Iris blinked her eyes, she fought back the urge to fall asleep again. Usually, she wouldn’t have the strength to stay awake for long, but this time, she forced herself to open her eyes and looked at Hanna, who was sitting on the floor, next to her bed, while holding on to her hand.
“Thank you…” Iris said, her voice was so small, Hanna needed to lean close to her to catch what she was saying.
“You don’t need to thank me, Miss, I can’t do anything to save you…” She felt helpless when she saw Iris returned in the arms of the guards, bleeding and unconscious.
She didn’t know what kind of torture that she had gone through, but looking from her condition, she could tell what it was.
Hanna tried to find a healer to treat her, but despite doing her job, she didn’t care much about Iris, the nefarious alpha’s daughter. As long as Iris didn’t die, she was not willing to do more than that.
All the people despised her for what her father had done to them, even though Iris was not part of any of those malicious activities. Iris had never hurt them in any form when all she did was stay inside her room, since her father would be angry if she roamed around the place and met other people.
“Miss, they shouldn’t have treated you like this…” Hanna whimpered. She looked Iris right in the eyes, as she held her hands even tighter, as if she was afraid that she would slip away from her. “This is not fair for you. They are directing their anger wrongly.”
Iris blinked her eyes. She stared at her maid with an unfathomable gaze.
“What my father had done to them wasn’t fair either. That’s how this world works.”
The beating that she received from her brother was not fair. The way her father showed her contempt because she was born as a runt was not fair either.
However, what could they do? Talking about it wouldn’t make things any different. No one would believe her. It was her words against them. There was no need to make a fuss over this.
“Hanna, I need something…” Iris bit her lip, she looked hesitant to say this.
“Yes, tell me what you need. I will get it for you.” Hanna’s eyes slightly lit up, because Iris had rarely asked for anything. “Do you want food? Is there some food that you want? I will get it for you.”
It would be difficult, but it was not impossible. She knew a lot of people in the kitchen. After all, she was only a servant, just like them, what the higher ranking people did or how the power struggle went, wouldn’t make them live better.
“No,” Iris said, she was getting sleepy now. She felt her eyelids droop. “I want some tea… that tea…”
“What tea, Miss?” Hanna came closer because her voice was getting smaller and smaller.
“Dragon heart tea…”
Hanna’s face blanched, she gritted her teeth and then nodded, tears rolled down her face. “I will… I will get it for you. You need to rest now and you can get it once you wake up, okay?”
Iris nodded and closed her eyes.
Dragon heart’s leaves were effective in preventing pregnancy.
Iris was not so naive to not know about this. She didn’t want to bear Cane’s child. She didn’t want to get pregnant by him in this situation.
She didn’t know what he had done to her that night after she fell unconscious because the agony was too much.
The pain wrecked her insides and no matter how many times Hanna wiped her to clean her body, she would never feel clean.
Was this how those people in the Howling Wolf pack felt when they were turned into slaves?
This feeling was so awful…
They didn’t deserve this, neither did she…
“Sleep, young miss. I will be here,” Hanna whispered into her ear, as she caressed her cheek.
“You look so tired,” Aria said, as she entered Cane’s study room, she was holding a tray. “I brought you snacks and tea, you need to rest, my alpha.”
Aria looked so beautiful in her white dress. She looked almost like a high ranking shifter in the pack, even though she was born as a slave. Because she was the only woman that was beside Cane for the last three years, people respected her as Cane’s woman.
Some people even went as far as saying that she would be the future luna of the pack and in Aria’s mind, she was thinking the same.
Alpha Cane’s mate had died along with their firstborn and the chances of him getting a second chance mate were so slim.
Finding a second chance mate was akin to a miracle. It was so rare, but was not unheard of.
However, they needed to stabilize their pack soon and having a luna would reassure people that the Alpha wouldn’t leave the position empty forever. It would also secure the bloodline.
“Thank you, Aria,” Cane said, without lifting his head from the documents in front of him. All of those were petitions for him not to merge the two packs together, because it would disrupt the power balance in this continent, which seemed laughable to Cane.
They didn’t mind it when it was his pack that was being swallowed by the Blue Moon pack, but now they were making a fuss when he did exactly the same thing.
“This tea will help you. You will have a good rest.” Aria started to brew the tea leaves.
“I will never have a good rest.” Cane didn’t shift his focus from writing the answer for those ridiculous petitions. He really wanted to add some curses in his writings, instead of talking formally to them, but in his current condition, his people couldn’t afford to go to another war.
The coup had taken many great warriors from both sides. Many people had died for him to sit in this position.
“Here, drink this first.” Aria took the paper from his hands and handed him a cup of tea. “Take a five minute break, you need it.”
Aria then walked behind him and started to massage his stiff shoulders. She helped him to relax, while Cane drank his tea. She learned this from her slavery days, when Gerald’s mistresses would treat him like he was some kind of God.
She remembered how pleased he was and she wanted Cane to feel the same.
“You have done so well, my alpha. You have been so busy these days.” Aria started, her fingers skillfully put some pressure in the right spots and made Cane feel a little bit relaxed. He soon put the tea cup down and just closed his eyes. He had not slept for two days straight, but this was nothing to him. He had gone through hell before this. “Alpha, I heard that woman has woken up.”
Aria stated and Cane knew exactly what she wanted, even when she just started speaking.
“The servants feel restless because she takes days to recover and stays in the servant’s room instead of the dungeon, after all she is supposed to be a captive of war. She should be no higher than a slave, but you are very lenient to her.”
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