Page 80 of My Unbearable Mate

Cursed, But Alive and Kicking

Clover

My legs were pure jelly as I knocked on Nana’s bedroom door. All my strength was coming from the locket and Bellamy’s hand on my back. The talisman had power, but I would’ve chickened out if it wasn’t for my mate.

“Come in.” Nana’s voice was scratchy but strong. I took it as a good sign.

“I brought the party to you.” I plastered a smile on my face as I entered the room.

She rose onto her elbows. She was lying in bed, which was alarming, along with the fact that she looked like she’d lost a significant amount of weight since I’d seen her last a little more than a week ago. The lines in her face had grown deeper, and there were dark smudges under her eyes.

“Clover, Bellamy.” She managed a smile, but then her eyes darkened. “What are these two doing with you? I thought you were dead.”

“Cursed, but alive and kicking,” Alba said. “And she knows. Everything.”

“I know that Anders is my father,” I clarified as I sat on the edge of the bed and dangled the locket from my finger. “They helped me find this.”

Nana gasped. “Where did you find it? Don’t tell me they were there behind this.”

“Hardly,” Alba scoffed. “If it wasn’t for us, you’d be in the ground in a matter of days.”

“Ladies,” Bellamy said. “We brought you together for a reason.”

“It better be good,” Nana muttered.

Of course there was friction. Nana had stolen a locket and cursed her former clan. I wrapped my hand around the locket, absorbing its power.

“I need your help,” I said. I’d planned this speech carefully, but all the times I’d rehearsed it in front of the mirror were poor preparation for the real deal. The energy in this room was intense.

Nana closed her eyes for a long blink and rested her head on the pillow. It was too much for her. Were we too late?

“Nana.” I gasped as she opened her eyes. “You sent me to find the locket. But after Bellamy refused to help.” I grinned at him. “The Lynwood pack found me. They brought me to their village, and at first, I thought they’d kill me. But they said I was more important than the locket.”

“If you had so much as hurt a hair on her head.” Nana’s gaze was fixed on Alba.

“Ladies.” I held my hands up. “To be fair, we suspected the Lynwoods too. They were everywhere, but at the same time, they were nowhere. We referred to them as a ghost clan. But they led us to the most important clue of all. The thing you kept from me all my life. My magic. And that’s how we solved this case.”

“It was a mistake to take your power from you and keep you from Bellamy. I’ll take that regret to my grave.” Nana’s voice was getting weaker.

“It wasn’t what you took away from me that helped me figure it out. It was what you gave to someone else.” I looked at Bellamy, and he beamed at me. “Edgar was always a controversial choice for alpha. He didn’t have the lineage, but turns out, none of us do. And he was always hot-headed. We feared he’d make enemies in the forest.”

“I don’t understand what this has to do with you finding the locket.”

“I had another one of those dreams, and it showed me who took the locket. Well, sort of. In the dream, I saw the theft happen through the eyes of the culprit. And I knew she was doing it to protect her mate. Our alpha. Sage knew my magic was taken from me, and the locket could bring it back. But she didn’t know that its power was keeping you alive.”

“So will you challenge Edgar for his title, Bellamy?”

He shook his head. “Clover has a better idea.”

“The locket is mine, which means the magic belongs to me.” This wasn’t news to Nana. “It was part of the deal that you broke. You were losing power before it went missing, Nana. And I’ll do everything in my power to keep you with us as long as I can, but I don’t want you to have any regrets. I’d like to bring the clans back together. And I want all of you at our mating ceremony.”

“Can you put aside your differences to make the clan stronger?” Bellamy asked.

Alba stepped forward and offered Nana a knotted hand. “I think Clover and Bellamy will be wonderful stewards of our joined clans. I would love to give them a chance to come into their power and teach us all a thing or two about magic.”

“If you can forgive me, I’d love to introduce my clan to yours.” Nana closed her hand over Alba’s. “I’ve always wanted to know what could’ve happened if our clan had true magic, and now we have a chance to find out. I know the two of you won’t let me down.”

Chapter

---