Understanding dawned on me, clear and sharp. "You want me to heal your legs."

"I've consulted countless healers," Ambrose confirmed, leaning forward slightly. "None could help." He paused, then added, "I came to assess whether marrying you would be beneficial to me. Blunt, perhaps, but true."

I should have been offended. After Florian's rejection, after learning my biological parents only wanted me as a replacement, this should have felt like yet another person seeing me as useful rather than wanted. But instead, I found myself... appreciating his honesty.

He wasn't pretending to care. He wasn't making false promises or wrapping his intentions in pretty lies. He was laying out the facts, giving me the information I needed to make an informed choice. After Florian's betrayal, there was something refreshing about that brutal honesty.

"Show me your legs," I said.

Ambrose hesitated only briefly before rolling up his pant legs. The scars that crisscrossed his skin made me draw in a sharp breath. Jagged, vicious, clearly made by something more than ordinary wolf claws. The muscle beneath was damaged in a way that made my healer's instincts scream.

I knelt beside his wheelchair without thinking, my hands hovering over the scarred tissue. I could feel the damage extending deeper, affecting not just the physical form but the very essence of his wolf. No wonder he couldn't shift properly. No wonder his wolf was sleeping.

"These weren't made by ordinary claws," I murmured, examining them carefully.

"No," he confirmed. "The rogues used some kind of cursed weapon."

Cursed. That explained the unusual pattern of the wounds, the way the damage seemed to resist natural healing. But I'd dealt with curse wounds before. They were difficult, yes, but not impossible. Not if you knew what you were doing.

I completed my examination, my mind already cataloging the herbs I would need, the treatments that would work best. This would be a challenge, certainly. It would take time, require patience and precision. But it was possible.

"I can heal this," I said, looking up at him.

Hope flared in his eyes, so bright and sudden it was almost painful to see. "Really?"

"Yes," I confirmed, standing. "It will take time, but I can restore both your human legs and your wolf power."

Ambrose's entire demeanor changed. The careful control he'd been maintaining seemed to crack, revealing genuine emotion beneath. A new energy radiated from him-hope, yes, but also determination. Purpose.

I walked back to my workbench, my mind whirling. Everything had changed in the space of fifteen minutes. My mate bond was severed. My entire identity had been called into question. And now I had a choice to make.

I thought about my biological parents, these people who had apparently known about my existence all along but had never come looking. Who only wanted me now because I was useful, because their other daughter had proven disappointing. Part of me wanted to tell Ambrose to leave, to tell him to go back to Northgate City and inform the Silver River Pack that their long-lost daughter wanted nothing to do with them.

But another part of me-the part that Ava was currently supporting with enthusiastic agreement-wanted to go. Wanted to meet these people who had abandoned me. Wanted to look them in the eye and show them exactly what they had missed out on all these years.

And if I was being honest with myself, there was something else too. Something I was trying very hard not to acknowledge, but Ava wouldn't let me ignore.

Ambrose Crest. Even in a wheelchair, even damaged and struggling, there was something about him that called to me in a way Florian never had. Something that made my wolf stir with interest rather than reluctant acceptance.

"I'll go back with you," I decided, turning to face him. "I want to meet these people who suddenly remembered my existence. I can mate with you."

A smile tugged at Ambrose's lips, the first genuine expression of pleasure I'd seen from him. "So what do I need to pay?"

I smiled slightly, feeling something in my chest loosen for the first time since Florian's call. "There's nothing you need to give. Marrying a handsome man like you-if I can heal your wounds, I think I'm the one who wins in this deal."

It was true enough. He was handsome, he was honest, and he needed something I could provide. That was more than Florian had ever offered me.

But there was another reason, one I kept locked away in my heart where Ambrose couldn't hear it. One I barely dared acknowledge even to myself, though Ava was currently preening with satisfaction in my mind.

Because from the moment Ambrose Crest had rolled into my clinic, from the moment his golden eyes had met mine, I had felt it. That pull. That recognition. That sense of rightness that I had tried so hard to feel with Florian and never quite managed.

The mate bond. Real this time. Undeniable. Strong.

Ambrose Crest was my fated mate.

I didn't say it aloud. The bond was too new, too fresh, and after what had just happened with Florian, I wasn't ready to speak those words out loud. But I felt it thrumming beneath my skin, warm and certain in a way the bond with Florian had never been.

'See?' Ava murmured contentedly in my mind. 'I told you that weakling wasn't worthy. The Moon Goddess knew what she was doing all along. She was saving us for this.'

Maybe she was right. Maybe this-all of it, the betrayal, the pain, the sudden upheaval of everything I thought I knew-maybe it had all been leading to this moment. To this man.

"Of course, the most important reason," I said silently in my heart, letting myself smile for real this time, "is because you are my fated mate."