Page 54 of My Unbearable Mate

“You’re shitting me.” He’d been my best friend since we were both cubs.

“And my mate,” Sage added, delivering another shocker. Edgar has been courting another bear when I left.

“What he’s done for our clan has been very impressive,” Shirley added with a smug grin. I had no illusions about who was really in charge. “Like he’d been born for the role.”

“Didn’t think this clan cared much about birthright,” I rumbled.

“Bellamy, no one asked you to leave this clan,” Shirley said. “A smart bear like you had to realize there would be consequences to his actions.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what a smart bear would think. Where is he?”

Clover gasped. “Bellamy! No.”

“Out by the central green.” Shirley ignored her granddaughter.

“He’s expecting you,” Sage boasted.

It was almost a relief to leave Shirley’s cabin. My skin burned, and my bear was begging me to let him out.

“Bellamy!” Clover called as the gravel crunched frantically beneath her feet as she caught up to me. “Don’t do this.”

“I’m just going to talk. Fill in some of the blanks for him.”

She managed to get in front of me. “Edgar’s changed since you saw him last.”

“Power does that to a bear.” I stepped around her and kept going.

It didn’t take us long to get to the central green, and even though it had been upgraded from the primitive firepit it had been when Clover had rejected me, all those feelings from that night came rushing back.

Edgar sat in one of the chairs, legs spread out, his attention on his phone. Bears I hadn’t seen in fifteen years stood around him, all in their human form, some with gray in their beards, some of them young men.

The most surprising were the ones I didn’t know.

I glanced at Clover, and she threw her hands up. “I tried to warn you.”

One of the bears behind Edgar grunted.

He looked up from his phone, and a genuine smile spread across his face as he rose from his seat.

“Bellamy.” He held out his hand to me as he approached. “This is a surprise.”

“Congratulations,” I said as I took his hand. “It’s good to see you in charge.”

“It is,” Edgar said. “You’ve been gone a long time. Things have changed.”

I drew my hand away from his. “Tell me about it.”

Edgar scrubbed his hand over his forehead. Heat poured from his body. It was only a matter of time before his bear burst through his skin. He could play it cool, but his animal was betraying him. He considered me a threat.

“This is uncharted territory. We’ve never had an heired alpha abandon their clan. The bears who remember you feel you betrayed them. There was chaos after your departure. An uncertain future. A clan without an alpha is weak.”

“How well do you know the history of this clan?” I asked.

Edgar scoffed. “My only concerns are the present and the future.”

Foolish bear. The past was about to come back and bite him in the ass.

“I’m not interested in being alpha anymore,” I growled. “But I won’t be run from this land when your healer called me here.”

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