Chapter 144 Palace Fight.

After the king was done saying all he had to say, he stood up and left, accompanied by the Queen.

Surprisingly, the next person to stand up immediately wasn't Harold nor was it Ivan, since he was still busy glaring daggers at Harold for being chosen alongside him to welcome dignitaries– something that was supposed to be done by the heir to the throne.

But the one who stood up was Luciana. As soon as she did, Ivan turned to look at her, but she only acknowledged Harold and bowed to him before she turned around and left the hall with all eyes on her.

Ivan could not hide his distaste and surprise when she left. It seemed she was getting worse with each passing day. He stood up with anger written all over him and chased after her.

Everyone who saw Ivan in that mood could guess that he wasn't going to make peace. He was angry.

Noticing this, Alicia tried to follow, but Harold grabbed her arm to stop her from leaving. Alicia glared at him, and he glared back with warning in his eyes. How many times did he have to remind her that their business was not his or hers?

"Eat," Harold ordered.

Alicia looked around the table, surprised that everyone was acting like they didn't notice that Ivan looked mad enough to hurt his wife. Or was she simply overreacting?

"LET ME GO!" They all heard Luciana's loud cry, and Alicia had thought it would make them react, but everyone remained seated there like they had heard nothing. Ivan was usually dumb, but no one wanted to mess with him because they knew what he was capable of doing.

Alicia could no longer sit back and forced her hand out of Harold's grip before running out of the room, taking all of them by surprise.

'Why did you let her go?' Harold's wolf asked in displeasure.

'She forced her hand away. You saw that.'

'Do I look stupid to you? You purposely released your hold to let her leave. Your brother's business shouldn't be your business!' His wolf reminded him. It seemed like Alicia's busybody was beginning to rub off on him.

Meanwhile, the others around the table were wondering why he was not doing anything or leaving as usual; he just sat there, drinking wine.

"Brother?" Tyra called quietly.

At the same time, they all heard Alicia's voice outside and stood up immediately, running out of the room.

One thing was clear to Harold... she was never going to stay out of trouble. Maybe this would teach her the much-needed lesson so he decided not to interfere.

Outside the hall, Alicia was livid with anger. "Let her go, you animal!" Alicia barked at Ivan when she saw him trying to pull up Luciana, who sat on the floor with her hand on her cheek where Ivan had just slapped her.

Without waiting for him to move, Alicia used all her might to push Ivan away from Luciana, who was trembling and weeping softly.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?" Alicia yelled at him, shoving him again as she reached to help a surprised Luciana up.

"STAY OUT OF THIS!" Ivan bellowed at her. His chest was heaving heavily up and down in anger, and all he wanted to do was to reach for Luciana and teach her a lesson.

"I'M GOING TO TEACH YOU A LESSON!" Ivan promised Luciana as he tried to push Alicia out of his way. How dare she treat him like he was insignificant? He was done pampering her. If she wanted to be stubborn, then he was going to tame her by force, and he wouldn't let anything stop him. Not even this girl. This stupid human who he was sure had filled her head with ideas.

"WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU TO DESERVE THIS?" Luciana asked after she had been helped up, with tears streaming down her red face. She had never been hit before in her entire life, so she still could not believe he had touched her when he was the same person deceiving her and trying to marry a second wife, which may probably happen very soon since the banquet was happening in a few days.

"You dare to raise your voice at me?" Ivan asked in an eerily calm tone and charged at her, but Alicia stood in between the two.

"I'm not going to let you touch her!" Alicia said defiantly, and in a fit of rage, he grabbed Alicia by the hair and flung her to the side with more force than he had intended. Scratch that. He had intended for that. He wished she could bash her head on the wall and just die.

Alicia lost her footing when Ivan shoved her. She had thought she was going to hit her body on the wall, but fortunately, someone caught her. Well, two people actually—Alvin and Susan.

No one knew where Alvin had shown up from. They just saw him appear and point a sword at Ivan with his right hand while supporting Alicia with his left.

When he noticed that someone else was holding Alicia, and the person's arm was on top of his, he turned to see who it was, and was startled to find Susan standing beside him, holding up Alicia.

The two looked surprised to see each other and, unfortunately, they both let go of Alicia at the same time, so she fell to the floor with a loud thud.

Everyone else watching the scene, "..."

This situation would have been funny if they were not dealing with an enraged prince.

Pain shot through Alicia's scalp, and her vision blurred as she winced from the pain of having her hair pulled that way and having her ass hit the floor. She groaned from pain as she rubbed her waist, not sure whom to get angry at right now. Thankfully, Tyra came to help her up quickly.

"Brother–'

"Shut up, you filthy Omega." He said harshly to Tyra who wanted to plead with him to stop. That just seemed to touch her soft spot and made her stiffen but Alicia was still too lost to notice.

Ivan turned and smirked at Alvin, whose sword was still pointed at him. "You dare point a sword at me?" Ivan asked in disbelief, but before Alvin could answer, Alicia had recovered from the shock.

"HOW DARE YOU USE VIOLENCE ON WOMEN?" She yelled and charged at him, jumping on him as she gripped his hair with her hands, shocking everyone.

By now, all the servants had disappeared from view, but they watched the scene from a safe distance. The scene before them was completely new and different. Who would have ever expected a princess to act this way? Especially towards a prince? Her husband's elder brother?

Neither Alvin nor the other royals present made any attempt to step in. Even Luciana stood there wide-eyed as she watched her husband try without success to push Alicia away. Luciana wrung her hands together nervously as she watched the scene before her. She had been wrong. She shouldn't have behaved in that manner. If only she hadn't walked away as she had done, and had just behaved herself, none of this would have happened. She wanted to step in to stop her husband, but who knew what her husband would do to her if she got in his way? Why did Princess Amber step in for her?

Alicia stubbornly clung to Ivan, with both legs firmly wrapped around his waist, one hand pulling his hair, and the other hand clawing at his face or anywhere she could reach.

"Of all the stupid and irresponsible things to do, you dare to raise your hands on your wife, you shameless swine!" As she spoke she hit him and also tried to spit out the hair getting into her mouth, and Ivan seeing no other way out, charged at the wall.

At that exact moment, Harold, who had been inside the dining hall drinking his wine and minding his business, decided to step out and see what his nosy wife was up to, and his eyes flashed with deadly anger when he saw what Ivan was about to do.

Without wasting any second, Harold moved quickly and grabbed the back of Ivan's shirt to pull him back. The moment Alicia's gaze fell on Harold, and she saw the anger in his eyes, she snapped back to her senses and stopped.

Although she was still very mad at Ivan, she suddenly remembered that she was supposed to be smoothening the relationship between the brothers, not causing more strife between them. What had she just done? There were other ways she could have handled the situation instead of getting on his bad side like this.

Ivan, on the other hand, spun around in a rage to see who dared to pull his shirt, and thankfully, Alicia loosened her grip on his hair, and Harold plucked her away from him, pushing him back angrily for letting Alicia hold him like that while he held up Alicia with one arm firmly wrapped around her waist like she weighed just as much as a jar.

Ivan's face was red, not just with rage but with the angry scratch marks from Alicia's nails. He was feeling very angry and even more embarrassed. He needed to teach Harold's wife a lesson to save his face in front of everyone, and he wasn't going to let Harold stand in his way.

"Do not get involved in this," Ivan warned Harold through gritted teeth when he pulled Alicia behind him. Not only had Princess Amber insulted him verbally and hit him, but Alvin, a mere servant, had also dared to point his sword at him. He wasn't going to let it go.

"I should let you harm my prin— Princess Amber?" Harold asked Ivan, quickly correcting himself when he realized what he was just about to say.