“No, I don’t.”
“You can’t leave me. You promised.”
“I can’t keep that promise, Vera. It was made in terror of what I had been through. I need to help my brothers.”
“You need to stay with me, with us.” Vera stroked her flat tummy.
“You don’t even know if you’re with child yet.”
“I am. I can feel it. Don’t you want your child to have a father?” Vera’s freckled face was growing redder, sad and despairing.
“Vera… What if it was me out there beyond the frontier, in the forests of Germania? Wouldn’t you want Gaius to try and help me?”
“Yes, but-”
“And what about his family?”
Vera hung her head, a little ashamed at the answer she had almost spoken. To Hades with anyone else!
“Not even a thousand lykoi would keep me from returning to you, my love.”
“But what if Gaius and the others are
