It took only a few weeks for Kristofer and Rose to make the journey from the Caern she had grown up in to the modest abode he had moved into nearly ten years earlier. This was the place he had made his home after trying to escape the fate that his family had been trying to force him into for his entire life. Now, here he was coming back to this home once again, but this time with a Garou wife. He shook his head at the irony of the entire last decade of his life which had led to this very moment.

Once inside he shook his head at the disrepair the home had fallen into during the year and a half he had been gone. Rose also looked a bit underwhelmed by their new surroundings too, but she had grown up in the woods as well, so she didn’t have much in the way of a comparison to make; unlike Kristofer who had spent half a decade in the regal surroundings of his medical school and so near to all the much more lavish homes of Pennsylvania’s wealthiest families.

Rose plopped down onto the couch, causing a cloud of dust to emerge from the cushions as she attempted to bite back a cough before speaking, “this is truly lovely. Much better than that cabin we had in my Caern” she added wryly.

“It’s all I needed back when I was eighteen; four walls and a roof” Kristofer attempted to excuse as he dropped their belongings to the floor inside the door that was barely staying on its hinges after he had been absent from making any repairs to the damage caused by the quakes that plagued the southern part of Las Californias so regularly.

“And I’m guessing there’s only one bedroom?” Rose asked as she cast a glance back toward one of the only two doors that led out of the small living and dining area that made up the majority of the tiny home.

“Again, all I needed” Kristofer returned in the same apologetic tone.

“I think we’re going to need a bigger house if you’re going to live up to your part of this deal we call a marriage” she told him as gently as she could.

“That was already part of my plan. I need a place to practice medicine; and this is not it” he agreed with a slight shrug.

“Ok, good. So when do we get this house-slash-office?” Rose asked him expectantly.

Kristofer swallowed as he cast another look around the home before making his eyes come back to meet hers, “well, actually getting a larger house with enough space for my practice and…” another swallow, “our children; that’s the part of the plan I have yet to work out.”

Rose simply scoffed as she looked around as well, “I think you better get it worked out” she stated the obvious, “don’t you need an office to make enough money to even buy the bigger house, with the office in it… as well as space for any children?”

“Hence why it’s a bit problematic” Kristofer admitted softly, “I need a place to make money, but I can’t get the place until I make money” he added with a sigh.

Rose allowed another wry laugh, “and if Kaleb hadn’t dragged you back to the Caern… Exactly how were you going to pay for a place to open your practice then?” she asked the obvious question.

“I was still working that out” he confessed quietly as he turned his eyes away from the scowl that graced her lips then.

“The agreement was that you become a doctor and give me children. That’s the only reason we left the Caern” she reminded him a little forcefully, “and now you’re telling me you have no idea how to even accomplish the part that was your idea” Rose scoffed again, “that was the whole point in me leaving my home and coming here with you” she reminded, a bit of her anger seeping into her tone then.

“I know” he assured, “and I’m going to figure it out” he told her, trying to sound confident, which was made more difficult in the face of her simmering anger; after growing up with his brother he knew all too well that angering a Garou was never a good thing in any way.

“And when will that be, Kristofer?” she retorted, his name nearly a growl on her lips as she stood, “you know I could already be pregnant. And we apparently don’t even have a real home for that child if that’s the case. You are aware of that, aren’t you?” she added with further anger.

“Believe me, I’m aware” he answered in a mumble as he looked down again, trying to hide the bitterness in his tone and already feeling the urge to flee from her anger the way he had always wanted to flee from his brother’s.

“Then you better do something about it, immediately” she added in the same growl before storming off into their one bedroom.

Kristofer breathed an immediate sigh of relief as she left the room before tearing him to shreds, as she was so easily capable of doing. Though his relief was short lived as he thought on her last statement which sounded like nothing short of a threat when coming from the lips of a creature such as her. He had been overjoyed that she had originally seemed willing to compromise; and that’s what led to him finally giving into intimacy and consummating their marriage after all. But now when faced with trying to make that dream of a compromise into a reality, he easily remembered why he had always dreaded the very idea of any union with a Garou.

Kristofer rubbed at his temples stressfully for a moment before casting a look back at the bedroom door she had slammed behind her only moments earlier. On the thought of her coming back and continuing their angry debate, he decided he needed to just get away for long enough to hopefully allow himself time to think of some sort of solution to the problem lying before them.

Upon stepping out into the early evening air as the sun slowly began dipping below the horizon, he couldn’t help letting his thoughts drift back to Claire as his deep brown eyes turned in the direction of the sea; and the place where she had lost her life simply to pay for her friendship with him.

He sighed sadly as he sniffled a bit at the thought that she would still live if he had not ever met her. Then he immediately heard his brother’s voice in his head reminding him that she hadn’t truly been alive at all. Then he bit back further emotion at the thoughts of what his own brother had likely done to make Claire pay for that friendship.

It was true that he had spent his whole life being browbeaten with the idea that vampires were nothing but evil incarnate. And he had let himself move through life with that belief; until he had actually met one. She was beautiful and gentle and kind and the only true friend he had ever had, and the only woman he had truly ached for. And she was the thing that was supposed to be so evil? He shook his head to chase away more guilty tears caused by the part he had played in leading such a woman to her true death; just because his family believed her to be a monster.

And now he was married to another woman; and this one was the same kind of creature as the brother who had taken Claire out of the world. He bit back more tears then, though these were not only tears of guilt, but anger as well. Anger that he was now expected to spend his life with the kind of creature that took away the one truly beautiful thing he had ever found in such an ugly world.

So distracted by his grief, guilt, worry and anger, Kristofer did not even realize what destination his feet had carried him to until he looked up to be shaken by the darkened silhouette of Claire’s tavern that night. His breath caught again as he stopped about twenty or so feet from the door of the darkened and lonely looking building before him. It was obviously abandoned, and that thought tore at him as well. Nevertheless he forced his feet to carry him to the door. There he stopped again as his eyes moved to find the sign she had made after he had given her the idea. Only, that sign was no longer there; instead another sign read ‘closed until further notice.’ And that tore at him too.

He moved to brush some grime away from a window and peer inside. He wasn’t sure what he hoped or expected to find, but all he did find was a dark abandoned tavern. And as his eyes moved around the room, he couldn’t help envisioning the carnage that had taken place there a year and a half earlier; and perpetrated by none other than his very own flesh and blood. And that was the first time he truly let himself admit to his next dark thought; that he was glad his brother was dead… if only that would bring Claire back. But he knew it would not.

On that thought he had to push away more of his anger at Kaleb. Only, another emotion took its place as his eyes turned toward that high wall in the distance surrounding the Beringer compound. His mind had now moved to thoughts of the man who had originally scared him away from Claire. His breath caught a moment as he realized that he had not been the only one who had lost Claire in that horrible attack. Though he and Sean were nothing resembling friendly, he couldn’t help feeling a twinge of pain for him as well. After all, Sean had also lost the woman he had loved; and he had loved her for much longer than Kristofer had even known her.

Kristofer took another deep breath as he forced away thoughts of exactly how much damage had been done by his own brother. All of those things were in the past and nothing he thought or felt or did would ever change the horrible fate that had come to Claire. Now he had a new woman in his life and his bed, no matter how he truly felt about that fact. And he had to find some way to keep her anger from erupting and bringing more carnage. With that thought, he finally forced his feet to carry him away from the tavern that night and continued searching his mind for a solution to the present problems, since the past was forever unchangeable.

As the sun came up the next morning, Kristofer awoke with a scowl at the state his own body was in upon his return to consciousness. He sighed and awkwardly moved to try to push himself up off the mattress without disturbing Rose’s slumber. Only her heightened senses immediately caught the ever so slight movement of the mattress beneath him.

“Leaving our bed already?” she asked hoarsely as she rolled from her stomach to her side to look over at him as she wiped sleep from her blue eyes.

“I found an abandoned building last night that might be good for us” he attempted to start the day with some semblance of good news to hopefully avoid arousing her anger again. “But no one was there, so I have to find out who owns it, if anyone, and if we could possibly acquire it” he finished quietly as he tried to subtly readjust his trousers to keep her from noting the state he had woken up in.

As hyper-aware as Garou almost always were, Rose easily noted his gesture as her lips curled into a wry grin, “ready for our next attempt already?” she teased as her eyes moved to his hips where his state was just barely evidenced under the thin sheet.

“I tend to wake up like that on occasion, without even trying” he mumbled with a blush as his heart rate increased for reasons other than arousal.

“Works for me” she told him as she moved to pull her undergarment down her legs.

“Rose…” he swallowed hard as she finished that task and moved to push the sheet away and reach for the button of his trousers.

“Just sit back and enjoy it. That’s all you have to do” she grinned as she finished releasing his partial erection from his pants and moved to a place atop his hips.

Kristofer released another heavy breath as he laid his head back against the pillow and closed his eyes tightly, knowing it would be futile to even attempt any excuses to avoid copulation with a woman such as her. She spent only a few moments caressing him into fully hardening beneath her touch. And only a moment after that, he moaned slightly as she slid him inside her once again and began moving against him with the sheer purpose of pushing him to that pleasure that would fill her with his seed.

Kristofer then went about trying as hard as he could to forget what Rose was and to just concentrate on the feel of being inside her; after several long moments, and a few errant thoughts of another woman who he wished she actually was, Kristofer finally managed to allow his body to give into providing her with the response she wanted and pour himself into her with another loud moan.

“Good boy” she smirked down at him as she placed the tiniest kiss over his lips before moving back off of his hips again and rising from the bed. Once he finally heard the door close behind her, he opened his dark eyes at last, allowing another tear to slide down his cheek now that she was not there to see his despair at once again giving into the fate he had fought against for his entire life.

After a few more moments to allow his body to recover, Kristofer somberly dressed. He then moved through the bedroom door and then the main portion of their tiny home, only nodding to Rose slightly as she prepared her breakfast while he quickly exited the house. Taking another deep breath, he headed off to the next unpleasant task that he had planned that day.

Kristofer then spent his day riding through the port town locating every abandoned looking building he could find, and determining if any of them were not owned or at least for sale. By late afternoon he had found only three buildings that would suit his needs and all of them were indeed abandoned. However each of them were owned by the very same person who owned just about everything in that town; just like he had told Claire seven years earlier when he found out who it was that she was married to.

Kristofer sighed heavily as his horse reached the beach only slightly north of that walled in compound. He was now faced with yet another dilemma. He needed to find a new home and place for his practice to keep his volatile new wife from changing her mind about their agreement and dragging him right back to the hell that was life among her kind. However, the only places that could come close to filling both their needs were all owned by the man who already disliked him immensely even before his very own brother had murdered his wife.

He shook his head with another sigh as he looked off at that wall in the distance. The one saving grace was that Sean most likely would not have any way of knowing that it was Kristofer’s own brother who had murdered his bride, so that gave him some hope that Sean wouldn’t murder him in return the moment he laid eyes on him. There was also the sad fact that Claire was no longer there for Kristofer to show any interest in at all; of course that was a fact that was just as negative as it was positive.

Then another thought crept into the edges of Kristofer’s mind; and it was one that he had been willfully not allowing himself to consider for any of the year and half since the attack on the tavern. The fact that Sean had been her husband, and for a seemingly long time did leave two very real possibilities. One was that Sean did indeed know what Claire was, and had accepted it enough to begin a life with her despite knowing the secret of her true nature. Or two, that Sean was the same sort of creature Claire was; a vampire… The creatures that he had been taught to hate since he knew the meaning of the word.

There was of course the possibility that Sean didn’t actually know what she was, but Kristofer had more than a bit of trouble believing that, even though he himself had not been aware of what she was. But he was fairly sure it would be impossible to be married to the undead for any period of time without knowing what your mate was. This led him back to either Sean accepting Claire for what she was, or being what Claire was.

Kristofer swallowed another lump in his throat as he tried to remember every detail of his tense confrontation with Sean the one time he had laid eyes on the man. Sean made it obvious that he wanted Kristofer nowhere near his wife and communicated that thought quite clearly. Then Kristofer had another thought. If Sean were truly the thing Claire was; If Sean had truly been one of those undead monsters he had always been taught to hate… Then why was Kristofer even still standing at all? Sean did not truly threaten him, let alone hurt him at all. He just did his very best to make Kristofer so uncomfortable he would never go near Claire again. But that was all he did. He didn’t rip his throat out, enslave him, use any foul and hellish powers on him; all he did was make it known that he didn’t want Kristofer around.

And those facts led to another possibility. If Sean were indeed what Claire had been, and he refrained from even harming someone that he clearly disliked… then exactly how was Kristofer meant to believe, yet again, that these foul undead things were even remotely similar to the monsters he had always been taught to believe they really were?