"My dagger..." Iris muttered. She stared at the door and stretched out her hand. "My dagger..."
Cane nuzzled into her hair with his nose, as he spoke to her gently. "I will get it for you. The dagger needs to be cleaned first."
Iris absolutely missed Cane’s answer, but she didn’t say anything anymore and closed her eyes. Probably she only mentioned it thoughtlessly.
Cane took Iris to their bedroom and went straight to the bathroom, as he made her sit on the side of the tub and ran the water.
While waiting for the tub to be filled, Cane helped Iris to take off his cloak from her body, but Iris resisted and he needed to coax her. She was no longer crying, but her eyes looked so empty, as if there was no life inside of her anymore and somehow the sight left him feeling unsettled.
"We need to clean the blood from your body." Cane knelt down in front of her, as he held both of her hands, he squeezed them gently, to get her attention. "We need to take off the cloak and dress, okay?"
Iris shook her head, but Cane was extremely patient with her. He waited until she was less tense and stopped running the water when the tub was filled to the brim.
"Let’s take a bath, okay?" Cane stretched out his hand and caressed her cheek lightly. Iris flinched and he stopped his movement. "Do you want me to call a maidservant to help you?"
In response, Iris held his hand tightly, as if she was afraid Cane would go after saying that. She shook her head slowly, but then, after some time, Iris took off the cloak on her own. She gritted her teeth, holding herself back from crying. Her eyes were so red, but there were no tears.
On the other hand, Cane didn’t do anything, he only added more Flame Stones to the water, so the water would feel warmer. He let her take off the dress on her own and before she proceeded to dip her body, he poured a bucket of warm water over her form to get rid of some of the blood from her skin and hair.
Iris lowered her head and stared at her bare feet, she said nothing and didn’t make any noise, only occasionally flinching when Cane touched her, but she didn’t back away. She let him take care of her. It was a sign of how much trust she put in him when she was in such a vulnerable state.
More so, this was not the first time Cane took care of her when she was not capable of tending to herself, as a lot of things had happened to Iris and she had gone through so much within the past couple of months.
Once the blood had been washed off, Iris went to dip herself in the water and rested her head on the side of the tub, as Cane washed her hair.
Iris raised her hand and stared blankly at her fingers.
"I stabbed him..." Iris said absentmindedly. "His blood splashed onto me... there was a lot of blood... he looked in so much pain... but, I don’t feel sorry for him..." Iris shook her head, she kept mumbling some more.
Meanwhile, Cane didn’t utter a single word, as he washed her long and thick hair, making sure there was no more blood on her, while listening to what she said.
In this moment, it was not necessary for Iris to get any words back from Cane because that was not what she needed, she only wanted to vent what was in her mind, because everything jumbled up inside her.
She mumbled about what Alpha Gill had done to her and how she felt weird for not feeling sorry for stabbing him to the moment when Mason tortured her and hurt her, she also talked about Prince Kellan.
"Here..." Iris pointed to her cheeks and he kissed them.
"Where else?"
Iris pointed at her neck, her shoulders, her ears and Cane kissed them all gently. His eyes slightly darkened when she pointed at his mark on the soft spot of her neck, he kissed her a little bit longer there.
But, when Iris pointed to her chest, she stopped Cane from kissing her there.
"I want a hug..." Iris said and that was what she got.
Cane held her close to him, hugging her until she fell asleep and her breathing became even, he peppered her forehead and hair with kisses.
Only when she had fallen asleep did Cane slowly loosen his arms from around her and get off the bed. He tucked her in and kissed her nose. He stared at her for a while before he walked out of the room, where Jace had been waiting for him.
"The party had started and the Alphas asked for you and Alpha Gill," Jace reported to Cane. "All the royal warriors that were stationed at the borders of every pack territory had arrived half an hour ago. There were two thousand of them."
"I will see Gill first. Tell someone to lead those royal warriors as per the plan." Cane said darkly. "You stay here and put more of our people around this room. No one should disturb her until everything is done."
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