Stolen by the Beastly Lycan King-Chapter 43: Let Me Finally Help You

Lucia opened the door to one of the guest rooms and led Lorelai in, helping her take a seat on the couch of the drawing room adjacent to the bedroom.

The dimmed candlelight barely helped to light the space and the princess felt uncomfortable staying with the duke in such a dark and solitary place. But she had no choice. She had to please him no matter what.

Lucia placed a glass of dark red wine on the table before the princess and smiled, her voice still as sweet as ever. "Would you like to have a drink, Your Highness? You look a little tense and since you are in pain, a glass of wine might help you feel a little better."

Lorelai looked at the dark liquid in the tall glass and swallowed hard. Although it was true that she felt unbelievably tense and miserable, she was not entirely sure whether losing her sharp senses was such a good idea. Not with Duke Kalder at least.

Still, Lucia's offer was tempting. Lorelai had not eaten anything the whole day and was in desperate need of something to soothe her rebelling stomach.

"Yes... Thank you."

Her fingers reached for the glass and before she even knew it, she was already greedily swallowing the sweet plump wine which she knew was favored by both Althea and Duke Kalder.

'Ah, I feel so much better now.'

The princess set the glass down and looked back at Lucia, whose rosy lips were stretched into a strangely wide smile.

"Well," she said rather carelessly as she headed for the door. "I will leave you now. Enjoy your time here, Your Highness."

Even after she had left, Lorelai continued to watch the door that concealed Lucia from her eyes.

She did not know why she kept looking at it; perhaps she was hoping that Lucia would come back and tell her that Duke Kalder would not see her tonight. Yes, she was silently praying for that.

But no one came.

As she continued to sit alone in the darkness of the drawing room, she could not help but feel that something was wrong.

All of a sudden, she started feeling incredibly sleepy and hot, her chest rising rapidly up and down as she struggled to tame her frantic breathing.

'What is going on with me? I cannot seem to calm down... What is happening?'

Lorelai tried to get up from the couch, leaning desperately on her cane, but no matter how much she tried, she could not catch her balance and ended up falling backward, hitting the plush cushions with her back.

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'My body feels too heavy, I can barely move...'

As she became aware of the condition of her body, even though her mind seemed to be clouded with thick, dark fog, a scary thought shook her to the core.

'Was it poison? Did Lady Lucia try to poison me?'

Despite her frightened state, her memory drifted back to the strange dream she had before she went to the Summer Solstice festival.

She was experiencing the same sensations, but this time, it was someone else who made her feel this way. It was someone else who wanted her dead.

And then, unexpectedly even for her, a pair of bright amber eyes appeared in her mind's eye. The mystery man from her dream, the only one whose eyes she would never forget.

Rhaegar.

In her last dying moment, she truly wanted to see him.

Struggling, Lorelai opened her heavy eyelids, still fighting for her life when her whole body froze as a pair of familiar amber eyes stared down at her in bewilderment.

"What are you doing in my room?"

It was his voice. It was definitely his voice––she could never mistake it for someone else's.

Yes, it was his voice, his eyes, his warm, irresistible scent. It was the lycan king.

"Lorelai," he finally spoke again and the sound of her name coming from his sensual, full lips made her insides tremble. Her name had never sounded so sweet to her before. "What are you doing here?"

The princess slowly moved her head to the side, fixing her half-closed eyes on the empty glass resting on the table. She parted her lips, struggling to explain. "The wine... there was something in it... poison."

Rhaegar's eyes widened in shock and he rushed to the table, grabbing the empty glass and bringing it closer to his nose. A sigh of great relief escaped his chest and he tossed the glass to the side, ignoring its shattering sound.

"It was not poison, princess. It was an aphrodisiac."

"What?" Although his words had managed to register in her foggy mind, she still refused to understand their meaning clearly. Why would Lucia give her that if she knew this was not Duke Kalder's room?

"There is no mistaking it," the lycan king continued, "I am familiar with a lot of substances. This is one powerful stimulant, and it was given to you for a reason."

"But why?" Lorelai now felt even more miserable than before. She was happy she was not dying, but her situation could not be more embarrassing. And in Rhaegar's presence, to boot.

"To mess with you, why else?" Rhaegar almost laughed these words out. "With you and with me."

Somehow, the princess could no longer hold back her swirling emotions. Her chest now contracted with emotional pain and she started suffocating, choking on her own hot tears as they began to roll down her cheeks uncontrollably.

Why again? Was it not enough that her own family had been torturing and humiliating her for years? Now she even had to go through something as dangerous as this?

She refused to believe the amount of suffering she had to push herself through. Truthfully, now she really wanted to die.

Her emotional struggle was interrupted as a pair of strong, warm arms wrapped around her trembling body, effortlessly lifting her from the couch.

Startled, her body shook violently and she instinctively wanted to free herself but Rhaegar only held her closer, his voice brushing over Lorelai's hot face.

"Don't do anything, just let me help you. Just this once, let me finally help you."