Iris stood up, she continued walking forward, a few steps away from where she took a shelter and then crouched down and started digging.
They needed to crack every rock there to find the magic stones, sometimes they needed to dig so deep toward the mountain, but that area was purely restricted for men, since the risk of encountering a monster would be higher there.
Meanwhile, Iris started to think about what Hanna said this morning. She heard that the king and the five alphas would come in a few days and people would start to make preparations for a welcoming party.
Iris was worried that the king’s arrival would press alpha Cane to release her brother and let him lead the Blue Moon pack, since he was the rightful heir to the title.
If that happened, Mason would kill her without any scrupulousness, now that their father had been killed.
Amidst those depressing thoughts, Iris found something interesting, she stared at the black stone that she managed to dig out of the rock. She managed to set apart the rock and the stone.
And when she raised the stone against the sunlight, the dark stone started to change its color to dark blue.
“Is this a magic stone?” She muttered to herself. This was the first time for her to hold something like this. She had lived for twenty years, but she didn’t have much knowledge about her surroundings, since she rarely went out of the pack house. “This is so beautiful…”
Iris blinked her eyes and then she saw something, like an image, but she couldn’t tell what was that about… the image overlapped with the scene before her eyes.
But, before Iris could figure it out, someone grabbed her shoulder.
It was that man! The man that declared he was from the former beta’s family. The one that was beaten up by the slave trainers. He survived the monster attack apparently.
“You found a magic stone!” He exclaimed and then snatched it out of her hand, his eyes lit up as he started to walk away.
Iris didn’t remember his name, but he used to be around when Mason threw a party or two.
But, that was the last thing that Iris could think of, because the moment the stone slipped from her fingers and was taken away, the image disappeared.
Apparently, there was one thing that Iris just learned and it was; they could get warm soup and some meat if they could find a precious magic stone.
Warm soup and meat…
And now, because of the magic stone that Iris had found, Renald could enjoy the special treatment and she could only watch from a distance.
Iris could only salivate over it, it had been a while since she had eaten a warm meal. In the past, even though she was treated poorly, she didn’t need to worry about food.
The sun had set and it was time for all the slaves to leave the mining site, but there were a few that were still working and most of those people were the ones who had done a great offense to the slave trainers, or they just wanted certain people to work more for no reason at all.
Considering what they had done in the past, they couldn’t care less to work them to death.
After staring at Renald for a while, Iris averted her eyes and turned around, but before Iris could leave, a little girl rushed toward her and hugged her from behind, which made her jolt in surprise. She immediately turned around again to see who had hugged her.
“Ania!” Stone immediately rushed toward his daughter, who was hugging Iris’s leg, grinning at her.
Meanwhile, after her initial surprise, Iris smiled brightly at the little girl and caressed her head. Of course, she recognized her.
Yet, Stone approached them and swatted her hand away harshly, which made Iris wince in pain. He immediately hoisted up his daughter.
“Don’t touch my child!” He growled in a low voice at Iris. He made sure that she looked at him, so she could make out what he was saying.
Stone looked at the girl, she was so small and skinny, also so pale and not healthy. He was still in denial about the fact that she had tried to protect his little girl.
His hatred for all these years was too deep to be washed away by just one incident. He was still on guard, even though there was nothing that a runt like her could do to him.
“I didn’t do anything.” Iris cradled her hand. She was hurt.
But, Stone simply carried the little girl away, while telling her that she couldn’t approach Iris or be near her.
Her hand ached, but so did her heart. Irish thought she wouldn’t be affected by this, but it seemed, she couldn’t completely numb herself.
She felt, no matter which pack won the war, it would always be her against the world. Neither the Howling Wolf pack nor the Blue Moon pack was her home.
They hated her for no reason at all.
Iris gritted her teeth and walked away from the mining site, her retreating figure looking so lonely and defeated.
*****************************
Tonight, just like many other nights, the nightmare haunted Cane again. He became restless the moment he went into a deep slumber, his demons started playing in his mind, reminding him of the horror when he watched his mate get killed right before his eyes.
He howled in pain and anger to see his sweet Leana fall on the floor, bathed in her own blood. She was heavily pregnant at that time and couldn’t shift into her wolf to protect herself or else, she would lose their baby.
But then, it was not only their baby that she lost, even her own life as well.
It was supposed to be Cane’s duty and responsibility to protect his mate and their unborn son, but he could do neither, he couldn’t even protect his own people.
He could protect no one.
Leane screamed painfully when a silver dagger pierced her neck and Gerald stood there, watching her writhe in pain, smiling at the angry, ear- splitting roar that the black beast let out, as he witnessed his other half die slowly.
The pain immobilized him when he felt her life slipping away from this world.
Her beautiful life was fading away with every blood drop that oozed out of her wound and his son died when Gerald gutted him out of Leana’s belly.
The scene kept replying relentlessly before his eyes, not showing him any mercy to have a rest even for a night.
And when Cane finally woke up, he was drenched in sweat. He was breathing heavily, while his heart raced in his chest.
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