They stayed in the east city for two weeks, but it was the best and meaningful two weeks for all of them and it would be the core memories for the children.
There was a bad day, where Cane didn’t recognize his family, but even so, he looked comfortable to be surrounded by them. He would listen to Zaya when she read for him and watched how Zander and Zenith bickered. He found that their bickering was amusing.
"Who are you?" Cane asked Iris politely when he woke up one morning when Iris was sleeping by his side.
Without missing a beat, Iris wrapped her arms around his body and snuggled closer to him. She was still sleepy. "I am your mate." She kissed his cheek and Cane would hug her back without further question.
But, there was also time when Cane went missing and all of the royal warriors were searching the entire city. Zander was the one, who found out that their father was not at the inn and in his panic, he didn’t think of another option.
Meanwhile, Iris knew where exactly Cane was, since she could sense everyone in this continent. Her mate was in one of the bookstores and when she went there, she found Cane was staring at bookshelves, reading every title of the book.
"What are you doing here?" Iris asked him gently.
"He has been there for an hour and stared at the bookshelves," the owner of the bookstore told Iris, but then she recognized the queen’s auburn hair and immediately knelt down. "My queen!"
If the woman was the queen, then the man was the king, without a doubt!
The owner didn’t immediately recognize Cane because he was wearing hoodie that covered his face and also with the fact that not many people had seen the king in person.
While the queen used to appear in public and meet with people, especially during the drought to distribute food, the king would work behind the scene.
"Can you give me some alone time and tell the warrior out there that I am here with my mate?" Iris requested the bookstore owner politely.
"Yes, yes, yes my queen!" the owner immediately retreated and did what she was told.
Meanwhile, Cane only stared at Iris before he answered the question, he looked unfazed by the brief interaction between Iris and the owner.
"I am looking for a book," Cane finally answered Iris’s question. He then turned around to inspect the bookshelves again.
"What book?" Iris walked closer to him. "I can help you to look for it."
"The book that my mate has not read yet." Cane traced his finger on the books’ spine. "She read a lot. I lost track what book she had read..."
Iris smiled at him. She knew that Cane kept on tab with what book she had read, so he could buy her more whenever he went out of the continent, or found some book that he thought she would be interested.
But, with his current condition, it would be hard for him to remember those thousand of books that she had read during the two decades they were together.
Still, it warmed Iris’s heart to know Cane did remember her, though he didn’t recognize her right now.
"What about this one?" Iris pointed out one of the books and Cane looked over, but he shook his head.
"She had read that one," Cane said and he was right. Iris had read the book.
"Oh, okay, let’s find another one." This time, Iris didn’t try to deceive him and seriously look for the book.
However, Zaya barged in and immediately hugged Cane from behind, she cried because her father disappeared all of sudden.
Cane was stunned, but when he saw his daughter, a bright smile appeared on his lips. "This is my daughter." He hugged the little girl.
Not long after, Zander and Zenith joined them, Cane recognized his sons as well.
"Looking for a book for your mother," Cane said when they asked what he was doing here.
"What? But..." Zander furrowed his brows, but Iris put her finger in front of her lips.
"Let’s find the book," she said.
And they spent the rest of the afternoon to look for a book that the ’king’s mate’ had not yet read with the help of the queen, until he was tired and they went back to the inn.
But, there was also a good day too when Cane remembered everything. From the day their twin daughters were born, their twin boys and then Zaya.
Abby couldn’t help, because she was not able to find anything that could help with Cane’s case, not to mention this was an extremely rare case and probably only happened to Haco and Cane, since the lycan shouldn’t have exist in the first place. freeweɓnovel.cøm
She clutched the letter from Abby to her chest and knelt down to scream to the nothingness.
"Iris?" Ethan called her and when she lifted her head to look at the gamma, he immediately approached her and hugged her tightly. There was no question. Her tears explained everything.
Iris hugged Ethan tightly, she felt like she was going to fall into pieces as her world was crumbling, while Ethan was there to hold her.
"It’s okay, it’s okay. You can cry. Just cry, Iris." Ethan patted her back. "You have tough days and you did well." Ethan hugged her tighter. "You did so well."
"I don’t want to lose him, Ethan."
"I know..."
"Is it selfish of me to have more time with him?"
"No, it’s not. You are not selfish."
"I can’t lose him. I have done everything I could."
Iris cried for hours, but when she finally returned to the palace, she became her calm self, a loving mother to her children and an amazing partner for her mate. She faced this adversity with her gentleness and abundant patient.
"I love you, Iris..." Cane said. He woke up in the middle of the night and found Iris was still awake, they stared at each other for a long time, savoring each other presence and was contented with the silence between them. "It’s a long journey for us to be here."
"I love you too, Cane. It’s a long journey, indeed, but it’s worth it."
"I wish I have never hurt you."
Iris caressed his cheek and traced the scar on his face. "I know you didn’t mean it."
Two weeks later, Cane’s condition got worse, his regression was faster than Haco.
The air magic stone had helped him to have this whole wonderful sixteen years to build a family and a kingdom, but finally, it ran its course.
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