My Arrogant King Drank A Poisoned Love Potion — And The Cure Exposed His Darkest Secret

Part 1

Deliberately tilting his heavy crystal glass, Tyler poured a thick, dark puddle of red wine directly onto the pristine marble floor just inches from my bruised knees.

Flashing an entirely unrepentant, infuriatingly arrogant grin, our alpha king sarcastically called himself terribly clumsy and offered a highly exaggerated mock apology for his careless action.

Snapping instantly under the immense weight of my exhausting shift, I glared up at him and demanded to know why he wasn’t busy entertaining his adoring noblewomen.

Leaning down so close I could explicitly smell the rich, fermented wine on his warm breath, he whispered darkly that they simply weren’t nearly as fun to aggravate as me.

Muttering angrily under my breath while violently scrubbing the fresh, sticky stain, I pointed out that his supposed profound boredom certainly didn’t stop him from keeping his wandering hands off them.

His striking golden eyes gleamed with sudden, sharp interest as he caught the subtle, deeply bitter undertone carefully hidden within my sharp words.

Challenging me directly with an intense, unwavering stare that stripped away all my defenses, he raised a single dark eyebrow and asked if his public romantic conquests actually bothered me.

Swallowing the massive, betraying lump rapidly forming in my tight throat, I lied smoothly, telling him the only thing bothering me was having to constantly clean up his endless messes.

Just as he opened his mouth to deliver a devastating, sharp retort, a highly desperate, over-dressed noblewoman named Ashley suddenly interrupted our incredibly tense, silent standoff.

Practically thrusting a fresh, brimming crystal goblet directly into his large, scarred hands, she offered him an eager, thoroughly desperate smile that made my stomach churn.

Batting her heavily painted, fluttering eyelashes, she bowed deeply and offered to fetch him absolutely anything his royal, demanding heart could ever possibly desire.

Gaping openly at her utter, shocking lack of personal dignity and basic self-respect, I simply couldn’t believe she would willingly humiliate herself in such a crowded, public setting.

Tyler had explicitly and publicly sent her packing three agonizing months ago without so much as a proper, respectful goodbye, yet here she was acting exactly like a pathetic, eager puppy.

I silently, fiercely vowed to myself that I would never, under any circumstances, debase myself or compromise my profound pride like that for any man currently walking the earth.

Accepting the offered drink without ever taking his piercing, intense gaze off my flushed, heated face, Tyler raised the ornate glass in a slow, highly mocking toast directed entirely at me.

He drank the dark contents down in one smooth, continuous swallow, his strong throat working visibly as the sweet, heavy liquid disappeared completely into his system.

Slipping up quietly beside me with a polished silver tray of empty glasses, my closest friend Heather lightly and cautiously nudged my trembling shoulder.

She leaned in incredibly close and whispered softly that he only deliberately paraded these desperate, fawning women around because he knew I was always helplessly watching from the shadows.

Shooting back a quick, highly defensive denial that sounded weak even to my own ears, I argued that he just couldn’t stand the fundamental idea of someone not actively worshiping him.

I knew with absolute, terrifying certainty that my cold, unyielding indifference was the only thing genuinely keeping his fleeting, dangerous attention focused squarely on me.

If I ever actually melted under that intense golden gaze or showed a single ounce of vulnerability, he would undoubtedly discard me just as quickly as he had discarded all the others.

Suddenly, while I was furiously scrubbing the marble floor to distract myself, I noticed a distinct, deeply concerning shift in his usually fluid, incredibly graceful, predatory movements.

Blinking rapidly as if struggling violently to focus his rapidly blurring vision, his heavy, normally sure footsteps faltered significantly as he tried desperately to walk away from the sudden crowd.

Stumbling blindly forward with an unnatural, terrifying heaviness that completely lacked his usual grace, he barely managed to catch himself on the sharp edge of a nearby wooden serving table.

The empty, heavy crystal goblet slipped completely from his limp, entirely unresponsive fingers and shattered into a hundred jagged, sparkling pieces across the polished marble floor.

Pushing my way frantically and aggressively through the dense, panicked crowd of screaming, horrified nobles, I completely ignored strict royal protocol and rushed desperately to his side.

Knowing intimately that he would never willingly or purposefully show such blatant, undeniable physical weakness in public, I realized with absolute certainty that something was horribly, terribly wrong.

Breathing a heavy, shuddering sigh of profound, undeniable relief when he saw my familiar, terrified face, he reached out a trembling, weak hand directly toward me.

Leaning his entire, massive muscular frame heavily against me, he nearly drove me straight to my knees with his sudden, crushing dead weight as his legs completely gave out.

His striking golden eyes tried desperately to focus on my terrified, panicked features, completely ignoring the absolute, deafening chaos rapidly unfolding among the terrified nobility around us.

His final, desperately whispered words completely died in his tight throat as his eyes rolled back completely in his head, signaling his absolute, terrifying surrender to the creeping darkness.

Lunging forward with every single ounce of desperate strength I currently possessed, I caught his heavy, limp body just before his head could violently strike the unforgiving, hard marble floor.

As heavily armed royal guards rushed forward with drawn, gleaming swords, terrified, fainting courtiers screamed wildly about hidden assassins, deadly treason, and impending war.

Our strict head healer pushed aggressively and violently through the panicked, crying crowd, loudly demanding that everyone step back immediately to give the fallen king precious air.

Pressing her expert, calloused fingers firmly to his thick neck, she eventually announced to the silent, terrified room that his pulse was surprisingly steady despite his comatose state.

Snatching up the fallen, shattered crystal goblet directly from the messy floor, I cautiously and carefully sniffed the remaining drops of liquid clinging stubbornly to the golden rim.

Beneath the strong, sharp scent of fermented red wine, my acute, highly trained tracking senses detected a heavy, undeniably sweet floral scent that simply didn’t belong in any normal vintage.

Following the invisible, lingering magical trail through the heavy, stagnant air, I pointed straight at Ashley who was currently cowering fearfully near the massive double oak doors.

Shrinking back violently from the furious, promising glares of the heavily armed royal guards, she cried out hysterically and defensively that she hadn’t actually poisoned our beloved king.

Puffing out her chest with a twisted, utterly delusional sense of pride, she confessed loudly she had only given him a highly potent, ancient love potion to open his eyes.

The grand, opulent ballroom instantly erupted into absolute, chaotic shouting as panicked nobles and furious guards alike reacted violently to the shocking, highly treasonous revelation.

Dan, our incredibly strict and proper royal steward, immediately demanded to know exactly what the specific, magical cure for this particular, devastating enchantment was before the kingdom fell.

Looking down at the floor with a painfully sheepish, guilty grin, Ashley nervously twisted the expensive, delicate fabric of her silk gown tightly in her trembling hands.

She calmly, almost proudly, explained to the horrified, silent crowd that the powerful spell explicitly required an act of true love’s kiss to be permanently and completely broken.

Declaring loudly and with absolute certainty that Tyler truly loved her above all others, she confidently knelt gracefully beside the unconscious, entirely unmoving alpha king.

Pressing her painted lips to his in a desperate, highly passionate kiss, she poured every ounce of her misguided, delusional affection into the desperate, highly public act.

We all held our collective, terrified breath in absolute silence as she finally, agonizingly slowly pulled away from his completely motionless, unresponsive form on the velvet cushions.

Remaining entirely motionless and deeply, unnaturally asleep on the cold floor, Tyler didn’t so much as twitch a single, minute muscle in response to her desperate kiss.

Letting out a high-pitched, incredibly confused whimper that echoed loudly in the silent room, Ashley stumbled backward as her entire fabricated, delusional reality completely shattered before her.

Dan’s booming, authoritative voice easily cut through the stunned, incredibly heavy silence of the deeply shocked room, asking the terrifying question we were all collectively dreading.

If our powerful king didn’t actually love lady Ashley, then who exactly did his hidden, fiercely guarded heart actually belong to?

A hundred pairs of eyes turned slowly toward the assembled, hopeful princesses, each one wondering the exact same terrifying, unanswered thing.