Hope gently threads her fingers through Josie's hair. The brown locks are soft, and Hope thinks she could plays with them for hours if her soulmate let her. She's been unable to sleep after she claimed the younger girl, but Josie fell asleep soon after. Turns out, the whole claiming process drained a lot of the brunette's energy. 

Sometime during the night, Freya opened the door of Hope's room and found the couple cuddling on the bed. She smiled at her still awake niece, receiving a shy smile in answer. The woman decided that the teenagers deserved to rest a little, so she let them be. She didn't see the bandage on Josie's neck, or the way Hope's whole body tensed when she came in. 

That's how they still are now, hours after Freya came to check up on them. With Hope laying on her back, and Josie cuddled to her right side, her head resting near Hope's chest. In that moment, Hope feels good. She's never felt as complete as she does now. 

But that thought scares her to death, because… what if it doesn't last?

What if Josie dies? What if she leaves?

What if… she simply regrets the whole claiming?

A thousand thoughts run through Hope's mind, and whenever they get too loud, or too oppressing, she tightens her hold on Josie. Because Josie is her soulmate. Josie is her mate. Josie is hers, and she's Josie's. 

The tribrid is kinda surprised Josie hasn't woken up yet. She's been squeezing her a lot, and the brunette's been asleep for a little more than 10 hours now. She'd never wake Josie up on purpose, but Hope kinda wishes she'd wake soon. Her arm feels numb, she needs to go to the bathroom, and she's so damn hungry.

Her wish is heard a couple of minutes later when Josie starts to move. Gently, Hope moves some hair out of her face and smiles down at her as the brunette's eyes flutter open.

"Good morning Jo."

Josie's face splits into a blinding smile. "Am I still dreaming?"

Hope chuckles. "No. But, it's good to know you dream about me."

"You started to appear in my dreams when I was like twelve." Josie says just before yawning.

"Twelve?" Hope asks, an amused smile playing on her lips. 

Josie rolls her eyes and sits up in bed, quickly followed by Hope.

"I had a crush on you."

"You had a crush on me?" The tribrid asks, her voice full of surprise. 

Josie turns her head so she can look at her girlfriend with a soft smile.

 "Of course I did, did you ever see yourself in a mirror?"

Hope playfully rolls her eyes before simply getting off of the bed. 

"Hope…" Josie whines. "Where are you going?"

"To the bathroom, I need to see myself in a mirror apparently." The tribrid says over her shoulder, her eyes catching Josie's.

The brunette smiles and shakes her head. When Hope disappears in the bathroom, Josie takes a little look around the room. It's neat, and it somehow represents Hope in a perfect way. Then, the brunette brings her hand up to softly touch the area where she got bit last night. The bandage is still in place, and when her fingers make contact with it, she's surprised to feel no pain at all. Josie frowns, and quickly tears the bandage off. When she touches the skin where the bite is, she feels no wound. Her skin is soft under her fingers, even though she can still feel the bumps of the bite. It feels as if the skin healed over night, which is impossible. Josie's just a witch, she doesn't have superhealing.

Quickly, Josie gets up and walks to the bathroom. She knocks three times.

"Hope, please get out."

"I'm washing my hands, I'll be out in a second."

"Please… hurry." 

In the bathroom, Hope hears the slight panic in Josie's voice, so she quickly wipes her hands and open the door.

"Josie, what's wr-" Hope catches sight of the missing bandage, and at the same time, of the healed skin. "Jo, your neck-"

"I know. How does it look?"

Instead of replying, Hope moves a little so Josie can step inside the bathroom and take a look at her neck. When the brunette's eyes fall to the claiming bite on her neck, her eyes widen. Sure enough, the skin has completely healed during the night. All that's left is a light pink scar. 

"What do you think it means?" Josie asks Hope as she turns to look at her.

It hurts the tribrid to see how the worry brings tears to her soulmate's eyes, so she steps closer and brings Josie in a tight embrace. Her hold on the brunette's waist is tight and she lets herself breathe in Josie's familiar smell. 

"I don't know." Hope says. "But, we'll figure it out. Maybe… maybe we should go see your parents and my aunts, they'll help us."

"They'll be pissed." Josie says before she buries her face in Hope's neck.

"Your father will probably try to kill me with his crossbow." The tribrid says with a chuckle.

Josie quickly gets out of Hope's neck to look at her with a glare.

"No, he won't."

Hope shrugs. "If you say so, now come on, let's go."

 
*

Once again, Josie and Hope are sitting in the middle of Josie's parents' office. They're both looking at the ground, avoiding the eyes of the four adults in the room. They told Josie's parents and Hope's aunts everything that happened the night before with the claiming, and now they're waiting for the storm to hit them. 

Caroline slowly walks closer to Josie and kneels in front of her daughter.

"Sweetie, could I see your mark?" The woman softly asks.

Josie nods before she starts moving her hair away from her neck. She feels Hope's tension, her nervousness too, but there's nothing she can do to appease her soulmate right now. Carefully, Josie exposes her fresh claiming mark. She silently watches as her mother's eyes look over the bite, her eyes widening a littl when she sees the wound is already healed.

Caroline hums and gives a comforting smile to her daughter. "It's a clear bite. Hope did a good job." Then, she turns her head to the Mikaelson girl, still smiling. "You showed a lot of restrain, it must have been hard."

"I didn't wanna hurt Josie." Hope says, her voice small.

"Of course you didn't want to hurt her." Caroline turns to Josie again before she stands up. Gently, she strokes her daughter's cheek. "You've been really irresponsible, but I'm glad everything turned out okay."

"I'm sorry mom." Josie says, looking down again. "But… there was this feeling in my chest, and it kept telling me we had to be alone during the claiming."

"It's understandable sweetie, but it wasn't safe. You should've talked to us about it."

"I know."

"How did you heal the bite? I'm guessing you didn't give her your blood since there's a scar." Freya asks her niece.

Suddenly, both girls look uncomfortable. They look at each other, as if to silently ask the other permission.

"We didn't." Hope finally drops. "I put a bandage on the wound last night, and it was healed this morning. We don't know how it happened."

"Wait." Alaric interrupts them. "This is ridiculous. Are we really about to let this go? Hope could have killed Josie! I should have locked you up in a cell!"

"Dad! This is not Hope's fault, it was my idea." Josie says, suddenly standing up. 

"Yeah? Well, it's no better. We had an agreement and you broke our trust!"

"You wanna talk about broken trust? Then let's talk about the Merge." Josie angrily yells.

A sudden silence fills the room. Alaric looks shocked, Caroline looks devastated, Freya and Keelin are confused, and Hope is surprised her girlfriend brought the Merge up in this moment. 

Carefully, Hope stands up and slips her hand into Josie's. She can feel every bit of anger her brunette girlfriend is feeling, and it kinda scares the tribrid. She never thought Josie could bottle up that much rage. The Saltzman girl's eyes never leave her father, she wants answers, and she wants them now.

"Did you really think we'd never find out? There's a deadline to our lives, and you never thought we'd like to know?" Josie takes two steps closer to her father, but her hand holds Hope's tightly as she does so, forcing Hope to follow her. "You had absolutely no right to keep it from Lizzie and I. So don't talk about trust, because I might never trust you again. Keep your judgement to yourself, and keep your nose out of my relationship."

Without another word, Josie storms out of the room, pulling Hope with her. 

"Josie, where are you going?" Hope says as she quickly walks to keep up with her soulmate. 

"Flower field." Is all Josie gives as an answer. 

Suddenly, Hope very excited, but she knows it's just her wolf side acting up. Ever since Josie got her soul mark, Hope has been feeling her wolf a lot more. It's as if it became a bigger part of her. Like it wants to take more space. Hope doesn't really mind, but the loss of control still scares her to death.

It takes them only a couple of minutes to get to their destination. Normally, Hope would just go behind her tree and shift quickly before coming back to cuddle Josie, but today she hesitates. With Josie's hand still in hers and her soulmate's feeling being so overwhelming that it makes Hope feel like she'll puke, Hope feels like she can't shift just yet. 

"Josie, can I do something?" 

The brunette quickly shakes her head. "Not now. Just shift and come back."

"Jo… I don't like the fact that you prefer talking to me when I'm a wolf." Gently, Hope takes Josie's face in her hands and strokes the brunette's cheeks with her thumbs. "You can talk to me when I'm human."

Josie takes a shaky breath. "I-I know. I'm just not ready, and I know you want to shift. I can feel it."

"You… can feel it?"

"Yeah, it's weird. It's never been this strong before. It's as if my own bones were about to break. I can't take it and I'm not even the one who's gonna shift."

Hope's confusion gets even deeper then, because… she doesn't feel like shifting that bad. Yes, her wolf got excited when Josie mentioned the flower field, but she could wait at least a day or two before shifting again.

Her thoughts get cut off when Josie quickly pecks her lips before pushing her away with a soft smile.

"Come on!"

Hope rolls her eyes, but she still turns around and walks to her tree. She takes her time to remove her clothes before shifting and folds them. Then, she allows the change to start. When the first bone breaks, a piercing scream echoes in the forest. Josie never screamed before. Just as quickly as she let it start, Hope stops the change. She gets her clothes on as quickly as she can, and then runs back to where she left Josie. 

The tribrid stops in her tracks when she finally catches sight of her soulmate. Josie is on her knees, clearly in pain, and her arm is a in a very weird angle. Hope tries to understand what's happening, but her brain refuses to catch up. Josie couldn't be shifting, she's not a werewolf… She doesn't even have the gene!

"Hope! Don't just stand there, go help her."

Hope quickly turns her head to look at her aunt Freya, and winces when she sees her aunt is with her wife and Josie's parents. Everyone is completely shocked, including Hope. She feels frozen in place. Help Josie? How? She doesn't even understand what's happening.

"Hope." Freya places both of her hands on her niece's shoulders. "I don't know how it happened, but Josie is obviously going to change as a wolf." Gently, the blonde woman takes Hope's chin in her hand and forces her to look at Josie. "She's hurting. You know how to help. You're the only she's gonna want near her. Go over there, and get her through this."

Freya release Hope. For a second or two, the teenager still doesn't move and then she's sprinting to her soulmate's side. 

"Hope…" Josie says as soon as the tribrid sinks to her knees in front of her.

Hope hesitates before gently pushing Josie's hair away from her face so she could look into her warm brown eyes. The amount of pain she feels, and sees on Josie's face is breaking Hope's heart. Hope tries hard to think of the words her father spoke to her the first time she changed into her wolf form. She's not sure she'll say it right, but she needs to try.

"Listen to me Jo. You need to concentrate on the air in your lungs and on the ground beneath you, okay? It's gonna hurt, and it might even take hours-"

"Hours?" 

Hope almost hears her own voice say that same thing years ago. She gives Josie her most gentle smile.

"I know, but you have to allow the pain in, and let it swallow you whole. This way, it won't be able to break you."

It takes Josie a little less than an hour to actually shift into her wolf form, but when she manages to do it, Hope's heart soar. She feels so proud of Josie, and… she loves her so much. Without even hesitating, the tribrid throws her arms around Josie's neck. She buries her face in the dark brown fur, and lets her tears spill. 

Far behind them, the four adults are still watching with wonder in their eyes. Nobody understands what just happened, but everyone knows they just witnessed something spectacular.

"What the hell just happened?"