Griff lowered me onto the mattress and climbed on top of me to press kisses on my cheeks, along my jawline, and down my neck. Each press of his lips on my skin made tiny detonations of rapture across my nerves.As he reached my collarbone and sucked on it, he tore open the front of my shirt. “Cathy,” he said in a deep drawl that made my spine tingle. “You’ve made every dream I’ve had since I can remember come true.”I glanced down at Griff, meeting eyes that reflected in the moonlight. The swelling on his face had completely healed now, his features communicating the depth of his desire. My breath quickened. He was so unfeasibly beautiful and so mine. It took every effort to say, “You couldn’t have defeated Malachi if you weren’t already capable.”With a happy growl, he tore open my shirt and sports bra.“I’ll never get tired of seeing you naked,” he snarled, his gaze caressing my bare skin. “You’re the most gorgeous sight.”Heat spread across my skin, and I licked my lips.Griff slip

My chest tightened as Griff stormed toward the study, his veins burning with a mix of determination and fury. I had no idea when this had happened, and he had never confided in me that my men had been so hostile. I had no idea men could be so bitchy.One of the enforcers at the door knocked before letting him in. When Griff stepped in the wood-paneled room, his gaze drifted past the bookshelves and sofa and locked straight to the huge bay at the end, where a 1970s version of myself sat behind the huge wooden desk with Gerrison.Sunlight streamed in from the tall windows behind us, hitting my voluminous blonde hair, making it glow like a buttercup in the middle of summer. It curled outward at the front, defying gravity, and fell in dramatic waves down to my red shirt.Griff’s pulse quickened. His fingers trembled. He clutched the Tiffany box and inhaled a deep breath.The only way to describe how Griff felt at that moment was fluttery. Now that I knew him better, it was easy to see why

I called for Griff through our bond, but he’d found a way to block the mental link. I tried looking for him, but all the staff I encountered repeated the same message. Word had spread that I was their alpha’s murderer, and everybody wanted me out, including Griff. That, and the fact that he had told me to get out of his sight, told me it was time to leave the island.Hours later, I returned to London in a haze. The part of me that should have fought for Griff was crushed beneath a barrage of blame. Even if I could push through the guilt, I’d had no words to convince him to forgive my brutality.The sun had already set by the time the Shuttle pulled into Embankment Pier. I trudged out of my room down the black-and-white hallway and toward the exit, where a stream of passengers had already formed a line.The doors opened up to a glass walkway that offered an enhanced view of our surroundings. Further up along the river, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben loomed from one side of Westmi

Cold shock barreled through my system, even as my chest exploded with streams of burning scorpions. The last week flashed across my mind, filling me with a painful realization. Hades had attached the curse to the bargain Griff had made with the faeries. He’d given us days five before it took control of Griff’s body and destroyed Shifter City.We’d spent the last five days scrambling around trying to break the curse and transfer it to someone else. We had spent all that time worrying about what was inside Griff and hadn’t given a thought to what Hades might have placed in me.Fuck. Griff and I were mates. Rumpel Kracknuts had even hinted that curses could go deeper than the soul of the afflicted. I’d been too concerned with his murder of the healer to even think that he was hinting that I carried the curse.Bloody Hades had turned me into his Trojan horse, and if I couldn’t find a way to stop the swarm, it wouldn’t just mean the destruction of Midgard. It could mean the end of Shifter

Mum rushed to our side with a bucket of water and set it on the floor. “I’ll get more.”Some of the other wolves had gathered a pile of rocks around the clearing, only to disappear and fetch more, while a few of them remained to hurl them at Snorri. Each stone that landed dented his huge scorpion body, but it did nothing to break him apart.An idea hit me upside the head. “Dad.” I gave him a nudge in the side. “Let’s try getting these stones wet.”Without another word, he walked to the pile of rocks, gathered up a pair, and dipped them in the water. I left the attackers to join him and took one from his hand.I was no expert on arthropods or any other type of shelled creature, but Dad had once told me on a hunting trip that the protective coverings around their bellies were softer than the ones at their backs.“This way.” I flicked my head toward the obelisk.The other wolf shifters continued their attacks on Snorri, making him lash out at them with his tail, but more importantly, the