Ch. 22：Poisoned

My hands tugged at the sleeve of Killian’s robes. He was leaning over to listen to the man beside him so he shrugged me off. On another day, I would not dare touch him like that but I was freaking out. My heart threatened to burst and I thought it was due to the poison in my system. I tugged at his sleeve relentlessly until he turned to me with eyes clouded with annoyance.
“What is it?” He hissed. I shrank away for a second before shaking my head. It was not the time to let fear silence me.
“I – I may have been poisoned.” As I spoke, my words slurred into each other and the King’s pissed expression blanked out from my vision for a second.
“I served you from my plate. How is it that you’ve been poisoned but I haven’t?” He sounded unimpressed, uninterested even. “If this is a ploy –“ He started but my head spun faster.
“I think – I think it’s the wine.” I pointed at the bottle that I’d drained.
“You are drunk,” he said with a small bark of laughter. “How can you be drunk from this wine? It barely has any alcohol” His tone mocked me. The heat spreading through my body intensified and this time it was from embarrassment. “How pathetic.” He didn’t sneer but the effect was the same.
How could he? All I’d done was drink wine that tasted good to my inferior taste buds and now he mocked me. How could one man take a piss on my esteem the way this one did? Tears gathered in my eyes but I blinked them away. I knew what I was getting myself into when I agreed to act as his mate. It was too late for me to feel sorry for myself and I would be darned if I let this kind of a person see how much his words hurt me – me, who’d made a thick shell over my skin to bounce off the derogatory remarks thrown at me every day.
“I didn’t know,” I muttered. My voice was weak and my gaze darkened some more. I felt struck by a spell of blindness from the way my vision wavered. Was this what drunkenness felt like?
“You have no wolf but you still drank a full bottle of wine. It barely contains any alcohol but even you should have known better,” he chided. Didn’t he pour me my second cup and offer me a third? I didn’t know but he knew.
“The Alpha King and his mate will now open the dance floor!” Even in my blurry mind, I could process those words. I paled when I realized I was the said mate.
“I – I can’t dance,” I whispered, leaning into the king. “I never learnt to dance and now –“ Now I was drunk.
“Please, grace the stage, Your Majesty.” Claps and cheers almost rendered me deaf.
“You have to stand if you don’t want everyone to realize you are drunk,” Killian said.
“But – If I stand –“ My train of thoughts scrambled for a second. “I’ll fall if I stand.” I slurred the words.
“Not with me here.” He stood and took my hand, pulling me with him. I would have stumbled if his strong and firm hands didn’t wrap around my waist.
He all but carried me down the stairs and then the music started. I couldn’t tell what was happening as my vision had turned dim.
“Raise your hands,” soft words touched my ears and stirred something inside of me. I raised my hands and he guided them appropriately. “Now just let your body go.” I didn’t have a choice as my body was out of my control at that point.
He guided me through the dance, moving slowly to the song. I didn’t have to do anything as he led me throughout the dance. We stopped moving and I heard cheers and then he was leading me away.
“Your Majesty, the event is not over yet. Where are you –“ Someone was saying but he cut them off.
“Carry on without me. I have something I need to do,” he answered.
“Oh, Oh, yes.” I heard someone giggle but I couldn’t turn my face, focusing on holding up my smile.
He led me back to the main palace, up to our room, and then he put me on the bed, taking off my shoes. He was oddly attentive for someone usually dismissive of my existence outside of the public’s eyes.
It did not take me long to fall asleep as my back touched the bed. I expected a bizarre dream to plague me as soon as I fell asleep as was common for me these days but thankfully, it didn’t happen.
I slept like a baby with no dreams until the lace fabric on my outfit started to itch. My sleep was so peaceful that I resisted the urge to wake up but the itch became worse. I itched the parts of my skin covered in lace as my eyes blinked open.
“Do you want me to take it off?” Cool words washed against my skin but my mind was too muddled to make complete sense of them.
“Hmm?” I muttered, yawning widely as I tried to reach my zip.
“Do you need help?” Even cooler words. They were low and they stirred a building heat in my guts. It was the moment when his hand reached for me that the sleep vanished from my eyes.
Killian was propped up against a pillow and his eyes were fixated on me like a hawk – like a predator who’d found its prey. I swallowed down through a dry throat. The look in his eyes was unfamiliar but I understood.
“Do you need help taking off your clothes?” I shook my head hurriedly as he offered for the third time.
“N – No. I’m fine.” I rushed out of bed but the sheets were wrapped around my body so I fell when trying to escape the bed and the man whose gaze made me feel funny.
“Are you okay?” He peered at me from atop the bed, his red eyes still gleaming in a way that made my skin prickle.
“I - I’m okay.” I untangled myself from the sheets and rushed to my feet. He went back to his position in the middle of the bed, a pillow propped up behind him and his hands clasped behind his neck. His eyes did not stray from me.
“W – Why are you looking at me like that?” I cried in frustration when his heated gaze made me stumble about like a fool.
It was a look I’d seen men give to women they wanted to take to bed but I didn’t think he wanted that with me. After all –
“I want you,” he blurted. I was wrong. “Preferably now.” I choked on my saliva. If my skin got any hotter, I would burn to ashes.
“What do you – But you –“ So many words flashed in my head but I couldn’t form sentences as he adjusted himself on the bed.
He’d taken off his robes and his coat, leaving him in his trousers and innerwear that hugged his muscles. When it moved, the gesture somehow seemed seductive. Maybe it was because of the look he was giving me but him adjusting himself on the bed seemed erotic.
“I can’t –“ I continued my rambling and he kept his heated gaze on me while I fought for air to enter my lungs. “You said you weren’t attracted to me,” I finally spoke.
“That was weeks ago,” he threw the comment out there with a flippant shrug. “Do I have to explain why I want you?” I shook my head hurriedly.
“N – No, but –“ My heart pounded faster than it did when I got drunk. “What if – I don’t want you.”
“Liar.” I blinked as he murmured. “You were rutting against me in your sleep and even now, I can smell your arousal.”
I hung my head in shame at my body’s betrayal. Was I aroused? I didn’t know but I knew my body felt funny. Why would this man arouse me? Even as I asked the question, my mind already supplied the answer.
The king was taking off his shirt and as his muscles flexed, I caught myself swallowing.
He was effortlessly attractive.
“I’m ready when you are.” He relaxed into the bed and my heart stuttered.
I had never been attracted to anyone before to the point of thinking of sex so why now? Why this man? Was it because we were supposed to be fake mates? Did sharing a bed with him –
“You are wasting time.” Why this cruel and arrogant man? “Do you need help with your dress?”
“No. Just –“ I shook my head, taking a step back. My body urged me to take a step forward, throw caution to the wind and engage in the fire dancing in his eyes but –
“Come to me, Amethyst.” My name rolling off his lips was never that seductive. “Or do you want me to come to you?” My head moved. I didn’t know if I nodded or shook my head but his gaze sharpened. “I am the Alpha King.” His words were a low growl. “You answer to me. It is not the other way around. Come to me.”
Ice-cold water drenched the lust in my guts as my lips curled.