The Cursed Prince's Strange Bride

With everything going on in the palace, Lance's mother, in particular, could not help but be grateful that her son had returned safely. She had whisked him away to their chamber and embraced him as she cried in relief.

What would she have done if he had returned in the same state as Williams or Luciana?

Lance gently pushed her away in embarrassment, but she held onto his arm dearly as she broke away from the hug.

"How could you leave with them without telling us?" What if Prince Harold or the witch had hurt you? Why did they make you dress in something so filthy?" She cried.

"I'm fine." Lance assured her impatiently as he said, "I have to go and check on the others."

"Check on who?" His father asked as he entered the chamber, frowning.

"Your father and I were very worried about you. You were not feeling well for days. How can you choose to leave us again?" His mother asked, looking appalled.

"Father," Lance greeted with a curt now, "I apologize for leaving without letting you know." But we will talk about this later. I need to know what is happening," he said impatiently.

"Stay out of it!" Sir Gregory snapped at him. "Since when did you care about those things? That fight is for the royal family. Not yours to involve yourself in."

"What has gotten over you?" His mother asked in concern. This was not the son they had raised. Why was he getting involved in something so dangerous?

"I understand that you are worried about my safety, but my friends are hurting."

"Friends? Since when did you become friends with them?" His father asked with a displeased frown.

That was a good question. Since when did he become friends with them? They had only spent a night outside the palace. Eating weird food, dressed in peasant clothing, throwing water at each other in the cold river, throwing food at people, looking at the village night life, telling stories about themselves, and even meeting a fake shaman outside.

Lance looked at both his parents and sighed inwardly. He had indeed done a lot of stupid things he would never have done in his entire life in just one day. But why did it feel as though the hours he had spent with that group were like the best hours of his life? Having them laugh and play with him that way when until now they had all ignored him? He had always been "Sir Gregory's son". But with them, he had been Lance.

Of course, they obviously hadn't remembered he was Sir Gregory's son when they shoved him into that cold river, asked him to bathe in that kind of place, gave him rice wine to drink, or when Princess Amber patted him on the head and Prince Harold kicked him until he saw stars.

He had even become less scared of Harold in the time he spent with them because he felt like a part of them.

He had felt a sense of belonging.

He had drawn blood with them, and those people were not only friends to him. They were like family now, joined together by blood, and he couldn't stay locked up in his room while Luciana and Williams were dying.

"I apologize, but I have to go," Lance said, and without waiting for either of them to stop him, he ignored their calls as he hurried away to Williams' family chamber since it would be easier to see Williams than Luciana.

*********

Alicia's motion sickness was not helping her anxiety right now. If not for the way things were with Harold at that moment, she would have preferred to ride on the horse with him but she couldn't.

She couldn't face him yet because she had yet to fully process everything. Although the shock had worn off since she knew a bit about werewolves before, she was not over the feeling that Harold had kept such an important secret from her when she had never told him a single lie before.

Only God knew what had happened with Beth that night. What if Beth had succeeded in tearing her apart? What if Ivan had turned when she fought with him and killed her in his rage? How could he have kept something like this from her?

As those thoughts ran through her mind, her stomach churned. Her head was beginning to ache as well as her whole body.

She wanted nothing more than to get away from this enclosed box and breathe in fresh air, even if it meant them arriving quickly at the palace : the same palace she was dreading returning to

There were too many problems waiting for them back at the palace for her to want to go back. The issue of Beth's murder was still on the table; Williams and Luciana were in terrible states and might not survive it; Susan was mad at her, and right now she was just as equally mad at Susan; and there was Tyra, who was accusing her of murdering Beth and hurting her.

Now she had to go back and face another round of interrogation for being a witch and deceiving the royal family when even that wasn't her fault. Nothing was going smoothly for her right now, and the only person aside from Paulina who she knew was truly on her side and would risk his life to protect her had been keeping such a huge secret about himself from her when she had been completely honest with him all along.

Even if she wanted to run away with Paulina, as she had suggested, where could she run to? The moon kingdom was all she knew. She had stayed in the moon kingdom longer than she had stayed in the mountain or the other kingdom where Amber was from.

This was the only life she knew in this era, and as much as she was upset right now about Harold hiding the fact that he was a werewolf from her, she knew she had nowhere else to go, and she desperately wanted to believe that things were the same even though the image of him transforming could not leave her head.