Even though Iris could see how much they hated her because she was Alpha Gerald’s daughter, something she couldn’t help with.
However, the more Iris walked away from the pack house to the kitchen area to put away her empty plates, the clearer the howling in her ears sounded. It bothered her greatly, because it almost felt like the wounded animal was only a few steps away from her.
She kept turning around and glancing over her shoulder, only to find nothing was following her, but she was sure the howling came not too far from here.
There was no one in the kitchen and she put the tray in the sink along with the other dirty plates. She considered ignoring the sound and returning to her bedroom, to snuggle with Hanna.
Iris didn’t want to put herself in danger, today was enough for her, but then she couldn’t shake off this sadness upon hearing the howl.
“Should I go take a look?” There was this nagging feeling that she couldn’t ignore and without her knowing it, her legs started leading her away from the annex, the place for slaves to sleep.
She knew this place, since this pack house was the only world that she had ever seen for the last twenty years, because her father wouldn’t allow her to roam around and meet other people. This place and the mining site.
Iris knew this place like the back of her hand, as she used to sneak out every night to take a stroll.
In the west garden, there was a small hut, where her father would take his favorite slaves to be tortured. It was a secluded place and was far away from where the people resided. Not to mention the place of that torture was actually in the basement of the small hut. The noise wouldn’t be heard if one didn’t scream loud enough or a person didn’t stay so close to this rickety hut.
Iris once came to this place and watched how her father tortured the slaves, therefore, she knew there was a hidden room in this hut and the howling voice came from there.
“But, the howling sounded so close when I was in the kitchen,” Iris muttered to herself when she entered the hut.
It took fifteen minutes to walk from the kitchen to this hut, thus there was no way no one heard this howl aside from her, but the guards that she met didn’t seem to be bothered by it at all, or maybe they didn’t hear it in the first place?
This nagging feeling was getting stronger the more she got closer to the hidden room, the same feeling like when she found the magic stone, but with a different intensity.
Iris couldn’t describe the feeling well, but all she knew was this was different.
It was so dark inside the hut and she halted her steps because she couldn’t bring herself to walk into this darkness. She was afraid, but the howling became even more restless.
Iris was stuck.
In the end, she found a torch near the door of the hut and the kindle. Clumsily, Iris tried to light it up, since she had never done it before, but she had seen it countless times. It was not easy, but in her fourth attempt, finally the fire illuminated the dark corners of the hut. She sighed in relief, as she reentered the hut with the torch in her hand.
The secret room was hidden behind a bluebird picture that hung on the wall. There was a door behind it which led them to the basement of this hut. It was exactly the same as the last time she was here and this brought back unpleasant memories to her mind.
Iris shook her head and focused on what she would find in the basement. She could see nothing, but probably there was something there.
Her heart was beating so fast and her breathing became erratic as she was so close to the source of this howl. She walked down the stairs, toward the sound and raised her torch to illuminate the dark corners of the basement.
“Argh!”
Iris dropped the torch in her hand and in an instant the room became so dark, but she could see a pair of red eyes staring at her, as the sad howling turned into angry ones.
There, Iris watched a huge beast chained to the wall behind.
“I really don’t like doing this.” Ethan looked morose when he had to put chains on Cane, especially when the chains were made of silver.
He refused to use gloves when he had to touch those silver chains, no matter what Cane said, he just didn’t want to do it.
His hands would heal in a few hours if they got burned in the process, but to think that Cane would be chained to the wall for the rest of the night with those silver chains that hurt his limbs, he hated that so much more.
‘At least, this is what I can do for you.’ That was Ethan’s answer, though by hurting himself, he actually didn’t help anyone. In his twisted mind, he wanted to feel the pain, at least.
“I will ask Jace to do this next time,” Cane said simply. He didn’t even flinch when the silver ate at his skin, leaving burn marks where it touched.
Ethan groaned in frustration. “That’s not what I mean,” he grumbled even more. “You know that’s not what I meant.”
Cane didn’t heed to his complaints and just stared at the dark basement of this rickety hut. He had been here countless times during his slavery days, he thought once they were free, he could burn down this place for good, but who would have thought that he would need this place more than those horrendous days?
Such an irony…
“Check again,” Cane said when Ethan was done putting those painful silver chains around his limbs to bind him to the wall, so he wouldn’t be able to move as his strength wouldn’t be strong enough to break them down.
Now was a critical moment, as the five alphas and the king were in the pack house. If they knew about this… all of their sacrifices would go in vain and those dark days would be presented back to them.
“This is already secure.” But, Ethan did what he was told and checked it again.
“Now leave,” Cane said unfeelingly.
“I can stay, I think you will get bored if you have to be left alone in this boring place.” That was nonsense, since Cane wouldn’t remember anything, but pain when he was in this phase.
“Leave, Ethan.”
Ethan didn’t move. He looked so stubborn.
“It is hard enough for me to go through this, I don’t need a spectator to watch me being miserable. Now, leave.”
Ethan knew what Cane meant, it hurt his pride and ego if someone had to witness when he was being helpless, while people tended to think highly of him.
Gerald and Mason had made sure Cane went through those horrible feelings of being helpless and let his people witness that, thus at this moment, it would help him more if Ethan just left him alone.
“I will be nearby,” Ethan said in resignation and then left Cane alone, as his body started to take another form when the clock hit midnight.
It had been six months and Cane had gone through six painful night thus far in order to pay the price of their freedom and there were only a handful people that knew about this, aside from the beta and gamma, it was only Amee, who knew about this fact and this secret shouldn’t be known by a single soul, aside from them.
The night had never been so long and painful for Cane every time the new moon came.
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