The Monster You Made
Chapter 1: Shattered Time
Stiles
The compound reeked of old blood and older regrets. I walked through the gates like I owned them, because in every way that mattered, I did. An Upgraded Original. Siphoner. Werewolf. Vampire. My own magic coiled under my skin like a second pulse, hungry and endless. Nothing could kill me. I had already tested that theory on three continents.
I could feel the Hollow's power settled inside me like a second skeleton—devoured whole the moment I arrived in New Orleans. The world wasn't ending today. You're welcome.
Five faces turned toward me in the courtyard. Klaus. Elijah. And the three women who made something in my dead chest twitch for the first time in months. I didn't understand it. The feeling was faint, irritating, like an itch I couldn't scratch. I ignored it.
I stopped ten feet away, tilted my head, and smiled with every tooth I had.
"Klaus Mikaelson," I said, voice low and rolling. "The killer. The man who tried so very hard to become a monster." I took one step closer. "You see, Klaus… I *am* a monster."
Freya's fingers tightened on her glass. Hayley shifted her weight like she was ready to lunge. Hope—God, Hope—stared at me with wide eyes that made that irritating twitch flare hotter. I kept talking.
"I'm here for one reason and one reason only. I don't care about anything. I don't understand what's wrong with me. I woke up one day and became the monster you see standing here. It's not that I have no emotions. I just… can't feel anything. I try to turn it back on. I really do. But the switch is gone."
I laughed once, sharp and humorless.
"The reason I'm talking to your precious family—if you're wondering why I'm wasting breath on any of you—is very simple. I'm bored. I've been bored for… how do I put this? A couple of months? Years? Time is shattered in my mind, Klaus. I'm going crazy. You people might be the only thing left that feels mildly entertaining."
My gaze drifted across them again. The twitch became an ache when it landed on Freya, then Hayley, then Hope. Three separate pulls, braided together into something I couldn't name. It made my fangs itch. I hated it. I wanted more of it.
"A long time ago I came here for one reason only," I continued. "To have fun. Maybe—just maybe—to figure out what the fuck is going on inside my head. But it's fine. I'm a man of many things. I'm not a villain. Not really."
I let the silence stretch, tasting their tension.
"I should explain what happened. You see… I slaughtered my entire family. Everyone I once loved. Pack. Friends. Blood. I tore them apart and drank what was left. And when it was over I looked down at their bodies and felt… nothing. No remorse. Only the mild annoyance that they had been weaknesses. They were supposed to give back something I lost. Except I don't even know if I lost anything at all."
I spread my hands, smiling wider.
"So here I am. Immortal. Starving. Bored out of my ancient mind. Any questions?"
Hopp
The moment he walked in, the mate bond snapped inside my ribs like a bone breaking and resetting at the same time. Three colors—my wolf, my witch, my vampire—all screamed the same word at once.
*Mate.*
Not just any mate. *Ours.*
I couldn't breathe. This was the creature who had swallowed the Hollow like it was cheap whiskey. This was the monster calmly telling my father he had murdered his own family without a flicker of guilt. And every cell in my body wanted to walk straight into his arms.
I glanced sideways. Freya's knuckles were white around her glass. Hayley's eyes had gone pure wolf-gold for half a second before she forced them back. We didn't speak. We didn't need to. The bond had hit all three of us at once; I could feel the echo of their shock vibrating through the new, invisible threads that now tied us to him.
He was empty. Hollowed out. Dangerous.
And he was *ours*.
I dug my nails into my palm so I wouldn't step forward. We couldn't tell anyone yet. Not Klaus, not Elijah. Not even him. First we had to bring his humanity back online. The mate bond was a gift—rare, sacred, and in this case, cruel. The fact that one man had three mates explained the confused flicker I kept seeing in his eyes every time he looked at us. Even with his emotions off, the triple bond was forcing him to *feel* something.
I would burn the world down before I let him stay broken.
**Freya**
The spellwork I had woven around the compound for protection dissolved the second Stiles Stilinski crossed the threshold. Not because he was stronger than my magic—though he was—but because the mate bond recognized him as belonging here. With *us*.
Three strands of gold, crimson, and midnight blue wrapped around my magic the instant our eyes met. I nearly dropped my glass. Hayley and Hope felt it too; I could taste their recognition on the air like ozone before a storm.
He kept monologuing in that haunting, repetitive cadence, every "you see" landing like a scalpel. He described killing his own pack with the flat affect of someone reading a grocery list. Yet when his gaze touched me, the bond flared so brightly I had to lock my knees to stay upright.
A gift, I reminded myself. A mate bond this strong, shared among three women, was almost unheard of. It meant he would never be alone again once we fixed him. It meant we would never be alone again.
I met Hayley's eyes for a fraction of a second. A silent promise passed between us.
*We get his humanity back. No matter what it takes. No matter how many bodies we have to bury along the way.*
**Hayley**
My wolf surged forward so fast I almost shifted right there in the courtyard. *Mate. Mate. Mate.* The word roared through bone and blood, louder than anything I'd felt since Hope was born. The pull was visceral, sexual, violent, protective—all at once.
This boy—no, this *man*—had slaughtered his own family and felt nothing. He stood there radiating power that made the Hollow look like a parlor trick, and still the bond sang in my veins that he was meant for me. For *us*. Freya and Hope were feeling the same storm; I could read it in the way they held themselves too still.
Klaus was snarling something. Elijah had gone statue-still. I didn't care. My mates—both of them—were already calculating how to reach the empty creature standing ten feet away. The triple bond was a gift, not a curse. It was the only reason he could still feel even the ghost of an itch when he looked at us. We would turn that itch into pain, into longing, into love if we had to drag him through hell to do it.
Stiles kept smiling that empty, beautiful smile while he spoke about boredom and shattered time. My claws pricked my palms.
*Hold on, Stiles Stilinski. You don't know it yet, but you just walked into the rest of your life.*
**Stiles**
Three pairs of eyes kept burning into me—green, blue, and gold—and the strange ache in my chest sharpened with every heartbeat I no longer needed. It was annoying. It was new. It was the first thing in months that didn't feel like gray static.
I rolled my shoulders, let my fangs drop, and addressed the room one last time.
"Well then. Now that introductions are out of the way… which one of you is going to entertain me first?"
The silence that followed tasted like the beginning of something I hadn't felt in a long time.
Curiosity.
I couldn't wait to see what broke first—them or the last frayed thread of my mind.