The Cursed King

"Your Majesty," Horatio knocked on the king's study door frantically and Loriel made him come inside at once. 

The old man's face looked worried and helpless. 

Loriel was checking on the current maps and formation that his general sent and was preparing a letter. However, Loriel dropped the quill in his hand and immediately rose from his seat in alertness once Horatio came. 

"What happened?" he asked the royal butler.

Horatio bowed down his head several times. "Her Majesty is very sick. I have called the royal physician and we are waiting for his arrival. I want to let you know what happened."

Loriel left his study before Horatio even finished speaking. 

The Summerian king was really worried when he heard Elise was sick. She looked fine last night and even though there were some events that occurred today that made him frantic about her love towards him, she should have said something.

Loriel wondered if Elise no longer loved him and instead realized how much of a trash he was to her before, but now, suddenly Horatio told him that Elise became sick?

He should have known that something was wrong with her last night while they were having dinner. 

"Gosh, what a foolish woman!"

Seriously, why didn't Elise say a thing to him?

Or was it Loriel's fault that he could not read his wife's mood and the atmosphere from last night? Sometimes he wished that he could read minds, but Loriel couldn't do that and he was only doing what he could.

"I need to stay with her always from now on," Loriel told himself.

Loriel no longer cared if Elise didn't want to see him after he made her cry yesterday. He needed to see her every day and make sure that she and their baby were fine and even if Elise sent back all his clothes to his chambers…he was still going to stay with her and have the servants return them.

Loriel knocked twice and opened the door to his wife's chamber. There were several maids inside who immediately bowed down deeply when they saw the king. 

Elise was curled up in a ball on her bed. 

Her face looked as white as cotton.

Loriel immediately approached Elise's bed with worry plastered all over his face.

"How long has she been like this?" he asked the maids.

One of them, who was the oldest one, exerted her courage and replied to Loriel's question, albeit with a stammer. "H-her... M-majesty suddenly fell ill an hour ago."

"That long?" Loriel was furious. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

Elise tried to sit up with difficulty when she sensed Loriel's presence. She reached out her hand and gripped the man's arm. 

Elise's voice was weak when she begged him to spare the maids. "Your.. Majesty... it's not.. their fault. I suddenly felt unwell, and I thought it was just a regular morning sickness..."

Loriel's expression instantly turned gentle when he turned to Elise and sat by the bed, beside her.  He touched her forehead and cheeks to see if she had a fever. "Do you have bad morning sickness?"

He didn't know about them when he was staying with her in her room. How long was she able to hide this from him? Loriel remembered some times when she complained, but it was never that severe.

Elise nodded weakly. "Sometimes."

"Oh... then you have to get better care," Loriel said as he scrunched up his brows. "Why didn't you tell me about this? You have to let me know."

Elise didn't reply. She looked away and slowly tears started dripping from the corners of her eyes. She didn't want to be a nuisance to him so Elise did her best to heal herself and soothe the symptoms with some magic that she knew.

However, Elise didn't realize that the backlash would come now tenfold. It turned out to only delay the symptoms but not actually remove them.

Loriel assumed this must be the raging pregnancy hormones that she cried so easily for nothing. He waved at the maids and sent them out. "All of you, wait outside. When Zaff comes, bring him inside."

"Will do, Your Majesty," the maid all responded in unison, while bowing down deeply. They walked out of the queen's chamber and closed the door behind them. 

They stood outside the chamber while waiting for Zaff, the royal physician.

Loriel pulled Elise to his embrace and tugged her chin to look in his direction. His eyes looked very serious when he spoke. "This can't do. From now on, I will move into this chamber and stay with you. This is for our child."

Actually, this was for him too. He couldn't bear to be apart from her while she was carrying their baby. But he could only say that he did it for the child. He had his pride.

Loriel also felt hurt if she no longer loved him. Not when he had already decided to consummate their marriage and tried to make things work.

Loriel added, "I need to make sure that I can be with you when you are unwell. So, I don't want to hear an excuse. After Zaff checks on your condition, I will ask Horatio to move my personal belongings to this chamber and don't have them sent back this time."

Elise looked at the man with a disbelief expression. After she had done such a thing, Loriel would still come back? Hadn't Loriel grown tired of her? Didn't he think of her as a burdensome woman?

She couldn't understand what Loriel actually wanted. Did he really want to move in to be with her or only for the baby?

Loriel misunderstood her questioning gaze and added, "Do not worry, I will move out after the child is born."

Elise lowered her head and bit her lip. Ahh... so, it wasn't for her.

She nodded weakly and replied, "Understood, Your Majesty."

***

When Zaff arrived and Loriel gave her the sleeping potion, Elise calmed down and drifted off to sleep. However, there was a feeling in her gut that woke her up and she went to look for her husband after Horatio told her where the king was.

It was where Elise heard the news that broke her heart. 

Zaff told Loriel the condition that she was undergoing and that she was too weak to actually give birth to a child without dying. Loriel was being made to choose between Elise and the unborn baby.

"No," Elise whispered and clutched her chest in pain.

She didn't want to lose her baby and the fact, that if she wanted to live she needed to abandon the child, devastated her. 

A life without her child was not worth it and even the future where she lived to see another day with Loriel looked bleak. 

Elise could already imagine the life that would happen if she survived and became barren.  Loriel would find another woman to take as his wife and to bear his child.

When that happened, Elise would be forgotten and Loriel would surely fall in love with the woman who gave him an heir. 

The thought of that and the fact that Elise would never see her child if she chose to live broke her heart.  Elise lost the strength in her knees and fell on the ground and this caught the attention of the two men who rushed out to see her.

There was no good outcome to her being alive.

"Oh, my god... Elise! When did you come out?" Loriel immediately jumped toward her and picked her up from the floor. 

Hot tears spilled down her cheeks as she looked at Loriel and clutched his shirt. A decision was in her heart as she said, "Please... Your Majesty... don't kill my baby..." she cried and begged him. "I want to keep the baby. Let me keep him."

Elise didn't want to live her life knowing that she let her child die.

Before, she never understood why her mother gave up her life so Elise could live but now she understood. The only difference was that a loveless marriage awaited Elise if could not give him a child. 

She'd lose both her child and Loriel if she survived this ordeal. 

Elise also didn't want to experience the idea of seeing Loriel marry another woman and have a child with her so they can continue the bloodline.

It meant that Elise would become the forsaken queen and she could not blame Loriel if he chose to take in a concubine so the Ashborn family continued.

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NEW BOOK ANNOUNCEMENT:

Hello, I just published a new book from the werewolves genre, to join NovelFull's writing competition. This is the synopsis:

THE KING'S WIFE IS THE ALPHA'S MATE

The king, or the alpha?

When she jumps over the academy walls to escape from her bullies, Sophie falls straight into the arms of Nicholas, the kingdom's crown prince with a sweet and sunny disposition. Sparks fly and love blossoms between the poor orphan and the prince.

But... suddenly, Leland, the dangerous new alpha of the most powerful werewolf pack in the kingdom claimed her to be his mate?! Sophie is torn between two men. One calls her his wife, the other claims her his mate.

The prince is warm and sweet, his love is burning like the sun. The alpha is cold and overbearing, his love is as heavy as the mountain and as cold as the winter.

Which one will Sophie end up with when both sides wage war over blood, hatred, and revenge?

Leland will burn the entire kingdom just to get Sophie and avenge his race. On the other hand, the newly crowned king, Nicholas, strives to drive out the werewolves that the kingdom deemed as monsters while keeping a dark secret within himself – He is also a werewolf.

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You can search the book by the title <The King's Wife Is The Alpha's Mate> and add it to your library, or you can click my username and go to my reading lists called "Missrealitybites Books" and find it there.