503: HOPE IS A CRUEL THING

HOPE IS A CRUEL THING

Cane realized his lack of knowledge about his mate. He knew how she had helped them during their time in need and he was grateful for that, but then, it was only a fraction of her life and he wanted to know more every detail thing about her. 

How she was when she was a child, a simple story about how she grew up. He wanted to know everything about her, even a trivial and mundane thing about her. 

Hanna grimaced to see the poor dress was being shredded by the alpha, but she could see how much the alpha cared about her missy. 

When the Blue Moon pack fell, she was worried about Iris's life, because these people would hate her without knowing the truth behind it. 

And when the alpha took her as his luna because of the Blue Moon pack, she was worried, Iris wouldn't be treated nicely and alpha Cane would further torture her, he must take a few mistresses at some point. 

But then, as time went by, she watched how the alpha actually treated her missy nicely. It was even far from her expectation. You could see in his eyes how genuinely worried he was and you could say he had fallen for her. 

The only thing that irked Hanna was the fact Sofia was carrying the alpha's first child. It would threaten her missy's position and she knew Iris well that she disliked a confrontation. 

Hanna didn't want Cane to favor another woman aside from her missy, especially when the pack member didn't treat her so nicely, even after they learned what Iris had done for them. 

"She is adorable child, alpha. She loved to cuddle. I met with her when she was only seven, in a rare day, where her father was in a good mood to let her out of the pack house…"

Hanna proceeded to tell Cane about Iris's childhood, how adorable she was and how she was an easy child. She had never thrown a temper tantrum and would understand thing rather quickly, despite her disability, where she couldn't hear. 

"… she is adorable, beautiful, cute and has a deep sympathy to her surroundings. She is the kindness person I have ever met…" Hanna literally sold her missy so hard right now to impress Cane, while the alpha listened to what she said, while changing Iris's dress. He didn't flinch when he saw her scarred back, which made Hanna worried, he would show a disgusting look or even frown, but the alpha didn't seem to be bothered by the sight at all, which made her sighed in relief. 

"What about Kellan?" Cane asked in his deep voice, his eyes turned slightly darker with the mentioned of the the prince's name. The alpha didn't use the prince title to address him. The crippled prince didn't worth even an ounce of respect. 

"Oh, prince Kellan used to play with missy when he was still the crown prince and came to the pack so often. Missy loved to play with him, since she didn't have many friends. The only friend she had was the stable boy, but… her father killed the poor boy because she played with him."

Iris had told him about the story of the stable boy and he remembered how her father forced her to watch how the boy was being killed. 

"But, a few months before the scandal that caused prince Kellan lost his title as the crown prince, miss Iris didn't look happy whenever he came over, she used to hide in the kitchen, or played in my room instead." Hanna tried to remember the cause of it, but she was clueless. "Probably they fought… I am not sure what happened and miss Iris had never said anything about it. She is very mature for her age and already know what she should say and what she shouldn't… so, when she refused to tell me, I don't have any clue what was going on."

But, Cane knew the reason. He knew what had been done. His claws emerged from the tip of his fingers and he needed to halt what he was doing, just in case he hurt her unintentionally. 

Seeing how the alpha stopped what she was doing, Hanna was panic, she thought, she had said something wrong and misunderstood his reaction. 

"But, alpha, it had been so long since the last time they met with each other when they were little. I am sure, miss Iris attachment to him is very innocent, even when they finally met again in the capital city, she had never shown any sign that she fond of the memories…"

There was no way, she was fond of the memories. 

Cane ignored that and continued to change Iris's dress, so she wouldn't get cold in her current condition for being exposed too long. 

Meanwhile, Hanna continued with her story about Iris's childhood, she skipped all the things that required her to mention about prince Kellan, Mason or her father, because she didn't want to upset the alpha by mentioning those three people. It was already great enough for the alpha for wanting to know more about her missy, she didn't want to screw it up.

In the end, Hanna ended up telling Cane about a lot of stories of how adorable and compassionate thing that Iris did when she was little and how she used to give a big hug to people she was comfortable with. 

"Do you know alpha, miss Iris dislikes it whenever someone touches her ears." Hanna chuckled. "She will pout and move away, even when she was little."

Of course, Cane knew about that. He figured it out long time ago before Hanna mentioned it. 

And with that, the night went to end and the morning came. While Hanna told the stories, Cane cradled Iris in his arms, making sure she was warm and gave the concoction every three hours. He rarely said anything and only asked a few simple question, which Hanna gladly answered. 

"You may leave," Cane said when he saw Hanna tried to hold back her yawning. She was still excited to tell the alpha a lot of things about her missy, but her body couldn't keep up, it was a tiring day after all. 

"Thank you, alpha," Hanna said sheepishly, covering her mouth, so she wouldn't yawn in front of Cane, but when she just took a few steps away, she stopped in her track and fiddled with her dress before she gathered her courage to turn around and ask the alpha. "Alpha, may I know what happened to Will?"

She knew it was overstepping her boundaries as a maid to question the alpha, but she was helpless and hopeless about what she should do with Will. He didn't want to say anything and was even being very distant and closed off, if Hanna forced him to tell her about what happened to him. 

Cane looked at Hanna right in her eyes, this was the first time, since he asked her to tell him about Iris's childhood story that he finally shifted his attention from his mate. 

"Is this the compensation for you to tell me the story about my mate?" Cane asked. His tone was light, but Hanna could tell it has a deeper meaning into it. 

She bit her lip and tried to choose her words carefully. "Alpha, my apologize, but I don't see this as a transaction. I told you the story about miss Iris because I want you to know more about the person you care for and I have the same reason when I gather my courage to ask you this question."1

Hanna appeared humble and emphasized the main reason of the question was because no matter who you were, you would want to know a little bit more about the people you truly care about, so you could understand them better. 

"Very well." Cane was pleased with her answer. He had known Hanna ever since their slavery days, but aside from expressing how much he and his people was grateful for what she had done for this pack, they had never had any conversation. "You may sit down."

Hanna heart skipped a bit, her sleepiness vanished immediately when she came over and sat down again on the same chair. She was on alert of what the alpha would tell her. 

Once Hanna sat down and she looked ready to listen what the information she would get, Cane started to speak. 

"Will was being sexually assaulted by princess Osana on new year, where there was an attack in the palace…"

The sun started to shine in the sky and it was a bright day, but the more Hanna listened to what the alpha said, the more the sky looked so bleak for her. 

And half an hour later, Hanna was sitting down on the empty hallway, hyperventilating, as tears couldn't stop streaming down her face. She clutched her chest tightly. She was not sure how she could go out of the alpha's bedroom and managed to find a quiet place for her to have a breakdown. 

"Arrggh!!" Hanna screamed in pain, she was howling in this empty hallway, where the sound of it echoed throughout the walls. She cried so hard. She had never cried this hard for so long, she felt her heart was bleeding. It was unbearable. 

The realization hit her so hard, as she learned how this set him back so far, when Will had survived a decade of slavery, it was because he thought, all the people thought, something like that would never happen again to them. 

Hope was truly a cruel thing. 

pqdm.com