Page 14

Chapter Fourteen

We’ll Get Your Bear Back to Her Full Glory

Clover

Realizing I had no idea who I was at age forty was fucking terrifying. It wasn’t so much letting go of what I thought of myself, the smartass free spirit esthetician who wore the privilege of my last name like a faux fur coat. I’d always reveled in the fact that my future was wide open, but I could do that because I had a sturdy safety net.

I was still a smartass, and I could give a facial with the absolute best of them, but as I sat here in my backless cotton gown waiting to see Dr. Chandra Lowe, I’d never felt more naked.

After a soft knock on the door, a woman about my age walked in. Her hair was in a bun, and under her white jacket, she wore a pretty, soft floral shirt and a pair of jeans.

I’d been expecting a stuffy doctor, a much adultier adult than me, but she looked like my kind of people.

“It’s really nice to meet you,” she said. “I’m sorry to say I haven’t met all the local bear clans yet. I’ve been with the pack for almost ten years now, but I still feel like the new kid.”

“Oh, I thought you were a Sawtooth wolf,” I said. There were a lot of new names being thrown around, and it was possible I’d remembered incorrectly.

Like it mattered if she was or not. I was a Crowley and apparently I knew nothing about my clan.

“I am, but this pack has a complicated history, and my parents tried to protect me from it.” She set down her tablet and reached for her stethoscope. “I’m just going to check your vitals, do a visual exam, and ask you some questions, if that’s okay with you.”

I nodded. “I shouldn’t be nervous, but I am.”

“White coat syndrome is real, and I take that into consideration, especially the first time someone sees me.” She pressed the cool metal head of the stethoscope against my bare back. “Can you tell me the last time you shifted?”

“No, I can’t.”

The raised eyebrow was totally expected. She probably got an advanced dossier on me, thanks to Bellamy, that I was known to be difficult. Uncooperative.

How did all those qualities that I loved about myself become so negative? This magic thing was totally in my head.

“It’s been a while, but I’m honestly not sure when the last time was. Guess I didn’t know it could possibly be the last time I ever shifted.”

“We’ll get your bear back to her full glory.” Chandra sat on the stool across from me. “What can you tell me about your time in the forest with those bears? From your intake form, it seems like you could’ve suffered a concussion.”

“I don’t remember getting hit over the head, but I still don’t think I remember everything. Details are coming back to me, but there are still some big blank spots. They tied my arms and taped my mouth until their healer came for me. Now that I think back over everything, that part feels real, and after Alba came, everything is fuzzy like I’m looking at it through gauze.”

“She probably spelled you.” Chandra swiped her tablet. “Your vitals look good, but your temperature and blood pressure are both a bit low. In a healthy range, but it makes me think you could’ve been suppressed in some way.”

“I think…I don’t even know how to say this.” I didn’t know this woman, but she was a respected member of the Sawtooth pack who’d been considered an outsider just a few years ago. “That it’s possible that I’ve been spelled my whole life.”

She nodded. “My theory on magic is its science we have yet to explain. I could do more tests on you, but it’s unlikely that we’ll get a definitive answer. Did you feel different under this spell than you usually do?”

I groaned. “I’m having a lot of complicated feelings since I arrived in Granger Falls.”

“Let me guess, those feelings are named Bellamy?” She grinned.

“We also have a complicated history.”

“If you stick around, I’d love to hear the whole story over a beer. I can introduce you to the rest of the ladies in the pack. They’ll love you.”

“Not sure I’m sticking around.” I twisted my hands in my lap. “It’s a weird feeling, knowing I can’t go home right now, because it doesn’t exist in the way that I thought it did. But I’m not sure I can stay here, either.”

I was pouring my heart out to this almost stranger. Not like me at all. I always played tough. Didn’t show anyone my emotions.

“I get that. I was always told Sawtooth Forest was the most dangerous place on earth. So when I got a call to come here to save one of these wolves that I’d been taught to fear, I was terrified. But it was the best decision I’ve ever made.” She tipped her head and smiled at me. “And judging by the way Bellamy absolutely glows when he looks at you, I don’t think he’ll mind if you stay.”

“Like I said, it’s complicated.” I needed to be straight with her. “I rejected his mate claim.”

Her eyebrows rose and she nodded. “Maybe it’s time to let magic happen.”

Bellamy waited for me in front of Sawtooth Sweets. Damn that delectable bear for taking my breath away. I could blame my possible concussion diagnosis for the way I admired his biceps straining against his T-shirt. Or how his hair slightly blew in the breeze, and that his beard seemed a little longer than when I’d first crashed his security meeting. He had no right looking so sexy.

Maybe this was the first time I was thinking clearly in a long time.

Wait. Was a spell responsible for making me reject Bellamy in the first place? That was a theory that I might need to explore with the Sawtooth ladies over a beer.

A brow rose over his aviators when I approached. “How was your appointment?”

“Interesting. Almost clean bill of health.” I wouldn’t tell him that after the initial rest period, she’d prescribed a steady diet of bear dick to get my animal to make an appearance.

“Almost?” He sounded concerned, and it was sweet.

I nodded. “She said there was no chance I’d make a full recovery unless I have one of these cupcakes.”

“There was a reason I suggested this as a meeting spot.” He laughed and motioned for me to follow him inside. I might have melted a little when he held the door open for me, but I couldn’t let him know I was falling for him.

Hopefully a mega dose of sugar would bring me back to my senses.

“How can I possibly choose one?” My mouth watered as I considered the case.

“Don’t,” he said. “Get as many as you want. We’ll bring them back to the cabin, and whatever we don’t eat I’ll bring into the office, which happens to be full of hungry bears.”

I was literally feeling like a kid in a cupcake store as I ordered two dozen cupcakes and a hibiscus lemonade.

Bellamy got a coffee, black.

The bakery was busy and a few people said hi to Bellamy, but they didn’t stick around long enough for him to introduce them to me. Once we sat at a corner table, they all disappeared.

Maybe this bear was the one spelling me now.

He opened the box closest to him and considered it carefully before choosing the Girl Scout cookie cupcake.

“I would’ve bet money that you wouldn’t have one,” I said as I carefully lifted the caramel apple pie cupcake from the spot it had been safely nested in.

“You would’ve lost.” He grinned before he took a bite. A little bit of green frosting lingered in his mustache, and it was too adorable to say anything right away. “Why would you think that?”

It was on the tip of my tongue to say because a body like that didn’t see any sugar, but then I remembered I was playing this cool. This wasn’t a date. We were on a fact-finding mission to find out what the fuck my nana had been up to all these years. “Because you always seem so serious.”

“Guess you don’t know me anymore,” he said before his next bite.

“Maybe I never did.” My body definitely saw more than its fair share of sugar, and I’d drown my sorrows in my treat. “Sweet moon, this is amazing.”

“Listen, you don’t have to like me to work with me. But this is a lot more than a missing locket. The clan deserves to know the truth about their history. And their future.”

This bear was absolutely infuriating. He’d lure me closer and then slam down a wall. In theory, I understood. I couldn’t even keep up with the emotions I felt when I was near him. It was presumptuous of me to think he felt the same way. And if he did, he could handle it better than I could.

“They do. Nana is as beloved as ever. Maybe even more so, now that magic is a little more mainstream.”

“Has anyone ever questioned her practices?”

“Not that I know of. How could they? She’s been practicing since she was a little girl, her library has a spell for almost everything, and her apothecary can cure all.”

“So she’s sharing magic with the others, but not with you?”

“No, but more people are coming to her for cures,” I explained. “Humans who are interested in magic.”

“That would’ve been helpful information to know before now,” he rumbled. “Changes the focus.”

“One of them could’ve stolen the locket, but how would they know the significance? I don’t even know what it all means.”

He leaned in close and I almost wiped the cupcake boxes away from the table and grabbed his beard for a kiss.

“You know more than you’re giving yourself credit for,” he said.

“Like what?”

“Close your eyes,” he instructed, his voice way too husky for his own good. We were in public, bear. “And tell me what power you think the locket has.”

Give it a try, my bear insisted just as I was about to remind Bellamy I had no magic.

It felt a little silly to be sitting in the middle of a busy bakery with my eyes closed, but only for a moment. I was transported to Nana’s apothecary, with her grimoires and crystals, and wait…were we in a tent?

My heart started pounding because I wasn’t sure if I’d accidently transported myself to Alba’s apothecary instead.

Trust the process , my bear said.

She had to feel so frustrated, claustrophobic, and yet she was still patient with me.

Why do you think I’m doing this ? she teased.

I saw the locket. I wanted to open my eyes and tell Bellamy, but for once in my life, I willed myself to be patient. It wasn’t in my hand, but the hand that held it was young. Smooth. Not present day Nana’s.

Then I saw Alba, laying on a cot. The women I’d met was old, but this version of her looked like a shrunken apple doll, which made the apple pie cupcake in my stomach churn. That young, smooth hand placed the locket on Alba’s chest, and I gasped as the years literally melted away and revealed the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.

“Clover.” Bellamy’s voice jolted me from the vision.

I opened my eyes, and everything was foggy. Bellamy was still there, even more gorgeous than ever, but he wasn’t alone.

Nana had joined us at the table.