The Alpha: Claiming His Enemy's Daughter-Chapter 23: THE ARRIVAL OF THE KING AND QUEEN

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.

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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.

Even after a decade had passed, every time he closed his eyes, those demons from the past would never seize to come. It would always feel like it just happened yesterday. The fall of the Howling Wolf pack.

Cane rubbed his face roughly and then got off the bed. Life was a nightmare and he dared not to wish even for a peaceful wink of sleep.

Probably because this room was initially Gerald’s bedroom, the place where he had committed most of his crimes and did his dirty deeds, he couldn’t escape the clutches of the nightmares.

He needed to speed up their move to the Howling Wolf’s pack house if that was the problem.

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Aria dressed beautifully, knowing today would be the day that the king would arrive. For a lowborn like her, a chance to be in the same room as the king was close to nil, especially when the king had never participated in any parties that alpha Gerald or Mason threw.

"Which one do you think suits me better?" Aria asked, she raised two different sets of earrings and asked Bian and Dalia.

"The blue ones, I think the blue ones will suit you better," Dalia said.

"But, the black ones are in the same color as our crest." Bian pointed out. The Howling Wolf pack’s crest was a black wolf and that was enough for Aria to choose the black ones, since she was almost desperate to show that she was an important figure in this pack.

"I will take this one." Aria looked in the mirror and smiled brightly, the color of her dress complimented her sun- kissed skin. She looked exceptionally beautiful today and when she went to the alpha’s chamber, she wanted him to praise her.

But she forgot that Cane was not a man who would say something like that.

"I am very nervous to meet the king," Aria said cheerfully, as she walked beside Cane, when the royal carriage was seen entering the territory of the Blue Moon pack.

Cane spared her a nonchalant glance. "Just act naturally."

"Will the queen be here as well?"

"Yes."

"I will go and walk with the queen, while you talk with the king."

"Sure, if that’s what she wants." There was no respect whatsoever when he talked about the king and queen, but Cane had to curb it down in the presence of the two royals.

Aria smiled brightly, she had never thought that she would be in the presence of the royal family.

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"The king and the queen came to visit today." Hanna watched the commotion from afar. She looked excited.

Meanwhile, the security was tightened around the pack, as they went back and forth to check on the situation there, to make sure that everything was alright, since they didn’t want to have any mishap. This was a critical moment for them to have a royal visit.

Iris watched the crowd and didn’t say anything.

"If you want to see the royals, go and see them, I can walk to the mine by myself," she said gently.

She felt like she knew how to find those magic stones and was so impatient to prove her theory was right. More so, the warm soup and the slice of meat motivated her enough to dig around.

"This is the first time for me to see the king and the queen," Hanna said excitedly.

As far as Iris could remember, the king visited the pack twice before and the last time was around eleven years ago, just a few months before her father decided to raze his neighboring pack and enslaved them.

But, the king’s visit the last time was a secret, Iris only knew it because she used to sneak out and roam around the pack house at night, since she would meet less people.

"You can go if you want to see them."

"No, I will go with you to the mines first." Hanna shook her head, but Iris could see in her eyes how she really wanted to see the royal family. After all it was not an everyday occasion for them to come to a pack. Most of the time, it would be the alpha who would be summoned to the palace.

"Go and see them, they will not be here for long, I guess." Iris watched from afar that the people dressed so well. They wanted to look good in front of the royals and even though the Blue Moon pack had fallen, there was not much that had changed with the members of the pack, they lived their lives as usual. Hanna told her that.

At the very least, Cane was not like her father, even after everything that he had gone through in the hands of alpha Gerald.

"Come on, go. You can come back later." Iris kept urging her and Hanna finally relented.

"I will see you in the evening, okay?" Hanna finally relented.

"Okay," Iris laughed to see how Hanna’s eyes lit up as she dusted her dress to go to the people, who gathered together on the sides of the road.

Once Hanna was gone, Iris quickened her steps toward the mines, she went through all the motions quickly and changed her dress before she went to the site.

Probably, she was the only one who was so excited to go to the mines today.

When she was there, she felt it again. The same restless and strange feeling she couldn’t describe. And this time, she followed her instinct and started digging immediately.