B E T T E R M A N | KLAUS MIKAELSON

TWELVE

Fresh pinewood littered the fertile soil below her, reminding the hellhound of the first time they had followed the tracking of some werewolves. It seemed ironic to her that they had come full circle in such a short amount of time. Though, two weeks wasn't such a short amount of time for her to be away from her friends, from her family.

Kicking a loose bit of mud across the forest floor, the girl was reminded of Adriel. It wasn't her first time thinking about the man, but guilt began to bloom at how little she had thought of him. She could picture him now, pacing back and forth in the living room of their small house, hand combing through his hair before tugging at the roots in frustration.

Disappearing for a couple of days at a time wasn't unheard of for Rhine when the demons taking up space inside of her head became too much, she would pack a bag and leave town for a little bit, get her head sorted. Adriel had never been privy to what she did during those few days that she was away, but he knew that when she finally returned, she would be calmer, more in control.

Images of fire, blood and destruction flashed in her mind quickly, the consequences of waiting too long before she disappeared again greeting her with a sickly sweet smile. Rhine knew that she could get out of hand, that sometimes she wasn't controlling the demons, they were controlling her. But episodes like that hadn't occurred for a long time, and she wanted to keep it that way.

Still, she knew that Adriel would be worried, but not worried enough to contact the police, he knew better than that. Looking ahead to the hybrid she had been in company with for two weeks now, she couldn't help but wish to be at home, watching some stupid television show, curled up on the sofa with a bowl of popcorn and Adriel next to her.

When Klaus' head turned quickly, arctic eyes staring deep into her soul, or lack of one for that matter, she knew she needed to focus on the task at hand. After all, they weren't taking a walk through the pinewood forest for the fun of it.

The two of them hadn't been back in a forest-like setting since the first time they hunted down werewolves, every other wolf that had soon been turned hybrid had been picked up in bars and such along the road. The familiarity of it all brought back things she had been trying to forget, like the woman's foreboding warning, her inevitable death, and the hybrid she now knew to be Tony.

This time there was no trickery in finding the location of the werewolf camp, for this particular pack didn't have a witch supporting them, that was obvious when the hellhound herself spotted their makeshift huts in the nearing distance. She wasn't the only one who had spotted the camp, Klaus' eyes narrowed in a way similar to a predator hunting their prey, though he made no quick movements, not like his hybrids.

Like their own sort of pack, the hybrids moved forward with purpose, speeding into the small village and gathering up every werewolf insight. Rhine had noticed, over their time together, that Klaus and his hybrids seemed to share some sort of psychological connection, the hybrids knew exactly what to do before Klaus had even uttered a single word. Not a single one of them complained or hesitated before they carried out what he wanted done.

It reminded her of that night in the gym.

Shaking off those memories, Rhine caught up with the rest of them, turning away from the large gathering in the middle of the village and towards a smaller hut on the outskirts of the camp. Here, she could be alone, and she could think.

A peaceful silence tugged her in, wrapping her up in their comforting arms in a way that she missed. Being away from her friends and family so long, she found herself longing for the times when Elena would bring her in for meaningless hugs every morning. Maybe if she had just listened to Elena all those nights ago, she never would have ended up in this mess in the first place.