"You are such a coward! A disgrace! You are the King's beta, but you dare stand there and watch him take the criminal away!" The queen spat out angrily when she opened her eyes and met Damon's gaze.
When was she going to get the opportunity to pay Harold back for all the pain he had caused her? Not only had he woken up, but he had also saved his wife at the wrong time! Why was everyone so useless? Why was everything suddenly working against her when it had all been going well just days ago? The queen wondered as she tried to hold back her cry of frustration.
Damon clenched his teeth as he tried to control his own anger. "Get a grip on your temper. And watch your words," Damon warned quietly.
"You all are useless! Useless! You only speak boldly when dealing with women. I can't believe you all just stood there and let him disrespect us!" She yelled with disgust as she tried to stop her angry tears from spilling.
The fear most of the aristocrats and bystanders felt changed to one of disgust and displeasure at the queen. Was she insane?
Damon opened his mouth to admonish her, but before he could do that, one of the aristocrats spoke, "Why didn't you do something about it as the Queen? Weren't you here with us?" He demanded angrily.
"Shut your trap, you filthy thing!" She said furiously, leaving the aristocrat stunned. Weren't they the ones who had embarrassed her and said she was a woman, so she wasn't supposed to tell them what to do just yesterday?
"You--!!"
"You should be ashamed of yourself, you stupid coward!" She eyed him unpleasantly.
The two corpses lying on the floor were forgotten as a verbal fight ensued between the Queen and the aristocrats who were offended by her name-calling and insults.
Ivan watched his mother with irritation, wishing there was a way he could shut her up as her actions were ruining their chances with the aristocrats.
How would they support him now after this attitude she was putting up? Ivan wondered irritably why she didn't know her place and was always quick to insult men.
Aside from his annoyance at his mother, he was also beginning to lose patience seeing as Harold was still not back even after two hours had passed.
He didn't know whether to be surprised or not that no one had taken a step from where they stood despite their arguments, which was slowly beginning to die down because they were getting exhausted.
He wondered if they would have all remained here like this had he been the one who gave the order.
Annoyed at them and himself for listening to Harold. He turned to leave, but just as he took the first step, thunder crashed in the sky, startling all of them.
Remembering what had happened the previous day, the pandemonium stopped and everyone looked up, hoping it wasn't the storm that was coming again.
But this time, it was something greater than the storm because Harold was returning. This time, he had a wicked smile on his face and his hands behind him as he approached.
His eye colour was still strangely red, and the suffocating pheromones seemed to have gotten worse. They didn't know whether to be thankful or not that Alvin was not with him now. Because apart from his wife, it seemed like Alvin was the only person who could communicate with Harold and keep him under control, but Alvin was also very scary on his own, and he seemed to have lost his sense of rationality too, just like his master.
Thunder rumbled again, causing them to jump in fear as he kept approaching. He didn't stop. He kept his pace even until he got to the podium where Damon was standing, and before everyone's eyes, he grabbed him by the neck with one hand and raised him off the ground.
This time, they all could not muffle their gasps of horror. This was Damon. No one, dead or alive, had ever tried this.
The queen, who had been standing beside Damon, quickly scurried away from there in fear to stand behind her brother.
"You shouldn't have said a word when I warned you," Harold said calmly as he applied pressure, making sure that there was no way for Damon to breathe.
Damon's eyes bulged out as he struggled to breathe. He also tried to fight the hand that was trying to squeeze life out of him, but no matter how hard he fought, Harold wouldn't stop. He just kept staring at Damon with a straight face as he continued to squeeze.
Just when he was about to pass out, Harold threw him to the ground below the podium with a loud thud, causing most of the others to flinch as though it was them.
The almighty Damon was reduced to nothing as he gasped for air on the bare ground. It was even worse for him because he was closer to Harold, so the air he was inhaling was not nice either.
Harold turned to look at the rest, who visibly withdrew whenever he looked in their direction.
Seeing their reaction, he smirked, "You should have thought about this moment before conspiring against my princess." He looked at all of them as he said calmly, "Don't you agree?"
******
? Meanwhile, Susan's mother could already sense what was happening. The entire palace seemed to have been polluted by the smell of an enraged Alpha and also the smell of blood in the air. Only a fool would leave their children here. So she ordered the guards to take Susan and Williams back to their residence.
Both Susan and Williams almost cried in joy when they realized that Harold was awake. But they still were not sure of what was happening and whether or not Princess Amber was still alive.
And what was worse, they were still tied like criminals and smuggled into a plain-looking carriage despite their protests.
"I don't want to do this either. But you two have to go as far away from here as possible. We don't know what is going to happen now," their mother said in a desperate tone as she tried to send them off.