Chapter 232: He was doomed (Bonus)

Moon’s heart throbbed.

He felt extreme pleasure as the lonely, gloomy melancholy that had been lingering in his very soul suddenly vanished.

But it came with a pricking pain and an unabashed blankness.

"Fuck!" he cursed.

"You could have just jerked it out," he muttered, but Rio didn’t listen.

The man really was at his limit.

Soon, Moon also became dazed.

The sensation was too much, and as soon as his core touched the essence, it began to swell and suck it in.

The four tiny buds even shook from the vibration of the central cores, forced to make room.

His other four fused cores seemed to sense that their mate had started the fusion, and they began merging automatically.

Moon guided the essence, trying to keep his increasingly cold meridians from freezing.

Then he noticed something else.

Though Rio hadn’t deliberately sent his essence into Moon’s womb chamber, it still filled from the overwhelming essence.

Another tiny bud slowly but surely began establishing its own presence in a separate spiritual space, allowing it to grow inside a protective shield like the others.

Moon’s breath hitched.

And at that moment, he sensed four other auras approaching. Four very domineering presences were getting closer.

After Rio released, he was dazed, making his ice spikes easy to evade.

The lingering smell of frost and jasmine, mixed with ice mint, filled the air.

Along with the scent of lust and mating, it stirred up the suppressed desire inside the four men looking at them once again.

Their eyes slowly changed, shifting from sanity to crazed desire.

Before they even realized what they were doing, they were surrounding Moon and Rio...

Moon lifted his head from Rio’s embrace and looked at them.

Almost immediately, he cursed in breath.

"Fuck!"

The moment he looked at those glowing eyes with their red-tinted hue, he knew they had lost their minds.

And he was doomed.

The next morning, as dawn broke, a long howl echoed through every corner of Monalis Celestia.

It wasn’t the Elysian Crown Alpha.

It was a howl from the Lycan Empire, the only one that could reach every corner of Monalis Celestia.

It was also the howl of the one for whom the Lycan Empire still held its prime position, even after its lineage had downgraded and the emperor had become crippled.

After the Blood Moon, many people had scattered.

Now, this howl was calling them back into place.

Just after that, another howl echoed from the West Grand Plaza.

It came from the Elysian Crown Alpha, the Lord Chancellor of the Supreme Council.

The flag of the trial rose, and the day of the trial officially began.

A torrential downpour had washed over Monalis the previous night.

It was a blessing rain from the Moon Goddess.

After the crazy day and night of the Blood Moon, the rain had been like a cool stream, washing away the madness and helping every wolf calm down and regain their sanity.

When people started their new day, they no longer had tails or ears, and they could barely remember the hellish things they had done the day before.

The coachman was leaning leisurely against his cart, laughing with the yogurt cart man.

They had delivered their goods to the Inn and were riding away in their carts as if they hadn’t been the ones cursing and biting people just a day before.

The young ones were getting ready for trial without remembering who had mated with whom or whether their fated mate was the person beside them.

Though, with their families’ care, they were almost sure they hadn’t mistaken anyone.

So, when Moon finally came downstairs from the room at the inn to eat, his body swaying and his eyes half-lidded, he found the usual cheerful atmosphere had returned.

Nox had already reserved a table for them.

Axe came downstairs holding Moon by the waist and helped him sit comfortably.

As they all ate breakfast, no one spoke.

Ugo’s eyes darted around.

His usual gentle and mature aura was now tainted with suffocating guilt.

Leo, meanwhile, seemed very relaxed and active. He ate a lot, as if he hadn’t eaten for ages.

Rio was as silent as usual, and his eating habits were also very proper.

He ate in small bites, without making a sound or looking around.

Axe kept trying to put dishes into Moon’s bowl, while Nox also ate silently.

Feeling guilty, he only looked at Moon once in a while before returning his attention to the people around them.

"I’m exhausted," Moon said.

No one answered.

Of course, they knew he would be.

After all, they had all gone crazy and fucked around for almost the entire night, leaving Moon completely messed up and reeking of pheromones.

Their scent had even spread to the workers’ quarters in the Lost Realm.

In the end, they had to spray a natural air diffuser to make the place tolerable by dawn.

And by the time their sanity returned, it was already too late.

They had thought their blissful life was over after that night and that Moon would run away first thing in the morning.

But to their surprise, he had simply patted each of their heads. Then he took a great number of rejuvenating pills and slept, saying nothing.

This was the first line he said after waking up.

"You go to the trial yourself," he said.

It was his second line.

"No way!" all of them shouted at once, startling the people around them. Everyone turned towards their table.

"Don’t shout," Moon said irritably.

Leo frowned.

"We’re not going to leave you here."

Moon thought, ’Oh, now he’s caring?’

But the next sentence made his mind go blank.

"What if you run away with someone? I must keep you beside me all day. I don’t trust you one bit. Heh..."

Moon’s forehead throbbed.

He wanted to argue and lash out at him, but then he remembered his sore waist and fragile state and lost interest.

He simply stared at the man.

"Don’t look at me like that... I feel hot..." Leo started, but Ugo shoved a piece of meat into his mouth.

"Don’t talk while eating."