Page 70 of My Unbearable Mate

Your mother wasn’t that sweet, my bear reminded me. She had enough power to take your magic away…

That was true, but for the moment I was willing to revise history to fit my rage…

“Seems like you can’t resist a devastatingly handsome bear either, Clover,” Alba said, smiling at Bellamy. “We had to make sure we preserved our magical lineage. We’d heard another powerful bear had been born into your clan.”

“Bellamy,” I said.

She nodded. “Without the locket, we’re all stuck in time, unable to age or to go onto our next energetic assignment. You’re our only hope, Clover.”

So without the locket, my nana might die, and these ghost bears would live forever. “And if I give you the locket, you’ll be able to age?” I couldn’t bring myself to say the other thing. Because if these bears were really my family, it seemed unfair that I could be responsible for their death.

This was a lot to swallow. This bear was claiming he was my father.

Wait, did they just admit to having the locket?

“As long as the locket is obtained by honest means, no harm will come to our clan,” Alba said.

Bellamy raised a brow. “And if someone came by the locket in a dishonest matter?”

“Magic is simply the way we activate the energy that we invite into our sphere,” Alba said. “No one answer would apply to every situation.”

“That’s a fancy way to say I don’t know.” I folded my arms across my chest. I wanted answers, not more questions. Although they’d just given me one hell of an answer. “Was Anders honest with my mom when he knocked her up and then left her to fend for herself?”

“A spell was cast, blocking me from having any part of your life.” Anders lowered his gaze. His hands were behind his back, and he pressed his lips together, like he had so much to say but needed a moment to make sure the right thing actually came out. I could sympathize, even if I wasn’t ready to accept he was who he claimed to be. “We’d hoped that having a new generation with magic would bring the clans back together and be enough to break the curse. It backfired.”

“A shield prevented Anders from setting foot on your clan’s land, and your magic was taken from you,” Alba said with disgust. “Very crudely, I might add. Not done properly at all. Your clan is lucky that wayward magic didn’t come back to bite them in an uncomfortable place.”

“Maybe you needed to give it more time,” Bellamy suggested. “We’re here now.”

“Are you Sage’s father too?” I asked.

Anders shook his head. “You’re my only daughter.”

“Let’s make sense of a few things,” I said, rubbing my hand over my forehead to stave off a burgeoning headache. “You sensed Nana was getting weaker, and you captured me, thinking I had the locket. Why?”

“We hoped we could show you how to use your power to save both clans,” Alba said.

Okay, I could accept that. Their execution hadn’t been the greatest, but if these bears were actually ghosts, it was pretty impressive. Those naked bears who had picked me up and carried me here felt pretty damn solid. But that didn’t explain everything.

“We knew you needed more proof,” Alba continued. “We needed to make you believe in your own powers or everyone was doomed. After our first attempt to show you who you really were, we realized you’d have to figure it out on your own.”

Bellamy chuckled. “She’s always been stubborn.”

I nudged him.

“Did you actually order the motorcycle?” I asked.

“I did.” Anders’s face lit up. “It’s over there, if you’d like to see it.”

My mouth dropped and I met Bellamy’s gaze.

“I’d love to see it,” Bellamy said. “I thought that might have been one of the clues.”

“It wasn’t intended to be, but we hoped it would be a good way to gauge how interested Clover was in her magic,” Alba said. “Anders gave your grandmother that ring, which was why we chose it as a conduit of your magic.”

“But how did you manage to get your hands on it?” If they could get the ring, they could get the locket.

“We didn’t,” Anders said with a maddening smile. “The ring is an illusion. It would disappear if we chose to terminate the spell.”

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