176: RETALIATION

RETALIATION

Iris was very anxious. The howling was laced with anguish. It tugged at her heartstrings painfully, and sounded like a wounded animal and this made her feel on tenterhooks.

The sound was calling for her desperately. It was different from the howling that she heard every new moon. This time, it was way more unsettled.

"Throw her away from this pack! She is unlucky!" Aria shouted. She glared down at Iris, who fell to the floor, because she pushed her too hard. "This is Gerald's curse for having her as the Luna of the pack!" Aria's voice echoed inside this silence room.

"Enough, Aria!" Grace said sternly, as she helped Iris to stand up.

"What?! Even now, you are unable to tell?! We shouldn't have brought her here! The attack of the monsters, the storm, Ania was poisoned! All of that is because she is bad luck! The Moon Goddess will not bless our pack with a person like her here!" Aria was indignant, she pointed her finger at Iris' face.

It was not the first time for Aria to call Iris bad luck. She blamed her for whatever bad things that happened in this pack blindly, even if it sounded so crazy.

"Nonsense!"

"Don't be ridiculous, Aria!"

Grace and Jace talked at the same time. They didn't have time to indulge her jealousy when they didn't know what happened to Cane.

However, Aria didn't want to stop, she kept cursing at Iris, while crying, even though Jace tugged at her hand and tried to pull her out of the room.

"I will not go anywhere if she is still here!" Aria was enraged. She pulled her hand out of Jace's grip.

Seeing this, Jace could only sigh deeply. He then looked at Iris. "Go back to your room, Iris, we will handle the situation here."

It would be better not to have the two of them in the same room, after all, they couldn't help with anything if even Grace and Ardand were flabbergasted with this situation.

Aria was stubborn, but with Iris' mild temper, it would be easy to persuade her, right? The rest of them were also thinking the same. But, to their surprise, they were wrong.

"No," Iris replied. Her voice was curt and clear. She looked as stubborn as Aria right now, as she glared at the mistress.

Her short answer left them stunned. They didn't expect Iris to be difficult as well.

"Iris, this is not the time…" Grace tried to talk to her not to escalate the situation, because they knew how obstinate Aria could be.

"No, I need to check on him," Iris blurted it out without a second thought, as she moved toward the bed, where Cane was sleeping in discomfort.

For other people, what she said sounded like the most ridiculous thing to say at this moment. What did she need to check? She sounded like a healer or something, someone who held a certain power to analyze the situation and Cane's condition.

However, they were not privileged to understand how Iris felt right now.

It was not only the anguish in the howling that kept echoing in her ears, the sound that none of them was aware of, but also this strange feeling that tugged at her heart. The sensation that she felt when she sensed a magic stone, but it felt more ominous.

Iris couldn't explain this and they didn't even ask her when they forbade her to come closer to the bed.

"No, Iris, it can be contagious, it is better for you not to come closer," Grace said, as she held her back.

But, it was Aria, who was way more aggressive to stop Iris from approaching the bed, she broke free from Jace's grip and rushed toward Iris. She grabbed her hair and yanked it as hard as she could, which made Iris' scalp feel like it was on fire. It burned.

Tears started to form in Iris' eyes because of the pain.

"ARIA!" Jace roared, he grabbed her hand and shouted at her face. This time, he used his authority in his voice, though it was not as strong as the Alpha's, he was still the Beta of the pack. "LET HER GO!"

Aria was startled, as she was forced to let go of Iris' hair.

Grace immediately rushed toward Iris and looked at her with worry. She tried to cast a healing spell on her head to alleviate the pain, but it didn't seem to work, while Iris held her head, tears streamed down her cheeks.

"Get out of this room!" Jace glowered at her, but she was as stubborn as ever.

"I will not go anywhere if she is still here!" Aria pointed an accusatory finger at Iris.

Jace was about to tell Iris to go back to her room, so the two of them could get out of here and let Grace and Ardand work.

However, he only saw a flash of auburn and the next thing that they knew was, a slap landed hard on Aria's cheek, the sound of it echoed inside the room, which stunned them all.

This was the last thing that they expected from Iris, since she was not a violent type.

Even Iris herself was surprised when she slapped Aria, but she didn't feel any regret. What the mistress had said was very cruel and her burning scalp agitated her.

Aria held her aching cheek in disbelief, anger flickered in her eyes, as she was ready to shift into her beast form and tear her apart!

But when the room fell into silence, there was a series of knocks on the door before it was opened with urgency.

"Grace, you need to come with me, quick!" Aliana said hurriedly, tears streaming down her eyes, her face was so red because she cried too much.

"What happened?" Grace asked, as she approached Aliana, who was standing at the door, she didn't dare to enter the Alpha's bedroom without permission.

"Emma died! She died!" Aliana cried her heart out.

The first child, who had fallen ill, had died.

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