Chapter 17
The brothers came one by one, answering my call without hesitation.
Lucien arrived first, his boots silent on the marble but his presence like iron in the air.
Then Viking, all swagger until he caught the look in my eyes and realized this wasn’t business as usual.
Volken followed, his coat still damp from the drizzle outside, his gaze already calculating.
And Draugr… Draugr didn’t knock. He just walked in like the storm that he was, still smelling faintly of steel and blood from whatever cleanup he’d been doing before I called.
We gathered in the war room, there was no alcohol or small talk. Just them, me, and the truth I was about to drop like a blade on the table.
“Layla’s pregnant,” I said when we were all sitting.
For a heartbeat, there was silence. Then Viking’s brows shot up. “You work fucking fast, brother.”
Lucien didn’t even smirk. He just leaned forward, elbows on the table. “That’s… unexpected. ”
Volken’s voice was flat, but I caught the edge beneath it. “Fast, yes. But possible. The bond was strong from the start.”
Draugr just stared at me, like he was measuring whether or not I was serious. “You’re sure?”
I nodded once. “The doctor confirmed it.”
That was when it hit them, not just the fact, but what it meant. Four pairs of eyes shifted, their usual composure sharpening into something far more primal.
“She’s under lockdown I’m assuming,” Lucien said immediately. “There cannot be anymore unaccompanied trips or daylight without full escort.”
“Agreed,” Volken added. “We double her guards, switch routes daily, keep her movements unpredictable.”
Viking leaned back, but his smile was gone. “And when the Irish or the demons hear about this? They’ll see her as the quickest way to get to you.”
“They won’t hear about it,” I said, my voice cold. “Not from anyone in this room. Not from anyone that wants to carry on breathing. ”
Draugr’s lips curled in that slow, humourless way of his. “Good. Because if they try, we’ll engrave the message in their throats.”
For the next hour, we planned, not for a fight, but for a siege. I trusted my brothers with everything I owned, but this was different. This was blood of my blood, my legacy before it even took its first breath.
The mood shifted after the final orders were given. For a rare moment, the war fell away, and they just looked at me, not as their leader, but as their brother.
“Well, shit,” Viking said, breaking the silence. “Roman, the unshakable, the untouchable… is going to be somebody’s dad.”
Lucien’s mouth twitched. “Miracles do happen.”
Volken gave me one of his rare, genuine smiles. “Congratulations, brother. You’ll be good at it.”
Draugr tilted his head, eyes narrowing in that way that meant he was actually pleased but would rather be gutted than admit it outright. “Guess I’ll be teaching the kid how to break a neck before he can walk. ”
“The hell you will,” Viking cut in. “I’m teaching him to fight.”
Draugr snorted. “You’d have him swinging before he can stand.”
“Better than you,” Viking shot back. “You’d train him to glare people to death.”
Lucien finally stepped in, his voice cool but with a glint of amusement in his eyes. “You two do realize… it could be a girl?”
That shut them both up for a beat, until Viking grinned. “Then I’ll teach her to swing harder.”
“And I’ll teach her to aim for the throat,” Draugr added.
Their voices blurred for a second as I let them bicker.
In the quiet space between words, I caught myself picturing something I’d never allowed before, a small hand gripping mine, eyes I’d kill the world for looking up at me.
I wouldn’t be like the men who’d come before me.
My child would never fear me, never doubt where they belonged.
They’d grow up knowing that whatever darkness came, their father was the greater monster… and he was theirs.
Volken shook his head, but the warmth in his expression matched the rare ease in the room. For all our violence, for all the blood between us, this brotherhood, was the only thing that had ever come close to home before Layla came into my life.
When the meeting ended, they left as quickly as they’d come, each one already moving to his part in the plan. The mansion was quiet again… except for the sound of her voice.
She was in the sitting room, curled in the corner of the couch, her hands resting on her stomach like she’d been thinking about what it meant too.
I sat beside her, pulling her in before she could even speak.
“Roman,” she began, “we need to talk.”
I knew that tone. It was the tone she took when she knew I wasn’t going to like what she had to say. I braced for it.
“I’m not living in a cage,” she said. “I understand you want to protect me, but you’re suffocating me. I also need to live. I need to breathe. You can’t keep me wrapped in bubble wrap until this baby’s born.”
I stared at her, feeling my jaw tighten. “You won’t be breathing if I’m not able to keep you safe. Keeping you safe means keeping you here, or with your bodyguards at all times. It’s about you not being in the sights of anyone who wants me dead.”
Her chin lifted stubbornly. “I need to still be me, I can’t lose that, Roman. Not even for you.”
The fire in her eyes made my chest ache, even as it stoked my possessiveness until it roared.
“Layla,” I said, my voice low but sharp, “do you know what it will do to me if anything happens to you? To our child?”
“I do,” she shot back as she raises her hand to my chest. “But if you love me, you’ll trust me. You have to give me space. I’m not asking to run off into danger, just… let me breathe.”
It was a war between instinct and reason inside me, and she was the only one who could make me even consider losing.
Finally, I let out a long breath, my hand sliding over her jaw.
“When the Irish threat is gone… and when the demons are ash in the ground… I’ll give you more freedom.
Not before. Not now, and you have to accept that it is too dangerous at the moment for you to be able to go out and about. ”
Her eyes softened a little, but she didn’t let me off easy. “Promise me, Roman.”
I pressed my forehead to hers, closing my eyes. “I promise. But until then… you’re staying here or at my side where you are safe. Every step. Every breath.”
She exhaled slowly, like she knew that was as far as I’d bend. “Fine. But if you start treating me like glass again, I’ll remind you of this conversation.”
I smiled faintly, but it didn’t reach my eyes. “You can try.” Because I knew that freedom or not there was nothing in this world I wouldn’t do to keep her safe.
I reached up, brushing my thumb over her cheekbone, slow and deliberate. “Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?” My voice was low, rough, threaded with all the hunger and relief that had been burning in me for weeks. “How close I came to losing my mind thinking something was wrong with you?”
Her lips parted, but I didn’t give her the chance to answer.
I bent, kissed her, slow at first, then deeper, claiming her mouth like I had to remind both of us who we belonged to.
My hands slid down her back, gripping the curve of her hips before I scooped her into my arms. She made a soft sound, arms winding around my neck as I carried her to our bed.
I laid her down carefully, like she was the most precious thing I’d ever touch, then followed her down, bracing myself over her.
My hands found the hem of her top, tugging it up inch by inch, savouring the reveal of her skin.
I stripped us both without hurry, my gaze never leaving hers, needing her to feel how much I wanted her, not just with my body, but with everything in me.
I kissed every inch of her, from the hollow of her throat to the soft skin of her belly, worshipping her the way only a starving man could.
I took my time, pressing my mouth to the inside of her thighs, the slope of her hip, the tender dip beneath her ribs, memorizing her with lips and tongue like each touch was a vow.
“When I thought you were sick…” I murmured against her skin, my voice breaking lower, “I’ve never felt more powerless in my life.
I’d have torn down cities, gutted anyone that got in my way, burned the world to ash to fix it…
and I couldn’t. I hated that.” My teeth grazed her skin before I soothed the mark with my tongue. “I never want to feel that again. ”
Her fingers slid into my hair, nails grazing my scalp in a way that was half comfort, half command, and whatever restraint I had left shattered.
I moved over her, caging her in with my body, and slid into her in one hard, claiming thrust. She gasped against my mouth, and I swallowed the sound, my kiss as relentless as my pace.
Every thrust was a purge of the fear that had gnawed at me, the rage I’d kept leashed, the hunger that had been building since the day I claimed her. Her body arched into mine, meeting me with heat and need, her pulse a frantic drum beneath my lips when I bit gently at her throat.
I drove her over the edge once, feeling her clench around me like she’d never let me go. I forced her there again, holding her hips still while I thrust deeper, harder, until she broke a second time, crying out my name like it belonged to her.
The sight and the sound, the feel of her trembling beneath me tore the last of my control to pieces. I followed her into the fall, groaning against her throat as I spilled into her, holding her tight, keeping her exactly where I needed her, wrapped around me, mine in every sense of the word .
When it was over, I didn’t move, instead I stayed deep inside her, my forehead resting against hers, my arms locking her against me. Her skin was damp with sweat, her breathing uneven, but she was here warm and alive.
I buried my face in her hair, breathing her in like the scent itself could keep me standing. She didn’t know it, but every beat of her heart under my hand was an anchor, dragging me back from a darkness I’d lived in for far too long.
I traced lazy circles on her hip. “Tomorrow night, we have to go to a function,” I said quietly.
Her head lifted from my chest. “A function?”
“It’s for the blood bank organization that I donate every year, and this time they expect me to show my face…
and speak.” I exhaled slowly, the sound rough in the quiet room, my fingers tightening slightly on her hip as if I could anchor her to the mattress.
“I’d rather keep you here, hidden, where nothing can even breathe in your direction, but if you’re with me, you’ll be safe.
I need you to listen to me, Layla, and stay close. No wandering. Not for a second. ”
Despite the warning threaded through my tone, her eyes lit with that spark I’d seen too many times to mistake, it was the look she got when she smelled even the faintest whiff of freedom.
I could already see her picturing it, a chance to dress up, to be in public like a normal couple, to pretend even if only for a few hours that our lives weren’t wrapped in blood and war.
But all I could see was the other side of it. Every possible entrance, every shadow that could hide a weapon. Every man who might look at her for a beat too long. My mind was already mapping the layout of the venue, calculating guard rotations, memorizing exits.
Her hand slid over my chest, as if she could calm the storm brewing in me. “It’ll be fine,” she said softly, like she actually believed it.
I brushed my knuckles down her jaw, my voice low. “It’ll only be fine because I’ll make it fine. You don’t see the things I see, baby. You don’t know how many people would sell their souls to get to you, just to get to me.”
Her smile faltered, but the fire didn’t leave her eyes. And damn me, but that stubborn spark was part of why I loved her .
Still, the thought of her stepping into a crowded room of strangers breathing the same air she did, made something primal coil tight in my chest. I’d be watching everyone, every glance, every twitch, every shift in tone.
If someone so much as thought about getting close without my permission, they wouldn’t make it to dessert.
And if anyone tried anything, anything at all, Layla wouldn’t see the blood spill. But I’d make sure the floor was slick with it before the night was over. No one touched what was mine and lived to talk about it.
Tomorrow night wasn’t just a public appearance; it was an invitation for fate to try me. And if fate wanted a fight, it would get one.