Lightning Strikes Twice

Five

"Elijah, let me go!" Méalla cried, watching her mother prepare the stone in the fire.
Mikael called Elijah harshly and he dragged Méalla inside, giving her to Kol, and telling him "Don't let her go. No matter what." Elijah then left the cottage.
"Elijah! Elijah, hold him down!" She heard Mikael command. She struggled against her brother's hold.
"Brother, please! Don't let them do this to me!" Niklaus cried.
"Niklaus! I'm coming!" Méalla cried, sobbing as she tried to escape from Kol's grasp to protect Niklaus. She twisted and wiggled and squirmed, but Kol held tight to her waist.
"Do it now, boy! Now!" Mikael screamed at presumably Elijah.
"Help me!" Niklaus begged.
"Niklaus!" Méalla cried as she heard agonizing screams come from where her parents and older brothers were.
She struggled against Kol until she heard the screaming become whimpering and her father and Elijah walk back into the house.
"It's done." Elijah said to Kol softly, who let Méalla go. As soon as she was released, Méalla ran out the door and past the fire to the wooden cross Mikael had bound Niklaus to. Her brother looked awful. He was burned badly and tears had made his face red and blotchy. His body had injuries of a struggle and Méalla could see blood where his wrists and ankles were chained.
"Niklaus!" She cried, starting to fumble with the chains. Esther soon joined her, unlocking her brother, who fell into Méalla's arms.
"Sister." Niklaus whispered weakly, unable to hold himself up.
"Niklaus. My brother, I am so sorry. I'm so sorry." Méalla cradled her brother, careful not to rub against his wounds.
She held him as he whimpered and she cared for his wounds for the short time they now had any.

"Niklaus!" Méalla called for her brother. Her legs were breaking, shifting. She felt her eyes changing and her teeth lengthening. She fell to the forest floor.
"Méalla? Where are you? Méalla!" Méalla heard Niklaus yell before she heard branches crackling as he entered the clearing she was in. She barely heard him through the haze of pain she felt. It felt like her body was being broken and fixed wrong.
"Niklaus! What's happening?" Méalla screamed as her back twisted and bent.
"Méalla! You'll be alright, you're alright. Breathe." Niklaus was whispering to her. She tried to breathe deep, tried to breathe through the pain.
"Boy! Get away from her!" Mikael had come into the clearing, Elijah and Rebekah tailing. They had heard her screams.
Mikael rounded on Esther, who was watching Méalla in horror after arriving behind her siblings.
"Another affair? Another child not of my blood! Fix this!" He screamed at his wife. Rebekah and Elijah were watching fearfully, and Niklaus was still trying to calm her.
Suddenly, the pain stopped. Méalla sighed in relief but tensed as it felt different. She knew with a sinking heart. She was a wolf, just like Niklaus. She felt exhausted from the pain and overwhelmed with all the new senses and feelings of her wolf form. She was scared. She had a small voice telling her that this could be it, this could be the day she's free from her parents, from her curse. She could just run, run in this body, this powerful, strong body. Yet, with one look around at her siblings, she knew she couldn't leave them. She refused to let Niklaus be hurt, refused to let anything more happen to her siblings.
Mikael had come up to her, grabbed her by the fur on her neck.
"Boy! Get the rope. We'll keep her tied and your mother will fix this when she's transformed back." Mikael growled at Elijah, who hesitated.
"Now!" Mikael barked. Elijah backed away, and went for the rope.
Méalla growled a bit at that, but whimpered softly when Mikael started to drag her across the clearing.
Méalla was exhausted and scared and she crashed into an uneasy sleep. She didn't wake up until she felt chains on her wrists. Human wrists. She opened her eyes to see Elijah holding Niklaus back, and Mikael binding her to the same wood he had bound Niklaus too some time ago.
Méalla didn't scream for help. She knew that it wouldn't do a thing. She looked to Niklaus, murder in his eyes, and shook her head. He didn't need any extra beatings from getting in between Mikael and her. She tried pulling her wrists free but that only irritated her skin.
Her mother was there now. She saw the same things that she used on Niklaus in front of her and she pulled on the chains a bit in fear.
By the time her mother was finished, Méalla had felt more pain in the past day or so, than she had in her life. The transforming and Esther's spell. She was dazed and really didn't know what was happening around her as Niklaus carried her inside, to her bed. She felt presences and heard voices, but she couldn't make sense of them. Rebekah had told her when she woke that she had been in bed for a few days. All Méalla remembered of that time was the absence of pain, of burning, of shifting bones.

Méalla sat up straight, upset and unsettled, from her memories of Niklaus and her first transformations. She felt her heart racing, and she felt the phantom pain of what she had felt at that time. She clutched the little green blanket she's started to leave by her pillow and tried to take deep breaths to calm herself. She told herself that transforming didn't hurt like that anymore, that she could transform again now. That the spell of her mother's was broken and she was free to be her full self.
She slowly calmed down, and her heart slowed to a calmer beat, but she didn't stop thinking about the memories. The pain of transformation, with no support from anyone but Niklaus. The residual embarrassment of Mikael with two bastard children, let alone a daughter. The fear of her siblings. The shame of their mother.
That was the way they grew up. That's what her family has known from people supposed to care for, protect them. Pain and fear and embarrassment and shame. It's been centuries and each of them is still coping with it.
As she clutched the blanket to her heart with one hand, and the other laying on her stomach, she made a promise. She made a promise to her baby and a little to herself. She whispered it slowly.
You will never need to fear me, and the pain you feel I will do my best to soothe. You are not and never will be something I'm ashamed of. You're going to be born into a family with issues and grievances, with enemies on all sides, but you will be loved and protected and you will have a better life.
Méalla sat on her bed, repeating this promise to herself for who knows how long.