“You’re in trouble now,” the young guy said under his breath.
Bellamy sat in his leather recliner, expressionless, stoic, like he hadn’t just stabbed me in the fucking back. Just because we’d had amazing sex on his kitchen counter didn’t mean I could trust him.
Hell, it didn’t even mean I liked him.
But I needed him.
“You remember Beau,” Bellamy said as I stood in front of him, with my arms crossed.
“How’s my car?” The question should’ve been where’s my car.
“She is smooth like honey.” Beau closed his eyes for a long blink. “She’s ruined me for all other vehicles.”
“Well, you better get over it pretty quick because you’re about to hand me the keys so I can get out of here before I wring your boss’s neck.”
Bellamy rubbed his hand over his forehead. “I have a theory about your nana. I meant to tell you, but?—”
“I don’t want to hear it.” I turned to Beau. “Where’s my car?”
“Right out front.”
“No, you’re not leaving,” Bellamy growled.
“I keep trying to go, and you keep drawing me back.” I really was a soap opera damsel. A vision flashed of all of us on the side of the road. If my memories were coming back, I was keeping them to myself. I couldn’t trust this bear. “You can’t keep me here forever under false pretenses. I don’t even know whose side you’re on.”
“I’m on your side, Clover. I always have been, and I always will be.” Bellamy stood, towering over me. It wasn’t intimidating. More like, he couldn’t believe I had the actual audacity to think he’d be anything but lawful good. “You told me about those bears over breakfast, and I haven’t had a chance to do any research on them yet because we got distracted?—”
Beau snickered.
“Do you remember what you told us when we found you at that camp?”
“No, but I don’t see what it would have to do with me covering up for Nana.”
“You said they were talking shit about your nana, and you thought it might be true. And they told you that you had magic, and you didn’t want to go because you felt safe with those bears.”
Things were becoming clearer, like I could hear myself saying those words. We were in the middle of the woods, and Bellamy and Beau and the other guy were in their bear forms…and the whole clan was there watching them in the middle of their celebration, but at the same time, it was like they weren’t there at all. My clan would never let strange bears waltz into one of our celebrations and hassle the guest of honor…if that’s what they’d considered me.
“Shit.” I sank into the chair. “I think I remember everything.”
So I told them every detail I could remember, from the tent and the tape on my mouth to the feast and the old timey clothes and the horrible accusation they made about Nana. I told them about the crystal and the magic.
“But the weird thing was, I had this really strange sense of peace like I’d never felt before. I felt at home there, when I’ve always felt like the black sheep of our clan.”
“Because you didn’t have magic, and they think you do,” Bellamy said.
“I don’t know what made them think that.” I scoffed, but then it was like I could feel the power that had come from that crystal in the tent all over again.
It’s coming from you, Alba had said.
“Why would they think you had it if you didn’t?” Bellamy asked.
“More importantly, why would my own clan lie to me?” I asked. My head hurt too much to get mad about it—and I wasn’t even sure who I should be mad at. “If I actually had magic, wouldn’t I know it by now?”
“They could’ve suppressed it,” he suggested. “Your nana was here this morning. She was hot to get you back home. Wanted me to wake you out of a sound sleep. Seemed out of character for her.”
“She came to the office too,” Beau added. “Demanding to know where you were.”
“I hate to say this, because I’ve always respected Shirley, but it seemed off. Dangerously off.”