it now."

Sam was quiet. "You don't talk about your past a whole lot."

Not this again. "Isn't much to say." I rubbed Bennett's back, he was sleeping on my chest, completely undisturbed.

The carrier had covered him pretty well, it'd taken the bulk of the blood.

"Yeah but we didn't even know who the father was until like a month ago."

Maybe if I gave him something, he'd finally back off. "I was married. Klaus killed him, and my original pack."

"Wow. I'm sorry."

"Don't be, he was a dick. I was fifteen, he was thirty. My dad made the arrangements, all I had to do was reproduce. That was my only job, oh, and please my husband."

"So Bennett..."

"Wasn't a product of that life, which just makes him more precious to me. Klaus was crazy, but at least the sex part was my choice." I cradled my kid. "And I'd never tell him, but it was good too. He's already got an overly inflated ego." 

"And the shirt thing, that was only because he stole your clothes, right?" Sam gave me a look.

"You little asshole." I pushed him, making him stumble, he laughed. "He actually did steal it. I leaked that first night, and took one of his shirts. Haven't seen mine since."

"Was it some kind of memento? Trophy?"

"That's implying he'd care about keeping something like that."

"Did you keep his?"

I pressed my lips together. "That is none of your business, Sam Winchester."

He held his hands up in surrender. "All I'm saying is, maybe you guys were more than just fuck buddies."

"Absolutely not." We weren't.

But why did he always try to keep me?

"Maverick, you came back a little tired in different clothes. Not exactly what I'd expect from an immortal who was pissed at you." Sam deadpanned.

I wanted to contest it, tell him he was wrong, but I knew he wasn't. "Whatever Winchester, like you've never had questionable taste in women." The Impala was in sight and so was Dean. He was cleaning himself up.

"Nice try."

"What?" Dean tossed us both a rag and a water bottle.

"Maverick trying to convince me that she and Klaus aren't in love."

It wasn't love. There was just something about Klaus that sucked me in when we were together. I couldn't explain it.

I scrubbed at my skin, blood stank when it sat. "If you wanna go down the 'questions I can't answer' road, let's. You guys never talk about shit and I'm not complaining."

"Wrong. Sammy does talk about all that girly, chick flick bullshit. I don't."

"You're an emotionally stunted bastard, you know that?" I'd have to wash the carrier, which was a task on its own.

Dean stopped, leaning against the Impala. "What were you doing with the Mikaelsons in the first place?"

"I told you, I was turned."

"I'm trying to piece it all together. Normally when a hunter has a history, you know it's family stuff, they were brutally murdered or-"

"Well I'm not just a hunter, am I? My kind gets hunted by your kind. It's all for yourself out there. If you guys hadn't..." My throat felt tight. "You have no idea what it means for a werewolf to not have a pack, to be a lone wolf. Something a lot worse would've happened to me, to Bennett. And Klaus... he murdered everyone I grew up with, my friends. But it was so nice to be near a fucking wolf..." Yeah, that was it, it had to be.

"Why don't you go be with him then." Dean's cheek twitched.

I ran a hand through my hair. "Fuck Dean. Why wouldn't I go live with a homicidal psychopath? He'd sooner use Bennett to lead his dream army and shove me in some deep, dark hole. It's not Klaus, it's the wolf part."

"Guys."

"No, we're good, I'm glad we know how we all feel." Bennett began to cry, and I started rocking him. Damn it. "Fuck you Winchester."

"Guys, look." Sam picked something off the muddy ground. It was a flyer of some kind. "I think we just found our next hunt."