Chapter 35: A Predator And Stubborn Prey

Instead of taking her to her chamber, Harold walked into his chamber with her, while Paulina, who had run after them, stood outside the door, terrified that she had caused trouble for her mistress. Who knew what the cursed Prince was going to do to her? After everything she had heard about the cursed prince, she feared for her mistress' life. 

"You should go." A person appeared beside Paulina, almost making her fall to the floor from fear, not knowing where he had appeared from. 

When she looked at his face, she recognized him as the young man who had saved her when Beth almost strangled her to death. If she remembered clearly, he was one of the prince's people. 

"But..." She pointed at the door. She couldn't leave her mistress like that. What if she was hurt? 

"He won't hurt her." He assured her, sensing her concern. 

She didn't look like she believed it and hesitated to leave there. If she even left there, where would she go to? Back to Beth? 

"A maid who was passing by stopped in front of them and greeted Alvin with a bow.

"Lead her to her mistress's room. Orders of Prince Harold." 

The maid bowed and gestured for Paulina to follow her, but she was still hesitant to leave. 

Alvin took something from his pocket and handed the pouch to her. 

"Take the medicine for your wound. Go." 

She still hesitated, but the glare from the young man made her move. 

"She... will be fine, right?" 

Alvin nodded. 

"I... will believe you." She bowed to him before leaving with the maid.

Susan, who had followed them from a distance, sighed in disappointment after she watched Harold walk into his chamber with his bride. She had really wanted to watch the human Princess challenge Beth. She had been expecting a good showdown.

"What is happening?" Williams asked as he joined his sister.

"Apparently the servant girl whose life you saved last night came with Prince Harold's bride. The bride saw claw marks on her servant's neck and she is very angry," Susan explained.

He remembered that he had seen the marks and blood on her neck last night. It was another reason her scent was everywhere, which would have gotten her in trouble had she bumped into one of the night guards. He was at least relieved to know that she was able to escape while hiding beneath his cloak. That would have helped suppressed her smell.

"It was Beth," Susan answered the unspoken question before telling him how Prince Harold had whisked off his bride before she could cause a scene.

"She is quite bold," Williams said with admiration in his tone. Even he would not dare to start a conversation with Harold, even though they were cousins. In fact, he deliberately took a different route whenever he got a whiff of Prince Harold's pheromones around. 

"She is. I think it's going to be fun here." Susan said but noticed her brother was already walking away, so she ran after him.

Meanwhile, inside the chamber, Alicia was fuming angrily, "What do you think you're doing?" Alicia hissed at Harold after he set her on her feet and locked the door.

"Stopping you from doing something stupid! What did you think you were about to do?" Harold asked, looking at her with a frown but his voice was calm. One would think he had never raised his voice before, which was true. He didn't need to shout or be loud to get things done. But maybe he had to start doing so now for this stubborn bride. It seemed to him like she wasn't the type to think things through before proceeding to do them.

Alicia took a deep breath as she tried to calm herself, but it seemed like the more she tried to be calm, the angrier she became, "Someone harassed my maid and left those hideous marks on her, and you expect me to do nothing? Are you kidding me?" She asked in disbelief.

"She is just a mere maid." Harold said, making Alicia's eye flash angrily, and she used her fingers to comb through her hair in annoyance. 

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"A mere maid? So she should be maltreated in that manner because she is a maid? I don't care how you treat your servants here, but I won't let you hurt mine!" Alicia yelled at him and then paused when something else occurred to her.

"Hold on. Was this your plan? Did you ask that maid to do this to her simply because I forced you to let her come with us? Is this why she is being treated that way?" Alicia asked suspiciously as she looked at him with eyes that had narrowed into slits.

Harold couldn't help feeling irritated that she would think that little of him, "And what if I did? What did you expect by taking your maid with you to a kingdom you knew next to nothing about? You should be glad that she is still alive. You're only going to get her killed by acting this way," Harold fired back, without bothering to defend himself. 

It suddenly occurred to him that he had spoken more to this girl than he had done in his entire life. He was the type to usually give a one-word answer or simply nod, shake his head, or shrug. But since she showed up, he kept on talking and talking. It was as if she had possessed him with her talkative nature. 

"Yes. I agree with you. It was my mistake. I thought I was coming to a sane place. Little did I know that the people who dwell here are worse than animals. If I had known, I never would have let her step foot in this godforsaken kingdom," Alicia hissed, making Harold's eyes darken with anger.

"Did you just say we are worse than animals?" He asked as he took a step toward her, but Alicia was too angry to care about his anger, so she turned away from him and headed for the door, but paused when something caught her eyes. She looked again more closely and saw a bundle of ropes at one end of his chamber. 

Ropes! She thought excitedly. So, while she was looking for a rope, he had one sitting in his bedroom? She thought, and then remembered that she no longer needed a rope to leave. After hearing that scary stuff about being killed if one was seen outside after the third ring of the bell, she wasn't sure she wanted to follow that approach anymore. All she had to do now was break a rule so that she would be thrown out of this good-for-nothing kingdom. 

Maybe Harold had been right to stop her when he did. She had been too angry to think. She could have ruined her escape plan by doing something rash. 

Harold, who had been advancing towards her, followed her gaze and noticed how she was staring at the ropes thoughtfully. And then, as if remembering that she wasn't alone in the room, Alicia turned to look at him and flashed him a smile, "I'm sorry for my outburst. Thank you for stopping me," she said, making Harold's brows furrow in confusion.

She was angry and cursing at him and his kingdom one moment, and now she was thanking him?

She reached for the doorknob and tried to open it, but the door did not open. She turned around and looked at Harold, who was still advancing towards her slowly. This expression of his reminded her of a predatory animal she had seen on the NatGeo Wild channel.

"Stay away!" She said, her back pressing against the door. 

"Why?" He asked and continued to approach her.

"I'm warning you!" She tried to sound intimidating, but her tone showed she was intimidated. 

"Why don't you yell? And curse like you usually do?" He taunted her. 

Alicia's eyes scanned the room for something, anything to protect her from this predator. Fortunately, her eyes fell on a dagger beside his bed. 

She took flight towards the direction and reached for it before unsheathing it.

The look on his face showed he wasn't taking her seriously. He simply allowed her to do whatever she wanted, looking forward to seeing what she could actually do aside from yelling. 

When he threw something at her, she panicked and flung the dagger in his direction. 

Time slowed. 

For the next few seconds, the two stared at each other, shocked. But the shock was not as evident on Harold's face as it was on Alicia's face. Her eyes were wide and her mouth opened as she looked at the dagger embedded on the right side of Harold's chest. 

She looked at her hands, which were shaking. She had never thrown a dagger before. How did this happen? What happened? She had watched the dagger travel until it was stuck on his chest, just like it happened in the movies. She didn't have such skills, so how come? Looking down, she realized that what he had thrown earlier was a key to the door.

She finally returned to her senses when she saw blood seeping out of the wound she had inflicted on him and gasped, "Oh my God! I'm... I'm... so..." She ran towards him and tried to take the dagger out, but she was too scared to touch it and started to cry.

"I'm... sorry... I didn't mean it. I... I was only messing around. Please don't die... I have to leave here in one piece— AH!" She yelped when Harold got a strong hold of her hand and looked at her palm.

"The calluses are not from your tough life in the mountains." He mumbled more to himself than to her. 

"Interesting.." With a menacing smile on his face, he drew the dagger out of his chest and tossed it on the floor like it was nothing, even though Alicia looked like she was going to faint.

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