“Don’t growl at him,” I tell Griffith, reaching out my arms so he can lift me from my chair. I’m smart enough to know when I can’t walk on my own. “He helped me enough. What I need now is a visit to Madeline.”
As Griffith carefully picks me up, worry tightens my muscles.
“We need to go back to the dock I dived from. Shrimp’s waiting for me.” I’ve never been gone this long. My heart breaks at the thought of my big puppy waiting for me, probably confused and anxious by now.
“Carl has him.”
As if summoned by his name, an SUV comes roaring toward us with a massive, furry head sticking out the passenger window, his tongue flopping in the wind.
“Let it be known, I did not invite a single one of you here.” Sev is once again sunk low in his seat, eyes on the sky.
“Clem!” Carl spills out of his car, Shrimp jumping down after him. Both run up to where Griffith is cradling me, my brother doing his own scan for injuries, Shrimp sniffing every inch of me he can reach. “Gods, you scared me. What happened?”
I give another quick summary as Griffith walks with me toward his truck. He’s in a hurry to get me to the healing witch, and I’m on board with that. Having almost a full day thinking I was healed makes the reopened wound burn even fiercer than before.
Griffith snaps for Shrimp to jump into the cab before me, and then he carefully arranges me in the seat. Once I’m settled, the wolf takes a precious second to cradle my face and brush a gentle kiss against my mouth.
“We’ll figure this out,” he promises, his desperate eyes holding mine.
When he steps away, Carl swoops in to give my hand a quick, reassuring squeeze before he jogs back to his SUV, no doubt planning to follow us to Madeline’s.
As we pull away, I spare another glance in Sev’s direction. He’s still seated on the porch, watching our group leave. I raise a hand in a wave of thanks.
He salutes me with his glass of whiskey before downing the whole thing and returning his attention to the sky. But onthe chair armrest, I spy his hand, clenched in a fist. I suspect the monster hides deeper feelings than his nonchalant attitude would lead anyone to believe.
I hope you find your perfection.
27
CLEMENTINE
The witch bandages are back,and they itch.
We visited the library the day after my lake incident, and Mor was apologetic about the failure of her rejuvenation spell, giving me a full refund. She couldn’t tell us why the enchantment only lasted a few hours. If it was the prolonged exposure to water, me shifting, or if it was only ever going to work for a certain amount of time. But what is clear is that the fix is not permanent.
And so the research begins once more.
Unfortunately, the bandages seem to be dissolving faster, and I have to get them renewed every other day now. A week after my dark-moon-night episode, and I’m ready to claw my own skin off if that would fix this tedious torment.
Doesn’t help that Carl and Griffith are both super overprotective once more. I could handle it before because they were reasonable. Now they don’t even want me walking in case that might tug at my wound.
Bedrest is boring, especially when Griffith won’t do anything in bed with me other than give me a chaste kiss on the forehead.Maybe the lips if I’m lucky. He says I writhe too much when I’m turned on and that could be dangerous.
I can’t even fucking writhe!
Shrimp doesn’t mind napping beside my bed. I try to tell the overbearing caregivers that I’m perfectly capable of walking my dog and he needs to go out for bathroom breaks.
Griffith installs a massive dog door in his sunroom the same day.
“I hope a family of raccoons invades your house,” I grumble as I watch Shrimp nose through the door and let himself out.
“Even those little trash pandas will smell that a predator lives here.” He gives me a wolfish grin.
Griffith and I have started sleeping beside each other, and Carl hasn’t said a word about the new arrangement. I appreciate his maturity. Also, his trust. After the way I hurt my brother when we were younger, I could understand if he was feeling protective over his friend’s heart.
But right now, I may or may not be planning to torture said friend.
Another night approaches, and Griffith just got back from the bar. He only gave me a quick kiss before disappearing into the bathroom and locking the door.
