The Cursed Prince's Strange Bride

While Alicia was panicking in her bedroom, Harold was in his room, thinking. He looked out his window with his hands behind him, as he always did. For three nights, he had slept beside her, and for those three nights, he hadn't changed into his wolf form. His body felt a little strange, and he seemed well-rested. For the first time in years, he was able to rest for three nights in a row! No excruciating bone-breaking pain. He was just normal. But that wasn't the issue bothering him. It was his bride who had refused to wake up, despite everything they had done. He wasn't usually the type to get worried over things, but his worry had reached the roof all of a sudden. What hadn't he done?

He had threatened the physician even with death and had also gone as far as accepting Williams's offer to make her herbal medicine, which he had done. He had personally fed it to his bride, not minding who was looking to report it to the Queen or what anyone was going to think of it. Yet, she wasn't awake. What else could he do?

He knew that at the rate he was going, everyone was soon going to start believing that his bride meant more to him than he let on. Even Alvin was thinking so already, even if he had yet to voice it. He wasn't really concerned with what anyone was thinking. Those were the least of his concerns.

,m

A soft knock came on the door, breaking into his thoughts, and he turned just as the door opened and Alvin walked in. "You didn't shift last night," Alvin said, trying hard to suppress his smile.

It brought Harold back to the recent issue, so he answered as he turned back to look out of his window as the day slowly brightened. "Yes, I didn't."

"Does that mean your curse is broken? And you may likely find your mate or bear children with our kind?" Alvin asked curiously but received a sharp scolding gaze as Harold turned to glare at him.

"Apologies." Alvin kept his head down in a simple bow. Honestly, Prince Harold hadn't cared about that part of the curse where he wouldn't have a partner for the rest of his life. So now that he even had a bride whom Alvin suspected he liked, why would he still care about irrelevant things like that?

"Do you think Williams fed her the wrong medicine?"

Alvin almost choked on his saliva when he heard the uncertainty in Harold's voice. Prince Harold was never uncertain about his decision. But seeing the worry across his face, he knew this was serious for him.

"He won't dare do such a thing. Besides, I don't think the queen or prince Ivan hate your bride. It seems they want you to have a good relationship."

Harold thought so too. But he could never tell what those people were planning. What if they had only seemed that way because they were planning to hurt her all this while?"

"Your highness?"

"Harold," Harold corrected him. They were not in public, so he didn't see any reason for Alvin to address him that way.

"Uhm... that. What are you going to do when Princess Amber wakes up?"

He sighed and turned to look out of his window again. "I have to stay away from her," he said quietly, as though he was talking to himself instead. He could not think of anything better than that.

"I mean, you can no longer spend the night with her... right?"

Oh, that!

Of course, he won't be able to. He had to stay away from her. Something told him that the more he got close to her, the more trouble was going to come to him. Whenever he was with her, he seemed to lack common sense and let her do whatever she wanted to do. Even if she had said she wanted to practice how to use an arrow with him as the target, he was sure he would have just sighed and stood right in front of her to let her shoot at him. He didn't know why it happened that way, but he wanted to put a stop to it before it escalated further from there.

"Let's pay her a visit before breakfast," Harold said, without bothering to respond to Alvin's question.

Alvin wanted to ask what he intended to do about his knowledge of his bride's fighting skills, but he doubted that Harold had thought about that yet, seeing as his sole concern was for her to wake up, so he decided to leave that for later as the two of them left his room.

Even though he had just left there very early that morning, he needed to check again to see how she was doing. By now, people were already moving around, and as usual, they fled whenever they spotted him. It seemed like their fear grew worse after Beth's incident because some wouldn't mind jumping out of the high window and breaking their spine instead of facing him.

Harold snorted when he saw two palace guards who had been heading in his direction turn around immediately, running away as if they hadn't seen him.

He didn't bother with them and went straight to her bedroom. As soon as he entered the room, his breath stopped when he found the bed empty.

'SHE IS MISSING!' His wolf yelled the obvious.

"She was here when I left. Where is she?" He asked Alvin, trying not to sound alarmed. Did something happen to her? Why did they move her without telling him?

Seeing the different emotions of concern, annoyance, and, surprisingly, fear, on Harold's usually expressionless face, Alvin knew that this wasn't good. "Please wait while I ask around," Alvin said calmly.

Harold shook his head. He wasn't going to wait around while his bride's body was being moved to somewhere he didn't know. Without saying a word, he stormed out of the bedroom and headed straight for the royal physician's court. He would know if something had happened to her.

"Where are you going to?" Alvin asked as he followed Harold.

Harold responded, "To find out what happened to her, and who dared to move her without talking to me first," without breaking his stride, surprising Alvin, who hadn't actually expected a response from him.

"We can just ask any of the servants," Alvin pointed out, but seeing as everyone was running away at the sight of Harold, it was difficult to see anyone to question.

"You can ask them," Harold said without stopping, while Alvin looked around for someone he could ask, so he would stop Harold before he did something terrible.

Thankfully, he sighted one of the maids who had just sighted Harold and was scurrying away, and he ran after her, "Wait!" Alvin called to her and quickly stepped in front of her to block her path.

The girl burst into tears while swearing she didn't do anything wrong and asking for forgiveness without giving Alvin a chance to say a word.

"Do you know where Prince Harold's bride was taken to?" Alvin asked the maid, who confessed she hadn't done anything wrong until his question sank in. She blinked a few times before she pointed in the direction of the servants' quarters.

"What?" Alvin asked in confusion.

"She... w-went th-at... way," the maid stammered.

"You mean she was taken there? By who?"

The girl quickly shook her head, not wanting to be misunderstood. The last thing she wanted was for Harold to punish someone else because they misunderstood her. "She... woke up, and went there on her own," she rushed to explain.

"She is awake?" Alvin asked with pleasant surprise, and the moment the maid gave him a nod of affirmation, he hurried away to catch up with Harold to give him the news and also to stop him from doing something he would regret.

"Which way did Prince Harold go?" He asked some of the guards he encountered when he couldn't find Harold, and they pointed him in the direction of the physician's court.

Alvin quickened his pace and ran there in time to hear Harold's growl, "What do you mean you don't know where she is?" He asked in anger while the physician quaked visibly in fear.

"I... I... s-wear to... you, your highness. I... know nothing of her whereabouts. I've not been to her chamber since last night," he pleaded, afraid for his life. At this point, he was cursing himself for choosing this kind of profession. For the past few days, the poor man had been walking on an eggshell because of a certain human who refused to wake up.

"Your highness," Alvin called, as he went to stand between Harold and the physician.

Harold's eyes flashed with anger as he looked at him, "Have you found her?" He asked, thinking that Alvin knew better than to interfere in his business this way.

Alvin gave him a nod and stepped closer to Harold to whisper into his ears, "One of the maids told me she is awake and went to the servants' quarters. I think she went to find Paulina," Alvin reported to Harold, whose brows pulled together slightly, while the physician collapsed on the floor in relief, grateful that Alvin had come just in time.

'Finally!' his wolf suddenly yelped, but Harold wasn't in the mood for any of that.

Although he was glad that she had woken up, he couldn't help feeling slightly annoyed that the first person she went to find after she woke up was her servant instead of— whatever!

Without saying another word, Harold turned around and walked away from there, while Alvin ran after him, "Are we going to see her?"

"No! I'm returning to my chamber. You can confirm to make sure that she is okay," Harold said in annoyance as he walked away, while Alvin looked at him in confusion, wondering why he was suddenly in a foul temper when he had been so worried about her only a while ago.

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