798 EXPLAIN YOURSELF!
"You make me think that I am only a dead weigh for you, a nuisance and someone that you don’t need to share your burden and responsibility with.
I feel so small and useless and you know how much I hated that feeling, but you made me feel that way with the way you treated me in the past few weeks.
You forgot about me, it feels like you even forgot about my existence.
What am I to you, Cane? Am I that useless until you can’t even share anything with me?
" iris was crying now, not because she was sad, but because she was upset.
"Now, you don’t need to bother with me again, because I am going back to the place you wanted me to be! "
"The only place I want you to be is by my side, Iris," Cane replied in soft voice that could melt her heart, but his mate was too upset to listen to that.
"But, you don’t act like you want me to be with you."
"I only want you to be safe."
"Bullshit!" Iris hissed. She wasn’t used to cursing, but she was very frustrated right now. "You don’t even care when I have been on the road for days and all I got was your cold eyes stared at me. You don’t even ask how I am and whether I am fine or not, all you gave me was that glaring look!
You didn’t even ask why I came to look for you. "
That was the part where Iris was hurt the most. She didn’t think Cane would be thrilled to see her, neither he would be happy, she expected him to be angry, but then he ignored her again.
"You didn’t seem to be worried at all!" Iris turned her head to glare at Cane, who was now speechless.
"I am sorry that I gave you that impression," Cane apologized to her again. It was a great deal for someone like Cane to keep apologizing, but then this little woman was always be his exception. "I didn’t mean it in that way."
This time, Iris managed to snatch the reign, she stopped the horse and the two horses behind her also stopped in a safe distance.
"Explain yourself!" Iris demanded.
If Ethan and Jace saw this, they would learn another side of Iris. The look on their faces must be priceless to have someone actually managed to demand the alpha to explain himself and he actually did.
Let alone explaining himself, Cane was actually too lazy to even give a lengthy explanation if it was not necessary.
"There is a food poison in the campsite, many people have fallen sick because Silver Warrior managed to sneak into our food storage and spoiled the food there. It’s not safe in the campsite and no one told me that you will come.
I was stunned to think you were on the road only with two warriors by your side.
It could be very dangerous for you." Cane tucked strands of her hair behind her ear and it was a good sign when Iris didn’t swat his hand away.
"You don’t look worry at all, you looked angry. Very upset."
"Yes. Maybe I was. There are a lot of things that made me upset and angry recently with the progress of the battle and I have been trying to keep it together, but when I saw you, I thought I lost my self control. I lost it there. I can keep my cool if those warriors and knights were poisoned and they were sick, I can still think of a solution how to get us out of this situation, but when the situation involved you too, I don’t think I can keep my calm, Iris. "
The campsite was not safe and the thought of Iris went on this journey with only two warriors and a young boy, added to more problem that was already on Cane’s plate, the alpha simply couldn’t think straight. He let his emotions out, overruled his logic.
"I realized that I was completely wrong to think that you are defenseless, iris. Because you could kill me as easy as you are breathing."
Iris didn’t know whether Cane was trying to tease her or he was trying to lighten the tension between them, but it worked. Her anger dissipated a little bit.
Iris swatted his hand away from her earlobe. "You know that I will not do that."
"It felt like it," Cane retorted. Swiftly, he took the reign from Iris’s hand and made their way back to the campsite again.
Iris was silent, she said nothing, until they were close to the campsite. "About the vision..."
"I heard you. Let’s talk about it when you well rested and ate something.
" Cane heard how she didn’t sleep at all last night because she rushed to the campsite.
He could see how tired she was, but this stubborn woman still wanted to go back on the road.
She would really go back to the Chrystal Moon pack if Cane didn’t stop her. "Have I been forgiven?"
"No." Iris pursed her lips. "Do you really think it’s easy to forgive you when you keep repeating the same thing again? I still couldn’t understand why you couldn’t write a single letter for me. Would it kill you to not make me worry?"
"Old habit died hard," Cane said, as he dismounted the horse and helped Iris to get down when they were already in front of his tent. "I will try to fix that."
Now they were already talking about it and at the very least, fixed half of their miscommunication, she felt tired and hungry. They were right when they told her that she needed to rest.
Cane took her inside and asked someone to bring food for Iris.
However, he tried all the food first before Iris could eat them to make sure, there was nothing wrong with it. He became extra careful with what she was going to eat and drink.
"Let’s wait for five minutes," Cane said when Iris was about to eat, after he tasted all the food in front of her.
"Why?" Iris complained, she was hungry.
"Some poison will not react immediately," Cane said. He caressed her cheek. "Don’t eat and drink carelessly. If I am not with you, ask someone to taste it first and then wait for five minutes." That was what Grace told them to do as a first measure of prevention.
"I will harm that person if I did that."
"We shifter built differently, a poison like this can make us fell sick, but it will have a great effect on your body. The knights took it rather harsh." Cane pushed the plate to her when five minutes had passed and he felt fine. It was safe for her to eat these foods then.
He also tasted the water she was going to drink and tell her not to drink from another waterskin aside from the one he prepared for her. There were a few things that Cane told Iris not to do and she listened while munching on her food.
Once she was full, Iris felt sleepy. Cane tucked her in and kissed her forehead and with that she succumbed into a deep slumber.
She was very tired and only woke up early the next morning and found Cane was still sleeping by her side. she slept throughout noon and night, now she felt a little bit sluggish.
It had been a while, since she could see him up close like this and she smiled for the first time when she remembered their argumentation yesterday.
Carefully, Iris shifted her body and snuggled closer to him, as Cane unconsciously tightened his his arm around her waist, pulling her closer to him, while burying his face in her curls.
The alpha looked very tired and it ached her heart. She regretted it when she hurt him yesterday. She did it out of impulse. She shouldn’t have done that no matter how angry she was to him.
"I am sorry," Iris said softly, as she kissed his lips gently.
"Hm," Cane intoned. He opened his eyes sleepily.
"Was that hurt?" Iris was surprised to see him awake, but then she realized, she couldn’t do anything sneakily with him.
Cane seemed to know what she was talking about. "Yes."
Iris furrowed her brows, she was racked with guilty feeling and Cane took advantage of that. He still looked very sleepy when he flipped her body and let her sat on top of him. "Make it up to me," he said and this made Iris blushed.
"Cane! You haven’t even really woken up yet!" Despite that, Iris could feel how hard he was, she was really sitting on his bone and this made her face turned even ruddier.
"I am," Cane said sleepily.
It was a quiet morning, in the distance, Iris could hear people started with their morning activity and here she was having their own world.
Iris chuckled, she felt like everything would be fine and there was nothing could disturb this peaceful morning between them.
"I am still angry with you," Iris said with a low voice. She looked at him with sullen expression now.
"Okay." Cane caressed her thighs.
However, Iris screeched when Jace’s voice traveled into the tent. She immediately got off Cane’s body. The beta knew Iris was inside, thus he didn’t enter the tent immediately.
"Cane! Are you awake? You need to come and check on Ethan, take the luna with you too!" Jace spoke with urgency.