Baby System: My Mates Can Read my Mind?

Chapter 83: Episode 083: Iris’s Plight.

"What? I thought you said he died last time?"

Rue whispered the words softly. She placed her warm clay cup down on the wooden ledge very carefully. She did not want to drop it.

Iris was trembling. The Wolf Princess stared down at her lap. Rue moved closer. She reached out and took the rattling cup out of Iris’s freezing hands. She set it next to her own cup on the ledge. Then, Rue wrapped both of her arms securely around her friend.

She pulled Iris into a tight, warm hug.

She didn’t know what had changed these past few days, maybe she just wanted to allow herself to breathe or maybe she saw herself in Iris.

Rue just held her. She acted exactly like a real friend. She rubbed Iris’s back, letting her take all the time she needed to find her voice.

The fire popped loudly in the stone hearth. The freezing wind howled against the thick glass window.

Iris took a massive, shaky breath. She leaned her head against Rue’s shoulder.

"I lied," Iris confessed. Her voice sounded incredibly small and completely broken.

Rue just rubbed her back in slow, gentle circles. She waited.

"You know how I am," Iris started to explain, her voice catching in her throat. "You know how much I hate it when people are sad and burdened. When we were younger, I spent all my time with Hati. He was loud and funny. We used to sneak out of the manor kitchens and steal honey cakes; that’s because he put me up to it. We would run through the deep snow and cause chaos in the courtyard, but I will always be there to make sure he doesn’t go too far and hurt himself."

Iris closed her eyes. A sad, painful smile flickered across her face for just a second.

"Skoll was Hati’s twin," Iris continued. "But they were completely different. Skoll was the quiet one. He never stole honey cakes. He never yelled or caused a scene. He was just a passing friend I talked to occasionally. When Hati and I were running around making a mess, Skoll would just stand near the edge of the trees and watch us. He always had this serious, calm look on his face. He only spoke when he actually had something important to say."

Rue listened closely. She pictured the two young wolves in her mind. It sounded like a really nice childhood.

"But then the border war started, just a few years after my parents left, when I realised life had become more serious than I thought and I had younger siblings to watch out for with my older brother," Iris said.

"It was a terrible winter," Iris whispered. Her blue eyes stared blankly at the stone wall across the room. "The rogue clans from the far mountains pushed down into our territory. They wanted our food stores. My brothers went to the front lines to fight. Hati and Skoll went with them. I was supposed to stay hidden inside the safest part of the fortress, because I didn’t know any war tactics, and I could only use a bow."

Iris swallowed hard. Her breathing started to get very fast.

"But the fighting got too close," Iris gasped. "They broke through the outer gates. The courtyard was full of screaming and fighting. The snow turned entirely dark. It was a complete nightmare. I ran outside to try to find my brothers, while using my bow skills to prevent them from hurting anyone. I just wanted to make sure Axel and Onyx were still alive."

Rue squeezed her friend tighter. She could hear the pure, absolute terror in Iris’s voice. Rue felt a heavy knot form in her own stomach. She hated violence. She hated the thought of sweet Iris running through a bloody battlefield entirely alone.

"I did not find my brothers," Iris cried quietly. "I found Skoll."

Iris covered her face with her hands. Her shoulders shook violently.

"He was lying near the edge of the training yard," Iris sobbed. "The rogue wolves had ambushed him. He was brutally attacked. It was awful, Rue. There were deep, terrible claw marks all over his chest and his arms. His thick winter coat was completely shredded to pieces. He was just lying there in the freezing snow, bleeding out."

Rue felt a cold chill run all the way down her spine.

"I ran to him," Iris explained, her voice cracking horribly. "I dropped down into the snow right next to him. I tried to press my hands against his chest to stop the bleeding. But there was just too much blood. It was completely pouring out of him. His eyes were closed. His breathing was so shallow I could barely even hear it. He was dying right in front of me."

Iris pulled her hands away from her wet face. She looked at Rue. Her violet eyes were wide and completely haunted by the terrible memory.

"I panicked," Iris said. "I screamed for the pack healers. Anyone. But the battle was entirely too loud. Nobody could hear me. Nobody was coming to help us. He was going to die in the snow, and I was going to have to sit there and watch him take his last breath."

Rue kept quiet. She felt sad for the Wolf Princess. Being entirely helpless while someone you care about gets hurt was the worst feeling in the world.

"I had to do something," Iris whispered desperately. "I could not just let him die. And then I remembered my secret."

Iris looked down at her own hands. She rubbed her wrists nervously.

"A few months before the war, I found something out entirely by accident," Iris explained softly. "I was running in the woods and I tripped. I cut my hand on a sharp rock. A few drops of my blood fell right onto a dead, frozen flower in the dirt. And the flower came back to life. It healed right in front of my eyes. But as I sat there watching Skoll bleed to death, I thought about that flower."

Iris took another deep, shaky breath. The tears were falling freely down her pale cheeks now.

"It was the only ability I had," Iris cried. "I was not a strong fighter like Axel. I was not a brilliant strategist. But I thought my blood could fix him. I thought I could save his life."

"I took a small hunting knife from the snow," Iris whispered. "And I sliced the palm of my own hand wide open. It hurt terribly. But I didn’t care about the pain. I just wanted to save my friend. I pressed my bleeding, warm hand directly against the deepest wound on his chest. I prayed to the moon and the stars to let my blood heal him."

Iris broke down.

She was a mature, strong woman. But right now, she cried like a lost, heartbroken child. The sobs tore out of her chest, echoing loudly in the quiet stone room. As if she were experiencing everything over again.

"I just wanted to save him," Iris wailed. Her voice was full of pure, crushing agony. "I thought it would work like the flower. I thought he would open his eyes and smile at me."

Rue held her tight. She let Iris cry onto her shoulder. The pain in the room was entirely overwhelming.

Iris buried her face against Rue’s neck. Her entire body trembled violently with the weight of the awful memory. She held onto Rue like a drowning person holding onto a floating piece of wood.

"But it didn’t work," Iris sobbed loudly, "it felt like his wolf was rejecting my blood."