Chapter 19

19

I t had been too much to hope for a quiet day, Laverna reflected while staring at Romulus's ass when he was talking to Claudius. He turned back to her like he knew she was looking, and she didn't mind being busted because his smile reached his eyes.

She had liked waking up with him still there. It reached a part of her that she had thought was lost long ago. She had always made it clear to hookups exactly what they were. They never woke up together, and she had never had another body in the bed upstairs. Now it smelled of him, and she…didn't hate it. What was wrong with her? Maybe his insanity was contagious.

Laverna had been scared to feel even a little soft toward Romulus, but last night had changed a lot of things. She still needed time to process the idea that she could be his mate. She didn't know if she should be offended that he had never acted on that knowledge. He had said she never would have accepted him, but then he had never bothered to find out either.

It was a conversation that had to wait for another time. Now she had to deal with thieves operating in her city without paying the proper homage to her, and she was angry.

"Roberto, I need you to find out who these thieves are, and where they are staying," she said from her perch on the counter.

"I've already put the word out, Laverna. Do you think it could be related to Canidia and the witches?" he asked.

"It has to be. The black stone is where Rom did his grand exit," Laverna said with a teasing grin.

Romulus leaned back on the counter beside her. "You thought it was grand?"

"I thought it was a garish and ridiculous piece of showmanship, and I can't believe all those dumb plebs fell for it," Laverna corrected.

Roberto looked between them. "Um, what are you two talking about?"

"Tell him, Rom," Laverna said, nudging him with her shoulder.

Romulus's lips twitched at the corners, and she really wanted to kiss him. If he had smiled more often over the centuries, she probably wouldn't have wanted to annoy him so much.

"I had to fake my own death and pass the crown onto someone else," Romulus began. "The problem was that I couldn't leave Rome for a few hundred years and then return as someone else, so I had to come up with a plan. If people recognized me on the streets, they needed to not think it was strange."

"It was definitely still strange, Rom. Like you could have just changed your hairstyle and beard instead of the theatrics," Laverna teased, and he nudged her back so their sides were touching. She didn't move away, and neither did he.

Romulus looked back at Roberto. "I deified myself. I was already immortal because of my blood from Mars, but I needed people to really believe it. I created a storm, and in front of a large crowd, I had clouds come and cover me, and then I dropped down to become a part of the city and disappeared. They thought I had been snatched away to sit with the gods."

"So dramatic," Laverna whispered and then said louder, "I thought the other story of you being hacked to death by senators was more believable."

Romulus snorted. "You would have missed fighting with me too much if I had died that way."

Roberto scratched his head. "Okay, so I get the stories of your death, but how does the black stone fit in?"

"They made a temple at the place I disappeared. The black stone was an onyx tablet that was carved with the story of my ascension. The archaeologists hadn't dug deep enough to find it, which means only people who had lived back then and visited the temple would have known it existed at all," Romulus explained. He grinned at Laverna. "If I hadn't spent the night with you, I would have thought you were the one who had stolen it."

Claudius and Roberto exchanged suspicious and slightly grossed-out looks. Claudius was the first to break. "Can you two flirt on your own time? It's disturbing."

"I would have no motive to steal your stone," Laverna pointed out, ignoring the minions' antics. She bit into another strawberry and mumbled. "May have already peed on it a few times."

"Oh, dear gods, I'm going to follow up on things with the police. Roberto is coming to help me," Claudius said, pulling the other man out of the kitchen by the back of his coat.

Romulus turned to face her. "You peed on my monument?"

"Only when you annoyed me," Laverna said unapologetically.

Romulus pushed his way between her legs, forcing her to widen them. "You know that's the wolf equivalent of marking your territory," he purred, and she knew she was in trouble.

"Look, Rom, I'm very open-minded, but I'm not going to pee on you. Golden showers are Zeus's thing, not mine," she said seriously. "I knew you would be a freak, but I'm not that kinky."

"Fates save me. Make her stop," Romulus prayed and let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm not into being peed on, Laverna. You did mark your territory with the monument, though. How many other of my statues did you pee on?"

"Probably all of them, to be honest," she said, still laughing when he kissed her. He tasted of coffee and sweet grapes, and she didn't even try to resist him. She bit his bottom lip. "Knew it turned you on. Total freak. Still not peeing on you."

Romulus only shook his head in despair. "The nonsense you spout, I swear."

"Made you smile, though, didn't it?" Laverna said and waggled her brows.

Romulus was still smiling when he kissed her between them and stepped back from her until he was on the other side of the kitchen. "If I stay there, I'll end up fucking you, and I'm struggling enough with that as it is."

"Good plan. I don't need you distracted by all my feminine charms," Laverna said and pulled out her phone.

"Oh, you are charm itself," Rom quipped.

"Good. I'm glad you're finally acknowledging it. Let's call Hecate and figure out what the hell Canidia wants with the black stone. If she's going to have a way to try and control you, I need to lock you in a cage or something."

"Now, who is the kinky one?" Rom replied.

Laverna did her best to ignore him and called Hecate. She had always been a little intimidated by the goddess of the crossroads and had giggled like a crazy person when she had given her phone number to her.

"Laverna, I'm glad to see you looking so well," Hecate answered, her gorgeous face filling the screen. "Rom must have taken good care of you."

"The best care," Romulus said, giving her an absolutely filthy look that made Laverna's pussy clench.

"He's full of himself about it too. I need to ask your expert opinion on something," Laverna said and quickly explained the black stone. Circe and Medea both appeared while she was talking, which meant they must have already been hanging out with Hecate at her and Thanatos's house. Romulus moved back over while they were talking, and all three sorceresses beamed lovely smiles at him.

"Hi, Rom," they chimed.

"Ladies. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to talk to us about our little witch problem," he said smoothly.

"Don't encourage him." Laverna rolled her eyes. "You were saying about the poisons, Medea?"

The witch queen of Colchis nodded. "Look for the classic belladonnas like henbane and deadly nightshade. Yew extract and aconite. If they worked for them before, then there's no reason they wouldn't stick to their favorites."

"The stone theft is what troubles me the most," Circe said, cupping her chin thoughtfully. "Symbolically, it represents Rom, who they are trying to overthrow, so having something dedicated to his worship seems odd."

"Unless they are using it for a substitution for him," Hecate added, realization brightening her features. "That must be it. They would never be able to capture Rom himself to use in a spell to transfer the power. They needed something to act in place for the spell. Fascinating concept, but I'm not sure it would work."

Circe said, "They would definitely have to perform it in a place of power. Maybe something associated with Remus?"

"Remus wanted to build on Aventine Hill, so look in that area, perhaps," Hecate added.

A soft tap on the kitchen door interrupted them, and Roberto stuck his head in with an apologetic smile. "I hate to disturb you all, but I've just got an address where the thieves are holed up," he said and ducked out again.

"We will keep working on it. Keep each other safe," Hecate said and hung up.

Laverna laughed softly. "Give those women a problem, and they will argue it out until its completion."

"I'm glad they are on our side. An Aventine Hill location makes sense, I suppose. If they are trying to establish a new founding, then Remus did always want to build there," Romulus replied.

Laverna tapped her phone against her hand and jumped down off the counter. "I'm going to go introduce myself to some thieves and see where they dropped your rock off," she said and gestured at him with her head. "Are you coming, or are you just going to stand there and look pretty?"

Romulus's mouth twitched. "Why? Do you need me again?"

Laverna groaned. "Stay here if you're going to be a dick."

"Like I'm going to let you out of my sight again after last night," he replied, grabbing her hand and tugging her back towards him. She collided with his chest and then found she didn't mind having her face buried between his pecs.

"You're going to be stubborn about this, aren't you?" she said into his shirt.

Romulus tilted her face up toward him. "I can't risk Remus attacking you again. He already bit you once and is trying to claim you for his mate."

"I thought that he couldn't unless I agree to it as well?" she argued.

Romulus stroked his thumb across the curve of her cheek. "I don't know if the witches could force the bond. They brought him back from the dead, Laverna. We can't underestimate them."

"I'm not. They… They really scared me last night, Rom. Remus is not normal, and Canidia is far too confident." Laverna tilted her face into his palm and really hoped he didn't use admitting that against her. She didn't like to show weakness in front of anyone, least of all him.

Romulus seemed to read all of that in her face because his expression softened. "We stick together from now on. No matter what. If they would have captured you last night instead of just injuring you, there isn't anything I wouldn't have done to get you back."

Laverna's heart was in her throat again. "If you keep saying things like that, Rom, I'm going to be fooled into believing you actually like me."

"And if I do like you?" he replied.

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.