Page 65 of Alpha's Claim
“No–” Teddy grabs me, wrapping his huge arms around me. Somehow, the bastard is stronger than me. I try to fight him, but he just holds me.
He holds me until I stop my struggle.
“She left because of me,” I say, and as the words leave my mouth, I hear them in a smaller, younger voice. I’ve shrunk to the size I used to be when I was young.
Teddy crouches to the level of my shorter self. “It wasn’t your fault our mother left. You can’t blame yourself.” He morphs and becomes younger Teddy. No tattoos, no beard. A mirror image of me.
“It wasn’t about us,” he says in his seven-year-old voice. “She made her own choices.”
“I’m all alone.” The clearing has grown dark.
“No, brother. I never left you.” Teddy throws his skinny, seven-year-old arms around me. “I never have, and I never will.”
And then we’re grown again, back in our adult bodies. “Neither will our brothers. We’re not going to leave you.”
The clearing has faded, and our childhood trailer is gone, replaced by the cabin on Bad Bear Mountain. My cabin. The home I rejected.
“Neither will Paloma. But she needs you now.”
There’s a shadow lurking behind the cabin. It’s too big to hide behind the cabin, so it hulks there, its spine bowed. Its eyes glow, and the light glints off its oversized claws.
It’s a monster, scary enough to give a child a lifetime of nightmares.
“He’s waiting. He’s your strength. You have to let him out.”
I say nothing. I don’t even have the energy to tell him “I can’t.”
Teddy studies my face and sighs. “This is my fault. I was wild, just like you. I fought with you too much. I didn’t realize it then, but I was trying to provoke you to embrace your bear. If I’d realized that sooner, I could’ve done a better job and just talked it out instead of fighting.”
I glare at him. “This is my dream, and you're making it about you?”
“This isn't a dream. And your mate needs you.” The light flares in his eyes, and I see his own bear looking back at me. “You’re out of time. Remember what I told you.”
He steps back, bunching his fists. I recognize his stance well. He’s about to start a fight.
I raise my hands. “Wait–”
He knocks my defenses away and socks me right in the face.
Teddy
I wake with a gasp, flailing. Something’s trying to strangle me, and I let out my claws to tear it to pieces.
“Teddy,” Lana calls. She’s right next to me. “It’s okay.”
I force myself to stop fighting, feeling wild. I’m in the living room in our new mountain home, lying on our leather couch. Lana’s beside me, sitting on an ottoman. Matthias is standing behind her.
Shreds of baby blue fabric litter my chest and the floor.
I brush them off. “What…?”
“It was a blanket covering you,” Matthias says. “You destroyed it.”
I sit up and rub my face with both hands. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Lana holds out a hand and waits for me to take it. I pull her into a hug, needing her solid warmth to ground me.
After a long embrace, she pulls back and lets Matthias check me over. He must be satisfied with my vitals because he leaves and goes into my guest bedroom, quietly closing the door.