Page 6 of Laverna

"Did you take things from here?" Rom asked.

Laverna nodded and said, "There were some blankets and bags that weren't destroyed. The families wanted them."

Rom circled the area a few times and finally realized what he wasn't sensing. "There's no trail leading in. I can smell all the people, but not what killed them. It was like it was a ghost."

Laverna walked to the edge of the stream of milky blue-gray water. "You don't think it came out of here as a surprise?"

"Maybe, but there still should be another scent here." Rom closed his eyes and tried to get his wolf's attention.

Help me see what I can't, he asked.

Give me more control, it growled in return. Rom knew it was dangerous, but whatever they were hunting was worse. He let the wolf rise higher and take control. It smelled Laverna, wanting to sink its fangs into her and mark her as his own.

Just hunt her enemy. Not her, Rom chastised it.

The stupid human needed to get his priorities straight. The wolf opened its eyes, and all he could see was her.

"Woah, what are you doing?" Laverna asked, her brows drawing together.

"Hunt," he growled and turned back to the blood.

The beast had attacked fast. By the way the bodies had been torn backward, it must have come from the grass and not the water. He crouched down, his hands sinking in the mud, and stalked into the grass on all fours. He found claw marks in the mud, scattered like someone had tried to cover them up but hadn't gotten all of them.

He reached another fence and sniffed the claw marks in the wood. Belladonna, steel, arsenic, roses...witch magic. He sneezed to try and get the scent out, but it didn't work. He scratched out at his nose, the smell searing his senses.

"Rom? Are you okay?" Laverna asked, voice unsure.

Hmm, mate scent. It turned and grabbed her, pulling her down to the ground with him and into his lap.

"Witch smell burn," he growled. He buried his nose into her neck and her tangled hair and breathed in, the ache inside of him easing.

Laverna didn't struggle. A soft gasp escaped her as the wolf nuzzled her again.

"T-The witches were here? No wonder we could smell magic on the bodies," she said. Her heart was thrumming so fast. The wolf put his lips to the vein in her neck just to feel the vibration of it.

Let her go. She hasn't consented to this.

Hasn't objected either, the wolf pointed out. Rom struggled as the human in him fought the wolf for control.

He came back to himself. He was holding Laverna in his lap, her warm body tucked up into his in a perfect fit. He allowed himself one more brush of lips against her pulse before loosening his grip on her.

"I...I'm sorry," he stammered, lifting her out of his lap and onto her feet. His jeans and hands were covered in mud and grass.

"Rom? Are you...you? What the fuck was that about?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"It was nothing," he lied, still on his knees in the mud.

Laverna took his face in her hands and tilted it up so he couldn't look away. "Tell me the truth, Rom. What is happening to you? That wasn't you."

She never called him Rom except when she forgot to hate him or when she was stressed. It undid him every time.

"It's...my wolf. I can bring him to the surface to help me see and smell things better. It doesn't understand personal boundaries," he said, unable to lie to her anymore. Fates, he was so tired of lying to her. The touch of her hands on his skin was paralyzing.

"I'm sorry if it hurt you or made you uncomfortable. It likes...the way you smell. It was only trying to get rid of the witches... I..." Rom realized he was babbling and stopped talking.

Laverna's hazel eyes bore into him, and then she let him go.

"It's fine. I wasn't hurt, just surprised. Witches. Fuck, Romulus," she said, leaning against the fence. "Where to now?"

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