The Hidden King's Stolen Wife

"That's a very heavy accusation you're making, Ralph," Orion said, his tone severe. "Do you have any proof?"

"Your guess is as good as mine, but I can swear on my life I only felt the effects after ingesting both cups of tea," Ralph confessed. "Is this the first time that she made you something to drink?"

"...No, she made it often," Orion huffed out, a furrow growing on his forehead. He had a faint, hazy impression of two tea cups on a tray, and the sharp burst of flavor on his tongue. Elowyn had loved to make him tea.

But he couldn't remember what happened after he drank it.

Meanwhile, Soleia could only huff at the confirmation, her eyes trailing down his body. Orion must have been incapable in bed, for Elowyn to resort to drugging so often. She wondered idly what happened to his nether regions― were they trampled over by an errant horse, or did an enemy soldier stab him right where it hurt?

"What are you looking at?" Orion barked out. Suddenly Soleia's gaze had turned pitying, and it was causing warning bells to ring in his head.

"Nothing," Soleia said simply. No wonder he and Elowyn were so protective of the child in Elowyn's belly. Who knew what sort of tactics they had to resort to in order to get such an outcome? "I was just wondering when you would leave."

"I'm not leaving this place, nor am I leaving for the palace tomorrow morning," Orion declared, his eyebrow twitching at Soleia's insistence on throwing him out. "In case you have forgotten, this estate belongs to me."

And if Elowyn was indeed drugging him, he wasn't going to throw himself into her arms without a plan.