Page 48 of Alpha's Claim
“Was the bear outside this window earlier Teddy?”
“No, that was Everest. Another brother. You met him on the rugby field.”
“Right the ‘pet’.” She makes little quotation marks in the air with her fingers. “So, all yourbrothers are bears?”
“Yes.”
“Is your mother a bear?”
“Winnie? Yes. She’s…in hibernation.”
“Really?” Paloma sits up in bed.
“Yeah.”
“Do you hibernate?”
“No. It’s not really… normal. I mean, it’s not abnormal, either. But we don’t know why she’s been asleep for years.”
“Years?Is it like a coma? Is she on life-support? How does she stay alive?”
“Nah, she just nonstop sleeps. Occasionally she gets up, bathes, eats a little and then goes back to sleep.”
Paloma reaches for my hand and covers it. “I’m sorry. That must be hard for all of you.“
“Yeah.”
“What’s the deal with Teddy? Seems like you guys don’t get along. What’s that about?”
“He’s just pissed off that I moved to New York to live amongst humans.”
Paloma waits for more, forcing me to examine my words. “That’s not really true,” I admit. “He’s pissed off because I wanted to develop part of Bad Bear Mountain in order to save it from other developers.”
Paloma‘s eyes round. “Oh. I guess any development would be upsetting if you were a bear.”
I slump under her assessment. “Yeah. I just thought if I could control the way it happened, at least we’d be able to salvage our side of the mountain.”
“So what happened?”
“Teddy met Lana, his mate, when she was out here hiking, and her stepbrother tried to murder her. He rescued her. And then she rescued him right back. Turns out she’s abillionaire. She’s a clothing designer. She owns a plus-sized athleisure wear company.”
“GoddessWear?”
“Yes, that’s the one. So she saved the mountain from all development.” There’s a bitter taste of failure in that story for me, despite it all working out. I hate that I’m the bad guy when all I tried to do was make things right for our mom. For my family.
As if Paloma reads my mind, she squeezes my hand again. “You were trying to help, and they still blamed you. That must hurt.”
I nod. Fuck. “Yeah. This…thanks. I’ve never talked about my family with anyone. It’s a…uh, vulnerable place, to be honest.”
Paloma’s gaze is warm and open. There’s a river of understanding flowing from her to me, despite the guilt and darkness I’ve felt over it all. “Hey, you know I come from the most fucked-up ‘family’ of all time.” She makes finger quotes again when she says the wordfamily. “I can tell you guys love each other. At least you aren’t poisoning each other or locking people in towers.”
I draw her face against my chest and kiss the top of her head.
“They think I’m greedy. And it’s true–I went to New York to figure out how to get rich. My goal was always to save the mountain. But it took a lot longer than the younger me expected.”
“But you did it. I heard Thom mention you had the fastest-growing hedge fund last year. He seemed proud, like he somehow had something to do with your success.”
“He likes to pretend he mentored me,” I scoff.