Malia’s POV
“Now who told you that?” I asked Penelope.
There was no point in saying that it was Lila that the Alpha wanted to crown as his Luna. That would be a lie and I didn’t want to lie to Penelope.
Her eyes glittered with mischief. “I swear this time I didn’t mean to eavesdrop. I was just passing through when I heard the Beta and his brother talking about it.”
My eyes widened in surprise. “Ronan knows?”
Penelope nodded. “I guess he didn’t tell you either because he didn’t want you to know due to the way he feels about you, or because he feels it’s not his place to tell you about it,” she reasoned.
“Whatever it is, he’s my friend. He’s not supposed to keep something like this from me,” I grumbled.
“Do you want to become Luna for the second time?” Pen asked.
“Hell no! I can’t risk Lila suffocating me to death in my sleep,” I said and she chuckled.
“Perhaps Alpha Ryder might insist that you move into his chambers once you’re crowned Luna. No one would be able to hurt you.”
“Penelope, I’m not interested in becoming Luna,” I said.
Her face fell. “But why? I think you would make a wonderful Luna.”
I snorted. “Yeah right. Like the pack would accept a wolfless Luna.”
“No one has to know about it,” she whispered.
I gave her a look. “You’re kidding me, right? When I become…. no…. if I become Luna it would be impossible to keep my curse a secret.”
“I don’t want a repeat of what I went through at the Silver Crescent Moon Pack.”
“But doesn’t it mean something to you that the Alpha knows about your curse and still wants you to be his Luna?” She questioned.
“Oh Pen. How naive you are. Do you think he’s not going to wake up one day and realize that a cursed Luna is going to affect not just the pack but his generation?”
“This curse affects all the females in my family which means that my female children will also have this curse. Do you think Ryder is going to want that?
“In the beginning, Zade didn’t care either. But look what happened,” I finished.
“We need to find the cure. There has to be a way. That’s why I’ve been reading that book,” she said.
I knew quite well the book she was referring to. The wolfless Luna’s curse.
“I think you’re wasting your time. Zade and I had been to a seer and she told us that there was no cure,” I said.
Penelope was silent for a moment.
“Have you ever stopped to think that she might be wrong?” She asked.
“But she’s a seer,” I argued.
“Seers can be wrong too. It has happened a couple of times in history,” she reasoned.
For the first time in a long while, I felt hopeful.
“Do you know of any seer?” I asked.
“I do not. But I can search for one,” she said.
“I’ll be discreet of course,” she added when I arched an eyebrow.
“But just so you know, we’re not doing this because I want to be Luna,” I said.
Penelope gave me a knowing look. “Of course.”
“What do you think about Lucien? You know who he is right?” I asked.
“Yeah. He’s the gamma. Really handsome,” she said and her eyes became dreamy.
“Penelope!” I chuckled.
“What? I can’t help it. He’s sexy.”
“He gives me the creeps. He interrogated me in Ryder’s room and I nearly shivered from the intensity in his eyes,” I said.
Penelope wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. “What kind of shivers?”
I rolled my eyes. “But seriously, he’s scary though.”
“Trust me, he’s not as scary as you think. Have you met his mate? I adore her,” she gushed.
“So he has a mate.”
Penelope rolled her eyes. “Of course he does. He and the Alpha were agemates and really close friends.”
“I see.”
My stomach growled loudly and she chuckled. “You shouldn’t have allowed her to take your half-eaten meal away.”
“Well, I wasn’t hungry then. But I am now,” I replied and looked at her expectantly.
“What?” She asked. “You can just ring the kitchen like you did the other time.”
“I’m afraid of being poisoned. Lila might have asked someone to do that,” I replied.
She gave me a look. “How come you didn’t remember that when you rang for the tea?” She wondered.
I shrugged. “Then I didn’t know about Ryder’s plan to make me Luna. What you do not know about cannot kill you.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not sure what you just said was used in the right context.”
“We’ll worry about that later, Penelope. I’m starving at the moment and I cannot afford to go to the kitchen looking like this. So please…”
“Whatever,” she murmured, rising to her feet.
“You’re to eat with me, Penelope.”
“Yes your highness,” she muttered as she shut the door behind her.
I chuckled and waited for her return.
While waiting, I decided that taking another warm bath wasn’t a bad idea so I walked to the bathroom.
I nearly gasped in shock when I stood in front of the bathroom mirror.
I looked like a banshee with my swollen eyes and tear-streaked face.
I had changed into a comfortable nightie when Penelope returned with the largest bowl of wild rice and beans I had ever seen.
My mouth hung open.
“You’re going to end up swallowing something weird if you leave your mouth open like that,” she said.
“Penelope, what’s going on?” I asked.
She gave me a strange look. “I’m setting the tray on the bed. Or would you rather have it on the table?” she asked.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about, Pen. Why’s the food so much? It’s just the two of us.”
She snorted. “In case you haven’t noticed we both eat a lot. I promise you, it’s not going to go to waste.”
“We’re definitely not going to be able to finish this, Pen,” I said as I took a spoonful of the food which turned out to be more delicious than I thought.
“We’ll see about that,” she replied, biting into a chicken wing.
Half an hour later, we had finished the food and were lying in bed, barely able to breathe properly.