The Cursed Prince's Strange Bride

Alicia almost laughed out loud at Tyra\'s question. Why did she always forget the kind of people she was talking to?

"We are not \'hanging\' anything. I mean we should go out and have fun outside the palace."

Susan and Tyra exchanged glances before looking at her.

"Are you serious?" Susan asked.

Alicia bobbed her head, "Yes. I\'m sure you both would like to leave the palace for a day, right? So how about we all go see the marketplace like I did the last time with Harold?" Alicia asked, and Susan\'s eyes lit up as she bobbed her head, while Tyra looked at her skeptically.

"The King won\'t let us leave."

"Don\'t worry about that. I will take care of it. Just tell me you\'re interested, and I\'ll arrange for all five of us to leave," she said, and without a doubt, they believed her.

"Five?" Tyra asked, wondering who the others were.

"Yes. Princess Luciana, the both of you, Paulina and me. It\'s going to be fun," Alicia said gleefully, already imagining the fun.

"Princess Luciana? She agreed to come with us?" Tyra asked, not sure she liked the idea of her other sister-in-law tagging along.

"She will get back to me after talking to Prince Ivan."

"Is Prince Harold aware of your plans? I don\'t think he\'s going to like you spending time with Prince Ivan\'s wife," Tyra said, and Alicia waved her hand dismissively.

"Since when did I care about what he likes? All I know is that we are going to have so much fun together. Even Harold enjoyed himself. We danced together," Alicia said, making both Tyra\'s and Susan\'s mouths drop open in surprise.

"Dance? Prince Harold agreed to dance with you? In public?" Susan asked in disbelief.

Alicia grinned as she bobbed her head. That was his punishment for annoying her. "Although we were in disguise, so no one knew about it. You have to keep it between us," Alicia said, and they nodded in agreement, even though they knew that they weren\'t the only ones who had heard what she said. She didn\'t whisper, and there was no way the other werewolves around didn\'t hear her.

Susan and Tyra looked around them, and as expected, they noticed a few maids staring in their direction with disbelief. Even if they decided to tell someone else about what they had heard, who would believe that the cold and scary prince Harold had danced in public with his wife? Disguise or not.

In truth, almost anyone would believe something like that now, since Prince Harold was beginning to look less scary to them by the day.

"So? What do you say? Are you game?" Alicia asked and they both looked at her in confusion.

"Game? What game?"

Alicia rolled her eyes as she let out a sigh, "I mean, will you go with me?"

"I\'m definitely coming with you," Susan said excitedly.

"Me too," Tyra said, and Alicia clapped her hands as she stood up.

"Perfect then. I will set the plans in motion. See you girls later," she called with a wave as she stood up to leave, but Susan was quick to stop her.

"Wait! Can\'t Williams come with us?" She asked hopefully.

"No. No guys, apart from the guards. That reminds me," Alicia said as she returned to her seat and turned to face Susan.

"Did either of you hear any rumours involving Paulina and your twin?" Alicia asked curiously, wanting to know if Alvin had been telling the truth.

"You heard it too?" Tyra asked, and Alicia raised an eyebrow.

"So is it true?" Alicia asked Susan, who shook her head.

"No, it\'s not. Nothing is going on between them. Williams is only letting her assist him while he paints," Susan explained, not wanting any trouble for her twin.

"Really? That\'s all there is between them? You can tell me the truth, I won\'t tell," Alicia promised, hoping that Susan was only trying to hide the truth from her.

"You can confirm this with Paulina. Williams has nothing of that sort to do with her. Our father will kill them both if something like that happens," Susan said, dashing Alicia\'s hopes.

"You\'re exaggerating. You don\'t mean that, do you?" Alicia asked, not seeing why their father would kill Williams and Paulina if they had an affair.

"She is not. My uncle is scary," Tyra interjected.

"Believe me, I mean every word of it. Nothing can happen between them. Williams knows better than to get involved with Paulina, so you don\'t need to worry about anything of that sort," Susan added, and Alicia let out a sigh.

She didn\'t want to cause too many problems here before leaving, so she would return to shipping Paulina and Alvin, for Paulina\'s safety. She wasn\'t a believer in dying for love. One needed to be alive to enjoy love, after all.

**********

While Alicia was trying to set up a new plan, Harold was inside his room, lost in thought, until the door was knocked and Alvin entered.

"Your highn–"

Harold raised his hand, interrupting him.

Alvin swallowed back his word. Although he was still annoyed at Harold for throwing him under the bus, he had to accept that a lot of weird things were going to keep happening now.

"Your bride is probably going to get into trouble for hurting one of the king\'s trained followers."

"Why?" Harold asked, turning to look at Alvin, who was looking at Harold with confusion. What did he mean by "why"? Wasn\'t he there when she went wild and hurt him?

"Uhm... my prince... don\'t... you think you are spoiling your bride too much?" He dared to ask, earning him a glare from Harold.

"It was their fault for attacking me when she was present. And his fault for standing in the way of getting hit," Harold said reasonably.

"..." Alvin almost facepalmed. How did that even make sense to him?

"But... she... is not in the good graces of Damon. I think you should tell her to be more respectful—"

"Her attitude is perfect," he said as he turned to face the window. "She doesn\'t need to be in anyone\'s good graces. They didn\'t marry her."

"But... you also let her keep dangerous objects—"

Once again, Alvin was interrupted by Harold, "Knives are not very dangerous. Also, she needs them to protect herself. Just in case."

"But she stabbed you!"

"It was not serious."

"And she calls you by your name instead of \'my lord\'!" Alvin said in frustration.

"That title is too long for her to remember." He said with a careless wave of his hand, making Alvin\'s jaw drop.

Was this prince Harold?

********

Before dinner, Alicia seriously thought about her plans. There was no way she would be able to survive in this palace without Harold, so even though he was very annoying. She had to look for a way to be on the same page as him. There was no point in getting angry at any of his tactics. She didn\'t have time for that.

She took out Amber\'s diary and read a page of the boring poem, wondering what it meant. She didn\'t know how long she spent there until a message came for her to arrive for dinner.

She was honestly tired of this palace routine. She made up her mind that she was going to be on good terms with Harold and, if possible, cut out a deal that would be of benefit to her.

So as she went to dinner that evening, she was fortunate to bump into Harold, who was walking down the same path with his hands behind him.

She happily hopped to catch up with him, but he didn\'t bother to slow down his strides, making her increase her pace and even had to run until she stood beside him.

"What is it?" He asked without sparing her a glance.

Alicia eyed him as she tried to tone down her annoyance. As soon as he spared her a glance, she flashed him a sweet smile.

"The evening is solemn like a song from the south." She said with a serious expression, making him stop walking to look at her in confusion.

"What is that?"

She stood opposite him, smiling proudly.

"I never mentioned my love for poetry to you?" She asked as she started walking slowly with her hands behind her like an aristocratic scholar.

,m

"When I saw you earlier... you looked like a star. You twinkled. And I wondered how you were above, looking like a diamond. Oh, ye star, how are you?" She turned to look at him, extending one hand.

He looked at her like she was crazy before he shook his head and muttered, "Lame," as he walked past her while trying to suppress an amused smile.

"I still have more from where that came from!" She called after him loudly.

"Never take them out of there." He responded without looking at her.

She was greatly annoyed at how he simply brushed her off like that. Did he know how much effort she had put into making it sound so poetically effective?

"What an asshole." She muttered to herself in annoyance, stomping her feet on the floor.