Chapter 25

25

R om woke breathless and panicked, his wolf trying to tear its way out of him.

What the fuck? he demanded.

Danger. Protect mate. Protect pack! the wolf snarled back at him. Rom was out of bed and pulling on his sweats before he could think.

He shook Laverna gently. "Wake up, love."

"What is it? What's wrong?" Laverna's eyes snapped open.

"I don't know, but my wolf is freaking out, and he's never like this," Rom replied.

Laverna climbed out of bed and pulled on his oversized shirt.

"We had best find out what the fuss is about then," she said, hair askew and eyes burning with a power she had yet to leash. His wolf was insistent on protecting her, but Rom was starting to think that maybe he was better off letting her protect him. After having her claim him in her chthonic goddess aspect the night before, he didn't think he would ever worry again about her being able to take care of herself.

They moved silently through the house, and Rom stretched out his sensitive hearing to try to discover the source of wrongness that had woken his wolf. He opened a cabinet of weapons and grabbed a gladius. Laverna looked about with a delighted smirk. He could almost hear her thoughts.

"Rob me later," he said, and they stepped out the glass doors and onto the terraced gardens that surrounded the whole villa.

"You check this side. I will go around the front," Laverna said, holding her daggers in a light grip.

Rom turned back to the pre-dawn sky. Everything was so quiet, he couldn't tell what the wolf's problem was. It was so silent… too silent.

Rom suddenly realized what was different. There wasn't a single sound except those made by him. He couldn't hear any nighttime birds or creatures. He strained his hearing and didn't pick up any murmurs of chatter from the men on guard either.

Fuck . He stepped out onto the wet grass and lifted his nose to scent the night air. It took a moment, and then the breeze carried with it an unmistakable stench. He recognized it from the reservation where Laverna's people had been massacred.

The witches were there. He had expected them to retaliate after they claimed their house, but not so soon.

Rom pulled out one of his daggers and, on soundless feet, ran across the wet grass. He jumped down one of the terraces and smelled fresh blood. He followed the scent until he found a dead guard, his throat half missing.

Rom pushed down his anger. He would be upset later. Now, he just needed revenge. He stepped up to the next terrace, and the stench of rot and earth and musk hit his nostrils just before something drove into him. They crashed over the flower beds, and Rom pulled his legs up between them and kicked his assailant off him. He rolled to his feet, dagger ready, and got his first look at the creature that haunted his nightmares.

"Remus?" he whispered, his voice choked.

"Little brother," the wolf man said through fanged teeth. He was seven feet tall and a tank of muscle and fur. He didn't smell alive, but there was no doubt that the voice belonged to his dead twin.

"What the fuck did they do to you?" Rom asked, his heart breaking.

Remus's pale blue eyes narrowed. "They fixed what you did to me. They brought my shade back from the Underworld itself."

"You're not alive, Remus. This body they have animated is not really you."

"Sure as hell feels like it. Now I get to kill you and become king of Rome like I should have been all along." Remus scented the air, and a growling sound of amusement came out of him. "You smell like my mate. If you think her body is fun, wait until you taste her ichor on your tongue." His long gray tongue lolled out of his mouth.

Rom's grip on his dagger tightened. "You will not lay one rotting claw on Laverna."

"Who is going to stop me? You? You only managed to kill me the first time because my back was turned, and I never thought you were capable of it. You could never beat me in a fair fight," Remus chuckled and launched himself at Rom. Rom only just managed to dodge in time before Remus's long claws took his head off.

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.