CHAPTER 32: _TOO MUCH LIQUID COURAGE

Elian’s POV

*****

He had a sudden weird feeling just then. He could’ve sworn he heard someone talking about him and glanced around the restaurant wearily.

But then...

"Hey, why so tense?" Axel patted his shoulder with a hearty laugh, almost making Elian spill the contents of the spiralling crystalline flute glass in his hand.

He turned to Axel and smiled genuinely when he saw the warmth in his smile.

"Oh, nothing B..." He paused, breathing when he realised he was about to slip and call him by his title. "Nothing, mate."

Axel raised an eyebrow but then his smile widened as he nodded. "I can live with that. You calling me ’mate’ that is."

[WARNING: Host’s alcohol tolerance is pathetic at best, and any more glasses after this will lead to tipsiness or slurring of words. Proceed with—]

"You’re such a fucking buzz kill..." Elian blurted out all of a sudden before he could realise that he said that.

Axel paused, his eyebrows furrowing into a frown.

[Ooop... I stand corrected. Host is drunker than a grandpa with debts.]

"Did I... Say anything to upset you?" Axel asked while Elian heated up with embarrassment.

He placed his right hand over his face, shaking his head. "No... No... I think this moon dew is hitting."

Axel chuckled softly. "Well, that’s a surprise. It’s similar to wine in many aspects and the alcohol content is only fourteen percent."

[Ha! Lightweight.]

Elian gritted his teeth but straightened his back, holding himself back from answering the system. He turned his gaze back to Axel and shone a bright smile.

Axel stared at him for a while, his gaze going from his eyes and then to his lips in a repeated cycle, swallowing hard. That made Elian’s mind reel with so many crazy thoughts... Including kissing the Beta right here, in this public setting.

[Well, well... Someone’s definitely on too much liquid courage.]

Elian managed to collect his thoughts enough to snap mentally. ’Oh, shush! You’re supposed to be an accurate robotic system. How couldn’t you... How couldn’t you detect what the alcohol was doing in my system on time?’

As he spoke mentally, Axel’s leg underneath the table pressed against his, his golden eyes peering into his. The Beta placed a hand on Elian’s leg, caressing it in a way that made the latter gulp.

[My readings were as accurate as they can get. Indeed, if you take another glass after this, there’s no telling what you’ll do next. Right now you’re on that line where you know exactly what you’re doing but blame it on alcohol because of a little drowsiness.]

Elian blinked, his lips parting. Axel licked his lips, his eyes dimming a little. His breath touched Elian’s lips, making the latter crave more.

But just when he and Axel were inches away from kissing, a mechanical humming sound beside their table interrupted them, forcing them to turn their gazes to its source.

It was a large metallic tray which not only levitated with all their ordered food on it, but also pulsed with intricate tech lines of a bluish colour underneath.

"So, I’m guessing waiters aren’t a thing in this restaurant." Elian muttered as the tray set itself on the table, the tempting aroma of the delicacies whiffing into his nostrils.

His nostrils flared as he took it all in while Axel chuckled. "What’s the need of servers when this exists? It’s probably not used in the palace because... Well, the maids need their jobs."

Right...

Elian shrugged, digging into a weird-looking barbequed fish with chips, sauce and vegetable slices on it. It was "weird" because it glowed with iridescent lights, shifting from golden to blue and then pink and even red each time he slightly moved his head.

"So you didn’t tell me much about what you people discussed in the... War room." Elian fixed his gaze on Axel as he chewed on the fish.

The Beta only took occasional sips from the glass of moon dew in his right hand, not seeming all that interested in the food on the table.

However, his eyes seemed to glint with a lot of interest on the "food" beside him.

[The man is down bad. Really...]

[Mate #2 Seduction meter: 52%.

Possessiveness meter: 30%.

Chances of you two having sex if you go with this current momentum... 3/4.]

Three out of four chances!

Elian lit up with excitement at the same moment that Axel cleared his throat.

"Pardon, I got a little... Distracted." He admitted, smiling. "Anyway, I can’t tell you much about what we discussed in the war room because it’s classified."

Elian’s shoulders dropped as he nodded, his gaze slowly going back to the barbeque. "Oh..."

He could feel the Beta staring at him now and knew he could probably feel his disappointment. He secretly hoped that would be enough of a push to get the Beta to say something.

It was...

"Well, like Lucian already blurted in your room, there’s some unrest brewing between Arcadia and the dark lands." Axel cleared his throat and began, causing Elian to swerve his head to him. "We aren’t doing anything. At all. Just watching to see how it turns out."

Elian blinked, pausing his chewing for a bit.

"That’s... It?" He asked, squinting his eyes.

Axel shrugged, grabbing a roasted star hawk’s wing and taking a huge bite from it. "Yes. Also, the Rogue king of the Dark lands, Kyren Nochthane, is expected to visit us during the next full moon."

Elian almost choked when he heard that, grabbing his glass of moon dew again and downing most of its content.

The rogue king?!

[Ou, la, la... Would you look at that? Looks like you’ll get a chance to meet mate #3 sooner than expected.]

Last night was already a full moon, and the next one was in twenty-one days.

He had twenty-one days to prepare. That should be enough time, right?

"Anyway, enough about that," Axel spoke firmly, leaning close until his breath hit Elian’s face. "What about you? How are you feeling with this whole dynamic of having two mates?"

Hehe... "Two". Little does any of them know that it wasn’t two but THREE.

Elian parted his lips, about to say something when suddenly, a loud ding rang in his head.

[WARNING: A powerful laser beam attack is heading your way from outside. Time before it hits... 3 seconds.]

Elian’s heart skipped a beat, his breath catching in his throat.

Wait... What?!

He hurriedly looked past Axel who sat close to the crystalline glass wall of the restaurant. His eyes widened when he actually saw a beam of dark blue energy heading for them from outside.

"Duck!"