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Chapter Twenty-Eight

The Clock is Ticking

Clover

“She wants us to go back to the spot where you found me.”

Both bears looked at me. Barrett was a sleeker and more aerodynamic version of Bellamy. More polished. But still all bear. His energy commanded authority.

Feeling people’s energy like it was a tangible thing would take some getting used to, but I was excited by this new ability. I might not be able to fight like these guys, but this gave me a way to help.

Being a bear’s secret weapon felt totally badass.

Barrett raised a brow. “How do you see this shaking out? We got to make sure we’re prepared.”

He’d never met me without my magic, and it was wild to think that every new person I met would think of me as magical. A healer.

I closed my eyes, hoping the answer would come to me. Barrett and Bellamy were willing to offer back up—muscle and moon only knew what else. They needed the best possible information I could give them. It was my responsibility to keep them safe.

“Magic can only communicate with magic,” I said, chuckling to myself. “To think minutes ago I was so frustrated with Alba for giving us a riddle, just like Nana always does. That’s why she didn’t give you any information. This is a test.”

“You told me they considered you more valuable than the talisman that your nana wants us to find,” Bellamy added. “There’s no fucking way we’re sending you out to the middle of the forest alone.”

I grabbed his T-shirt and pulled him toward me. “You have magic too. And I’m not going anywhere without you.”

His lips parted. “You’re the one with the power.”

“But you activate it. I think that’s why they wanted to keep us apart. You were the missing ingredient. That the two of us together are greater than the sum of our parts. Once we figure out what to do with it?—”

“That’s what everyone’s afraid of,” Barrett finished my sentence.

Bellamy pulled my hands away from his shirt and kissed them both before pacing across the office. I could feel his bear much more than I could feel mine.

Was she ever coming back?

Patience , she said. I know it’s not your thing, but sometimes you have to trust everything happens for a reason.

Great. Now she was speaking in riddles too.

“Here’s the plan,” Bellamy said. “We head back to the forest, outfitted with surveillance. Cameras, microphones. Infrared that can pick up frequencies we can’t detect.”

“You mean ghosts?”

“Could be, but I was thinking magical energy. They should each have their own vibration.”

“Should we be tested before we go, so we know how the magic registers on the machines?” I suggested.

Bellamy raised a brow. “Are you stalling?”

“No. If we could find a way to measure magic, it could be really powerful.”

“You’re right, and that’s something we can explore after we solve this case. Time seems like a critical factor.” Barrett picked up his phone and swiped. “I’ll get all available bears on deck. Right now, all we need to know is if there is magic. If this isn’t the place she intended for us to meet her, we’ll need to find her.”

“It is.” I could feel it in my bones.

I hoped my bones weren’t lying.

Time moved in strange waves as Bellamy’s coworkers arrived at the office. They were all massive bears. Strong. Smart.

The energy was overwhelming.

But it wasn’t just bear bravado. It was sadness. Having something to prove. I realized all these bears had lost their clan to circumstances beyond their control.

I hadn’t, not yet. But after that last encounter, when my sister questioned me like a criminal and Edgar wanted to throw down with his bestie instead of welcoming him home? The memories turned my stomach. I used to consider myself an outsider, but now I really was.

There was no way I could go home again, after that fucked up visit. With Bellamy hurt, I’d barely had time to process what had happened. Nana had been acting sketchy ever since the locket went missing. Sage shocked me. We’d always been close, even though she was always doing the right thing, and I was the disaster sibling. We understood each other. And there was no excuse for the way Edgar treated Bellamy.

I wandered into Bellamy’s office while the guys finalized their strategy. Excitement rolled off Beau, Brad, and some of the other guys who I’d been quickly introduced to, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that whatever these ghost bears had to tell me would make it worse.

The person I always turned to when shit hit the fan like this? Nana. This time, I couldn’t. And that hurt.

Is there any reason anyone would use those names to get your attention …Barrett’s question was doing somersaults in my head… There was only one way to find out who conjured those long-dead bears back to life.

I took a deep breath before I dug my phone out of my purse. It had managed to fall to the bottom, poetically settling under the tangle of receipts into the puddle of broken lip gloss and spare change at the bottom. After using an old parking ticket to clean the goop, I read my notifications and my eyes widened.

Maybe calling Nana wouldn’t be so awkward after all, since I’d missed a half dozen calls from her and several texts. There was one from my sister, urging me to call her.

Someone knocked at the door just before I was about to hit send. Bellamy poked his gorgeous face in.

“Ready for the surveillance gear?” he asked. “It’s pretty badass, if I do say so myself. You’re gonna look hot in it.”

“Not yet.”

He frowned. “You’re not changing your mind about this, are you?”

I shook my head. “We can’t go out there blind.”

“We’re not. We have my whole team on this. You’re not alone anymore, Clover.”

His words knocked the breath out of me. I wanted to counter that I hadn’t been alone, but I’d always been the outcast. The troublemaker. The one who’d sent our alpha packing.

These bears had my back.

“I appreciate that. But we can’t rely on magic alone. We need answers.”

Bellamy nodded. “We’re ready when you are.”

Emotion stung my eyes as he closed the door. I hit send before I had a chance to talk myself out of it.

“Oh, thank the moon you called,” Nana said when she picked up the phone.

“Is everything okay?” I asked.

“You didn’t need to call me to know the answer.” She chuckled grimly. “I called to apologize. And more importantly, to come clean with you.”

“I have questions for you too.” I swallowed hard. We were in uncharted territory. Nana didn’t often apologize, or admit she was wrong. That was usually my job.

“Hear me out. Then I’ll answer anything I haven’t already cleared up for you.”

“I can do that.” Inside, I cursed myself. After my mate left our land bloody and broken, I had every right to demand answers from her. But taking control of the situation was simply what she did.

She’s scared , my bear said. Because you’re in control .

“As you know, we mislead you about your magic.” Nana let out a shaky sigh. “The truth is, your magic is more potent than any of us have ever seen. None of us knew how to nurture something that far surpassed our abilities. Some of the elders thought that unmanaged magic could put our clan at risk.”

“Why would they be threatened by a little girl?” I asked. “Seems to me, the power would’ve made our pack stronger. Unless we didn’t want to be noticed.”

“In retrospect, you’re correct. We thought that with time, we’d learn to manage your magic, and teach you how to use it. But then Bellamy showed that he had power too. Not as strong as yours, but we feared that had we let you go through with mating ceremony, we’d create a bear so powerful that we wouldn’t be able to contain them.”

“So Bellamy’s power was stolen too?”

“It wasn’t developed,” she clarified. “He’s not as powerful as you, and as alpha, it wouldn’t have seemed unusual for him to have power.”

Later, I’d be pissed about the double standard, but right now I’d revel in the fact that I was right.

“It was decided that it would be best for the pack if you were kept apart. It wasn’t solely my decision, but I have to admit, I supported it, and I was the one who cast the spell that convinced you to reject him.”

It took everything I had not to scream I knew it . The life I could’ve had if Nana hadn’t spelled me flashed before my eyes.

“Nana, how could you do that?” Forget being pissed later. My heart broke for Bellamy. He’d lost everything because the elders were too intimidated by our power. “You made me humiliate him. Made me think I didn’t want him.”

“As soon as I did it, I knew I made a terrible mistake. I hoped that your power would be stronger than my spell and it would fail, but instead, it made your conviction stronger. I don’t expect either of you to forgive me for this, because I’ve never forgiven myself for betraying both of you, and my clan.”

“You took my mate from me. He was supposed to be alpha.” There were no words for how deceived I felt. “My whole life has been a lie.”

“I know. The elders assured me that a bear as magnetic as you would find another mate, and he’d be so head over heels for you that you’d forget about Bellamy. But you never did, and I decided to right this wrong. Once I saw Bellamy on TV, as part of the team that helped that reality show gal bring down that awful wolf, I knew it was my turn to play matchmaker.”

“I guess I can thank Barrett for bringing me to my mate…or destroying my clan. Or maybe both.” Wait a minute. “Is the locket even missing?”

It had to be, if the Lynwoods knew about it. They knew about me.

Nana sighed. “It wasn’t. It was supposed to be a cute way to get the two of you talking to each other. But when I came back from Granger Falls after you didn’t come home…I discovered it was gone. As you saw, all hell has broken loose in its absence.”

“Maybe it’s karma,” I said. “Because I heard you stole the locket.”

I swear I could feel her bristle through the phone. “I don’t know where you heard that, but it’s not true.”

I wouldn’t argue with her, because this might be my only chance to get the information I needed. “So let me get this straight. The missing locket is the reason Edgar attacked Bellamy?”

“It’s possible, but it’s more than that. My body is changing.”

“I’m not sure I’m following.”

“The locket’s magic might have been keeping me alive,” she said. “If we don’t find it, I’m not sure how much longer I’ve got.”