Chapter 49

DOE

“What do you want to study when you get to college?” Ace asked me.

He was standing on a chair, working on taking down the string of lights I’d hung around the bedroom. We were getting ready to go home, and I was so, so excited.

I thought about it as I folded one of my shirts and dropped it in my duffel bag. “Social work. Or psychology. Maybe communications. Something to do with people—understanding and helping them.”

I loved that he was asking—that he was showing an interest in something that I knew was hard for him.

“I think I’ll always love working at my mom’s bakery on the side,” I said as I picked up one of Ace’s sweatshirts. “But I love the idea of doing something else too—maybe even becoming a therapist?”

I laughed and shook my head. “Although I’m not sure I want to go to school for that long. The dream sounds kind of stupid now that I’m saying it out loud.”

“It’s not stupid,” Ace responded. “You love school, and you’re the hardest worker I know. You graduated from high school with a 4.0 GPA. Whatever it takes to become a therapist, you can handle it.”

“College is harder than high school. And I would have to go to grad school too. What if we want kids? There’s no way I can handle the workload and take care of a baby—and you’ll be running a pack—”

“We’ll figure it out.” Ace jumped down, dropped the lights on the bed, and framed my face in his hands. “Whatever you want, we’ll figure it out. You’ll have everything you want. I’ll make sure of it.”

I leaned into his touch, my heart full. I should’ve known this would be his response. I never should have doubted him or his determination to make sure I was happy.

“What about your pack?” I asked. “Will they be okay with their luna having another job?”

I wasn’t really sure what being a luna even entailed. What exactly was I supposed to do? Could I lead a pack, have a job, and be a mother all at the same time?

“Of course. Many lunas have jobs. Belle is the queen of the supernatural but has also taken on the role of a healer. Your mother ran a bakery while she was luna. My mother was a college professor.”

I hadn’t considered that my mom was luna while my dad had stepped in for Mr. Stoll as alpha. And she had done that while running a business and raising eight kids. Women are incredible.

“I didn’t know your mom was a professor,” I said. I kissed the inside of his wrist. “You don’t talk about her much.”

“My father went on a rampage any time I brought her up after she died, so I learned to keep my mouth shut.” I grimaced.

Maybe that was why he would show up at my house covered in bruises when we were younger.

It must’ve been terrible not to talk about her with the one person who loved her as much as he did. I was surprised he didn’t talk about her more with me.

Who had helped him process her death? Maybe he hadn’t processed it at all.

“I’m sorry,” I said, my voice soft. “You can talk about her with me, you know. What subject did she teach?”

The wrinkles on Ace’s forehead eased a bit. “Creative writing. She was good too. Said her love for my father inspired her.

“Even published a few books. You would like them. She wrote general fiction and some fantasy but always liked to include parts about the mate bond and falling in love in her stories.”

Given that Esther died when Ace and I were only eight, my memory of her was a little murky, but I did remember her lugging around a notebook everywhere she went.

And I recalled her tapping away on a clunky laptop during our trips to Lake Stoll. She would sit on one of the lounge chairs on the dock while watching Ace and me swim, smiling while she typed away.

Mr. Stoll would threaten to throw it in the water before lifting her into the air and jumping off the dock with her in his arms, the two of them laughing the whole time.

I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen Ace’s father smile that hard. Or smile at all.

“I would love to read them,” I said.

“I’m sure there are a few copies lying around my house. If my dad hasn’t gotten rid of them all, that is. He tried to purge us of all reminders of her a few years ago.

“I stopped him, but not before he destroyed our house. Imagine the damage he did to the house after he found you trying to decorate my room for my birthday—but a million times worse.

“At one point, I thought we might have to build a new pack house.”

I shuddered. That must have been around the time when Ace moved in with me and my family. He lived with us for about a year a little while after his mom died because his dad couldn’t take care of him.

“It must have been awful for him to lose his mate. It’s no wonder he lost his mind.”

“He blames himself for what happened to her,” Ace said. “His wolf does too.”

~Well, that’s just ridiculous.~ She was diagnosed with stage three brain cancer. It was already too far along for anyone to do anything about it. She died less than a month later.

“It wasn’t his fault. The cancer came out of nowhere. There wasn’t anything anybody could have done—”

“She didn’t die of cancer. We told you that because we couldn’t explain what really happened.”

With guilt in his eyes, Ace averted my gaze. “Her wolf got sick and turned rabid. Completely took over her human side so she couldn’t shift. No one could control her, and she was banished.

“She lived as a wild rogue for about a decade before she was shot by some humans in northern Canada.”

My lips parted. For a heartbeat, I forgot how to inhale. “W-what?”