28.

The sweet and mildly sour taste invaded Meoni's tongue as she bit into the pink shinsha fruit with delice, her bright red lips wetting from the sticky juice.



"Hege," A servant bowed after placing another tray with delicacies prepared for their mistress' tasting, receiving but a simple smile in return.



The princess then averted her gaze back towards the open balcony as she sat close to it into her soft and comfortable seat, resuming to her previous form of entertainment; two BloodHounds exercising their combat skills in the outside arena as they stood face to face and half-nude under the powerful and warm light of the two suns, their muscular and veinly torsos on full display whilst the lower half of their faces remained covered by those black safety masks.



Her large brown eyes followed with interest as she watched the two, analyzing their tactics, agility and overall endurance as they fiercely clashed into a violent and full-contact confrontation, using only the strength of their own bodies.



They threw and dodged kicks with incredible speed and fluidity as they moved around the spacious and oval stone floor, one from the two especially managing to catch her attention as he held such skillful moves and raw, incredible power, his flawless body movement and perfect male physique oddly resembling to the Alpha's.



Tilting her head and furrowing her brows with curiosity, she watched as he spun mid-air and managed to land a fierceful kick to the other, effectively smacking him across the face with his boot and managing to send him flying several paces away when the faint sounds of footsteps abruptly distracted her, drawing her attention towards the left corridor instead.



Swiftly stunned into silence, she widely stared, shocked to notice her Alpha prance around so... uncharacteristically careless, barefoot and with his shirt open as he gently carried a fragile-looking being in between his heavily muscled arms.



Elias continued to oh-so dreamily peer at the female in his embrace as he walked towards the sitting area, his gaze so blatantly misted with interest and desire that it left Meoni so utterly astonished, almost forgetting even how to produce sounds as she watched him approach the sitting area and gingerly place the little female over the cushioned lounge before taking a seat himself, of course right next to hers.



She blankly stared for a few moments longer, idiotically gaping between them until the Alpha averted his attention towards her, successfully dragging her back to reality.



"Alpha, is this the Lyra blood you have found?" She found herself automatically blurting out in laxian language as she peered into those intimidating dark galaxy eyes, secretly whishing that he would regard her the same way he'd just looked at the little female.



"Earthian english, Meoni, please. And yes, this is Madeleine," The Alpha answered whilst Madeleine quietly watched their odd exchange between unintelligible gibberish and english, her heart beating faster with just a little bit of hope as she looked into this girl's human-like brown eyes.



She did look inhumanly beautiful, but at least she didn't seem laxian.



Fair enough. A possible ally.



"Madeleine, this is Meoni," The Alpha made the introductions as he looked back at her.



"Is he keeping you here against your will too?" She quickly voiced out her thoughts before she could even stop herself, unfortunately only receiving a peculiar look as Meoni remained silent, gazing her up and down as if she were the crazy alien between them three.



Right. Okay. Message received.



Madeleine slowly lowered her gaze, feeling so awkward and stupid as she could feel both their gazes on her.



Now what?



She mildly chewed on her bottom lip as she sat like that for a while, almost conceding under the pressure of their unwanted attention until instinct finally kicked in, making her spew out the first thing that crossed her mind.



"What is your name though? Is your name really Alpha?"



A long moment of silence immediately followed, the girl apparently failing to take the hint as she only continued instead, and with a little more courage as well.



"I mean, is it used as a name here on Laxian? Because on Earth Alpha is the first letter of the greek alphabet and it is also used as an alternative for the term "leader", but never as a name,"



"My name is Elias," The Alpha calmly answered, making Meoni almost fall off of her seat from the staggering shock as this was actually the first time he had ever deliberately disclosed his personal name to any breathing being, she herself being one of the very few to discover it accidentally whilst browsing through his virtual personal data.



What was happening? What was this little female doing to him?



"Elias," Madeleine tested his name, earning herself a visible glint of approval into those dark blue galaxy eyes whilst Meoni continued to stare between the two, still shaken to the core.



What in the seven worlds was happening?



First he had consciously omitted her title and now he was also giving her his personal name?!?



"Alpha is actually used as a title of leadership too, here on Laxian," Elias explained as he gazed at the little female with what could only be described as warmth, making Meoni's entire being rapidly fill with a vile and utterly cruel sensation.



"Now, will you please have some food? I would not want to have to force some nourishment into you," He calmly pushed as he intently looked at Madeleine, making her quickly sink into her seat and shrink into herself with intimidation, hesitating for a few heartbeats before she tentatively took an odd-looking fruit from the small table nearby and started eating, all the while stealing careful glances between the two other beings currently occupying the room.



Desperate to capture her Alpha's attention again, Meoni furiously wracked through her memory for an interesting subject to discuss for a few fleeting moments until she quickly remembered all about that certain BloodHound from the arena outside that had drawn her attention.



"Alpha, have you recently recruited another BloodHound too?" She questioned, effectively gaining both the Alpha's and Madeleine's complete attention as they both so intensely stared at her, although each one for entirely different reasons.



"I just saw a new one outside and-" Before Meoni could finish that sentence Madeleine had already jumped from her seat and ran past her, straight towards the entirely open area that served as a balcony, eyes widening and her heart quickly threatening to pump out of her chest as she looked down over the edge.



Her breath stopped inside her chest as she saw two half-naked males circling each other as if preparing to fight, one of them in particular drawing her attention as he turned just in time for her to faintly make out the outlines of his features, despite the fact that he was wearing what appeared to be a black mask.



She knew that it was him. Even from such a distance and height, she could tell that it was him.



She would recognize those beautiful features anywhere and anytime.



"EMERIIICK!!" She screamed from the top of her lungs, desperate to draw his attention but accidentally also losing her balance as she had leaned forward way too much, immediately feeling that weightless sensation as her body quickly slipped right over the marble edge.



Another scream tore through her throat, this one louder and even more horrified as she felt herself falling through thin air for the span of a few seconds before a powerful arm suddenly wrapped around her waist, rather brutally slamming her against a significantly bulkier body and stealing the breath from her lungs with an audible "oof".



Trembling and barely breathing, she clutched against that flimsy shirt and dared look up at the face of her savior, horribly shocked to notice that she was in between Elias' arms...and they were actually floating.



She let out another frightened noise as soon as she made the stupid mistake to look down and around them, immediately feeling her throat closing down as she tried a few tormented and wheezing breaths, her head spinning and her pulse fastly pounding within her ears as she held onto Elias as if holding on for dear life, black spots already dancing in her vision as she faintly felt herself flying upwards, barely hearing that same unintelligible gibberish she'd heard before when the world around her abruptly turned to darkness.



"I'm...I'm sorry Alpha! I beg for your forgiveness!" Meoni pleaded between small tears, watching as the human quickly fell unconscious into the arms of her Alpha.



No!



She escaped a small and meek whimper, her voice dying out and her breath stopping as she looked into the Alpha's two dark universes, so terrifyingly shocked to notice that vindictive and absolutely malevolent look glinting into them as he only regarded her for another moment before turning and walking away, leaving her alone and falling into a dark abyss of utter despair.