The Cursed Prince's Strange Bride

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As soon as Alicia and Harold got to the shooting range, every other person disappeared, even the bodyguards who were supposed to stand guard. None of them wanted to be used as the shooting target for prince Harold to impress his wife. Seeing how he was acting these days, they wouldn't be surprised if he decided to use one of them as targets to show his wife that he could perfectly strike their eyeballs or foreheads.

Oblivious to the people fleeing, Alicia looked around, amazed at how similar it was to the ones she usually saw on movies, "Wow!" She exclaimed as she turned around while Harold just stared at her.

Alvin joined them, carrying Harold's bow and arrows, and once Harold glared at him, he dropped the items and disappeared, but only after Alicia sighted him.

"Are you ready to begin?" He asked as he took a tiny piece of towel to where she stood.

Alicia stood with her back to Harold while she continued to look ahead of her in the direction Alvin had followed, "I feel so sorry for Alvin," she said with a sigh, making Harold's brows to pull together in displeasure.

"What do you think I can do to make him feel better?" Alicia asked thoughtfully, oblivious to Harold's annoyance at the way she was talking about another man.

"Why are you not saying anything?" She asked as she turned around to look at Harold.

"Are you ready to begin?" Harold asked, ignoring everything else she had said, and she raised a brow.

"He told you about it, didn't he?" Alicia asked, and Harold looked at her in confusion.

"Don't be too hard on him. I know that you're hardened, but not everyone is like you. We can't choose how we feel about people, or who we fall in love with," Alicia continued.

Harold clenched his jaw as he tried to process what she was saying. First she was feeling sorry for him, and now she wanted to help him feel better. Now she was talking about love. Was she...

"HAROLD!" She yelled, snapping a finger in front of him, and he snapped out of his thoughts.

"What?" He asked with a scowl.

"You were not paying attention. What are you thinking about?" She asked, but Harold just eyed her in annoyance.

"Let's start your training. We don't have all day," Harold said, and Alicia rolled her eyes.

"Fine."

"Good. Now give me your hands," he said as he stopped in front of her.

Absentmindedly, she offered him her hands while she looked down at the set bow and arrows, "Are those yours?"

"Yes," Harold said as he looked down at her small hand. He often forgot that she was a fragile human because of how she paraded around the place with so much boldness and confidence.

It wasn't until she felt him wrapping something around her palm that she looked down and saw what he was doing.

"This is to prevent injuries and calluses," He said with his gaze on her hand before she could ask.

Alicia looked up at him and smiled warmly. He looked at her face before he averted his gaze and stepped away from her. Wondering what was making her smile.

"Thank you," She said honestly.

"For what?"

"I don't know... for everything. And for being thoughtful to send me breakfast."

He almost snorted. "You have a nasty attitude when you are hungry. I was just saving everyone."

"Who? Me? Of course, not! I am sweet at all times," as soon as she said the words, she remembered the other day Harold had stood her up at lunch time and how she had called him all sorts of names to vent. She quickly shook the memory out of her head. That was different.

"You seem to recall something," He noted with a smirk.

"What? Me? Of course, not! Let's just practice. It looks like it may rain soon," She said, smoothly changing the topic.

He knew that she was trying to change the topic, so he simply shook his head before offering her the bow and arrow. She looked at it thoughtfully and tried to use it like she had seen in movies, but she couldn't get the hang of it. Every time she tried to nock the arrow, it fell off the bow.

Harold continued to observe her, confirming what he already knew that she didn't know how to use the bow and arrow. Every time she had done something spectacular, it was usually when she was defensive. The time she stabbed him and the time she fought with those bandits were a perfect example. Was Amber still hiding somewhere inside that body? He hoped not.

"I thought you were here to teach me, not just to stand and watch me make a fool of myself. How do I use this?" She turned to ask him in embarrassment when she kept missing it. She couldn't even hold the bow properly, talk more of aiming at a target.

"Alright. Let's start by teaching you how to stand correctly," Harold said as he moved closer to her.

Meanwhile, not far away from there, once Susan and Tyra were done giving out the snacks to their personal maids as Alicia had suggested they do, they decided to stop by the shooting range since they had heard that prince Harold had taken his wife to there.

Tyra was the first to notice them and she stopped in her track. Susan wondered why Tyra suddenly stopped and also looked ahead, only to be met with a romantic scene that made her blink in surprise.

Harold was standing behind Alicia with the back of her head firmly pressed against his chest, while he used his hands to guide hers on how to hold the arrow. She looked so tiny in his arms that Susan suddenly wanted to marry an alpha as big as Harold.

"Don't be impatient. You will eventually understand how to do this," Harold said to her patiently, causing Tyra's lips to arch downwards.

"He is not that gentle when he teaches me." She mumbled.

"That is because you are not his wife. Hehehe," Susan said as they continued to watch them.

"But it's not working! Maybe it's because the bow is too big? I need a smaller one tailored for me. Something custom-made," Alicia said, and Harold snorted.

"The bow is not too big. Tyra practiced with these bows and she did well. Besides, tailors don't make bows," he said, and Alicia scowled as she turned her head to look at him, wanting to explained what custom-made means, but her mouth suddenly went dry when she raised her head and he looked down at her.

Her heart skipped a beat when she met his gaze. She had been so focused on the training that she hadn't realized that she was standing so close to him with her back pressed so closely against his body that she could feel the heat emanating from his body.

Alicia could no longer remember what she had planned to say. And although she knew that it was best to move away from him, she couldn't bring herself to move. It was as though her feet were planted to that spot, and even though her neck was already beginning to ache because of how she was craning it to look at him, she couldn't look away from his gaze either. How come he was this mesmerizing upclose? It had to be a crime.

He could hear how fast her heart was beating, and although he couldn't tell why, it was affecting his own heart rate too.

"I think they're going to kiss. Let's give them privacy before he smells our presence," Susan suggested excitedly as she pulled Tyra with her away from there.

Harold was startled when he suddenly heard Susan's faint voice, and he wondered how he had been so distracted to not have noticed or smelled Susan's presence. His gaze moved to the corner where he saw as both girls disappeared from view.

As though she had been released from a spell, Alicia looked away from Harold and quickly moved away from him, putting some distance between them.

"I know that tailors don't make bows," Alicia muttered under her breath without looking at him, silently cussing herself for whatever it was that had happened just now.

"Let's try again," Harold suggested, and Alicia nodded as she picked an arrow and nocked it as he had taught her to.

"Aim... Shoot!" Harold ordered, and she released the arrow immediately, expecting to get a perfect shot now that she had perfected her stance and how to nock her arrow, but unfortunately, that didn't happen. The arrow barely made it halfway to the target before hitting the ground.

"For fuck's sake!" Alicia hissed angrily as she reached for another arrow, but Harold placed a hand over hers to stop her.

"You did well for your first lesson. We can continue tomorrow." He said calmly.

"What? But I haven't even mastered how to make a good shot yet," Alicia protested, as she turned to look at him.

"You didn't ask me to teach you, remember? I chose to teach you, so I can choose to end the class when I think you have practiced enough. And right now I think you have learnt enough for one day," Harold said, his voice getting thicker as he looked at her.

Hearing how husky his voice was beginning to sound, Alicia decided that it was probably a good idea to call it a day. She looked down at his hand on top of hers and he followed her gaze.

She waited for him to remove his hand but he just left it there like that was the perfect place to keep it.

She pulled her hand away from his as she muttered a silent "Thank you" to him.

Well... this was becoming weirder. She thought to herself.

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