67: WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH THAT POWER?

WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH THAT POWER?

Iris felt like she was walking into a bright room filled with blinding light, where the colorful glass that lined the walls diffused the light and scattered it into various colors on the tiled floor.

It was a beautiful hall, but there was no one there except for her. She was alone, but at the same time, she didn't feel she was alone, as if there was someone there to guide her.

But, guiding her where? She wasn't going anywhere…

Iris looked around her, but this hall was almost empty and there was nothing to look at, except for the tall podium in front of her.

Thus, she walked closer to it. She had this urge to reach that spot and was curious about the blinding light behind it.

Her legs guided her there, even without her realizing it.

Iris climbed a few steps, leading to the podium, before she saw it.

There were five swords behind the podium and the glinting light was coming from them. Sword. It was a rare weapon in the continent she lived in because most of them were shifters or sorcerers, who didn't need swords for a fight.

However, the urge hit her again. She felt the need to touch those swords. She stretched out her hand, but before she could feel the cold steel, the light that lured her there, suddenly burst before her eyes before the room started to spin.

Iris closed her eyes and whimpered, but in the next second, she felt a sudden burst of pain. It was so extreme, almost unbearable. She writhed in agony and curled her body on the floor, all the while surrounded by the blinding light.

She gasped for air and tried to breathe, until the pain diminished to a dull ache. Now, she only felt slightly uncomfortable since the light was no longer so bright. Soon she realized she was lying on a soft mattress.

That was the time when she opened her eyes groggily and looked at her surroundings.

She was no longer inside the almost empty hall. This room was so familiar to her and there was no sight of the five swords, but she found that same pair of dark eyes, staring at her in shock.

It was so rare to see any emotions in that particular face. Could she consider herself lucky?

"How are you feeling?" Didn't know what to say, he just asked the most common question.

"I… I am in pain…" she replied absentmindedly. The pain was still there, though it had reduced significantly. However, her body was very stiff, as if she had not moved from her position for a long time.

Cane creased his brows and then walked out of the room, which made Iris feel disappointed. She thought he would help her or something, but then not long after that, someone entered the room noisily and a second later, she could see Hanna's face. She was bawling her eyes out when she approached her and hugged her.

"Oh, Miss Iris… oh, heavens! I thought I would lose you! You didn't know how scared I was!" Hanna started crying and this made Iris' head ache and the only thing that she could do was to pat her back.

"I am fine, Hanna…" she sighed. "But, you are almost crushing me…"

"Oh!" Hanna jolted and immediately released her body. "Oh, I am sorry, I am sorry! I am so thrilled to see you wake up, I didn't realize that I am hurting you…"

"No, you didn't hurt me… you will never hurt me." And Iris was serious about what she said. Anyone could hurt her, but Hanna would never do that. "How long have I been out for?"

Hanna helped Iris to sit down and gave her a glass of water, which she drank greedily. Her throat was dry and her lips were parched, but it was her body that felt extremely stiff.

"A month…" Hanna said uneasily. "It was like I was going to lose you with each day you didn't open your eyes. I thought the healers were quacks for not being able to heal you…"

Iris stopped reading what Hanna was rumbling after she told her how long she had been unconscious for. A month?! No wonder her body felt so rigid.

But then, another thing that attracted Iris' attention was the fact that this room was almost unrecognizable with the amount of flowers that filled every corner of it. The smell was so refreshing, but still, weren't there too many flowers here?

Not long after that, Grace and Ardand entered the room, they checked on her attentively and talked to Hanna about the medicine that she had to give her regularly.

Iris could feel Grace uneasiness, but she didn't pay any attention to that, because she was too tired and wanted to go back to sleep, yet Hanna didn't let her. She made her eat first before she could have a shut eye.

=========================

"The monster hunt will last for a week," Jace said as he perched on the windowsill in the library. Recently, Cane visited this place often, thus if he couldn't find him in his room, training ground or his study room, he would come here.

It seemed, Iris' obsession with books rubbed off on him, because he had been reading books about his curse.

The new moon was a week ago and without Iris there, the excruciating pain hit him double fold. He felt like his brain melted as every single bone in him shattered when he was forced to shift into the cursed lycan form.

He craved her presence and it didn't sit well with him for having that thought. More so, he really wanted to know what was different about Iris. And how could her presence have such an impact on him. She was like a riddle that he couldn't figure out.

"Thanks for the treasury, I think we will be good now. We can actually move to the Howling Wolf pack by next month at the latest." Jace had calculated everything and technically, the pack house in the Howling Wolf pack would be ready by next month. As long as Cane had wrapped everything up in this pack, they could go.

Someone that the alpha pointed out would take charge of the Blue Moon pack.

"What are you going to do with the warriors from the Blue Moon pack?" Jace put down the ledger in his hands before walking toward Cane, who was perusing the book in his hands.

It would be great if they could make them pledge their loyalty to Cane, but if they still insisted on not doing that, the only thing that was waiting for them was being a mining slave or getting killed.

Despite how strong and useful they were, they couldn't afford to have them turning their backs and becoming a scourge to them at the end of the day.

"They will pledge their loyalty." Cane closed the book in his hands and then stood up.

"Where are you going?" Jace looked at the alpha, who was walking toward the door. "Are you going to the mining site?"

The monster hunt had started yesterday and Ethan took charge of looking over how it went. He would make sure that everything went accordingly. However, he wouldn't stop grumbling about how he had to deal with Redmond and hoped that warrior became excrement of the monsters out there.

Every time he returned, he would go straight to Jace and complain.

The gamma thought it would be better to let them roam around the Goffa mountain rather than to have them return behind the fortress, since they only gave them more headache than benefit.

Jace wanted to follow Cane, but one look of him was enough to make him know that the alpha didn't want to be followed.

Cane's mood had been so bad these past few days and coupled with the absence of Aria, who didn't come and visit him as often, he looked even more tense than usual. The beta thought everything would finally go in the right direction, but it didn't seem like that.

Meanwhile, Cane went to Iris' bedroom, he needed to have a long overdue conversation with her.

"Leave us alone," Cane said to Hanna and Amee, who came to visit Iris.

The two of them lowered their heads and strode out of the room. Hanna gave her missy one last look before she closed the door.

Silence engulfed the room once it was only the two of them.

On the other hand, Iris sat stiffly on her bed. She felt a lot better now, though she felt a little bit sluggish every now and then.

"Can you walk?" That was the first thing that Cane asked her, which left Iris a little bit confused.

"I can walk to the bathroom," Iris replied honestly. "But, I will feel a little bit dizzy if I stand up for too long."

Cane was silent again for a moment. He contemplated his options. "Do you know Redmond?"

Iris tried to remember his name. "The only person named Redmond that I know of is the former leader of the warriors of the Blue Moon pack."

"Yes, it's him."

"I just know him because he used to come to my father to receive orders every now and then. More than that, I don't know anything about him." Iris eyed Cane warily when she spoke about her father, but the alpha didn't even have a change of expression. "What about him?"

"He agreed to pledge his loyalty with the rest of the warriors of the Blue Moon pack," Cane said, just as usual, he didn't beat around the bush about his intentions.

Iris was surprised to hear that. "That's great, right?" But then, she didn't understand why he was discussing this with her.

"It is not me that he wants to pledge his loyalty to."

Iris blinked her eyes. She was not sure where this conversation was going. "If it is not you, then who does he want to pledge his loyalty to?" Her eyes widened a moment later. "Is it my brother? But, Mason is a slave now…"

The last thing that she heard about her brother was; he was fed just enough to keep him alive, while receiving a good beating every now and then. She felt bad for him, but not bad enough until she would spend her time feeling bad about his misfortune.

"No." Cane shook his head. "It is you that he wants."0

"Me?" That sounded even more absurd in her mind. "I don't know anything about it. I swore to you I never met with him when I worked in the mines." Iris immediately became defensive, she didn't want Cane to have any other idea about her.

In the midst of her pain because of what those people had done to her, she heard how Hanna defended her by telling them what she had done for them, but halfway through it, she lost her consciousness and didn't know what kind of reaction they showed after the revelation.

Iris sighed in relief when Hanna said that they were remorseful and had been sending these flowers since she lost her consciousness, and also had been asking about her wellbeing.

She was relieved because things could have gone worse until they hated Hanna instead, thankfully, it was not the case.

"I wasn't even close to him." Iris added when Cane said nothing. "There is no way I gave him such an idea."

"I know." Finally, Cane broke the silence. "Then, what will you do?"

"With what?"

Cane frowned at the question, because he thought Iris was quick to understand the situation, but probably being hit by stones made her a little bit confused, thus he needed to give her a little bit of an explanation.

"What would you do if he pledged his loyalty to you?" Cane asked her point blank. "I must say the warriors from Blue Moon pack are not people that you can think of so lightly. With such power in your hand, what will you do?"

Iris realized the gravity of the situation and that her words would determine her fate.

After all, control over the Blue Moon pack warriors was mighty and having such power in your hands could be a double- edged knife.

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