His Blue Moon Princess
His Sunshine Baby Chapter 81

"What is wrong with you, Iris? This isn't you!"

My cousin sighs, putting her purple hair back.

"You don't know the first thing about me, Elena. Let me guess. You've always seen me as the quiet, shy and good girl my daddy raised. Isn't that it? I was never on the strongest side, like you or Chris. I was barely average for an Alpha. Do you have any idea what it's like, to grow up in someone's shadow? In my own sibling's shadow? In yours?"

I don't even recognize her voice when she speaks. She sounds like someone else, yet she is still... Iris. An Iris I don't know. She steps forward again, defying me with her eyes.

"My father was always crazy with his jealousy. His younger brother was stronger, smarter, more appreciated. He always felt like Samuel stripped him from his Alpha title. Even when my Dad finally got it back, it wasn't enough. Your adoptive father's shadow was always there."

What does it have to do with her? Our fathers' rivalry is nothing new!

"Iris, it has nothing to do with us. Xavier got the Alpha position in the end!"

"Oh, but that was never enough. Actually, he trained us even harder because of that. Or more precisely, he tried to train Chris. Me? I was his smart little girl, cast aside because, why would he consider me when he had a son?"

I'm confused. Didn't Xavier always treat Iris better? He cherished her like a little princess her whole life, compared to Chris! Her brother always had to train harder, prove himself to their father while Iris could do whatever she wanted.

"To be honest, I wouldn't have cared that my younger brother took the heir position if it wasn't for you, Elena. But you? You were always so annoyingly strong and perfect. Father got crazy about Chris being better than you. You can't be beaten by Samuel's daughter, by a girl! Guess what? Your existence fueled our father's jealousy, Elena. And mine! You were supposedly only the Alpha's niece, but Clark had to make you is goddaughter and put you as a possible heir for the White Moon Clan! Do you know how humiliating that was?"

I'm completely in shock. I never thought Iris gave a s**t about the Alpha position, in the Opale or White Moon Clan!

"I didn't ask for anything, Iris! Clark and Xavier decided it all on their own!"

She sends me a glare back.

"Oh, shut the hell up, Elena. You've always known you were more cherished. The precious little orphan, so strong, so bright, so loved. After enduring my father's jealousy towards yours, now you were in the competition as well? But guess what, My father never, ever considered me as your rival or an heir a single second!"

"I don't want to be anyone's rival, Iris! I even give Chris the Opale Moon Alpha position!"

Iris laughed, rolling her eyes out.

"You gave it to him? Do you even hear yourself? Even now you think you're so much better than us? Moreover, you're the same as my dad! You don't consider me at all!"

I'm getting tired of that attitude of her. I've had enough emotions for today. I growl, warning her.

"You are who you are, Iris, and that is not a leader. You may be an Alpha, but..."

"What? I don't have the muscles?"

I frown. Does she really think that's all there is? Is that why she's so delusional? And jealous?

"I have the brains, Elena! I may not be strong, but I was always the smarter one!"

"You're doing a great job with our facilities, Iris, I know that. You're an angular piece of the Clan, and so important, but..."

She scoffs.

"Oh, poor Elena," she sighs. "You really think that's all, right? Don't you get it? I'm so good at this game, I am the one who kicked you out of Clark's heir position as the White Moon Alpha in the first place."

... What is she talking about? Clark took me out of his potential heirs because of my baby, and Iris has nothing to do with it. She shakes her head, with that annoying smirk of hers.

"I bet you never realized until now, cousin. Gosh, it wasn't easy, you know?"

She walks around me while talking, making circles and having my wolf wary of her. In the corner of my vision, I see Daniel, Reagan, Levi, Ben, and Bonnie arrive next to us, all the Lewis siblings in their wolf form. Reagan is still human but growling.

"Let's go back to the start. From when your father had his accident and you were sent to jail because you were stupid enough to get involved with Diego, I thought we would finally get rid of you. What I did not expect, was that you'd be back and forgiven by Clark. Not only that, following Samuel's coma, he made your position as his goddaughter and possible heir official. You have no idea how furious I was! So I tried to replace a way to kick you out without being involved."

What the hell...?

Behind her, the rest of the Opale Moon Clan is listening as well, visibly as confused as I am.

"Luckily, you gave me an opportunity sooner than I thought when you met Nathaniel Black."

A lot of faces cannot hide their shock and stare at me in awe. I guess the cat's out of the bag now, but I couldn't care less who knows or not. Iris continues her speech, ignoring everyone else, so full of confidence it's beyond irritating. "I didn't think much of it at first, but when I heard about you together at the Club, I thought this might be another opportunity."

"You saw us...?"

"Oh no Elena, I'm the good girl, remember? I don't go partying outside. But some kids from our pack were there, remember? One of them saw you, how attracted you were to Black and told me everything."

I can't believe it... This goes back to my first meeting with Nate! She chuckles.

"So I made sure you went back again. I know how attracted you are to bad boys, Elena, I knew you'd fall for him."

"You're the one who sent that text," I realize.

I had never understood how the Club had gotten my number to send a private invite, but it turns out it was Iris?

"Bingo!" She says with a smile. "Clever, right? You ran back there and so I knew I had you in Black's arms. With your character, I thought you'd sleep with him once or twice. But I didn't expect it would go on and on for weeks!" "How the hell do you know!"

"I watched you, of course! To be honest, it wasn't easy. The Blood Moon watch their territory closely, and the Black brothers almost caught me more than once."

The female that intruded their territory! Moon Goddess, so many things are coming to light now! I can't believe it... All those little details that had me intrigued earlier, even...

"You're the one who sent that picture of Levi and I kissing to Nate!"

"I did! Oh, it was fun, to be honest. Having you pretend you had a boyfriend here to keep Diego at bay while hiding your relationship to Black! Not to lie, Elena, I had fun. To be honest, there was a bit of revenge, too."

"I never did anything to you, Iris, all this jealousy was your own!"

She sighs and shakes her head.

"Oh no, Elena, you never did anything. That's right. But it didn't stop Eric from being crazy in love with you."

"Eric...?"

I didn't expect him to be brought up. Right, her deceased boyfriend used to claim his love for me, but I thought that was ancient history since he got with her! Iris loses her smile while talking about Eric.

"If I ever had one crush, it was Eric. For years, I got prettier and prettier, hoping he'd notice me. Yet, like an i***t, I had to watch him talk about how much he loved you day after day... It was so upsetting! So, when you pretend to go out with Levi, I knew it was my chance. I asked him out, arguing you'd never notice him anyway. Luckily, he agreed. Do you know how useful it is to be with a police officer, Elena? Much more than I thought."

I can't believe her. She even used Eric? Iris chuckled again.

"When Levi was thrown into your love affair, I didn't really expect it. But after that picture, I knew your relationship with Black might collapse at any time. I mean, any male would be jealous, right? Yet, it had already exceeded my expectations in terms of time, so I threw his ex in the mix, just to be sure. With Eric's contacts, it was easy to get his door code, send a little innocent text to his ex-girlfriend and just when I saw you leave the pack again to see him, with the right timing... surprise!"

Cold anger his raging up in my bones. I can't believe her! She was evil enough to plot so much against me and Nathaniel? I've never wanted to slap someone so much!

"What was your point, Iris? Just having me with him, then break up? Why?"

She shrugs.

"I told you, I expected you to sleep with him a few times, not have it go on for weeks and months! Oh, I guess you fought a few times. You have quite a temper, cousin, after all, don't you? Yet, as time passed, you kept getting back together with him, and a thought hit me. I wanted you with Black to piss Clark off and have him get you off his potential heirs for that, but what if? What if things got serious between Black and you? What if you got the Blood Moon's backing eventually? I realized things were more complex than I thought when we went together. I sensed something was going on between you and the King's mate, but I couldn't grasp what."

I remember. Iris caught me out of University, and we went to see Nora's fight...

"I had only meant to bring you out to have you betray my father and Clark's ban on leaving the Pack, but..."

"You called your father, you said you had permission to...!"

"Oh, yeah, I lied. I pretended to call."

Holy Moon Goddess, that explains why Xavier was so f*****g furious! He really never gave me his permission to go out, yet I thought so and kept arguing! I can't believe Iris was behind all that from the start!

"Anyway, I had another problem on my hands. You got closer to the Blood Moon, and I couldn't understand why. Then, the attack... I lost Eric. I was so, so mad, and you... And meanwhile, you went and got f*****g pregnant with Black's child!" Everyone's eyes are on me, shocked or angry. If anyone wondered about my baby's father, I guess things are out in the open now... But I don't care. I'm angrier about Iris being behind all of this. I just can't believe her!

"I was furious. I had lost my lover, yet you of all people managed to conceive a child with Black? It was hard to swallow, but at least, Clark knew soon enough, and I knew he would never allow that. I finally had you out of my way. But to be honest, I didn't feel relieved. I wasn't enough. So I decided it would be better if you didn't have this child at all. After all, I worked so hard for you not to become this Pack's Alpha, I couldn't let you become another pack's Luna, right?"

What the hell...? I try to think, but I don't understand what she could have done. However, Iris's unhappy face tells me things didn't turn out her way. She growls softly.

"So I tipped you dear ex, Diego, about your pregnancy. You should have seen it, it was funny how crazy and mad he went. You have a thing for psychos, cousin. Anyway, he started rampaging about how he was going to stab you, make sure your next child was his..." I get a chill down my back. Holy f**k, that sounds like the crazy Diego I knew once... But Diego is dead, now. I swallow, trying to calm down.

"But he didn't go your way, Iris, did it? Diego is dead."

She glares my way, losing her smirk for good.

"Yeah, you got lucky your dear lover got a hold of him. Since Clark had you on lockdown, Diego had to wait for the right moment to get to you. It wasn't easy since you were never really alone. If it wasn't for Black protecting you..."

I frown. Black protecting me? Nathaniel never came to the White Moon territory, and I did leave the house a few times unaccompanied or with Daniel only... What is she talking about?

"Moreover, you weren't my only issue. I needed to do more for dad to consider me as an heir, and I did. To be fair, I'm sorry that my brother lost an arm, but it worked in my favor. I already had control of most of our medical facilities, our pack's main economy. All I needed was better control of the funds. And guess what? I could do so by an agreement with the Gold Moon Clan."

I growl. She wants to shift the Clan's money to the Gold Moon Banks! So far, the only place we had our money stored is under the financial establishments owned by the Sapphire Moon Clan, the main display of our alliance with them! If we shift this money, we will clearly be losing the partnership with them!

"You're crazy, Iris! You can't manipulate our money in favor of the Gold Moon!"

"Oh, I will. My father was never good at handling such stuff or making big decisions, so I did. I let my Dad think he could lead the negotiations, but I was the one behind it all. And you fell right for it, cousin..."

I growl.

Damn it, she's right. I always thought Xavier was the one behind the scheming with the Gold Moon Clan, not her!

"You can't do that, Iris," says one of the men behind her. "Chris is the new Alpha, you..."

"I control the Clan's finances! I am the one in charge! My brother has lost an arm and has nothing, he is not fit to be an Alpha!"

"Chris is still better than you!" I yell back. "He is a brave, strong and good kid! He cares about others, not only his little self like you, Iris!

"That is not for you to decide, Elena," she growls back.

I glare at her, furious. Who the hell does she think she is? She's been deceiving not only me but the whole pack for weeks, and now she wants to claim f*****g ownership? Iris has a smirk on.

"They will never accept you, anyway. Not with the little bastard you're carrying..."

I growl. How dare she insult my daughter! The people around her are confused. I bet they didn't expect Iris to have done so much. One of them steps forward.

"Iris, we can't move without the Alpha's permission..."

"I am the Alpha! Didn't you listen? I control this pack's money, and I have the support of the Gold Moon. Chris and Elena have nothing, and my father even stepped down because of her. If you don't want to be exposed and penniless, you'll do as a say!" Everyone hesitates, unwilling to say anymore. I cross my arms, staying right in front of her. She frowns, a bit surprised.

"What the heck are you doing?"

"You're not going anywhere, Iris. I'm still a fighter of this Clan, while you are not its official Alpha. I say you're not going. Don't you dare take one step out."

"Oh, and you're going to stop me, perhaps? I know of your medical condition, Elena, you can't fight or you'll lose your baby. And you would never risk that." This time, it's my turn to smile.

"I don't need to shape-shift to fight, Iris. And I can assure you I'm plenty enough in my human form to keep you here, cousin."

I hear Reagan step forward behind me, handing me a large pole with her gloved hand. It shines immediately, and Iris goes pale. "You... You can touch silver?"

I chuckle.

"Surprise, surprise, cousin. You're not the only one with secrets."

Even if I am not a full Royal like Nora, I guess being a daughter of the Sun too has its perks...

I glare back at my cousin.

"Now Iris, I would advise you use your smartness and think twice before trying to cross me."