Chapter 48: Drugged

​Olivia’s POV

​It wasn’t a gentle kiss. It was hard, deep, almost desperate, and so possessive that for a second, I felt like he was going to devour me. He kissed me without a single trace of hesitation, stealing the very air from my lungs.

​For a few seconds, shock held me completely frozen beneath him. Then my senses returned all at once, and panic shot through my chest. What the hell was happening?

​I slammed my hands against his chest and pushed him away with every single ounce of strength I had left. He finally moved back enough for me to tear my mouth away. The sudden movement broke his hold on my wrists, and I scrambled backward across the mattress until my back hit the headboard.

​Panting heavily, I reached over with a shaking hand and switched on the bedside lamp. Bright light flooded the room, illuminating the man kneeling on my bed, and my breath caught in my throat.

​Lucas was kneeling on the mattress, staring at me. He was still dressed in a dark, tailored suit, looking as though he had teleported straight into my room from some important meeting or event. His tie hung loose around his neck, the first few buttons of his shirt were undone, and sweat covered his forehead despite the cool night air. His hair was a mess, and his chest rose and fell rapidly as though he had just run for miles.

​He wasn’t himself. I could see that immediately. But it was his eyes that truly frightened me.

​They weren’t their usual green. They were gold. Bright, wild gold that seemed to glow with something I couldn’t understand. His fingers tightened around the bedsheet as he squeezed his eyes shut, desperately fighting something inside himself.

​"Alpha Lucas?" I breathed out, my heart racing.

​"Help me," he rasped, his voice so strained that the words barely came out. "I was... drugged."

​I stared at him in disbelief. "Drugged?"

​He nodded once, breathing heavily.

​How on earth did someone manage to drug an Alpha King? Wasn’t being ridiculously powerful supposed to make things like this nearly impossible? More importantly, who would be stupid enough to try?

​"How?"

​"I don’t know."

​I glanced toward my locked bedroom door before looking back at him. He was still wearing his suit, and I hadn’t heard the door open at all.

​"You teleported here," I said, my voice barely a whisper.

​His jaw tightened. "I couldn’t control it."

​My stomach dropped. "You couldn’t control where you teleported?"

​"No."

​Before I could ask another question or even process what that meant, Lucas suddenly moved. He caught my shoulders and kissed me again. I immediately pushed against his chest, but he was far stronger than I was. I opened my mouth, ready to scream for help.

​Then I froze.

​If I made a sound, the guards outside would burst in. Servants would rush in. Lucian would burst in.

​And what exactly would they find? Their Alpha King in his brother’s wife’s bed in the middle of the night. Wonderful. Because apparently my fake marriage wasn’t complicated enough already. Even if I explained that Lucas had been drugged, would anyone believe me? I wasn’t willing to find out.

​I had to keep quiet if I wanted to stay alive.

​"Lucas," I managed when I turned my face away for a split second. "Stop. You’re not yourself."

​His breathing was rough against my cheek, and when he looked at me again, his eyes were still glowing gold.

​Taking advantage of my hesitation, Lucas grabbed the front of my thin nightdress and pulled. The fabric ripped right down the center with a loud tear, exposing my bare chest to the cold night air. He immediately ducked his head down, taking one sensitive peak into his mouth and sucking on it deeply.

​A sudden, electric shock ran straight down to my thighs. I placed my hands on his broad shoulders, trying with all my might to push his heavy body off me. But my weak push did absolutely nothing to move a high-ranking wolf.

​He sucked harder, letting out a low, desperate groan against my skin.

​Fuck.

​Why did this feel so breathtakingly, insanely good? Why was my body reacting to him like this? A wave of dizzying heat rushed through my veins, and for a terrifying second, my brain completely stopped fighting.

​There it was again. That strange familiarity I had felt in the Forbidden Forest. Something about being this close to Lucas pulled at a memory I couldn’t quite reach, and for one confusing second, my mind went straight back to the stranger from four years ago.

​No.

​This was Lucas. Lucian’s brother. More importantly, he had been drugged and clearly wasn’t thinking properly. Whatever connection I thought I felt could wait until he was himself again.

​Before I could gather my scattered thoughts, Lucas brought his head back up and captured my lips in another searing, possessive kiss. At the same time, I heard the sharp sound of a zipper sliding down.

​No. No, no, no!

​Whatever confusion had been clouding my mind disappeared instantly. I raised my right hand and slapped him hard across the face. The sharp sound echoed through the quiet bedroom.

​"Lucas, stop!" I shoved against his chest with everything I had.

​Lucas froze. For a second, he simply stared at me. Then something seemed to break through the haze in his eyes. The gold flickered, his expression changed, and his grip on me finally loosened.

​I didn’t waste the opportunity. I scrambled out of the bed, throwing myself off the edge, and landed on my feet on the cold floor, keeping several feet of distance between us. I wrapped my torn nightdress tightly around my chest, my heart threatening to burst out of my ribcage.

​Lucas didn’t follow.

​He collapsed backward onto the mattress, lying on his back and breathing heavily as he stared up at the ceiling. His hands curled into tight fists beside him, the muscles in his arms tightening as his body fought against the burning drug in his system.

​"Fuck," he breathed.

​I stood several feet away from the bed, clutching my torn nightdress closed and trying to catch my breath. My heart was pounding, my thoughts were everywhere, but one terrifying question somehow pushed through all of them.

​Why had he teleported here?

​Lucas said he hadn’t been able to control his magic. If that was true, then out of every place in this enormous kingdom and every person he could have appeared beside...

​Why had his magic brought him straight to me?