The dame scooted closer to King, tucking a strand of her pale blonde hair behind her ear as she flashed an angelic smile at him.
"I apologize for my companion. She's really. . . ungainly," she said.
King suddenly couldn't remember if he had learned how to talk. He somehow realized his obvious reaction, cursed himself as he shook his head, and cleared his throat. "Don't worry about it."
"Well, we got your girlfriend's dress ruined."
King's eyes gaped. "Wait, she's not my girlfriend. We're cousins," he coughed out, chuckling.
"Oh!" The woman placed a hand over her mouth. "I'm sorry, you guys looked intimate that I assumed you two were a couple." Suddenly, she reached out a hand. "I'm Lola. Nice to meet you."
King took her hand, and an electric wave pulsed on his arm. "I'm King, and likewise."
Her big, round green eyes widened in curiosity, never leaving his. "King? So, you're...?"
King held the back of his head. "I'm going to have to stop you there. That's actually, uh, my name."
"Oh..." she trailed off, nodding her head in acknowledgment. "Well, I have a bad guess streak today, don't I?"
King chuckled at her. "No pressure. Really. Everyone I met had the same impression. Erm, what can I do? It's misleading."
Her eyes trailed back to his, and she flashed a small smile. "Well, it's a cool name for one."
King's heart blasted into space. For once, he was actually proud of his name.
"So, which pride are you on?"
"Tierra Madre."
"So, you're one of the stars tonight?"
"More like an extra set. I'm a former member."
"You left? Why?"
King scratched his head, feeling a bit hesitant.
"Oh, you don't have to tell me—"
"It's just that we had to move," he replied. He didn't want Lola to feel awkward, or lose a chance to get to talk with her. But he felt like he was doing bad at it. And he felt like an idiot right now. And he mentally cursed himself again.
"Move to where?" she prodded with big curious eyes.
King couldn't resist. "The US."
"Overseas, huh?" she slowly nodded her head, before chuckling. "I was thinking only a little bit out of Prahova."
"It was just for... a change of lifestyle, I guess."
Lola nodded. She tilted her head and looked down at space. "Skyscrapers and everything you could imagine in one place," she hummed, almost as if she was musing.
King swallowed, heart slightly rising as he tried to force himself to ask the question that lingered in his mind since earlier. "So... you're from the Lykaios pack?"
"Bingo." She tittered. "So how did Mr. King possibly guessed it right?"
"Well, uh," King forced a chuckle, trying to make what he had in mind not sound so sarcastic as he naturally did. "there's only one pack who came here in this event." And the smell, which he did not include since it sounds rather rude.
"Okay, I feel stupid now." She giggled at herself, not failing to beam and smile like the sun, as King had conceived. His face grew warm, and his lips unconsciously curled up. He liked it when she smiles.
Pandora and the other gal went back to their view. The stain was still there, but it wasn't actually that bad, but it was more wet and visible now, perhaps because of the water, compared to earlier. They could just think of it as a pattern. . .
The bespectacled woman, who was heavily fidgeting, and Lola stared at each other before the gal pursed her lips and dropped her gaze on the floor.
The latter dragged her green eyes on Pandora's dress and placed a hand on her chin. "How about we get you a change? We brought extras just in case of. . . mishaps like this."
Pandora shook her head. "It's all right, really. People wouldn't really waste their time judging about another person's outfit—"
"Lola!" a group of women called out in the distance.
"It looks like you're being summoned too."
Lola turned her head back them, a slight frown troubling her angelic look.
"You don't have to fret too much about it, it's really alright," Pandora added, secretly wishing for them to just leave already, and spare them less wasted time.
Lola paused for a moment before someone called out to them again. She finally nodded as a response. "If that's what you wish." She trailed her eyes toward King. "Anyway, a pleasure to meet you, King." She smiled, and King's stomach did a backflip.
"Nice to meet you too, Lola," King answered, flashing back a charming smile at her.
She nodded, and they moved towards the other dames who called out to them.
"You like her, don't you?" Pandora cut through his reverie like a heated knife against the butter.
His cheeks flushed. "Uh, n-no, I don't," he said as he ran his fingers across his short choppy curls. He avoided her gaze.
"Uh-huh," was the only response from her. She examined Lola and had confirmed it immediately. King had a thing for cute and petite girls. His first girlfriend also had the same build until they both realized that it was all just that and looks and that they weren't really compatible personality-wise. Much more, they were just starting to get to know how things work at the age of fifteen.
Suddenly, the music pulsating through the air died, and there was a loud static screech from a microphone somewhere. Everyone's head turned towards the stage where Isaac had just climbed up. He was dressed in a midnight tuxedo, hair slicked back like shiny golden silk, with no beard or whatsoever in his robust face. He moved in front of the microphone stand, one hand holding a glass of red wine.
"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls... werecats and werewolves, it's a pleasure to have you all in here tonight. I appreciate the time that you had freed up for this special gala event," he exclaimed, a huge arched grin of excitement on his lips. "Tierra Madre had stood for many centuries, and they said time fly, but mine just got rocketed off to space. Heck, I woke up today, and I realized I'm fifty-six!"
The guests laughed at him. Axel and Minerva were shaking their heads but was also amused at the older man who beamed like a beacon on the stage.
"And everything that happened these past years felt like it had just happened yesterday. Being Tierra Madre's King is one of the most remarkable experiences that had happened to me. Not just from leading a group of brave-hearted warriors," he emphasized, "but to disciplining the asses of the future of our pride, no one else other than our own children, like that blonde eighteen-year-old chap over there," he pointed at Axel's direction.
Axel tried to hide his face in embarrassment, not from any of whatever actions he could remember he did wrong, but because of his dad, while his friends crowded in around him, pummeling his hair, laughing, and teasing him some more.
"I'm not getting any younger, and I'm getting rustier. Older. So tonight, my dear friends, I will be closing this chapter. And I think it's finally time for my son, Axel, to write his own."
"Woo!" His friends yipped loudly.
"Go, Axel!"
"I would like to thank everyone who had been a part of this, and to the Moon Goddess, who had made this opportunity possible. I will forever treasure this moment with all my heart and soul. But now, everyone, tonight until the next rightful leader comes to take the throne, I finally name my son, Axel Hierro, as King of Tierra Madre!"
A loud cheer erupted all over the place. There was clapping, roars, and whistling, chanting out Axel's name.
"Axel! Axel!"
"Toast to the new King!" his friends roared.
"Toast to this blonde chap!" Laughing as they pummeled his hair again.
King felt an unconscious sense of happiness for his childhood friend. He watched them from afar, as the people around him clapped and applauded.
Suddenly, the lights went off, and there were tiny nervous shrills, gasps, and confusion from the guests before a buzzing upscale beat slowly blared higher and higher through the overhead speakers. Vibrant lights of sorted colors beamed, pulsating, and shooting through the dim surroundings like dancing lasers.
"Well then, let's get the real party started!"
Louder and wilder roars and cries erupted all over the place again.
"I didn't know there was a nightclub in the 1600s," King chuckled sarcastically at Pandora. Yet he felt the beat course through his veins and body, like an intoxicating drug that dragged his adrenaline to the peak. He was almost distracted away from his primary concern when he noticed the hulky guy sticking out like a sore thumb.
"Uh-oh," he exclaimed when he saw him bickering with some chaps even in the darkness. Pandora immediately moved towards them, and he followed suit. He couldn't hear a word until he reached them from a foot away.
"— on purpose!" Bryce blared out.
"Woah, Woah!" King held Bryce's arm back. "Calm down, big guy. What's happening?"
"These mutts started first!"
"Better watch your mouth, fatty."
"Oh, you did not."
"Bryce!" King yelled as he locked his cousin's neck in a tight grip when he tried to lunge onto the freckly redheaded guy.
Then, a sun-kissed man wearing a white tux walked into the scene, holding a glass of Shotgun, an intimidating cocktail mix of gin, vodka, rum, tequila, and triple sec, on one hand, and pushing the other against the angry redhead's chest.
"I'm sorry. It seems like my companion here caused you quite the trouble," he apologized, though not sounding and seeming too apologetic as he implied with that smirk on his attractive face.
"On the other hand," he added, an arrogant grin pulling on his lips, "I do wanna hear some apologies on your side, though. I did hear the 'mutt' part."
King frowned as the man directed his icy-blue eyes at him instead to Bryce. He felt De Ja Vu. Then his eyes widened, and he remembered why. It was him.
Oh shit, he mentally cursed himself.
And that's how it happened.