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

Chapter 476 - Performance On High, Truth Of The Matter Down Bad, Er- Down Low

Dressed up in a new set of clothes - light blue blouse and a pair of orange shorts - I feel a bit better about my plans. After bringing her up to the penthouse and letting her... well, be terrified out of her wits.

> That she was in the Rimecoat Alpha’s private space. Even after I gave in and called Kyrie, to tell her I invited her in. She still looked like she wanted to bolt! <

Anyway, her arms stayed half-extended now. As if she wasn’t quite ready to fully let go of the bit of purpose he’d given her. Even after I’d secured him good against my own torso.

"Thank you. For holding him."

"It was... yeah. He’s really cute? Though he didn’t even wake up during the whole time..."

"He still sleeps through most things. Unless he’s hungry."

For a good little bit, she turned and stared at the tan hoodie slung over the white couch. Her fingers reached for it but didn’t pull it toward her, even after clenching some of it into a ball.

"...I almost transformed and ran when they looked at me."

"That would have been a perfectly valid response."

"But it was in front of everyone again."

"You mean just like how I did it?"

She let go of her fist and the jacket slunk right off the upholstery and onto the floor. Without missing much of a beat, she kneels down and grabs it. Starts to put it on while looking like she is in thought.

> Hm. It’s a shame that I don’t have anything that would really fit her. Maybe when I get a day, I should take her to go loot- I mean, scavenge something nice from somewhere? <

The white wolf plushie doesn’t answer, but I imagine Vrika would tell me I’m being too silly. Concepts of commercial ownership are kind of well out of concern at this point.

"That’s... not different, I guess. Except you’re really big. And fearless."

"Oh, I wouldn’t say that. The second part. You just sort of act in some situations, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t scared. And acknowledging you *were* scared afterward doesn’t often mean you should use that memory to avoid the danger next time."

She looked at the floor while zipping the clothing item back up tight. When she meets my gaze again, her eyes are glowing their dark brown and she’s standing a lot straighter than a slouching teenager usually does.

"Yeah. Thanks."

I have no idea what I’m being thanked for exactly. But I smile at her and pat her head again. Kind of makes me wonder what her fur looks like when she shifts, does it all turn straighter... or is it all also like this?

"Can you really stop doing that?"

"No, I don’t think I can. It’s addictive. You might have to push the arm away."

She takes me at my word. And shoves up while dancing away and blowing out a sigh. Good kid.

⧖ ☾ ❄ ☽ ⧖

"Where are we going?"

"Down to the twenty-seventh floor."

She actually managed to wait until we’d made it to the stairwell and down ten flights before she bothered asking. Maybe she’s too good. The type who follows those she trusts without thinking!

"That’s the... *your pack* floor?"

She cups her hand and whispers it, for some reason. Well, maybe Claire told her not to talk about it with others.

"I haven’t been up there yet. Because I wanted to stay with my family... at first. They actually gave your people a whole floor?"

"Lets stop calling them my people. I liked them all, but I don’t really like that leadership framing."

"Why?"

A quick, questioning response. Innocent enough. But it makes me grimace, in what I’m sure is quite the opposite of beautifully.

There’s some sort of distinction that matters to me here. How I treat this whole system pack thing. It *really* bugs me if I think of it like a kingdom, even though royal training is what I have to fall back on.

> Perhaps because it feels like it is automatically at odds with the Rimecoat structure, where I’m thinking of doing my best to act as her little royal helper. <

And it bugs me just as much to be treated like a religious figure, in any respect. No matter whether I literally have a spark of divine energy shared within that blessing or not!

I’m not even a real mystic, just someone who has arguably miraculous benefits through some whole other third world’s deity... that a layman would never care about my opinion of. It still has results and effects.

However, I’m not sure there is another side than those two that people can understand. Especially since I don’t even see one either. A way to function, a way to present myself.

I can be a Princess, easily, but would hate to be only that. I can’t exactly be a Priestess in my opinion, yet it looks like I’m headed toward not having a choice in that matter...

"...I just don’t want to be in charge of anyone. Or for others to think of me that way. It’s not enjoyable."

That’s a simple enough answer for her and it’s true enough for me. Even though what I mean and what she hears are probably two very different connotations of the word ’enjoyable’.

> Who knows, though. She’s fairly sharp. She might understand how exhausting it is to be held to a duty when it feels like there is no growth or self-worth accumulating within the challenge. <

"But you kind of are already? With the... uh, Chosen thing."

"I kind of am. Which is the problem. The system... as far as I can figure out, it doesn’t transfer. Not entirely. Believe me, if I could hand it off to someone like Kyrie, I would."

"Wow. You’d really just give it away?"

"In a heartbeat. She actually wants to lead. And from what I can tell had been doing a good job of it before I ever existed in this world."

Every word I say is easy because I meant it. Not because it isn’t extremely useful for my son... for it’s incredibly clear that if it is picking abilities and meanings based off of my own desires, voiced or not, then it is taking my exhausted promise after I arrived here very seriously.

However, every feature of the thing keeps pushing me into a position where people look at me like I should know best. When really all I’ve ever known is how to lo

"Well. If you don’t count chasing after me alone through a world-ending blizzard. That might not have been the most ruler-like thing for her to do."

"Yeah... things got a little tense when she first left. Though they were already pretty bad."

> I’ll have to make sure to ask her more about that. Getting perspectives from Claire is nice, but her issues and concerns are different from someone who was down there with her own family. <

"Well. You could easily make the argument in retrospect that the benefits I bring to everyone were a smart decision to retrieve. If she considered that at all for *her* people. Which I’m sure she did not. She was being selfish."

"Why does your face look like you’re complaining but you also sound really proud?"

...

"Because being an adult is complicated like that."

I walk a little faster down the steps than her after I speak. But it’s not like I can get so far that I couldn’t catch her mumble under her breath, even between the echoes of footsteps in the stairwell.

"...Isn’t it just *you* being that way?"