Chapter 158 "Stay,"

"Why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be busy or something?" Alicia asked him curiously.

Harold raised his head to look at her and was quiet for a moment as he looked at her with serious eyes, "Why do you think I'm here instead of outside doing something else?" He asked, and she looked away from him as she answered.

"Uhm... I don't know?" Alicia avoided his gaze and rubbed the back of her neck.

"You are a smart girl, Princess." He said quietly before reaching for her chin and turning her to face him. "You know why," he murmured lazily, and Alicia's heart skipped a beat.

'Oh, no! This isn't happening right now.' Alicia cried in her head.

He just stared at her for a little longer before he let go of her with a shake of his head. "You are not as brave as I thought you were," he said with a smirk.

She looked at him with a frown, not sure what to say to that. "What has bravery got to do with anything?" She asked after a moment.

Harold waved off her question. "Knowing how you respond to things, and because I don't want you to behave wildly when you hear it later, I came to tell you this so you would be prepared and..."

Her heart began to beat wildly in her chest. She hoped he wasn't going to tell her what she was thinking? Or was he? No! She didn't want to hear it! If it had anything to do with his childhood bride, she didn't want to hear about it. He could just go on and do whatever he wanted.

She stood up abruptly. "I... need to shower." She turned to quickly walk away from him, but he grabbed her hand, not letting her leave, and she turned to look at him with questioning eyes.

Seeing how she was trying to avoid listening to him, Harold wondered what she was thinking.

"You don't want to hear what I came to tell you?" He asked, and Alicia shook her head.

"You're going to hear it first from me, whether or not you want to," Harold insisted, and waited for a second before he continued, "Luciana is going to be punished," he informed her quietly. "That's what I wanted to tell you. Relax."

Wait... that was it? Alicia blinked at him in surprise when she saw how serious he looked, and then what he said slowly began to register. Luciana? Punished? How? Why?

"Punished? How?" She managed to ask as she sat down beside him on the bed.

Harold didn't let go of her hand, but just continued to hold on to her with their hands between them on the bed.

"Ivan is going to get a second bride as soon as possible. She will probably be chosen during the banquet," Harold explained.

"I don't understand," Alicia said with confusion in her eyes as she looked at him.

"You already knew about it. Why do you look so surprised?" He asked.

"Yes, I know he wants to get another wife. What I'm asking is, why is she going to be punished? What did she do wrong? What kind of punishment? And why is he in a hurry to get a new wife?"

"She is going to be punished because she went against her husband publicly and privately. She would have to be locked up and atone for her sins."

"But... I've done worse than that to you, haven't... I?" Alicia asked, recalling all the times she had been rude to him in public, especially that one time Harold had chased her around the palace because she called him names.

"Was I being allowed to do as I pleased because Princess Amber is not from your kingdom?" She asked with a frown when Harold didn't say anything.

"I'm not Ivan," he reminded her calmly.

Of course, she could have been punished this whole time for all the times she had defied him and gone against the culture of the Moon Kingdom, but they all knew better than to touch or punish his wife without his permission.

"So you are saying he is in a hurry to get a new bride because she went against him? But that's not what happened. She wouldn't have gone against him if he wasn't already planning to get a new wife," Alicia said with a slight frown.

How come they were changing it to make it seem like it was Luciana's refusal to be pushed around that made them decide to do this?

"It doesn't matter. You shouldn't get involved anymore."

"What about her parents? They are here, right? Can't her father do something about it? Or at least stop them from punishing her?" She asked hopefully.

"Princess, when a woman is unmarried, she is the property of her father. As soon as she is married, she becomes the property of her husband. And when she is old and her husband is no more, she becomes the property of her son. Her father can do nothing about whatever Ivan decides to do. She belongs to Ivan."

Alicia put her head down and sighed heavily as she let the words sink in.

"It's my fault. I shouldn't have gotten involved." She said guiltily.

"Is it really?" He asked, raising a brow.

"I don't... know. I just... I feel things would have been different if I hadn't come here," Alicia said sadly, and Harold agreed with her.

If she hadn't come here, he would still be very bitter and lonely. Since she came, everything had changed, both in his life and around the palace. Although she caused a lot of trouble, she brightened up the place too. She brightened up his life. He always looked forward to the times he would be in her company, whether or not he was talking to her. But that wasn't the point right now, so he decided to focus on her concerns.

"Your being here has nothing to do with Ivan's decision to marry a second wife. Even if you hadn't gotten involved, Ivan would still have taken a second wife because he needs a son," Harold explained to her.

A tear slid down her eyes and she quickly wiped it with her hand. Maybe it was because she was older than all the girls here that was why she could really feel how unfair it was and was always worried about them. It was as if she was watching her younger sister being bullied.

"What about you?" She asked Harold in a low, exhausted voice.

"As a prince, you will need a son too, won't you? Will you be forced to get another wife too? When that time comes, will I be locked up too?" She asked, and Harold stared at her.

He had never really given much thought to being married or having kids until she came into his life. Surprisingly, he had caught himself once or twice wondering what a son or daughter from her would look and behave like. Would their child be a werewolf or human? He had asked himself that before, and it was Alvin's fault for putting ideas into his head by talking about mating.

"We haven't even been married for a year, so there is no rush. Besides, no one can force me to do anything. All I'm trying to say is that it is Ivan's decision to make. Whatever he chooses to do is up to him. No one will question him because he is the man and he owns Luciana," Harold explained patiently.

"I... guess there is nothing I can do about this. I have to accept it. This place can never be like where I came from. I can only make things worse here, not better..." Alicia sniffed.

"You've made a lot of things better by being here," Harold said, but she was too wrapped up in her thoughts to hear him.

"...And it's just... so scary to imagine spending my life here. Because I can't... I don't know how... She sniffed again and wiped her tears with the back of her hands.

"What if I have to live here forever? Can I really accept these laws in my heart? I can't be a man's 'property' for the rest of my life. I'm my own person. How do I live with these stupid ideologies?"

Harold watched her as tears flowed down her cheeks as she spoke.

"You must really hate it here." He said a little sadly.

"I do. I hate it!" She answered honestly.

"I thought I had it worse, Harold. I thought my life was the absolute worst. But coming here, I've realized that there is nothing worse than being caged and not even realizing you are caged. There is nothing... here... for me..."

"I'm here. You have me," he said quietly.

"Do I?" She asked, looking at him with misty eyes.

"I'm not stupid, Harold! I know you are probably doing or planning to do something dangerous. What if something happens to you one day? Or what if, just like Ivan, you are forced to marry someone else or that child bride of yours? What happens to me then? Won't I eventually be neglected? And then I will be punished like Luciana or worse still, segregated because I do not have a son that is going to 'own' me in my old age. Do you really expect me to live in this kind of society that I can never adapt to?"

He nodded, making her want to sigh in frustration.

She was about to stand up but he held her back and drew closer to her on the bed.

"Stay," he mumbled.

She looked up at him, blinking.

"I... will create the kind of society you want. I will make it happen. For your sake."

He said and leaned forward to kiss away her tears.

Once he pulled away, he locked eyes with her and reached a hand to tuck her hair behind her ear.

Alicia's heart fluttered as she gazed into those beautiful blue eyes of his. Mouth dry, and mind blank, without thinking she leaned forward at the same time as Harold, and their lips met.