"Is it correct?" The queen asked the physician in a quiet voice, even though it was just the two of them in the library.
The physician nodded sadly and bowed as he said, "I apologize, my queen, but it is indeed as we suspected. What ails his majesty is the Alpha's plight."
"For how long?" She asked in a tight voice.
"I suspect he has been taking it in small portions for a long time now. Over... a year now." He explained as his head went even lower.
Over a year.
Someone had been messing with the king's health. Her palms fisted beside her in anger.
Who would dare to do something like that? How dare they? It had to be that same person who had been attacking Harold and also messing with her.
"It must have been through his meal."
Since it doesn't affect betas or omegas. That could have been the only way to poison the king. She said to herself thoughtfully, and the physician's brows pulled together as he thought about it.
Although he agreed that it might be through his meals or drinks, he wasn't sure it was the general meal, or else Prince Harold would have been in a similar state too since he was also an alpha.
They couldn't possibly arrest everyone that worked in the kitchen, but maybe if they could narrow it down to those who attended to the king alone, they could find something, the Royal Physician mused, but before he could point that out to the queen, she banged her fist on the table in front of her as she stood up.
"I must find the person responsible and kill them with my own hands." She said this in rage before looking pointedly at the physician.
"You must not breathe an air of what we discussed today to anyone," she ordered as she headed for the door, but the physician called for her attention in confusion.
"What about his Majesty, the King? What should I do about his state? There is a rare herb that can be used to push out his poison. If we can get the herb and mix it with an Alpha's blood, it will be able to cure him of the ailment and get rid of the poison," he rushed to tell her.
"Alpha's blood?" The queen asked curiously.
She would rather die than have Harold's blood save the king's life.
Besides, what was the point of reviving the king when she was going to take over the throne? She mused, but before she could give him an answer, an urgent knock sounded on the door, making their attention turn there.
"You may enter," the queen ordered, and immediately one of her maids came in, panting.
"Has the witch been captured?" She asked, her eyes lighting up.
"My queen, something terrible has happened." The maid said it breathlessly, making them look at her curiously.
"Lady Luciana is severely injured and needs urgent treatment," the maid said, looking at the physician since Prince Ivan had sent for someone to fetch him.
"Luciana?" The queen asked with a confused frown.
Although Luciana wasn't the person she wanted to hear about right now, hearing that she was hurt made her very curious.
"What happened to her?" What about the others? Is Prince Harold here with the witch?" She asked as she headed for the door, while the maid and the physician followed behind.
"Prince Harold and... his wife are not here yet. But Prince Ivan returned together with Lady Luciana, Lady Susan, Sir Williams, and Sir Lance. Lady Luciana is badly wounded. From what I heard, Prince Ivan is... responsible."
While the head physician looked at the maid in horror, the Queen stopped walking and turned to look at her in disbelief. That was impossible. Ivan would never do that.
The queen shook her head. Maybe this girl has heard wrongly.
"Are you sure it was Prince Ivan and not Prince Harold? And why isn't Prince Harold here yet? Where is Damian?" She asked as she began to walk again, this time in hurried steps.
"One of the maids overheard Lady Susan telling her parents that Prince Ivan lost control in his wolf form and attacked Princess Luciana."
"His wolf form? In public?" The Queen stopped walking again and asked in horror, but as she slowly digested the information, she let out a loud laugh, surprising the maid and the royal physician.
Well, wasn't this the heaven helping her punish her foolish, rebellious son? Who would have thought he would hurt her with his own hands after disobeying her to go protect her?
"How bad is her wound?"
"Very bad, my queen. She needs to be treated by the head physician immediate—"
Before she could complete her sentence, the queen slapped her hard across the face, making the physician, who was about to hurry away, stop in his tracks.
"How dare you decide that?" She spat it out. "Why should the head royal physician attend to someone who has already lost her princess title?" The queen hissed.
"Forgive me, my queen. It was Prince Ivan's order," the maid apologized as she fell on her knees.
"Sir Williams... also needs to be attended to. He... he was also hurt by Prince Ivan," the maid quickly added so that the queen would forget her blunder.
"What?" She asked in horror. As if that wasn't enough, the maid went on to inform her that Williams had been cut with Ivan's poisoned sword, making her face pale immediately.
She had already planned a wedding for him in the coming days! If she wanted to take the throne, she needed many allies! Beside that, her brother was not going to let this slide.
"Go! Hurry! You have to save him!" She urged the royal physician, who bowed and hurried away to the chamber where the Queen's brother stayed.
"What about Damian and the others?" The queen asked. Why wasn't anyone saying anything about him? Just what had happened to thwart her plans like this?
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶