I raise an eyebrow skeptically. I’m not sure I trust his assessment of the situation. For one, I’ll probably be dead if we don’t figure out how to break Ambrose’s curse soon.
“I won’t let anything happen to you. We’re going to figure out how to break my curse,” he says in my mind like a gentle caress.
I sigh. I guess that’s my fault for thinking my thoughts too loudly.
“There you are, you aren’t supposed to run off alone. Or be alone with anyone, Lumi,” Kael says from the doorway.
I don’t respond. I don’t tell him that after what I saw Nyx do, death doesn’t feel terrifying anymore. It feels…easy. An inevitable conclusion that would finally take away my pain. But I keep those thoughts to myself. I don’t let Kael know what I’m thinking.
Ambrose, on the other hand, can read me like an open book. I’m not good at blocking people out of my mind, and he knows exactly what I’m thinking. But he doesn’t call me out on it.
“I’m glad you’re the one who came. Lumi is going to need her best friend here for support,” Ambrose says.
“Support for what?”
“I think I’ve figured out how to give you your wolf back.”
My eyebrows raise. “How?”
“I’m pretty sure your individual curse has to do with you not taking control of your own destiny. Not truly believing you were a wolf shifter. That you deserved to be able to shift. That you’re powerful enough.”
I frown, not liking where this is going.
“I know that I’m the cause of your wolf, but I think it happened because of your curse, not because of a choice I made.”
“So how do I undo it?”
“You believe in yourself. You claim it for yourself. And you become an alpha in your own right.”
I frown. “I don’t want to be an alpha. I don’t—”
“You do. And you know exactly what pack you should be alpha of.” He stares down at my hand where the snowflake marking has taken root.
I cover it abruptly. “No.”
Kael takes a minute to follow our conversation before he catches up. “You want her to become the alpha of the Wintermoon pack?”
Ambrose doesn’t speak. He doesn’t have to. I know that’s exactly what he means.
“No.”
Kael frowns. “Why not?”
I can’t believe they are suggesting this. For one, it used to be my greatest secret. That I was from Wintermoon—the pack that started the curses, and now they want me to claim it again. Putting an even bigger target on my back.
“No one will care after you break the curse,”Ambrose says in my mind.
I shoot icy snowballs at him in my mind, and he immediately leaves. But there is a deep frown on his face, like he can’t figure out how I did that. I honestly don’t know either.
“It’s always been your destiny to be alpha. Your father was alpha,” Kael says.
“But he wasn’t training me to be his successor. He never thought I’d be good enough. There has never been a female alpha. And once we are mated, what happens then? Two alphas? Would we join our packs? Not that I have any pack members left to lead.”
“You’ll have pack members. I’ll be your pack member,” Kael says.
But the rest are gone. Our family is gone. My father…dead.
If I do this, I’ll know for sure. There will be no going back.