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Chapter Twenty-Four

You’re Not the Boss of Me

Clover

This was so cool, even if I had no fucking idea how to control it. I’d only meant to stop Bellamy and Edgar from coming to blows, but my body temperature shot up the moment I put out my hands. I thought I was gonna shift…should’ve known better than that. Not even magic could bring my bear back.

Heat rose inside me, feeling like it solidified as it left my body.

And time stopped.

Bellamy and Edgar stared at me, their mouths open in shock.

Good. I’d rather that than them ripping claws into each other.

There was shouting in the background, but I couldn’t understand it. Chaos erupted.

“Clover!” Bellamy’s voice was as thick as molasses, but somehow, he managed to break through the barrier I’d formed and pull me into his arms.

The power shattered, and I was cold, somewhat safe in the massive, muscular arms of this bear, and surrounded by a confused pack.

Nana and Sage stood behind Edgar. I hated that it felt like they’d chosen a side, and even more that it wasn’t mine.

Before I’d been sent on this crazy mission to find the locket, that realization would have utterly devastated me. But with this bear’s arms wrapped around me and the force field that enveloped us both, I let myself feel my true power for the first time.

Bellamy wanted to take me away from here. To protect me. It was what he thought was safe.

But we had to face this.

“No more running,” I said, for him as much as me. He might have been the one who’d left, but I’d rejected him out of fear. Deep in my soul, I’d always known something was off with our clan, but I’d had no reason to believe the people I cared about the most had lied to me. They’d stolen more than my magic from me. They’d kept me away from my mate. I wouldn’t let them do that again.

Now, it was time to let them know who the fuck they’d been messing with.

“Don’t know if we’re gonna get the answers we were looking for,” Bellamy said quietly.

“Probably not, but we’ll get the ones we need,” I said. “Only if we stay.”

The growl that rumbled through his body intensified the magic. “I don’t want to fight.”

“You won’t have to.” It was a promise I wasn’t sure I could keep.

“Unhand her. Now,” Edgar demanded.

“Are you kidding?” I laughed. I had to be high off magic again, because no one talked like that. “If you had any idea where this bear’s hands have been?—”

“Clover,” Nana said with disgust.

“Let me take care of this,” Bellamy said in a low voice. My reality had definitely been bent and twisted, because there was no possible way for the two of us to have a private conversation, surrounded by our entire clan. “The faster we can move past this nonsense, the quicker we can solve this case.”

I nodded as he slipped his hands away from my waist. He was far too sexy for his good as he stalked over to Edgar, but my heart hurt for him. These two had been more than best friends. They’d been inseparable. Brothers. Edgar had mourned when Bellamy had left, and it had taken him years to even be able to look at me without snarling like he wanted to rip my limbs apart. That only got more awkward when he and my sister became the clan’s most prominent couple.

Absence had not made the heart grow fonder. These two bears staring each other down broke my heart, and I wished I knew the spell to make things like they were before.

But then you’d never know the truth , my bear reminded me.

There had to be a better way than watching these two tear each other to shreds.

“Congratulations,” Bellamy rumbled, but somehow still managed to make it sound sincere. “There’s no one I’d rather see leading the clan.”

“Could’ve fooled me,” Edgar said. “I wasn’t the one who rejected you, Bellamy. This pack had been counting on you. You abandoned all of us.”

“I’m here now,” he said with a grim chuckle. “Who made you alpha?”

Edgar stiffened. “In the absence of the alpha heir, the healers are to appoint an alpha.”

“Did you recite that straight from the alpha handbook?” I asked, and all eyes turned to me. I might have had my magic back, but I was still the pack fuckup.

But it was becoming more apparent that Bellamy had been the target of this attack just as much, if not more, than I had.

What power did he have that the healers were so afraid of?

“I don’t want trouble,” Edgar said, his attention was still fully on Bellamy. “But you have to know how bad this looks.”

“No, I don’t.” Bellamy cocked a brow. “Do you have any idea why I’m here?”

Edgar shook his head.

“Shirley asked for my help finding an ancient talisman that she claims is very important to the pack’s future.” Bellamy paused, studying Edgar’s surprised expression. “I find it strange that she wouldn’t alert her chosen alpha of the problem. Or that her granddaughter had gone missing.”

Edgar took a step forward. The muscles on Bellamy’s back tensed, and I was shocked he wasn’t full bear already. “Are you responsible for that?”

Bellamy shrugged. “I could bring her back to the remote location in the woods where I found her, completely spelled by another clan, if you prefer.”

“Wait,” a voice called out from the back of the crowd. “Does that mean the two of you are together?”

Bellamy turned and looked at me.

“Yeah,” I said, beaming at my mate. “We are.”

“There’s no way I can allow you to claim her,” Edgar said. “You betrayed this pack.”