Page 7 of Laverna

"They came from this way," Rom said. He jumped the fence and held his hand out to help her over. Laverna took it without complaint. When she turned, he saw his muddy handprints on her ass, and his insides heated. No time to dwell on it.

Rom tracked the stench of the magic until it came to the edge of the spell. "They must have just blasted this area to wipe the scent of their beast," he said, pulling out his phone. He opened up his maps and marked the location's coordinates. "I don't like how exposed I'm feeling right now. I'll send some of my wolves out to map the reserve for us and see if they can find any leads."

Laverna looked up at the sky as the rain started to sprinkle down on them lightly. "Good idea."

They were both drenched when they finally made it back to the car. Rom gave her one of the clean shirts from his bag, and she actually took it without griping. He used a spare towel for her seat, and when she climbed back in the car beside him, she looked thoughtful. Rom liked her wearing his shirt, the red wolf head logo on one of her breasts.

"Fucking witches. What could they possibly be back for? They have known for centuries that all of Rome belongs to us," she said, staring at the water pebbling on the windscreen.

"Maybe they have the numbers again to throw down a challenge. I'm more concerned about this creature they have under their power. Hopefully, my wolves will pick up a scent signature for it," Rom replied, running a hand through his damp hair.

"You still think it wasn't one of them? I know you believe that it's not possible because it's not a full moon, but you just...went wolfy," Laverna said.

Rom shook his head. "I'm different to the others. Stronger. The nature of my curses makes it act differently. They have heightened senses, but not like what happened out there."

Laverna shivered, her expression shutting down. Rom turned on the car's heater and made sure to change the temperature of the seats. Laverna sighed as the heat kicked in and burrowed into his oversized shirt. "Take me home, Romulus. I've had enough of nature today."

5

Laverna hated fucking witches. She wouldn't argue that there were some good ones out there. She loved Circe for a start. But when it came to witches in Rome, Laverna had only ever had problems.

Last time, there had been years of grave desecration, poisonings, torture, and kidnappings. It was one of the few times in history that Romulus and Laverna had worked together to drive out the offenders from Rome.

Now they had some kind of a monster to control, and it had been sent after her people.

The tension in the car was heavy and silent except for the engine and the rain for most of the drive back into the city. Romulus's eyes stayed their normal amber and not the glowing gold of his wolf side.

Laverna's neck itched from where he had run his stubble over it. She needed to be alone to think through all of the feelings that sensation evoked in her. She hadn't stopped him from doing it. The dark part of her chthonic side woke up and purred with desires that she hadn't felt in centuries. Laverna leaned further into the warmth of the seat and tried not to think about it.

"Maybe we should have killed all the witches instead of exiling them," Romulus said finally.

Laverna nibbled on some of the remaining trail mix. "We don't even know if they are the same ones."

"If they aren't the same, they were taught by them. The scent of their magic is the same, so they must have some kind of connection," Romulus replied. "I've been feeling off for a few weeks now. I thought it was Bellona's fiasco with the mafia, but it hasn't gone away."

Laverna tried to hide her shock that he had admitted that much to her. He usually kept all of his secrets to himself. There was more power in knowledge. He never talked about his connection to the city either.

"Does it feel like it's threatened?" she asked, not wanting him to stop talking when he was in such an open mood.

Romulus pulled into a gas station and left the car running. "Stay here." He looked upset and distracted as he headed for the café, so Laverna decided to do as he said and not to start a fight with him.

They were both disturbed by what they had found at the reservation. The killings felt like a 'fuck you' to Laverna.

If they were dealing with the older witch clan, then it would make sense. Not only had Laverna helped run them out of Rome, but she had also been behind a spectacular slur campaign against their stunningly beautiful leader, Canidia.

History now knew her as a terrifyingly ugly hag thanks to Laverna's patronage of Horace. Maybe if the witch hadn't boasted about trying to fuck Romulus every chance she got, and implying her magic succeeded in bringing him to her bed, perhaps Laverna wouldn't have gone out of her way to make her into a horror legend. That wasn't even taking into account the time that Canidia and her hags had tried to capture Laverna to harvest her divine organs for their spells. Only with Romulus's help did she escape their traps.

She scowled at the dashboard. She really didn't need the reminder about Romulus fucking anyone, speculation or not. She really didn't need to think about the one and only time he had saved her ass. It meant nothing because after the witches had gone, he had gone back to hating her.

Needing to do something, Laverna messed with his sound system, adding a few magical programmings along the way just in case he annoyed her.

Romulus emerged from the café, carrying paper bags and drinks. He opened her door and passed her a hot coffee and a bag of something that smelled delicious before going back to his side of the car and getting in.

"Thanks," she said, sipping the coffee. It was a latte with two sugars, the way she liked it.

"You were shivering, which was distracting me. I always need calories after I let the wolf come to the surface," he replied. He had a mouthful of the coffee and pulled a face. "This is terrible, but it will do."

Laverna smiled and refrained from teasing him about being a spoiled rich boy. "All this 'terrible' is food of the gods when you've been driving for hours. What are you thinking?"

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