Chapter 76 WHAT CHANGED

Chapter 76 WHAT CHANGED
IRIS' POV

The silence that came with the whole thing was deafening.

All eyes were on me. It was almost like they couldn't believe I was making such a decision. But I had already made it, and I didn't think there was anything in the world that was going to make me change my mind.

Ragner and the creature already got into position, and Garrett quickly stepped forward.

“No,” he quickly said, and I turned to look at him with my eyes wide.

“What are you doing?” I asked immediately. “They deserve to be killed. They came here to kill our people.”

Garrett had his hand in front of him like he was scared that I was going to do something to him. I took a step back, and he immediately closed the distance between the both of us.

“Iris, listen to me,” he said calmly, and I blinked twice.

“I don't want you to touch me,” I said, and my voice shook. “Please, I beg you.”

Garrett closed his eyes. “I can't believe it got to this,” he whispered, before looking up at me. “Listen to me, Iris. I don't fucking care if you think you're going to hurt me. If that's what it takes, then fine.”

“What do want?” I asked in a whisper.

“I said, no.” He said in a sterner tone. “You can't kill these people.”

“You're two steps away from being the villain in someone's story.”

I swallowed hard.

I could feel my throat close, and it was getting harder to breathe.

I slowly turned around, and I took in all the dead bodies. The fallen people. The ones that were crying for help. The blood that was soaking the floor. The terrified survivors, and the damage.

My hands were shaking as I brought them in front of my eyes. The creature behind me shifted, and it was ready for action. Ready for anything at all.

My tongue felt heavy as I opened my mouth to speak again..

“Stand down,” I said calmly.

The creature still shifted, like it wasn't ready to listen to me.

“I said, stand down,” I said in a sharper tone.

The creature seemed to mumbled, but Ragner stood down immediately. The creature ended up standing down as well.

The remaining hunters scrambled for an escape, and I watched them.

Garrett placed a hand on my shoulder. “That's enough,” he said, and I gave him a small nod, but something didn't fully settle.

As the other pack members were trying to heal their wounds and go back to their homes, and the others were trying to go back to their own daily activities.

Something wasn't right just yet.

That was when I heard Lara's voice in my head.

“You hesitated,” she said, and that was when I realized that she was the one in charge of the whole thing. She was the one getting angry. It was all her. And for some reason, it scared me.

What more was she capable of?

I could feel Derek's eyes on me, and I didn't even know how to react. He watched the hunters flee, and he suddenly looked over at me again.

“She's shaken,” I heard him mutter to Garrett, but I couldn't even answer. I hated how sharp my ears suddenly were.

I felt like a robot standing there. I was blinking and breathing, but my limbs felt like they weren't mine for some reason.

“At least she's not broken,” Garrett said, and it took a lot for me not to tell him that I actually felt that way.

Marcus walked towards us, and I didn't even know what to tell him. After everything that had happened, he was supposed to make me Alpha once and for all. I didn't even want that position to begin with.

“Well,” he started. “That was efficient.”

Derek rolled his eyes. “You almost got us killed,” he said, and Marcus pressed his lips into a thin line.

“And yet, here we are.”

He looked over at me, and there was a smirk on his lips. “To be precise, there she is.”

There was something about his tone that I didn't like at all. But I couldn't even say anything at all. Instead, I felt fear fill my body.

“That's not a good sign,” I muttered to Garrett, but he just glanced at me, and looked back at Marcus like he didn't want to miss even one second of the drama.

“He'll have to tell us what to do,” he said, and I gave Garrett a small nod.

That was when I noticed someone walking towards us weakly, with her eyes fixed on me.

It was my mother. I finally had a small smile on my face for the first time in hours.

“Mom,” I said, and my mother took a step back immediately. The smile on my face was wiped off.

I could feel a slight pain in my chest. I knew that feeling. I had felt it a thousand times before.

It took a lot for me not to go right there and wrap her in my arms.

“What have you become?” my mother asked in a whisper, and I took a step back.

Even Ragner cocked his head to the side.

The creature at my back darkened, and I knew that it wanted to put an end to my mother there and then.

They went through all this to save her. She was the reason why the gate was locked.

“What the fuck is she talking about?” Garrett asked, and Derek immediately held him back.

“Are you going to let her have a conversation with her mother or not?” Derek asked.

“She's going to hurt Iris' feelings,” Garrett said, and Derek shook his head.

“Which is the reason why you should fucking let her confront her mother. Iris does not need your saving.”

His jaw tightened, but he finally agreed. Garrett was back at my side, and I was more than ready to hold him in place if anything went wrong.

“Coming from you?” I asked, looking at my mother. “I became the thing that saved us.”