16: Iris
The world seemed to slow to a crawl as I watched in horror, my heart shuttering into a million pieces at the sight of my mother’s blood staining the snow. Her voice, filled with defiance and love, echoed in my mind, urging me to stay away from the monster that Kawriel har become. Icrambled in Cassian’s hold, unable to keep fighting this futile battle that continued to take all that I loved. I watched my mother’s body go limp and fil beadfirst into the snow
A scream ripped out of my throat, desperate and primal. My little brother still stood beside the alpha who had killed his mother, looking lost and desolate, as though he could not yet wrap his mind around what had just happened. He went on his knees, his small body trembling as he tried to midge her awakr
Mum Mummy… His voice cracked as he called in his mother. “Please get up.”
The hopelessness in his voice was a knife to my already bleeding heart. He looked up, seeming in finally notice me. “I–iris–ris Mummy won’t g–get
Then Kavriel scooped him up, the dagger still stained with my mother’s blood was held to my brother’s neck.
“Abel!” I screamed and resumed my struggling. “Let me go my brother. 1 forced words through my weeping. I had to save him. He could not die too. But I felt Cassian’s hold on me lessen until he finally let me go. Then he stood in front of me
“Kavriel Alister of Ashfall Pack, let go of my wife’s brother.” Cassian did not shout. He did not need to. The authority in his voice was enough to senet a chill through any Alpha’s spine. As Cassian’s words lwing in the air, a tense silence descended upon the clearing broken only by the soft sound of my brother’s whimpering and the distant howls of wolves echoing through the night.
Kavriel’s grip tightened on the dagger, his gaze flickering between Cassian and me with a mixture of defiance and uncertainty. I could see the conflit raging within him, torn between his desire for control and fear.
Bun as Cassian stepped forward, his presence radiating strength and authority, Kayriel’s resolve wavered quickly, and he let Abel down. Without any prompting. Abel ran forward towards me. Tears were trailing down his small, thushed face, I opened my arms for him and he finally reached me. I held him close, feeling the warmth of his small body against mine, a little hope amidst the darkness that threatened to engulf us. Tears streamed down my cheeks as I whispered words of comfort, vowing to protect him with every ounce of strength I hoped still possessed.
“Tam here. No one will hurt you again. I promise.” Yet, the words tasted like ash on my tongue as our mother laid dead at Kavriel’s feet. I had failed 1 had failed my child. I had failed my brother. I failed my mother
Meanwhile, Cassian stood before Kavriel, his gaze unwavering as he came forward. Kavriel’s army retreated further, but Kavriel tried to stand toe to toe with the Lycan Alpha that towered above him.
“For your transgressions against my wife and her family, 1 ought to have your body wither under my touch, but I will grant you this little mercy because I would prefer your pack not be thrown into even more chaos than it already is. His gravel like voice was laced with mockery.
“I have no use for your mercy, you vile creature” Kavriel spar, his voice pitched with venom.
“Says a man who held a dagger to a child’s neck.” Cassian countered cooly. “I would advise you to look in a mirror before you begin pointing
Kavriel’s gaze flickered with foolish defiance, his hands clenching and unclenching around the dagger stained with my mother’s blood. I could see
the conflict in his gaze.
But as Cassian approached, his steps deliberate and purposeful, Kavriel’s facade began to crumble. “Stay away.” There was a tremor in his voice. The fear he tried with little success to hide was palpable.
“Then I would suggest you leave.” Cassian said. “Now” It was anything but a suggestion, it was a command.
Yet, Kavriel’s eyes travelled to me. “She is mine,” he said.
“She is my mate and wife,” Cassian countered. “Do not lay claim on her. I will rip out your tongue for it.” His tone was heavy with the promise of fulfilling his threat.
Kavriel’s eyes widened in shock, then they narrowed as his eyes fell on me once again. “Did you tell your darling husband, Iris? Did you tell him that 1 fucked you first and for years at that? Did you tell him? That you can never love another man other than me!”
“So? Cassian replied with a shrug. “That is all in the past. Then he turned to me. “n’t that right, Iris?
“Yes,” Jaffirmed without any trepidation. “We might have once been lovers, I might have loved you, but 1, Iris Obsidian, despise you now with every
piece of my soul.”
Kavriel stared at me, mouth agape as though I had just grown a second head.
You have heard her, have you not? Now, leave and never return.” la voice began harder and lower. “Or I promise you nothing but anguish beyond your wildest imagination. Do you understand, Alpha?“.
Kavriel looked at me one last time, his gaze filled with hurt and betrayal, as though I had done him wrong. As though he had not callously taken my
mother’s life.
“Retreat” Kavriel ordered his army. A command that they were more than willing to carry out. As they retreated, Cassian stalked towards my mother’s body and, with more care than I thought him capable of, he carried her in his arms. Then he walked towards me. I expected anger, I expected wrath. Instead, Cassain’s eyes seemed to be filled with a foreign emotion. Grief.
“Let’s go haine.” he told me
I nodded and walked ahead of him as the other Lycans looked on and followed, not saying much of anything. I avoided their eyes as I carried my brother and Cassian carried my mother
