Chapter 2

Rome

Everyone always knew there was something wrong with him. That he wasn't like everyone else. His family might have loved him for who he was before he was banished, and his younger brother, now alpha, was good to him. He'd provided for him when he was alone and broken. When he wanted nothing more than to die, Kieran made sure he had shelter and that he was safe. It had been two years since he'd last set foot on Nightfall land. He might never be able to return to pack lands, but that didn't stop his brother from calling and texting him an annoying amount, or his brothers and sisters from visiting. He might be the literal black sheep, but he was no pariah.

In exchange for their kindness, he'd made himself useful. In being useful, he'd made himself a rich man. Becoming a rich man gave him access to fulfilling desires so base, they were best left to the darkness of his black soul. He was damned and he knew it. When his family thought he was getting better, he was only growing more depraved. The better was that he just became more adept at hiding it.

Rome turned away from the bank of security cameras in the back office of the garage. The room didn't belong to any one person like the offices in the front. This one, any one of the guys could use. The computer was made for ordering, inventory, billing, and other accounting, and the garage's security cameras were housed in there. The stockroom bracketed the space, and from there, the garage opened up and the real magic happened. Hoists, lifts, pits, tools, tires, shelves and chests, stools, welders, shop coats and coveralls—it was a sea of glorious industry. The only bay closed off was the one that belonged to Mixy.

Middle-aged, heavy set, rocking a skullet and a massive beard, Mixy got his name through his sheer talent. He could eyeball any paint color and mix up an exact match. One would think that was talent in itself, but Mixy could also paint anything. He was a master of his craft, and that included anything from a simple uniform color to advanced custom jobs. He did a ton of bikes, since more people requested custom paint jobs on them than on anything else, but he wasn't above putting anything onto anything else. If it had wheels and it rolled, Mixy would take the job.

He'd set the time for Seren when he was sure the guys would be cleared out—no one stayed late on Mondays—but also not so late that he'd have to come back. Waverly had a sixteen-year-old babysitter, a daughter of a friend of a friend of one of the guys at the shop. Gloria started during summer break, but she'd agreed to pick up Waverly from school and be there until Rome got home, usually around six. He'd offered to pay her extra to stay later on Monday nights. For the next six months, it would be a recurring thing. Gloria was a good kid. He couldn't just accept anyone and be able to trust them. Gloria and her parents were owls. Strange, but it was comforting, knowing that if Gloria ever lost control, she wouldn't be able to shift and harm Waverly in any significant way. Not that Rome was worried about it, but he wouldn't have trusted a small child with a bear no matter what, at least not when he wasn't around. And another wolf from another pack? Just no.

Through courier, he'd sent a letter to Seren's shop mid-week. He'd given her a pass on Sunday, since he hadn't properly prepared Waverly for it on short notice, but he'd requested her presence on Monday.

He'd watched her pull into the parking lot in her ridiculous little car, hardly bigger than a golf cart. He was in full control, but his body did one of the irrational things he was so unaccustomed to. This time, the hair on his body stood up. Neck and arms. A foreign tingle traced its way through his chest, landing in his stomach like a slow-acting poison.

Seren might be just as shocked to learn that he didn't want this, as much as she hated it.

He didn't want to want someone else. He didn't want to be fixed. All his life, he'd been some shade of fucked up, and not just morally gray. Worse. So much worse. Redemption arcs weren't for him. He hadn't given a shit about being like a regular person, but that was before Waverly.

He'd never be father of the year, but he had a duty, both to Lila and her child. This, he couldn't afford to fail at. He didn't want Waverly to turn out like him, she might not have his genetics, but he didn't want her to be contaminated by his darkness. He wanted more for her. He tried for her, at least on the surface. He planned on making that surface so solid and so thick, that it would be ice she'd never fall through. She'd never, ever get a glimpse underneath. She'd never see what her adoptive father truly was.

Rome stalked through the garage with long strides. He didn't shut off the shop lights overhead. They stayed on. Always. No one had to pick their way through a hazardous maze that way. The guys might not like staying late, but often, they were there early in the morning, long before opening time at eight.

He'd left the door unlocked again, though the sign was flipped to closed. The industrial area turned into a ghost town after six. No one drove that way unless they purposely had to. Foot traffic wasn't a thing, and they'd been open long enough that their customers knew their hours. He'd stood there for the past forty-five minutes, staring at the cameras anyway.

He never once asked himself what the hell he was doing.

He made it to the front, appearing silently and ghostlike just as Seren pulled the door open. She had good senses as a shifter, but her mouth still opened in a tiny O of surprise and her hand leapt to her chest. The door slammed shut behind her since she hadn't caught it when he'd given her the jump scare.

He'd always reacted to Seren, ever since that first time she'd taken needles to his skin and inked him. He'd kept that a carefully guarded secret, even to himself. After all this time, he should have been used to her, but the first sight of her, never failed to mentally knock him on his ass. She was one of those offhanded beauties that most people wouldn't appreciate. Style? Sure. She liked to stand out. People probably loved that or hated it. Heavily tattooed, long pink hair, tall but wispy, striking blue eyes, and the bones of a goddess. The goth outfits were more of a distraction than anything else. If attention was drawn there, then no one was trying to figure out just what

was so different about her.

Wolf vibes. That's what was different. Shifter otherness. Humans so often got a shiver when they encountered it, but they had yet to figure out why.

Seren put a hand up to her face and saluted him. "Here as demanded, sir. What sick and depraved things would have you have me do, commander?"

He hadn't expected her to lay down and let him stomp all over her. Seren wasn't the kind of woman used to being a doormat. She didn't tolerate it in her customers. She'd thrown more than one prick out of her shop, and that was while he'd been there to witness it.

He knew she was divorced because she'd mentioned it in passing, and once, he'd heard her talking to her mother on the phone. She'd literally said, "No, Mother, I can't right now. I'm at work. Yes, it is work, even if you think it's all nonsense. I'll call you later. I love you." She'd hung up with no I love you too forthcoming. The conversation lasted only a few seconds, but it had been telling. She could stand up for herself, even when it came to parental disapproval.

Of course, he knew much more about her after he'd come into his money and had hired someone to give him every detail he craved.

Seren had spirit and she had spine. She was beautiful, but she was also wildly intelligent and talented to the point of disgustingly so. She was a wolf through and through, which meant she had her pride.

It appeared now as she tilted her chin up when she dropped her hand, blue eyes blazing like melted sapphires.

Let Mixy imitate that exact shade. I bet he'd fail. First time for everything.

The thought of someone else looking Seren in the eye, studying her, appreciating her beauty, wanting her,

made Rome feel crazy enough to stalk back into the garage and tear sheet metal off the car parked in there with his bare hands.

That. That was the reason Seren was here.

She was capable of doing the impossible.

He'd walked into her shop for pain and instead found her. It had to be her. He'd known it from the start. He'd had no idea how far he'd take it. How far he still might take it.

Not as a mate. Not even as a potential mate. That was so far off the table there was no goddamn table.

"General?" She narrowed her eyes, but he could tell it was all bravado. She wasn't trembling on the outside, but he scented the undercurrent of her fear, sharpened only by the strong, pungent tang of disgust. She hated him for forcing her to do this. As a wolf, mostly, but as a human too. "General seems more apt. A Roman one, given your name. You're like that. A conqueror. You came to invade. You take what you want. You force your own empire."

She had no idea. No idea what he'd done, no idea of the depth of his darkness.

"Remember," she hissed, staring at him like he'd just found a pool of liquid shit and rolled in it. Her nose crinkled and her lips curled up ferally. She was so beautiful that his heart gave an angry kick that nearly crushed his ribs and did a number on his lungs. "The Roman Empire eventually fell."

He walked past her and locked the door, banging the lock in as abruptly and violently as he could. The sound was enormously satisfying, echoing through the empty space. He watched Seren start, watched it rattle through her with a new finality.

She was here. She was going to do this.

Submit. One wolf to another.

She was sure she was going to hate it.

She was wrong. She wasn't going to hate this. She was going to love it, and for that she'd hate herself tremendously. Honestly? He couldn't let himself care. He had to be selfish now. He had to figure out what it was about Seren that drew him, made him feel when he'd thought that even the notion of that was impossible. He had to make her fix what was broken inside of him.

For Waverly.

There was no point to an already pointless existence if he failed Lila again.

Rome edged close to her. He knew she wouldn't move. She'd stand her ground because the wolf in her commanded it. She didn't falter back under his dark-eyed scrutiny. Not even when he got in her personal space, invading every inch of it, lowering his head only a breath away from her neck. He inhaled her. Wolf. Wilderness. Forests. Earth. Flowers. Mango and pears. Tropical breezes.

"Yes," he said darkly, quietly. "The Roman Empire did eventually fall. But for centuries, they had a lot of fun conquering. Look at the mark they made on history. Look at how they shaped the world."