Page 43 of Laverna

Rom unsheathed his gladius and blocked Remus's follow-up attack. He didn't have time to worry about any of the witches or what Laverna was fighting over the other side of the house. He let his wolf roll to the surface, and the night lit up with his clearer vision. His body stretched and grew, and strength flowed through his veins.

Protect mate, it growled.

Protect mate, Rom agreed, and they met Remus's next attack head-on.

Remus reared back, the blade of Rom's sword catching him on his hip. He oozed a gray-black muck, and Rom needed no further proof that the thing in front of him was not his brother.

Remus roared in fury and attacked him again. Rom fell into battle mode, his body moving with years of practice. He had lost count of how many fights he had been in, how many men he had slain. It did him no good to remember that. He only held onto one truth. He had survived, and all his enemies had died. He ignored the hurt of hearing his brother's voice again after so long. He had only to focus on staying alive, on keeping himself between Remus and Laverna.

Sagana appeared through the mist, watching them fight with an amused smile on her face. She flung a spell out, and a rock rose up from the ground behind Rom, knocking his foot askew and sending him sprawling onto his back.

"Oops! You're dead," she called with a mocking laugh.

Remus took one step towards Rom when thunder cracked the silence. Remus staggered backward, and Laverna appeared from the shadows with a gun raised. She fired three more times, hitting Remus in the chest and thigh. He roared, and Sagana shouted a spell. Rom didn't know what language it was in, but he knew a command in any tongue. Remus snarled before turning and fleeing into the night.

"You are going to regret damaging our pet, bitch," Sagana said. She began to fade to smoke like she had in front of the police station when a rope of golden light struck her.

Laverna moved too fast for Rom to see, and she appeared before the witch. Sagana shrieked, caught in Laverna's power and unable to escape. Laverna picked up Rom's gladius from where it had fallen and the edge-lit up with the molten gold of her magic. Sagana began to chant, and Laverna struck the witch's head clean off her shoulders.

"Oops, you're dead," Laverna snarled and spat on the corpse before her magic glowed hot and turned it to ash.

Laverna turned to Rom still lying on the ground and ran over to him. "He made a right mess of you, amore mio."

Rom looked down and saw the claw marks all over his chest and arm that he hadn't felt.

"Couldn't... Couldn't let him get to you," he said, pain registering through the shock and adrenaline.

Laverna slid an arm under his and helped him get to his feet. "And you didn't. Now, let's get you inside and get you cleaned up."

"They killed all my men," Rom said, leaning heavily on her. His ichor was orange rather than gold, a mix of blood still in it, and it was slowly dripping down his body.

"I know, baby. I know. We will get revenge for every one of them," Laverna replied.

Once inside, she lowered him into a chair in the kitchen. "Don't you go anywhere now."

Rom tried to laugh, but all that came out of him was a choked, bubbling sound. Remus was right—he had never been able to beat him in a fight, and he didn't know how he was going to beat him in this one either.

26

Laverna found her phone, which she had left in the bathroom the night before, and took a steady breath. She tasted tears at the back of her throat, and she quickly swallowed them. It was not the time to cry for the dead she had found or rage over the fact she had seen Romulus on the ground bleeding, and she had lost it.

No. He was alive still. Sagana was dead, and Remus was wounded. Laverna needed to help Romulus, not let herself fall apart.

Laverna called Claudius and grabbed some extra towels from the bathroom cupboard.

"Wass 'rong?" Claudius answered groggily.

"The villa was attacked. The guards are dead, and Rom is hurt. Get the praetorians and get the fuck over here," she said and hung up. She didn't have time to explain everything to him when she would just have to do it again when everyone arrived.

Laverna spread out towels on Romulus's nice couch before lifting him up and all but carrying him over to it.

"You're so fucking heavy," she complained, trying to act like she wasn't freaking out on the inside.

"I'll be okay. I just need time to heal," he replied.

"Shut up, I know it's bad. Where is your first-aid kit?" she demanded.

"Kitchen. Big red bag," Romulus said. Laverna pressed a towel to the deep claw marks on his chest and placed his hand on it to hold it in place.

---