A/N: Hey all :) Here I am with another story... Right before the start of the next semester... I'm kind of crazy, don't judge me.
Just as with Circuit Break, this fic won't have a set update schedule, but if the way I'm planning it currently stays the same, it'll be pretty short (the chapters will also be on the shorter side, sorry). I will never post something I don't intend to finish :)
This fic is the Caroline-Is-Klaus's-Mate story that I've been working on. It takes place about two months post-Klarosex, but anything post-Klarosex isn't canon (I don't know if that makes sense). Hopefully it'll become clearer as the story goes along :)
Thank you to wondygal & justanotherfiveminutes for being fabulous betas :)
Enjoy!
-Angie

She'd made a good decision with this one, she thought as her back arched slightly. The frat boy was handsome and blonde, well built, and apparently was very talented with his mouth.

There was no spark—there really never was with anyone anymore—but he made up for it with raw fucking talent.

And yes, she did mean that literally.

She'd broken up with Tyler weeks ago—after the whole Klaus fiasco—and she was honestly kind of relieved.

He hadn't been around and she was now single, which meant that she could do single-people things. Like getting her brains fucked out by a frat boy.

She knew that she wasn't ready for a relationship yet. She and Tyler had been together for a long time, but when frat-boy-that-could-do-that-thing-with-his-tongue-that-she-really-liked (note to self: teach that to future lovers)(second, less welcome, note to self: Klaus totally knew that tongue thing already, and she hypothetically wouldn't have to teach him anything)(third note to self: Stop thinking about Klaus) asked her out for lunch the next day, she smiled and accepted.

It was a little out of order, the fucking-then-dating thing, she means, but she needed a distraction, things had been pretty quiet since Katherine died, after all, and even though she knew it wouldn't go anywhere (because, as she previously mentioned, there was literally no spark at all), she was content to use him as hers.

XXX

"Witch!" He yelled, barging into Priscilla's shop in downtown Nashville, "I have a favor I need to call in."

He heard a faint snort from the back room and some puttering around before an old woman poked her head out to look at him. "Of course you do," She mumbled.

"I think that someone's put a curse on me."

"My condolences. Why are you here?"

He gave her a cold look. "I think it has something to do with the werewolf gene. I've read about similar curse symptoms in werewolf lore."

"All right. Tell me."

"I often feel as though someone is trying to very painfully rip out my intestines and then decides to stop after ten seconds or so. Have you heard of anything similar?"

He growled at the witch, who looked like she was trying not to laugh. "Oh, it's about time the great Niklaus Mikaelson discovered feelings," She said cheerfully, "Would you like some tea? I'll go put the kettle on."

Klaus sighed but followed her, knowing he wasn't going to get all that much information otherwise. Priscilla was…well, she wasn't exactly a friend, but she was about as close to that title as one could get. They had met over a hundred years before, and he was rather fond of her in the way that one might appreciate a goldfish that wouldn't have the decency to die after he got bored of it, but was occasionally useful as entertainment on a rainy day. He sat down at a rough wooden table covered with an absolutely revolting doily (Caroline would have had a heart attack just looking at it), and waited for the tea to be ready.

When Priscilla set down a cup in front of him and sat across from him he immediately asked the question that had been burning in his mind as soon as she's spoken the words. "What do you mean I discovered feelings?"

Priscilla laughed. "What do you know about werewolves?"

"Just get on with it and stop asking questions."

She huffed before setting her cup on the table. "Quite a lot changes for werewolves after they trigger the gene. They become calmer in general, because they have somewhere to send the pent-up aggression, and they also tend to pick a mate almost immediately after their first transition."

"Yes, I know that much," And Caroline was his mate, he was sure of it, "But what does that have to do with the pain?"

"I'm not quite sure how to put this delicately," Priscilla said slowly, "But that's not a curse. It's an instinct that's telling you that your mate is being pleasured by another, which, in natural terms, would mean you aren't caring for them sufficiently in all ways."

He blinked and then suddenly felt rage boiling up into him.

"Why didn't this happen before? I've known that Ca—who my mate is almost as soon as I saw her, but…She had a lover at the time, and it's not as though they didn't…"

"My guess is that you probably claimed her between then and now," Priscilla said.

He knew that she was having a lot of trouble keeping her face straight, and Klaus snorted at her words.

"I'd love to see anyone try to use the word 'claim' in relation to Caroline in front of her. It would probably be the last word they ever spoke."

"Well, luckily for you, that's your job."

"I'm not going to go all the way back to her after telling her I'd leave her alone until she decided to be with me and tell her that, are you insane? What am I supposed to say, exactly, 'Hello, Caroline. I don't know if you were aware of this, but werewolves have mates, and you are mine, and I would now like you to accompany me back to New Orleans, far away from your friends, so that I may lock you in my bedroom and ravish you for as long as physically possible'?"

Priscilla was shaking with laughter, though she had the decency to not laugh at him out loud.

"What?" He asked irritably.

"Well, if you aren't going to go back to her, all you'll have to do is live with the knowledge that every time you have that feeling she's having sexual relations with another man. Doesn't sound so hard, right?"

"I've had to live with worse," Klaus mumbled, getting up to leave.

XXX

He threw a glass against the wall, and it shattered with a loud crack, tiny pieces falling all over the floor.

"What did that cup ever do to you?" Rebekah asked, poking her head in to investigate the noise.

"It wasn't the cup," He mumbled.

He felt that twist in his stomach. The same one that he'd described to Priscilla, and the same one he'd felt nineteen times so far (but who's counting?) since he'd left Caroline in Mystic Falls two months before.

It was an unpleasant feeling, like someone putting a hook in your abdomen and jerking it harshly, but the feeling always disappeared after a few moments. And then he would feel…oddly empty, that feeling where you know that you should feel something but all you can feel is the absence of feeling.

He wasn't sure that the explanation made any sense, but he wasn't sure how else to put it.

He also wasn't quite sure which feeling was worse, the pain or the emptiness, but he did know the cause.

Caroline Forbes was brought to orgasm by another man.

He felt oddly creepy whenever it happened, as though he were intruding on a private moment, which he was, really. He always had to remind himself that she didn't know, and that she wouldn't find out unless he screwed up his nerve to go all the way back to Virginia and tell her that every time she had sex with someone he felt it, and in order to prevent him from going mad could she please stop.

Although, he probably wouldn't put it that way, as it would just make her angry.

He also probably wouldn't be able to resist adding "and let me fuck you instead," which at this point in their relationship would be rather counter-productive.

He wanted nothing more than to tell her, though. This was the first time since he'd met her that he'd been away for a significant period of time, and he needed her. It was worse than before as well, because she'd finally given into him and then he'd had to leave because that was what she'd wanted and he couldn't exactly say no, could he? And now she's gone and he's stuck in New Orleans with only his sister for company who, despite being almost a thousand years old, still doesn't quite seem to have grasped the meaning of "leave me alone."

"Are you brooding about the baby vampire again, Nik?" Rebekah asked, sounding oddly sympathetic.

"No," He lied, sinking down on the couch and picking up his sketchbook from the side table, flipping through to a clean page and beginning to sketch.

She snorted, plopping down next to him and resting her feet on the coffee table. "Liar."

They didn't speak for awhile, the only sounds were Klaus's pencil scratching on paper, and the clicking of Rebekah's wine glass as she sipped from it and laid it back down on the coffee table.

He winced at another sudden jerk in his abdomen and decided that he wasn't about to sit here and let his mate have her way with anyone she liked. She was his, and she should understand that as soon as possible. He stood up, grabbing his coat.

"Where are you going?" Rebekah called after him.

"The airport," He said shortly, slamming the front door behind him.

XXX

So, anyway, here she was on the day after frat boy had left getting dressed and feeling slightly sorry for herself because she couldn't seem to connect with anyone. Jesse had been sweet, but she hadn't felt anything from him, really. She had definitely felt things for Tyler. She loved him (loved, past tense, she realized). And…Tyler was Tyler. He was safe and kind and loving and absolutely hated her now because she'd slept with Klaus.

Klaus who had clearly ruined her for anyone else (so far).

Yeah. So far. That was a good way of putting it. She would remain optimistic.

There had to be someone better at having sex than him in the world, and she was going to find them.

Eventually.

Right now, though, she was digging through her closet. She decided against the floral babydoll dress when she realized that even though she wouldn't notice, it was probably cold and pulled on jeans and a top instead, grabbed a purse and made her way to the tiny café where she was supposed to meet him.

She saw him sitting at one of the outside tables and sat down at the other side, picking up a menu. They made semi-awkward small talk (how do you talk to someone who's name you didn't know until after you'd seen them naked without being at least semi-awkward?) while they waited for their food to come.

As they kept talking, the date got gradually more comfortable. He was funny and seemed to genuinely like her, and Caroline found that she actually genuinely liked him.

As a friend.

She was completely frustrated with herself. He was totally her type, and she just…couldn't make herself like him. He walked her back to her dorm, and she smiled, thanked him, and said that yes, she would enjoy going out again, and she had homework to do, but could he please give her a call?

She swiped her key card over the reader and entered the dorm, making her way to her room rather quickly. She unlocked the door and slipped in, shutting it behind her, turning around to find Klaus's nose about an inch away from hers.

She screeched in surprise and then pushed him away from her. "What the hell, Klaus?"

"I didn't mean to startle you," He said, which was about as close to an apology as she was likely to get.

"Why are you here? You were supposed to leave."

"I said I'd leave Mystic Falls," He said calmly, pulling out his phone, which had just vibrated, and fiddling around with it.

"But…Okay. Whatever. Why are you here?"

"To take you back to New Orleans."

She felt a bizarre mixture of excitement, confusion, and indignance. What do you even say to that?

She settled for an "Excuse me?" while inwardly panicking.

"I am here to take you back to New Orleans with me."

"No."

He nodded, as though expecting that response—which he probably had. "Well, the alternative is me staying here, so I assumed that you would rather come with me back to New Orleans."

"Okay. So clearly you don't understand the concept of 'leave and don't come back,' but, just to clarify, what it means is that you leave and don't come back."

"I need to be with you."

"Okay, so you're like, moving way into crazy-stalker territory. Like, more than you were before, I mean."

"It's not my fault that you're my mate."

"I'm sorry, I'm your what?"

She couldn't have heard him correctly. There was no way in hell that he'd actually said that. Were mates even, like, a thing?

"I said that you are my mate," Klaus repeated, not even bothering to look up from his cell phone.

She couldn't help it. She burst into giggles. "I'm sorry. Wait, what?"

He repeated his statement, and she shook her head. "That's ridiculous."

"No it's not," He said, suddenly sounding rather irritable.

"So assuming that this mate thing exists, you're telling me that there's some sort of higher cosmic power that determined that we were meant to be? Or something?"

He shrugged, still not looking at her.

"But you were born like, a thousand years ago! If your mate's determined when you're born, wouldn't your mate have died already?"

"Well, my assumption would be that because a mate is only chosen once the wolf side has been activated, and my wolf side was locked away before I had met an appropriate match, breaking my mother's curse allowed my mating instinct to emerge, and that instinct chose you," He said slowly, clearly having given this thought, "Of course," he continued, his voice taking a lighter tone, "Whoever is in charge of this whole destiny business could have just decided a thousand years ago that you were the one for me. I suppose we'll never know."

"This is bullshit."

"Beg pardon?"

"It's bullshit. I don't believe you."

"You don't…believe me?" Klaus asked slowly, looking at her for the first time during the conversation.

"I've never heard of this whole mate thing before, and—"

"Oh, yes, of course love, it's not as if you didn't practically just learn that werewolves existed at all."

"It's been like, two years!"

"Exactly."

She glared at him. "That's not the point. Wolves are mostly monogamous, but they don't mate for life."

He raised an eyebrow, apparently impressed, and tucked his phone into his jacket pocket. "Where did you learn that?"

"Discovery Channel."

And by that, she meant that as soon as she figured out that Tyler both was a werewolf and actually genuinely liked her, she looked up everything she could about wolves—both supernatural and otherwise.

Caroline Forbes was nothing if not thorough.

"Regardless, werewolves are not the same as regular wolves, love. They do mate for life."

"Well, since I'm not interested in being your mate, what happens now?"

Klaus smirked. "Considering the fact that the last time we spoke face-to-face we knocked down three trees and you walked home in almost nothing besides a sweatshirt and jeans, I'd say that you were quite interested."

"That was a one-time thing," She mumbled, her face heating up.

"If you say so," He said, inspecting his nails, "I'm sure that you will come to your senses soon enough."

"And what if I don't?" She asked again, her voice much more serious.

He shrugged. "I don't think anything particularly special happens. Apart from condemning both of us to eternal misery, of course," He said, looking up at her with big blue sad-eyes.

She directed her gaze towards the ceiling, hoping that she looked exasperated rather than like she was trying to avoid looking at him. She wasn't sure she was succeeding.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

She felt him take a step closer, but didn't look at him. "Well," he began, his voice light, "I suppose when I first saw you, I just…knew. I felt this odd attraction to you. It was like nothing I had ever felt. After I clai—made love to you—"

She scoffed quietly, before inwardly freezing and narrowing her eyes.

Was he about to say claimed?

He continued, as though he hadn't noticed her discomfort, although she was sure that he had, "I felt…full. Sated. Content. I felt as though I had been starving for a thousand years but didn't know it until I ate," She made the mistake of looking down and somehow became attracted to his gaze, "I know you felt it too, Caroline."

She felt a slight tug in her abdomen, but wrinkled her nose to try to hide her reaction.

"So, how exactly does that condemn us both to eternal misery?" She asked, slightly proud that her voice didn't shake.

He gave her a tender look. "Because neither of us will ever be able to have the depth of feelings we have for each other. Any outside relationship we attempt—well, you attempt, as I do not intend to…ah…cheat on you—will feel empty and incomplete. You will always feel that something's missing, and be unable to truly emotionally connect to anyone in a romantic way."

She felt her breath hitch, and immediately her mind wandered to the date she'd just had with frat boy, and further back to Tyler and Jesse. She realized why she barely felt anything at all after being with Klaus.

And now she knew why.

She knew that he hadn't seen it coming, and he grunted as her palm connected with his face.

"You ruin everything," She said, her voice deathly quiet.

"So I've been told," He said, pinching the bridge of his nose, the red mark already gone.

She couldn't love because of him.

She couldn't connect with anyone because of him.

It was his fault.

His. Fault.

"I hate you," She spat, her eyes filling with tears.

His eyes widened before he looked at her with such tender loving eyes that she almost wished he looked murderous.

"So I've been told," He said quietly.

The curtains rustled, and he was gone.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review to let me know what you think (it's the only way I get your opinions on the stories I'm writing, so don't be shy). :)
Hugs!
-Angie