156: WE CAN'T ESCAPE

WE CAN'T ESCAPE

"You know that you can be sentenced to death for your actions?" Cane asked, after turning around to face his gamma. His expression was unreadable, it was not clear whether he was angry or disappointed, but what he said was true.

Ethan said nothing, he kept his head low.

"Raise your head and look at me," Cane said, his voice calm, but firm. "What did he say until you got provoked?"

Cane thought Ethan had turned a new leaf and he could keep his demons at bay, but he knew he was wrong as soon as he saw how brutal his gamma was when he killed those savages in the forest. He was not getting any better, because he was simply bottling everything up.

Ethan raised his head and met his eyes. "You know what he said."

Cane could figure out what trash that Alan had spouted to trigger him. "I thought you were better than that."

"Apparently, I am not," Ethan scoffed, then he added. "I didn't regret beating him up, I only regret that I didn't kill him and my actions have implicated you, other than that, I don't care. I was long dead."

"We survived, Ethan."

"Then why do I still feel that I was inside that damned dungeon? Waiting for my turn to be called upon and tortured? My nightmares haunt me even when my eyes are wide open!"

Cane could see pain and anger in his eyes and he could understand what he meant by that. He knew how it felt when you couldn't even rest since your body was beyond drained while the nightmares would keep reminding you about those things that you wished to forget.

That was also the reason why Cane kept Iris by his side impulsively. He wanted to escape that torment.

"Let me go if you have to." Ethan thought, once they freed themselves from their slavery chains, they would get the freedom that they wanted, but as it turned out, it was not that easy to escape such anguished feelings that they had harbored for years.

If after being freed from the slavery couldn't stop his suffering, then what else could?

Cane stared at his gamma for a long time and Ethan thought he would blow his top and scream at him for causing trouble, but in the end, he simply sent him back to his room, as if he was a petulant child.

"Go back to your room, we will leave tomorrow morning."

"You won't punish me?" Ethan asked,feeling a little bit bewildered. This was his only reaction after what he had done?

"Me punishing you can't be compared to the one that you will receive from the palace. So what's the use of that?" Cane leaned his body against the wrought- iron railing of the balcony, as he watched his gamma's expression change.

Ethan was just fifteen years old, a teenager, when their pack fell in Alpha Gerald's hands. He lost his family and used to cry every night during the first month of their incarceration and even more under duress.

It was when he was nineteen that alpha Gerald introduced him to those savages that something shifted in him. He stopped crying.

Heavens only knew what they had let those savages do to him for three days straight, because the day they returned him to the dungeon, he looked half dead. If it was not for the medicine that Hanna had smuggled into the dungeon, which now they knew was from Iris, he would have long died.

Iris must be only fourteen at that time, but she had helped them a lot even in her adolescent years.

"Stay in your room, Ethan." He didn't say it as an alpha to his gamma, but as a brother. It was strict, but there was no anger or malice.

Ethan gritted his teeth. He would feel better if Cane had cursed at him, punched him and broken every bone of his for ruining everything for him. He had literally pushed their pack into danger by his reckless actions when he caused trouble to a member of the royal family, all of them knew that the King had been trying to find a mishap and he wouldn't let this matter go easily. But to his incredulity, not only did Cane explode with anger, he actually talked to him calmly.

"Tonight…" Ethan said in a small voice. He didn't need to continue, because Cane knew what he was hinting at.

Tonight was the new moon.

"I know," Cane said solemnly.

"What are you going to do?"

========================== 

Iris didn't have a dress to wear for tonight's party, she was in low spirits to begin with and there was no way she would enjoy it, but she didn't have any other choice, since Cane told her to tag along.

He told Redmond to tell her this, as the warrior brought over a beautiful blue dress that complimented her blue eyes. She didn't have any idea how Cane could get his hands on this dress.

But, what annoyed her more was the fact that Alpha Gallot didn't even cancel the party after what happened this morning, even though the Crown Prince was bedridden and barely able to get off the bed even after hours of lying down, waiting for his injuries to heal.1

Redmond had blabbered about what happened that morning and told her that Ethan would be sentenced to death.

Okay, he was not really a good storyteller, since he exaggerated a few things, which made Iris' heart sink.

"The Alpha scolded him so much, he became so silent when he returned to his room, as quiet as a mouse."

That was what Redmond told her, though he didn't hear their conversation, since he was in the room with Will then.

So, the three of them wouldn't attend the party, which they didn't mind at all. In their minds, nothing good came out of it.

Therefore, right now, Iris perched on the windowsill, waiting for Cane to come. She didn't know where he had gone this whole morning and afternoon.

She stared at the night sky, dreading this night. Cane must have not forgotten that it was a new moon and it was just three hours away from midnight.

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