The Alpha: Claiming His Enemy's Daughter
Chapter 52: YOU CAN STAY OR LEAVE

Chapter 52: YOU CAN STAY OR LEAVE

"Your highness..." Iris said, as she bent her body gracefully. At the very least, Iris learned the basic courtesy one needed to offer to the royal family and knew how to carry herself in front of them.

Even though this was the first time for her to put what she learned into practice.

The king looked pleased when he saw Iris, while the queen was nonchalant with her greeting. Instead, her eyes wandered to the person behind the alpha and Iris knew who she was staring at.

Aderan.

Even though Iris was still unsure what the relationship between the two of them was and whether the queen knew that she saw their intimate moment together that night in the library, it still made her feel uncomfortable.

And while Iris was deep in thought, the king and the alpha continued to talk about something before King Aeon grabbed Iris’ hand, which startled her. She lifted her head and looked at him.

"We will meet again in four months," king Aeon said with a bright smile, which didn’t reach his eyes. Since Iris couldn’t hear voices, when she talked with someone, their eyes spoke volumes, conveying more than they were letting out.

"Yes, my king." Iris nodded politely.

She felt a little bit dizzy and her breathing became irregular under the scorching sunlight, especially since she was wearing this heavy dress. There were a few layers to this dress, which made her feel suffocated.

Afterward, the five alphas came forward to express their gratitude over how Alpha Cane had hosted the meeting gracefully. It was just for an upfront, all of the people that attended the meeting knew the result was way different from what they expected, and none of them were satisfied with it.

For the five alphas and the king, to let Alpha Cane get a big treasure trove of a pack like Blue Moon pack was a great loss. While for Alpha Cane, having his enemy’s daughter as his luna was something unthinkable.

However, there was one alpha that caught Iris’ attention. Alpha Gill from Riverside pack. His eyes darkened when he looked at Iris. He was still miffed about the fact he lost her during the welcoming party and now, he couldn’t do anything to her, since she was the luna.

You could fuck the other alpha’s mistresses with their permission, but a luna was out of limits.

Alpha Gill had been infatuated with her ever since he saw her five years ago and wanted her to be one of his mistresses, but his advances were rejected by Gerald. He couldn’t even deflower her.

Iris shuddered to feel the intense gaze from alpha Gill and subconsciously shrunk her body, as she hid herself behind alpha Cane’s broad back.

Cane realized what she was doing, but he said nothing. He only grabbed her hand and pulled her to his side when it was time for all of them to leave. They stood side by side to see them off.

At this time, Iris was sweating, she felt her surroundings spinning and her breathing came out even more shorter when they finally turned around to go back to the pack house.

Halfway to the pack house, Iris slowed down considerably. She couldn’t even move at her normal pace, though Cane had slowed down to match her pace and in the end, she couldn’t even take a step forward. She saw black dots and was sweating profusely. She was barely able to stand up right now.

Seeing her not moving, Cane stopped walking, but he said nothing to her, while she was struggling to breath. She felt like her consciousness would slip away at any given time.

Iris lifted her head and found Cane staring at her, while the small entourage stopped walking as well.

Cane stared at her for a moment and then approached her. It made her want to back away when he stretched out his hand. Would he hurt her? Slap her?

But, without warning, Cane lifted her up. He scooped her body into his arms easily, as if she weighed nothing and made her arms wrap around his neck. He carried her like she was a little child.

Out of instinct, Iris rested her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes because this was comfortable, for a moment, the pain was forgotten.

However, she remembered that she couldn’t do this and Cane disliked it. He was nice enough to carry her, but it didn’t mean that she could cling onto him as she pleased.

With that thought, she tried to straighten her body before removing her arms from his neck, but Cane stopped walking and this made Iris tense up. She raised her head to look at him.

"Lower your head, I can’t see ahead." He didn’t raise his voice and his tone was dismissive.

"Oh, I am sorry..." Iris felt awkward when she lowered her arms and rested her head against his shoulder again. He carried her for the rest of the way to the pack house.

She was afraid that he would be angry at her for being this close to him, but then Cane simply continued walking and it seemed he didn’t say anything. If he wanted to, he would have to make her look at his face to know what he was saying.

On the other hand, Will and Aderan were floored. They had never seen the alpha carry someone like that before, unless it was Leane or Venna, when she was little, the daughter of the former beta in his father’s reign, or his twin siblings.

And for as long as they could remember, the alpha didn’t like physical contact. Let alone carrying someone, he didn’t even like to be touched or being so close, especially after the slavery.

After what happened, it was understandable.

However, there was something that they failed to notice, it was Aria, who was staring at them from the second floor. She watched how Cane carried Iris in his arms and couldn’t help but feel bitter about it.

Aria gritted her teeth and turned around, because she didn’t want to see any more than this.

That was not the man that she knew, that was not the alpha that she followed blindly. Her heart ached, as if someone whipped her, but this time there was no blood that spilled and even though Cane didn’t punish her or anything after that night, he didn’t talk to her either.

Yet, all of that only happened last night and there were a lot of things that Cane had to handle, since his plan had been forcefully changed.

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

Cane put Iris down on the bed, while Hanna and Amee were there as well, the latter helped by brewing her the medicine, because it had to be ingested while it was still warm and the former proceeded to help her to drink it, which made her drowsy and finally fell asleep.

It would be much better for her, since she needed her rest.

"Call Aria to see me," Cane said before he walked out of the room. The old lady nodded and left, leaving Hanna and Iris alone inside the room.

At this moment, people started talking about how the alpha had taken alpha Gerald’s daughter as their luna.

Amee had tried to make them understand, so did Ethan and Jace. Thankfully, the warriors of the Howling Wolf pack were not that much of gossipers, so they could understand the decision logically, but they were not happy about it.

Meanwhile, the servants and people in town had their own opinions. Some of them condemned the alpha for his decision, some of them could understand why it had to be that way, but most of them weren’t satisfied with Iris being their luna.

Every time Iris’ name was mentioned, they couldn’t help but remember what her father had done to them.

Those memories were not something that one could wash away overnight. The wounds were still fresh.

Not long after that, Aria came to the room. She could smell Iris’ scent so strongly on Cane as he carried her in his arms earlier, which aggravated her even more. She was seething in anger at that knowledge, but she didn’t let it appear on her face when she walked toward Cane, who was sitting in his chair.

"You called for me, my alpha," Aria said brightly. She looked like her usual bubbly self when she saw Cane and approached him with light steps.

Cane stood up, staring at the backyard when Aria entered the room. Her cheerfulness didn’t affect him at all, yet he didn’t look like he was angry either. He was just... impassive.

"I want to talk about what happened last night, Aria," Cane said. He didn’t beat around the bush, because that was not the way he talked.

At the mention of it, Aria’s smile fell, she lowered her head and looked at him timidly. "I know I went overboard last night," she said in a small voice. She was standing in front of the table, while Cane leaned his back against the window. His eyes were on Aria, but not the way she wanted. "But, you told me that you will torture her, so I wanted to help you do it, because you seem confused with the current situation."

Aria was desperate to justify herself, she felt like she was in trouble, even though she believed she didn’t actually do anything wrong.

"Confused?" Cane narrowed his eyes.

"You marked her," Aria replied. She raised her head and met Cane’s eyes. This time, she didn’t back down. She wanted him to know how hurt she was about it. "You raised her rank to be the luna, to be the woman by your side, have you forgotten who she is?"

Cane was silent for a while before he answered. "I did not."

He didn’t look like he would explain himself, but if Aria could take a step back and stop worrying about herself and genuinely cared about what he felt, she would have realized that this decision was not easy for him either.

It was also a humiliation for Cane when he had to rescind Iris’s status as a slave and let her replace Leana’s position. It was an insult to his dead mate. Not to mention the pressure from the pack members, as some of them strongly disagreed with this decision.

"Then why did you mark her?!" Aria snapped. She gritted her teeth when she saw Cane come closer as he literally stood in front of her right now.

Aria gulped down nervously, but her anger was too much for her to fake her calmness. Tears started streaming down her face. "You marked her... you made your enemy’s daughter the luna of the pack. How can you do that after what we have gone through? I feel betrayed, as do most of the people in the Howling Wolf pack."

Cane knew he would get such backlash for his decision, yet he thought people that were close to him would understand this.

But, it seemed, he needed to explain things to Aria slowly. He did not always have a lot of patience, but he tried to make her understand why this decision was necessary and how it would affect their pack as well.

However, Aria refused to understand, she was not a very logical person, nor was she into political matters. What she saw was how the man that she cherished the most was snatched by the girl that was supposed to be the epitome of their hatred, right before her eyes.

"And now you say you will have a child with her? With that woman? How can I accept that?"

"I will never ask you to accept that."

"What about us?!" Aria blurted out, which made her immediately realize her mistake. "I- I..."

"I made myself clear from the very beginning, Aria. Whatever happened between us, you can’t read too deep into it. I don’t have a heart to give to you. I gave you the choice, you can take it or leave and I will give you the same choice again now." Cane had never tried to deceive Aria, he had emphasized the same from the very beginning. "You can stay or leave."