Chapter 21: Hope's Birth (Part 1)
The bloodline connection screamed.
I doubled over in the basement, hand clutching my chest, and felt it: Hayley's contractions. The baby was coming. Soon.
"Marcus," I called out, voice tight. "It's starting."
He appeared at the top of the stairs. "You sure?"
"I can feel her. Through the bloodline. Labor's beginning." I straightened slowly, every nerve ending already humming with anticipation. "Get Davina. Now."
He was gone before I finished the sentence.
I paced the basement, trying to calm the rising panic. This was it. Hope would be born, and when she took her first breath, my body would complete its transformation. Vampire, werewolf, witch—all three natures integrating fully.
If I survived.
Big if.
Davina arrived ten minutes later, backpack stuffed with grimoires and spell components. "I'm here. What do you need?"
"Pain dampening. Magical containment. And if I start tearing the warehouse apart, knock me out."
"Roy—"
"Promise me, Davina. If I lose control, if the magic goes wild, you stop me. Whatever it takes."
She nodded slowly. "Okay. I promise."
Marcus returned with blood bags, stacking them within reach. "Ready?"
"No. But let's do this anyway."
Klaus's POV - Mikaelson Compound
Klaus paced outside the bedroom where Hayley was laboring, listening to her heartbeat spike and fall with each contraction. She was strong—stronger than he'd expected when he'd learned she was carrying his child.
His child.
The thought still terrified him.
"Brother," Elijah called from the courtyard. "We have a problem."
Klaus was down the stairs before Elijah finished the sentence. "What problem?"
"Witches. Twenty of them, led by Agnes. They're breaching the wards."
Of course they were. Nothing in his life could ever be simple.
"How long until—"
A scream from upstairs. Hayley. Klaus's hybrid nature surged, protective instinct overwhelming everything else.
"You handle the witches," Klaus snarled, already moving back toward the stairs. "I stay with her."
"Klaus—"
"I STAY WITH HER!"
Elijah's expression softened. "Of course. Go. I'll handle this."
Klaus took the stairs three at a time, bursting into the bedroom where Hayley was gripping the sheets, face pale with pain.
"Where the hell were you?" she gasped between contractions.
"Witches. They're attacking."
"Of course they are." Another contraction. She screamed. "This baby has the worst timing!"
"She gets that from me."
"Not helping, Klaus!"
Downstairs, he heard fighting. Elijah engaging the witches, Marcel's vampires joining the defense. But Klaus didn't leave. Couldn't leave. His place was here.
With his daughter.
Roy's POV - Warehouse
The pain hit at midnight.
Not gradual. Not building. Just instant, overwhelming agony that dropped me to my knees.
"She's being born," I gasped. "Right now."
Davina's hands were already moving through spell forms. "Pain dampening active. Marcus, hold him down."
Marcus grabbed my shoulders as my body started convulsing. This was different from the hybrid transformation. More intense. Like my entire molecular structure was being rewritten simultaneously.
"Talk to me," Davina said. "What are you feeling?"
"Everything. I can feel Hope being born. Feel Klaus's fear. Feel the witches attacking." I clutched my chest. "The bloodline connection is amplifying. I can sense every vampire in the city."
"That's normal. Breathe through it."
"I can't breathe, I'm a vampire—"
My spine arched. Vertebrae cracking one by one, reshaping to accommodate power that shouldn't exist. The hybrid nature surged, wolf instincts screaming to run, to fight, to hunt. But underneath that, something new was waking up.
Magic.
Pure, raw, untrained magic burning through channels that hadn't existed five seconds ago.
"Oh God," I managed to say before the screaming started.
Klaus's POV - Compound
Hayley was pushing. Klaus held her hand—she'd broken two of his fingers already, but he didn't care.
"You can do this," he said, trying to sound confident instead of terrified. "You're the strongest person I know."
"Shut up and let me squeeze your hand!"
Fair enough.
Downstairs, the sounds of fighting had stopped. Either Elijah had won or everyone was dead. Klaus would check later. After.
"I see the head!" The midwife—compelled doctor they'd brought in for this—positioned herself. "One more push, Hayley. One more."
Hayley screamed. Pushed. Klaus felt bones in his hand break.
And then—
A baby's cry. High, piercing, echoing with power that made Klaus's hybrid nature sit up and take notice.
"It's a girl," the doctor said, placing the bloody, screaming infant on Hayley's chest.
Klaus stared. His daughter. Tiny. Perfect. Impossible.
Hope Mikaelson had been born.
Roy's POV - Warehouse
Hope's first breath hit me like a detonation.
My body exploded with power. Not metaphorically—literally. Blood vessels burst under my skin, reforming instantly. Bones shattered and rebuilt. Organs restructured. And through it all, magic poured into me like liquid fire.
I was dimly aware of Marcus holding me down, Davina chanting frantically, but the pain drowned out everything else.
This is what Hope felt. This is what being born tribrid means.
My vision flickered between human sight and gold wolf-eyes and something else—magical sight that let me see the ley lines running under the city, the spells protecting the compound, Davina's magic working to keep me from destroying everything.
"Roy!" Davina's voice, distant. "Stay with me! You're almost through the worst of it!"
Liar. This was just the beginning.
My mouth opened to scream, but what came out was power. Raw magical energy that shattered every window in the warehouse and sent furniture flying. Marcus swore, ducking a flying crate.
The vampire nature was wrestling with the wolf. The wolf was wrestling with the witch. And all three were trying to exist in a body that wasn't designed for any of them individually, let alone together.
Die or adapt. Those are the options.
I chose adapt.
Forced my will down on the chaos. Grabbed each nature—vampire, wolf, witch—and slammed them together. Not gently. Not carefully. Just brute force integration because gentle wasn't an option.
The pain peaked. White-hot. Absolute.
Then it broke.
Not gone—never gone—but manageable. The three natures clicked into place like puzzle pieces, and for the first time since Hope was born, I could think.
"He's stabilizing," Davina said, relief clear in her voice. "His vitals are—holy shit, his power signature just tripled."
"Is that good?" Marcus asked.
"I don't know. I've never seen this before."
I tried to sit up. Failed. My body was rebuilding itself at the cellular level—muscles reforming, nerves rewiring, everything adapting to accommodate three supernatural natures.
"How long?" I croaked.
"You've been transforming for six hours," Davina said. "Hope was born at midnight. It's 6 AM now."
Six hours. Felt like six years.
"Is she—" I couldn't finish the question.
"Safe. Hope's safe. Klaus has her. Elijah killed the attacking witches. Everyone's alive."
Everyone except the witches who'd tried to kill an innocent baby.
Good.
I closed my eyes, feeling the transformation continue. Slower now. More controlled. But still agony.
"Sleep," Davina urged. "Your body needs to focus on healing."
"Can't. Too much—"
"Roy. Sleep. That's an order from your magic teacher."
I wanted to argue. But exhaustion pulled at me like gravity.
I let it take me.
Klaus's POV - Compound
Klaus held his daughter and felt his world shift.
She was so small. So fragile. And yet he could feel the power in her—vampire, werewolf, witch all combined. The first natural-born tribrid in history.
His daughter.
"Hello, Hope," he whispered. "I'm your father. And I promise—I promise—nothing will ever hurt you."
Hope's eyes opened. Blue. Unfocused. But aware in a way that shouldn't be possible for a newborn.
And for just a moment, Klaus felt something through the bloodline connection. A presence. Another tribrid. Somewhere in the city. Transforming. Suffering.
Roy.
Klaus looked at Elijah, who'd entered the room quietly. "He's going through it too, isn't he? The transformation."
"Yes. Davina and Marcus are with him."
"Will he survive?"
"If he's half as stubborn as you? Absolutely."
Hope made a small sound. Not crying. Just... existing. Being alive.
Klaus looked back at his daughter and felt something he hadn't felt in centuries: hope.
Maybe they'd all survive this. Maybe they'd all be okay.
Maybe this wasn't the end of everything.
It was the beginning.
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