Potion of Love

I looked at the crystal vial in my hand. The pale, pink liquid shimmered inside, giving off a scent that was both mesmerizing and dangerous.

This was the legendary Love Potion, the forbidden magic of our world of Werewolves.

Drink it, and the target would have "love" etched deep into their soul for seven years.

In my last life, I slipped it into my destined mate and Alpha Jason Green's cup.

The potion's effect was stunning.

That cold, distant male werewolf who had always kept his distance suddenly started treating me like the heart of his world.

He stopped staying out all night. He would report his plans to me whenever he had to go somewhere. He stopped sleeping a meter away and instead pulled me into his arms every night.

He also stopped putting his childhood friend Lilian Foster first. For the first time, he even rebuked Lilian at a pack meeting, all for my sake.

I was lost in his tenderness, feeling like the happiest woman in the world. Later, we held the grandest mate-bonding ceremony our pack had ever seen.

Jason kneeled on one knee in front of everyone, kissed my fingertips, and swore to protect me for the rest of my life.

Everyone in the pack was amazed by what had happened. They said I had won, that I had finally tamed the unruly Alpha.

But only I knew the truth. In those seemingly affectionate eyes, there was nothing but the void.

That night, while he caressed my back and whispered that he loved me, another image kept replaying in my mind. The way Jason had once looked at Lilian. That unhidden, instinctive care in his eyes.

Those were his genuine feelings.

The tenderness I had stolen didn't belong to me.

Every time his phone screen lit up.

Every time Lilian appeared.

I couldn't stop doubting whether the Love Potion would suddenly lose its effect. Would Jason suddenly wake up? Would Lilian sway him?

As the pack's Luna, I was supposed to be calm, strong, and unshakable. Yet, this relationship held together by magic was wearing me down little by little. I was slowly crumbling into pieces.

I became sensitive, paranoid, and unstable. I started making mistakes at pack meetings. I fumbled business negotiations. Even my wolf form's fur coat turned dull from long-term anxiety.

One day, I was taking a walk in our territory in hopes of clearing my mind when I overheard a group of Omegas whispering.

"Does Brenda really deserve to be our Luna? Every time the Alpha talks to another she-wolf, she gives them this crazy look. She's so obsessive."

"I don't get what the Alpha sees in her. If you ask me, Lilian is so much better."

"A lot of the pack's members think so, too. I bet Brenda won't keep her place as Luna for long..."

I couldn't listen anymore, and I stumbled home.

Jason saw me and smiled. "Honey? Why are you so disheveled? This isn't like you at all..."

That casual remark completely broke me.

The happiness I had stolen was slowly destroying me.

One day, my nightmare came true.

Lilian used her tongue to trade for the Love Potion's antidote from a witch on the black market.

The moment the effect wore off, I watched the affection vanish from Jason's eyes, replaced by pure, bone-deep disgust.

"Brenda, you make me sick!" he growled.

The Love Potion could fake love, but it could never fake hatred.

Jason personally signed the papers to sell me to the black market. I was used as a live test subject for experimental drugs. In the end, the Corrosive Spellvial burned through my insides.

The last thing I heard before dying was that Jason was sparing no effort to find a way to heal Lilian's tongue.

At that moment, I regretted everything.

I regretted having feelings I should never have had, taking shortcuts I should never have taken, and betting my whole life on a bottle of Love Potion.

-

When I opened my eyes again, I was back on the day I got the Love Potion.

The crystal vial was still in my hand, the liquid as pure and alluring as ever. But this time, I wasn't giddy with joy like I had been before.

Jason was the Alpha who had once ruled my every emotion.

But…

I didn't want him anymore.

I didn't need a mate who was under the Love Potion's control.

I certainly didn't need to drag myself into the abyss for the sake of so-called "love."

I walked to the mirror, looking back at the woman staring back in its reflection who had yet been beaten down. She was still wild, still free, still whole.

"Brenda Neeson," I said softly to her, "this time, you need to love yourself."

I lifted my head and drank the entire bottle of Love Potion in one go.