Page 33 of Laverna

Laverna stepped out of his grasp. "Don't say things you don't mean, Rom. If we get through this and I find out this was some game of yours to get me under your control…"

"Laverna, I would never do that," he said, genuinely hurt. "I can't control you. Believe me. It's an impossibility because you aren't connected to the city. I don't want to either."

Laverna pushed her hair from her face. "From where I am standing, that's all you've ever wanted from me."

"That's not exactly true either. I knew you would never have me, and that made me bitter. There's a difference," Romulus replied calmly.

"You never asked!" Laverna threw her hands up in the air. "I'm sorry, but I can't deal with that right now. I don't have time for these…emotions."

"Agreed," Romulus nodded and then took her hand again to kiss her knuckles. "When you want to know things, ask me, and I'll be honest."

"Why? Why now?" she asked helplessly.

"Because I thought you were going to die in my arms last night. Because I'm done fighting against this war between us, Laverna. All this time, I've been wanting you to surrender to me, but I don't care anymore. You win," Romulus replied. He turned her hand to kiss the inside of her wrist. "I surrender to you instead."

"I…what…" Laverna was still frozen in awe when Claudius came into the kitchen.

He looked at the scene before him and swore in Latin. "I'm sorry, alpha, but we need to go before our targets move again."

Romulus let her go, and Laverna hurried for the door. "I just need to get my daggers," she said, not looking Claudius in the eye as she moved around him. She did her best to shove all her messy feelings into a box and despaired when she realized they no longer fit in it.

20

It was easy to lose time in the catacombs. Rom and Claudius followed Laverna and Roberto out of the maze of them in relative silence. Rom could all but feel Claudius's grin.

Maybe he shouldn't be so obvious about what was happening between him and Laverna for privacy's sake. He couldn't help himself. Every word he had spoken to her was the truth. He had almost lost her, and nothing, not even his infamous pride mattered to him more than her.

Outside, Rom was surprised to find the sun setting again. He had been living in darkness the past few days, and his body clock seemed out of alignment. His skin prickled with the threat of the full moon that would rise tomorrow evening. Claudius tipped his face to the sky, his eyes glowing softly for a moment. Rom wasn't the only one feeling it.

They needed to find Sidonius. A wolf driven into madness from torture on a full moon would be dangerous to everyone. He wished he had a god to pray to that Sidonius would be okay. Claudius was whispering a soft prayer to the goddess Luna, and Rom envied his faith. There was only one goddess he had always believed in, and she was waiting for him in his Porsche.

"There's not enough room in that crotch rocket of yours. Claudius will ride with me," Roberto said, and the wolf laughed.

"A good idea. There is only so much flirting between these two that I can stomach. They will probably make out at traffic lights," Claudius teased.

Laverna snorted. "He wishes. We will follow you."

Roberto nodded and gestured to Claudius to get into an Alfa Romeo. It would have easily held them all, but Roberto was right. He did want to flirt with Laverna, and having a spare vehicle wasn't a bad idea.

Rom opened the passenger side door for Laverna. She rolled her eyes at him, but she still had a small smile on her face. Every smile was a win. At least she wasn't running in the opposite direction after finding out that she was his mate.

"Do thieves really have to consult with you before doing a job in Rome?" he asked as he drove.

"Yes. It's a well-known fact in the circles that matter that it's required to get my permission and offer me a cut of the profits. That these thieves didn't bother tells me they are amateurs, or they knew I would never let them steal your rock," Laverna said, pulling out a lollipop from her pocket and unwrapping it. "Canidia must have promised them something amazing to get them to go against the rules like this."

Rom hummed thoughtfully and did his best to ignore her mouth on the lollipop. "Or Canidia purposely hired people who didn't know that they were meant to consult with you first and didn't care what you did to them."

"I suppose we will find out. If they give us the information we need, I might consider going easy on them," Laverna said as they pulled up at a traffic light. They shared a look. "I mean, it would be rude not to make out, seeing how they took a separate car and everything."

Rom laughed before kissing her. Laverna tasted of apple lolly and the heady myrrh flavor of her power. Her fingers twisted in his short curls, tugging them just hard enough to make him growl at the back of his throat. An angry horn blared behind them, making them spring apart and causing Rom to hurry to catch the green light.

Laverna giggled and put her lollipop back in her mouth. "Traffic is going to be so much more tolerable if we do that every time."

"Careful, goddess. We are very close to the full moon, and I have only two modes right now: Fight or fuck," Rom said, his voice all wolf.

Laverna pinched his nipple through his T-shirt. "Good thing we are so excellent at both."

Rom snatched her hand away from his chest and kissed it. "Keep being a brat, and I'll give you something bigger to suck on," he warned and put her hand down on the bulge in his jeans.

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