Page 9 of My Unbearable Mate

“You have no idea who you are, do you?” It was Alba’s turn to laugh. “Your ancestors never told you.”

“I know exactly who I am. I’m a forty-year-old feral spinster with a pot belly, a shopping problem, and a healthy suspicion of authority. My pack has never forgiven me for rejecting my mate, and the only reason they didn’t toss me out on my ass after that stunt was because I’m Shirley Crowley’s granddaughter. Our pack healer, and the one with actual magic. But back to me. I’m tired, I’m hangry, I can’t feel my arms, and I can guarantee you, I won’t learn one single thing from this experience.”

“Sweet moon, you’re perfect.” Alba folded her hands together. Her entire being lit up like the electricity in the tent was coming from her.

“Perfect?” That was not an adjective that often got tossed in my direction. “Why don’t you tell me who I am since you know so much about me?”

“I can tell you what you don’t know.” Great. The old woman planned to keep speaking in riddles. “Your clan lied to you about your power because they wanted to keep you small. Told you that you needed to submit to an alpha. Let someone claim that wild spirit of yours. Keep it under wraps before you became too powerful to tame.”

My lips parted as I inhaled her allegation. She had to be working some sort of magic on me, telling me exactly what I’d longed to hear as a little girl.

But I’d never heard of this woman. There was no way she was so well-versed in the ways of my clan.

“That’s a lovely story, but I can assure you, every crystal in this room has more power than I do.”

She raised a thin brow. “Can you feel them?”

“Of course I can. But that’s their magic, not mine.”

“Oh, sweet child.” She picked up an impressive looking knife and sliced the ropes away from my wrists. “You don’t feel power that you don’t have. Those rocks are bringing it to life.”

I opened my mouth to tell her that wasn’t true. That every object on the earth had some sort of power, vibration?—

Then why don’t you? my bear asked.

Good question.

I sat in stunned silence. Free, but I didn’t run.

“Come.” She held out her hand. “Let me show you who you really are.”

Chapter

Five

Some Things About a Woman Never Change

Bellamy

“So if we find these guys, we have full permission to kick their asses, right?” Beau asked as he shoved his shirt back into his jeans.

As someone who worked at a security firm that specialized in protecting at-risk clients, I was no stranger to working in unusual locations. But this was the first time I’d yanked my coworkers out of a sex club to start work on a case.

“We need to get Clover Crowley to safety. By any means necessary.” I scrubbed my hand over my face as we stood in the parking lot of The Stepchild, all of us trying to sober up.

“What’s the plan?” Brad asked.

That was the problem. I didn’t have a fully formed one yet. But my bear wasn’t letting anyone lay a paw on his…

Nope. This was nothing more than doing the right thing for my clan. And probably punishment for not helping Clover when she first asked.

“We check leads. I should be able to access her phone records. See when the last time she used it was, and if there is a signal. Shirley, I need all the information you can give me about her car. It might give us some clues about her whereabouts.”

Beau cocked a skeptical brow. “Wait, your mate is missing and you’re gonna spend the first critical hours of the search stuck behind your laptop?”

He’s right. You need to be out there. Paws on the earth. Tracking her down. You know her better than she knows herself, my bear argued.

Not anymore. It had been years since we’d been together.

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