Page 9 of Laverna

She had always wanted to run her hands through his perfectly groomed hair and mess him up so he didn't look so untouchable. Watching him crawl about on his hands and knees was a fucking revelation. His wolf liked the way she smelled. Whatever that meant.

Fates, she needed to go home and sit in silence for a few hours.

"Go home and rest. I'll send out word for what we are looking for and report in if we find anything," Roberto said, reading her far too easily.

Laverna reached across the table and squeezed his forearm. "Thank you, amico. Can you please set up a curfew? I want all of our people inside one of the shelters by midnight going forward. Especially anyone under twenty. It won't be forever, just until I kill these fucking witches for what they did to us," Laverna replied and got up to clean off her tray.

Laverna walked through the catacombs, greeting a few people with nods and smiles but not stopping. If she stopped to listen to a petition, she would never have gotten to bed.

Very few people had ever learned where Laverna rested her head at night. Roberto and Bellona were currently the only people who knew, and that was for safety reasons if anything happened to her. Both respected her privacy.

Laverna's stomach clenched as she thought about how angry Bellona had been at her. She had few people she actually trusted, and she hated that Bellona was mad at her. It was something that only time could fix.

Laverna had lost contact with all the gods for a long, long time until she had heard Isis calling her out to her island on the Nile twenty years ago. She had reconnected with Bellona, Eris, and a few other goddesses from different pantheons. Now she had also reconnected with the Greeks, and eternity didn't seem so fucking unbearable. The loneliness had been eating away at her, and Isis knew it. Humans lived and died in the blink of an eye. Gods needed other immortals to make the centuries not seem so endless.

It didn't matter that Romulus was in the same city. He had never seemed to want any kind of friendship from her, or anything else for that matter. They had been content to stay in their lanes.

His wolf likes the way you smell, a voice reminded her. What the fuck was going on with him? Laverna couldn't dwell on it because, knowing Romulus, once the witches were taken care of, he would go back to pretending she didn't exist again.

Laverna walked the catacombs in the dark, moving deeper and deeper until she came to a door of bronze and wood. She unlocked it with a brush of her power and stepped into the cool darkness of her den. She turned on the soft lighting and took a few moments to breathe the silence inside of her.

Laverna knew that Roberto would have piles of reports and profiles on people for her to look at by the following sundown. He didn't know what to look for when it came to magic. The wolves would have a better chance of sniffing it out because of the foul stench they left in the reserve.

Laverna pulled out her phone. Only through technology and divine power did she actually get reception, and she had no missed calls or updates. She found Eris's number and shot her a message.

Are you in Rome at the moment?

Egypt, visiting with Isis. Why? came the response almost instantly.

Witches have come back to the city and already killed people. I wanted to see if you had heard or felt anything.

I'll be there tomorrow. Our usual spot. 1.p.m.

Laverna smiled. Despite Eris's purview to cause chaos, there were some problems that even she knew were bad for everyone. The witches had terrorized Rome before, and no one wanted to go back to those times.

Feeling better, Laverna kicked off her jeans and boots and crawled into bed. She tried not to think too hard about why she still hadn't taken off Romulus's shirt. It was soft and smelled like him, and it comforted her.

Last time, the witches had done their best to capture her because the organs and ichor of a goddess would be powerful. It was only with Romulus's help that they never succeeded. Laverna would never admit to being afraid, but smelling Romulus reminded her she wouldn't be facing the hags alone, even if they had come back in force. She breathed in, told herself she wasn't in the fight alone, and finally went to sleep.

7

Rom woke with sweat soaking his sheets and hair. His heart was pounding in his ears, his senses exploding with adrenaline, and his whole body was ready to fight. It took him a few moments to realize he wasn't under attack.

He sat up and ran his hands through his hair. He had been dreaming of his brother, Remus. He had taken Laverna for his mate and was gloating about it. It made him want to kill him all over again. The connection to the city throbbed inside of him, reminding him of the consequences of that bloodshed.

If you took her as a mate yourself, then you wouldn't have nightmares about it, his wolf prompted him.

"Can you just fuck off?" he said, sighing as he longed for the days when his wolf actually slept in the month and only harassed him during the full moon.

Rom's phone buzzed on his nightstand. Three missed calls from Claudius. He checked the time and swore. It was almost lunchtime. He never slept that late. He tapped Claudius's number and waited, his knee bouncing as it rang.

"Sir, everything okay?" Claudius answered.

Rom bit back his laugh. He really didn't know how to answer that. "Rough night. What have you found?"

"The men and I traced the witch's scent as far as we could. It looks like they came in the direction of Fonte Nuova," Claudius replied.

"Send people to investigate the town and see if there are any strange newcomers. It is far enough away that my power with the city won't be any help." Rom got up and headed for the kitchen. He needed an espresso or three to get his brain working. "I don't suppose any of you got a proper smell of the creature?"

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