Page 50 of My Unbearable Mate

“I’d love to suggest another trip to the hot tub so I could show you what else I’m good at, but we should probably head back to Granger Falls.” I checked the time on my phone, hoping it was late enough in the day to justify another night here, alone with this woman, away from the responsibilities of the business.

Once Barrett got back, maybe I could take a few days off and we could get away.

On your mate moon, my bear said.

It was still early enough that we’d make checkout. Damn it.

“Your cabin needs a hot tub.” Clover waggled her brows as she rose. “I have a suggestion, and I’m not sure how you’ll feel about it.”

“I’m all ears.”

“We should visit the clan on the way back.”

Chapter

Twenty-Two

The Unfamiliar Damsel Role

Clover

“If you grip that steering wheel any tighter, fur is gonna burst out of your knuckles,” I joked, but Bellamy was so tense it was stealing the oxygen from the cabin of his truck.

“Not sure we’re ready for this,” he grumbled, looking straight ahead.

“I know this won’t be easy for you.” I felt for the bear. The last time he’d been on clan land, I’d rejected him in front of everyone who was important to him.

“This isn’t about me.” He looked at me only for a second, but it was long enough to send a chill through my bones. He definitely wasn’t ready for this visit. “We’re mid-assignment. The leads we have on the locket are barely tangible, at best. And we have no idea what’s happened to the clan while that magic is in someone else’s hands.”

“All good points.” I gulped. Maybe I was the one who wasn’t ready for this visit because I’d been so focused on how the clan would react to the two of us strolling in together like nothing had ever gone wrong. “An element of surprise might go further than we think. If my mom actually took my magic from me, that spell should’ve broken when she passed, right?”

“Makes sense to me.”

“I should know the answer, and I’m pissed that I don’t.” I turned toward the side window. Bellamy was firmly on my team, but I hated admitting that I needed him so much right now. Wanting him was perfectly within my personal rule book, but this situation kept putting me back in the unfamiliar damsel role. I didn’t want someone to feel like they had to save me, damn it. I wanted to be pursued for nothing more than lust and desire. “If the spell was broken, then the elders have been working overtime to keep my magic from me.”

“Paying them a visit should give us some answers on that front.”

I blew out a shaky breath. “What if it changes me?”

He chuckled. “I don’t think any magic is that powerful, Clover.”

“I didn’t have my magic before. When I rejected you,” I clarified, hating that it felt so cruel. “And with the magic, I want you back in my life. What if the elders try to take that from me? Or they’re using me as a weapon against you? That’s what scares me. I hurt you once, and I don’t want to do it again.”

I could only see his profile, but his face brightened, and those knuckles, so tense before, loosened their death grip on the steering wheel.

“Now that I know this wasn’t your choice, I won’t let anything keep me from you. Ever.”

The growl in his voice warmed my body, and the heat pooling in my core was about to cross over into the danger zone. It would be so easy to tell him to pull over to the side of the road…

Focus, my bear said. Get this over with and then the bear can be your sweet reward.

I hated to agree with her when I was this turned on. “We’re getting close. We should probably have a plan going into this.”

“This is a temperature check,” he said, all business like he hadn’t just turned my insides to liquid lava. “We’re not there to tell them what we know. More importantly, what we don’t know. We’re there to see how they react to an unplanned visit, and for the information they give us you might not have known to look for before you left.”

“I hate treating my own clan like they could be my enemy.” I hugged myself, but it didn’t make me feel safe. “I’m not sure how I’ll react to seeing them, now that I know that my whole life has basically been a lie.”

Bellamy glanced at me before he turned onto the gravel road that led to clan land. “This is your chance to take back control.”

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