Coldsnap: The Billionaire Alpha's Fated Pregnant Princess (GL)

Chapter 465 - [K] Not A Sheep Without Wolf’s Clothes

***[POV: Severely Settled Wolf(?)]***

"Boss. You realize I was still in the middle of explaining the proposed route on-"

"Send it to my tablet. I’ll read it tonight."

Claire’s voice followed me into the corridor. Even leaving her office, with this thing in my skull it... really is like she was physically attached and always speaking to me.

I should start carrying around one of the jamming units that will let me keep her out. When I need space. Though I’m sure she would have some way to get around even that.

"Or I’ll get to it later. And if I don’t, summarize it tomorrow morning. When I care."

The speaker in my ear went silent at my last words. I chose to take it as stunned admiration, rather than the annoyance it actually was. Since I wasn’t giving her the option. To not care.

"I just need to see her for a bit. I’ll be back."

"Yeah, yeah..."

We’d been reviewing intake reports for most of the morning. Sweep teams aren’t really finding live people anymore, so much as marking salvage. Things that we need to decide whether to take now.

Or leave for later, because people might believe there is a chance for that. Certainly not normal problems, like the kind I used to solve with leveraging money and influence.

Though they are still solved with math and hard choices that I delegate to people smarter than me in those specific fields. So I guess in a way everything in what counts as my job is still normal?

It’s the rest of my life that is... a lot better than before.

The hallway leading to the executive kitchen was quiet, like the rest of the tower’s upper floors. Most of my staff had also learned that this particular stretch belonged to someone who I would be very cross if I scent them as having been around.

Though all I can smell now is cinnamon. And some other spices hiding that scent of the forest and mint. None of it old, either but fresh and warm.

My stride didn’t change, but something behind my ribs did at realizing she actually waited. A kind of hum that has lived there since yesterday morning.

Since before that, honestly. But it found its rhythm when my teeth were in her. When my wolf was out of me.

No more pull to do things. No spiritual tug that my wolf would surge with... demanding I find her, mark her, claim what’s mine.

She’s just... mine. Already. And that sits in my chest like a piece of crystallized sunlight that makes my steps feel as unburdened and silent as air.

And it’s why I stopped just short of the doorway. Not because I needed to prepare myself - or warn her that I’ve snuck too close.

Only because I wanted to listen to her inside. For just a second. Without her knowing.

Hearing... all the little sounds of her making tea especially for me. Though she will deny it.

Humming something that sounds like a soft and relaxing lullaby, probably because she’s holding onto her son. Our Asha.

"Are you going to hover around out there like a stray waiting to steal scraps, or come take this cup before I change my mind and toss it at you?"

It doesn’t matter whether she heard me or smelled me. The result is Citra’s voice getting that edge and tone to it. The one that means she’s embarrassed.

That, I’ve found, is something to be seen. Not just listened to.

"Wouldn’t dream of making you waste food."

She stood all the way by the counter, in one of those outfits of hers that were supposed to match well enough with her old culture. One I helped put on her myself.

Who knew how much enjoyment could be gained from asking a Princess if you could help her into her clothes. She so clearly wanted to say no.

In fact she did say she was very capable of doing it on her own. But there was no fight when I started to take them and arrange her for it.

"Why does it feel like you’re thinking something that would upset me?"

Not even looking at me yet. Looking at the cup she extended at arm’s length, like it had personally offended her by existing as evidence of her having a caring side.

I took it with no word. Her wrist, holding the cup, tensed under my grip as I fell in behind her back. My other hand reached around her to take it instead, while pressing her back to me.

The first sip I took was very warm. Very sweet. But it was practically water against the way I felt.

"How did it go?"

Not daring to move as our fingers locked together and I pulled to hold her across her upper chest. With Asha in the crook of her other arm, it made me feel like I was on top of the protection pyramid.

I like that very much. Though she could get used to it a bit more than being quiet until I eventually my second sip.

"Well enough. Some complications."

"Bad ones?"

"Manageable ones. I handled them."

She said that last part with a firmness to it. It kind of suggested she’d been preparing the sentence for however long she’d been alone in here

Deciding in advance that she would not need rescuing in the retelling. Which is fine with me. I trust her to at least be generally truthful. I trust her not to let an Apocalypse go by without warning people.

Even if I was the one she delegated to do so. I guess that makes me her Chief Operating Officer. Though I’m not sure this business of surviving these circumstances should be treated so blithely.

My hip found the edge of the counter and relaxed, slightly. At the same time she finally leaned back into me... and not just sat there, held.

As I pretended to ignore that she leaned forward just a bit. That she sniffed at my wrist like I needed identified. That I could feel the heavy gulp she did in her throat because of how pressed together we are.

"You’re going to spill that on me and Asha at this rate."

I’m not sure if it’s what she meant for me to do. But I drained the cup in one long pull.

Then wrapped my other arm around her waist, helping hold our little hope.

Ours.

No one else’s.

And that feeling I know is my own.

...Because I kicked out the wolf that used to influence me.

And the hum that rose in my chest, repeating that little song of hers aloud...

It exists only for this woman.