We protect our own.

Roman Ahmad Rose.

The new girl wasn't so new anymore in Roman's book anyway, she had successfully stood up to one of the four bullies who got away with anything at the school and that made him proud and since her first day, she's been acquintained with all three of his friends, making her the fifth person to join his circle. All of them had quickly taken to Thalia, she was wild, confident, and strong, her parents were a riot.

A knock on the door downstairs made him and the rest of the gang grumble, they were all sprawled on the floor studying. "Let me go check." Roman offered and walked down the stairs, his eyes flashed silver as he got to the door, he knew he would come around at some point, with a heavy sigh he walked toward the door and swung it open, Lex was his usual brooding self, holding himself in such a high regard that it seemed everyone was beneath him.

"How may I help you alpha?" He questioned the wolf who forced his way in making him roll his eyes. "Was it you?" He demanded and that confused Roman. "Was it what?" He inquired but the wolf growled and held Roman by his neck having his body on the wall. "Don't play dumb with me witch, was it you who killed them?" He growled again choking Roman, the alpha was thrown to the door he had just walked through by an unseen force. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about Lex, you can't just walk in here throwing accusations, I don't know a damn thing about what you're talking about!" Roman replied as his neck healed instantly.

"Six wolves were found dead on unclaimed territory, the coven says it has nothing to do with it, Amon wasn't around, and Zach told me it was a witch who killed them, and the only witch I know capable of killing like that is you!" The large teen growled but Roman held his hand out to restrain him. "The fuck are you talking about, I don't know anything about killings, just because I'm no longer part of that horrid coven you immediately surmised it was me, how stupid are you, what if Zach lied, or a rogue vampire killed them." The witch argued looking at the alpha, when his eyes met his a certain pang of hurt crossed the alpha's eyes.

"I don't know why your wolves are being killed but it's certainly not me, now if you would please." Roman announced opening the door with the wave of his hand. "This isn't over." Lex growled and walked out the door which slammed itself. Roman was sure something was wrong, he had been having this feeling for a while now but decided to ignore it, now wolves were being killed and the suspect was him, it was too much of a coincidence. "That was intense." Alyssa muttered standing by the stairs. "Yeah, apparently I'm a killer now." There was more hurt in that statement than he would've liked to show, some relationships had to remain buried.

"Are we going to look into it or ignore?" Allen questioned with a raised brow standing next to his twin. "No we're not, it's a wolf problem let them handle it, if we interfere we're giving the witches a prime opportunity to brand us the killers, so nope, we're staying out of it." He replied the brunette with a lazy smile that conveyed an unspoken understanding. They all moved to walk upstairs again but the doorbell rang, Roman groaned and walked back to open the door, he was relieved to see who it was.

"Thalia, what brings you here?" Roman questioned the girl, this was her first time at his house but he'd been to her house the past week after meeting her, her dad had insisted Roman and his friends come for dinner, it was actually one happy night. "Cant a girl visit friends and I also need a favor." He narrowed his eyes on the girl who chuckled nervously. "Okay it's more on the favor." She admitted making him laugh and gestured her in. "Make yourself at home, my parents are visiting family in Romania for I don't know how long, so the house is free reign for me." The witch explained to his newest friend.

They had made a lot of progress in the blooming of their friendship, he liked Thalia, she had fire. "That's nice, though I'd expect you to throw a party." She commented making Roman chuckle whilst getting to his room. "And who exactly would come, as you've seen this week at school I'm not exactly popular, none of us are." He replied with a face devoid of emotion but he knew she understood. "Yeah I understand that, my parents were offered the call into the coven." She blurted out as everyone noticed her in the room, they all waited for her to finish.

"Pops and dad both refused, something about commitment and not working well with elitists." She added and her statement made Alyssa laugh out loud. "Have I told you, that I love your parents." It was Marc, the silent one of the group, though it seemed when it came to Thalia's parents he wasn't as silent as everyone thought. "Oh I know." Thalia replied making herself comfortable next to Allen. "So what is this favor you wanted?" Roman questioned the girl who seemed to perk up from helping Allen on his homework.

"I was hoping you guys could help me with alchemy, dad has taught me everything else but that, pops is the alchemist in our family but he's rarely available during the week so him teaching me is difficult at best." The girl confessed and Roman felt for her, she had become a good friend and didn't see a reason not to help her. "Alright, I can do that but the best person who could teach you basics before the hard stuff is Marc." Roman answered and this made the fierce girl giddy. "Thank you, Roman, thank you, Marc, I know we haven't started but thank you." She asserted but it was the least he could do, his soft spot was helping those who genuinely needed it.

"I saw a wolf outside, by the way, it was hiding beyond the tree line but not very well." Thalia informed them all which made Alyssa groan, obviously Lex would leave a spy to actually see if there was something suspicious going on with him and his circle. "Just ignore it, I'm sure the wolves are paranoid as usual." Alyssa replied and Thalia seemed to accept the answer, Roman remembered Thalia's first experience with a wolf from the Krest Pack, Lex's beta specifically, he was sure the girl hadn't found favor for the wolves in her heart.

They finished homework a lot faster since Roman had help from Thalia, she had taken on helping Allen whilst he helped Marc and Alyssa, through they had normal classes, the twins were somewhat slow in grasping certain concepts and Marc was just too lazy to work but Roman forced him anyway. "Something is burning." Marc grumbled out and immediately Thalia was on her feet running toward the nearest window, Roman was by her side immediately. There in the unclaimed territory, a battle was raging, though Roman couldn't make out the figures, he could make out the spells.

"We need to stop that fire." Thalia announced and Roman nodded in agreement, all five of them were now on their feet, they all held hands except Thalia who didn't know what they were doing. "Mass teleportation." Allen mumbled and the girl finally got it and immediately took the boy's hand and Roman's, they vanished from his bedroom to a part of the forest which was near the blue fire spreading at an astonishing rate. "Thalia put up a barrier and boundary, twins put out that fire and Marc go gather information and I will be assisting Thalia." The witch instructed and they all played their parts perfectly.

Thalia placed the two things asked of her with ease, Roman showed pride and confidence when she did it, the twins snuffed out the blue flames easily as well, the barrier was still in place when a vampire none of them recognized crashed on it, Roman waved his hand and placed a single finger over his lips, none of them spoke, even their breathing was barely audible. "Dammit, he got away!" A new voice yelled as it looked around, of course, the vampire hadn't gotten away Roman had cloaked him.

"Fuck, Kev and Lena aren't gonna be happy, it was supposed to be a frame job, but I doubt anyone will believe the witches started it, we're in neutral territory and vampires aren't exactly tame." The companion to the one who had yelled replied making Roman's blood boil, why were they instigating a fight with the vampires, if Amon knew this then the witch coven leaders would have one hell of a fight. The two witches double checked and vanished, after they did Roman made them all visible again. Marc appeared beside Roman who didn't even flinch when he randomly appeared.

"Let's take him back, we need to contact Amon and tell him what happened as well." Roman announced and they all silently agreed, Thalia was still silent, a little too silent. "You okay Lia?" Roman questioned and the girl finally regained herself. "It's just I don't know, is that how a large scale battle between two mystic races looks like?" She questioned with a slight worry in her eyes, Roman couldn't comfort her though he wanted to, the truth was better said than any false comfort.

"Yeah, that's the first hand of it all, I don't know why the witches are instigating a fight with the vampires or there is much more we don't know yet in the gray area, but I'm always telling this to the others, we protect our own and that own includes you now, but that doesn't mean we put ourselves in the line of danger, we only react when we have to." Roman explained honestly seeing as Thalia was happy with his response, she smiled with a nod making Roman feel a weight being lifted.

"Thank you Roman, and thank you for considering me as one of you guys, thought I wouldn't get friends here but you're proving me wrong." Thalia confessed just as they vanished and appeared in Roman's bedroom where the vampire was still unconscious but healing. "I've got to get going, tomorrow is still a school day, we'll talk in the morning." Marc announced and Thalia smiled toward him, reciprocating his kindness. "I could drop you." She offered and the boy nodded eagerly.

"That would be great."

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LMJ