Roman's POV

It was dark and warm where he was. Roman never wanted to leave there. Nothing could hurt him there, nothing could get to him.

Wolf was calling to him but it was a distant call. His voice was far away and it felt like Roman was submerged in water.

Wolf was telling him to come back out but Roman was blissfully happy where he was.

He had wrapped himself in a cocoon of beautiful memories.

Memories where he danced with his mate under the starry night, their romantic dinner, being curled up in the couch and embracing each other...

Wolf was trying to pull him back up but it was not working.

Right then, Roman heard a voice from far away, behind all his memories.

Home. It was the sound of home. The melodic voice washed over him and soothed his tired body. But the voice sounded sad and desperate.

The owner was begging Roman. He could make out pieces from what the distant beautiful voice was telling him.

'Mea culpa... Doleo... Please come back to me... Roman come back to me... I love you cara mea... I am so sorry...'

The voice kept repeating she was sorry and that she loved him. Her words started pulling him back up. But he didn't want to go back to the excruciating pain. Roman resisted.

Her voice sounded again, this time clearer, 'Cara mea...'

She was in pain. Just like Roman was and something primal snapped inside of him. This urge to comfort the owner of the voice and to protect her. He couldn't stand the idea of her being in pain.

Roman started quickly rising up from the darkness and to the surface of the water he was submerged in. Wolf helped pull him up and Roman's eyes flickered between blue and gold for a second.

Then in one painful moment, Roman was in control and his eyes were blue again.

A sob wracked his body as all the pain returned to his body and assaulted his senses. Every inch of his body hurt and he took a deep breath.

Roman then looked up and saw Lana standing before him. She looked beautiful even when her clothes were dirty, and covered in blood.

Tears of blood was running down her cheeks and she was holding the side of his face gently. There was pain in her eyes but also relief and happiness that Roman had returned back to her.

Roman quickly reached forward, grabbed Lana and pulled her towards his body. He held onto her like she was his lifeline.

Both of them were silently crying in each other's arms. Roman squeezed her to him harder and breathed in her scent. Her calming forest and rain smell. He released a deep sigh in content at having her inside his arms.

He never wanted to let her go.

Lana was running her fingers gently through his hair, being careful not to touch any of his wounds and whispering loving words in his ear.

"You're safe now. It's going to be alright. I love you. I'm here." Lana continued whispering words into his ear.

Roman held Lana close until his trembling stopped.

Lana pulled back from the embrace slowly and said, "I need to take care of your wounds."

Then she opened the black glass between the front and back compartments and asked to Leo, "Leo do you have any first aid kits?"

"Yes. There you go." Leo said and handed one over his shoulder.

"Thank you." Lana said and again closed the black window.

Lana opened the first aid kit and got out an antiseptic bottle and then some patches. She poured some onto the patch and then gently started cleaning a deep silver knife cut right across Roman's heart. It wasn't too deep so after cleaning that up, Lana just bandaged it.

Then she moved on to the cut Marcus had done on the side of his stomach. She did the same process for that one.

Lana gently lifted Roman's chin and turned it to the side so she could see the mark left by Devon while he was holding the knife to his throat.

It was small so the skin was already knitting back together. His werewolf healing would take care of his bruises but the wounds that were made with the silver knife was going to leave a faint mark. If they were made with a normal knife, there would be no signs of it but this was silver.

Lana hated that her beloved would be reminded of his pain every time he saw the faint marks.

Roman was watching Lana's every movement as she took care of his wounds. With every new wound she cleaned, her face got more and more grim.

Roman looked at Lana's body and saw her wounds.

"You need to heal too." Roman told her.

Lana shook her head in no. "I will heal. It's not important." And she continued cleaning his wounds.

Roman was evidently not happy about this but Lana didn't want to take her attention off of his injuries.

"I need you to turn around for me." Lana said.

Roman turned sideways on the car's seat. Now Roman's lashed back was visible to Lana.

A couple seconds passed and nothing happened. Roman turned his head around to look over his shoulder at Lana.

She was crying.

She had so much pain in her eyes. The scene before her was too much for her old heart to take.

Her beloved's back was covered in lashes. She knew the pain lashes brought upon one's skin. She had been under the whip before.

And to think that her mate had endured that pain... had been through that pain because of her.

She couldn't get air into her lungs.

Roman's face turned sad at seeing her expression and with a silent voice asked, "Do you hate how they look? Would you prefer not to see them?"

Roman started turning around to take the wounds out of Lana's sight. But Lana was kneeling between Roman's legs in a flash.

She held both sides of Roman's face in her hands. Tears of blood were running down her face.

She looked into his blue eyes and said, "Never take me for a superficial person my beloved. I couldn't care less if you had wings, four arms or even a third eye." They both laughed at Lana's description.

"I love you." Lana said. "I wasn't crying because of how your wounds looked, I was crying because they reminded me of my failure. I needed to protect you and I failed. I'm sorry, I'm sorry that you had to live through all that pain my love."

Roman gently cupped Lana's cheeks and wiped her tears away. "It wasn't your fault. And I know that you will not forgive yourself easily because that's the kind of person you are. You think everything that goes around you is your responsibility and when something goes wrong, it's your failure. But it's not. What happened to me, the reason those scars ended up my back is Marcus. He is the one responsible not you. You came to save me." Roman made Lana look into his eyes and repeated, "You. Saved. Me."

Lana pulled Roman in for a kiss and it was gentle, like she was sorry for everything that happened and thankful for Roman's forgiveness.

Then Lana sat at the car seat again and slowly turned Roman around. She started tending to his wounds. These ones would heal quickly but they would faint marks as well. All because Marcus had used a silver laced whip.

When Roman was all patched up, Lana got him a t-shirt and he wore it on. His movements were good, the wounds were starting to heal but his energy was still weak.

"You should rest, I'll wake you up when we reach home." Lana said.

Roman put his head against the window and closed his eyes.

He was about to drift off when he realised something.

They didn't know how Marcus and the others had known where Lana and Roman lived. They could have been to Trevor and his apartment first.

Roman was suddenly worried about the safety of his friend so he opened his eyes and turned to Lana.

"Can we go to the apartment. I want to check on Trevor." Roman said.

Lana nodded her head and told Leo of their new destination. Lana understood Roman's worry for his friend. She hoped Marcus and his men hadn't involved anyone else.

**********

So emotional chapter huh?

What did you guys think?

I was emotionally spent while thinking about Roman and his ordeal.

There isn't much more left to the book. Two more chapters and then voilà! Finito.

I knew I was going to make the book into a series so there is more to come after this book.

Also 'Mea culpa' means 'my fault' in latin
And 'Doleo' means 'I'm sorry' in latin.

Arrivederci 👋 💙