Page 76 of My Unbearable Mate

No, she was alive, and this was the only way I could save her.

The locket had been pinned to the middle of the top of the case. Encrusted with stones, mysterious, dare I say nefarious, power swirled around it. Someday I’d understand the spell it had cast over Nana and our clan.

But now, I needed to take it as my own.

After making sure everything was as I’d found it—Nana was usually a stickler for detail, one of the things that made everything about this case so frustratingly off—I closed the door to her cabin softly behind me.

The sun was high in the sky, and the village was bustling, like always.

I opened my eyes, and my body bucked as it transitioned back into this reality. In this world, the birds sang their morning greeting as the sun rose, cutting through the mist that danced over the river.

There was a mix of satisfaction and pure dread flowing through my veins. I hadn’t felt anything like that since I was a teenager. I liked to say I didn’t have any regrets, but my biggest one was sleeping soundly beside me. Still, I didn’t often dwell on the past, or worry about the future, and this strange sense of anxiety was setting in…but like the locket, it didn’t belong to me.

That was when I realized what I’d really just witnessed.

“Bellamy,” I said, pushing his fuzzy arm to wake him, which was when I discovered I was very human, and very naked. How the tables had turned. But I didn’t have time to worry about that. “I know who took the locket.”

Chapter

Thirty-Three

I Won’t Let You Destroy This Clan

Clover

“We’ve had some strange cases at Sawtooth Security, but this is a first,” Bellamy said. “We’ve never had the answer come in a dream before.”

“A magical bear dream.” I chuckled as I corrected him. But there was no hiding the fact I was nervous about what action that dream demanded we take. Even if I was right, I could still lose everything. “Are you sure we’re doing the right thing? If we’re wrong, the legacy of two clans is in jeopardy.”

“Based on what you told me, and what we know about the current clan dynamics, we should have enough to mark this case closed.”

Problem was, it was so much more than a case. “It’s just my entire life and the future of our clan hanging in the balance. Don’t mean to sound dramatic, but watching every video available on YouTube about lucid dreaming doesn’t feel like we’ve done enough.”

“If I didn’t think we had enough evidence to get in there, we wouldn’t be doing it.” Bellamy punctuated his statement with a growl. “You deserve answers, and the clan deserves a stable future. Whatever that is.”

“We won’t be able to go back to our lives like they were if we find the locket. This changes everything.”

He raised a brow. “Is that what you want? Your life like it was before?”

“No. I want to start a new life with you. But it would be nice to be able to go home again.”

“You can’t protect the clan from other people’s mistakes,” he said. “It’s the hardest part of this job. All we can do is show them the truth, and hope that they make good choices.”

“Because we all know that’s my strong point.” I took a shaky breath as Bellamy turned off the highway onto the road that led to our village.

He brought the truck to a stop in the middle of the dirt road. “If you don’t want to do this, you gotta tell me right now. We can turn around, and we’ll never talk about this again.”

“I’m sick of living everyone else’s lie.”

He took my chin in his hand. “You’re also sick of being everyone else’s scapegoat. Trust your intuition. You’re a powerful woman, and you’re just coming into that power because the people you trusted the most lied to you. Exposing that lie? It’s not gonna be easy. But know this—I want to see what that power can do.”

“Thank you.” I wished that declaration was enough to dissolve the brick of doubt that had formed in my belly. “Are you sure a feast day is the right time to drop this bomb?”

As the clan’s designated party girl, it was one of my favorite days of the year. I loved getting everyone together, all the food, and sitting around the fire until the wee hours of the morning. I was usually the one who planned the festivities, and this year, I’d been too wrapped up in Bellamy and the mystery of the locket to put the final touches on the day.

It would be my first chance to see what the clan would do without me. It was a grim thought, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to find.

“It’s the perfect day to do it,” Bellamy countered. “Everyone will hear and see the truth firsthand. They’ll demand answers from the elders. They might even ask questions we didn’t think of.”

---