Coldsnap: The Billionaire Alpha's Fated Pregnant Princess (GL)
Chapter 102 - The Lady Doth Pro-text Too Much, Methinks

Chapter 102: Chapter 102 - The Lady Doth Pro-text Too Much, Methinks

The cosmic irony was growing ever larger, the choice of the Lunar Goddess more pronounced. Of all the werewolves in this world, I’d ended up near this city with a potential to bind to a woman with an appreciation for the very creature I truly had been for three decades.

> Did that deity truly not have something to do with my being here? Or am I jumping toward that due to coincidence... of her simply seeing potential *after* I was already in this world. <

Vrika nudged me mentally, radiating satisfaction at this - as if it somehow validated everything the wolf had been trying to tell me, about submitting to a connection with Kyrie. But if it thought I was happier with two people being used for an unknown purpose?

C: [Interesting coincidence. That we are both :fox:]

My wolf hasn’t learned as much about me as I hoped, when it comes to how stubborn I am. If some entity - fae, deity, or devil - needed something from me... from Citra Lomdi...

"Then they could have asked directly - but they didn’t. Something has just put me here in spots that I don’t want to be in."

Free in ways I never was, but constrained in ways I never was. If I think of it like that... it is even somewhat karmically balanced.

"I’m not sure which of the many ’helping hands’ to blame, Vrika. But I’m starting to think I’ll bite the first one that tries to get near me again."

> And I don’t want that to be her. Because... just because. <

Frustration makes me carefully sling the phone to the bed before I start tidying the room up. Minutes go by as I do much of nothing before I read the response that had come almost as soon as the device struck the blanket.

K: [Foxes are fascinating creatures - adaptable yet true to their nature no matter where they find themselves. It’s hard not to be drawn to them.]

I tried to roll my eyes at her ’nature show’ narration turn, even as my chest tightened. This was exactly the kind of conversation that made keeping my distance difficult.

> She somehow manages to say things that resonate deeper than they should, without knowing anything. It’s just *me* making more of it than I need to! <

The throw I wrapped around me suddenly felt too warm on my shoulders... but I tugged it tighter, hiding my ’shame’ as I moved to the window to pull back the curtain and look at the visible night sky. The moon was waning towards ’new’ with weeks toward full.

"Growing empty, but with a stubborn sliver hanging on..."

My phone buzzed again, making me realize I’ve been standing here for quite some time. How long... I’m not sure, because I didn’t exactly check the clock before I dazed into the sky out there.

K: [Did I say something wrong?]

I’m no longer sure she hasn’t just been holding her phone in her hand this whole time. Such a simple question, but I can feel the concern... for me and for making more missteps.

C: [No. Just thinking.]

K: [About?]

Another instant text. Doesn’t a CEO have more important things to do, even at this time of night?

C: [Just all the things I need to take care of.]

K: [Hence being busy for a few days?]

Placing the phone down and ignoring her would be smarter. Whether she is fishing for clues or just trying to-

C: [Yes. It’s nothing to be concerned about. Just personal matters.]

K: [I understand. The city and its tea shops will be here when you’re ready to have company.]

Again, her offer... without demands. Not even any questions about what ’personal matters’ I might possibly have as a rogue new to the city - just too much respect for boundaries I hadn’t even fully explained, just screeched at her once.

C: [I’ll let you know when I’m free.]

As soon as I sent it, I regretted the wording - ’when’. It sounded like a promise, like I was guaranteeing future contact. I hastily typed another message into the device.

C: [If I’m free. When I’m done with what I need to do. I’ll think about it then.]

Vrika’s exasperated huff echoed through my mindscape, and I could swear the wolf was trying to mimic rolling its eyes at me. A fair reaction... but still irritating!

I swipe the curtains closed and go lay in the bed. Pulling all the blankets over me and curling up.

When the next message inevitably comes, the screen’s brightness is too much in the dark of being curled under covers and I squint at the stupid phone I still had clutched in my hands. I should have just sat it on the nightstand!

K: [I’m really not trying to pressure you and I’m sorry if it comes off like that. Just take care of yourself, Citra. And if you need anything at all while handling your personal matters, you have my number.]

She included a new photo of a small white table with a mug of what appeared to be tea, considering the string hanging off the side - and an arm was just visible at the edge of the frame. Like she hadn’t noticed she wasn’t completely out of the photo.

In the background, the Vossden night skyline glittered through a set of floor-to-ceiling windows. The downward tilt made it unmistakable that she took it from high up in Lunarizon Tower.

K: [Working late. This view made me think of your beautiful photo from this morning, a bit in reverse.]

I studied the image - with its awkward angle tilt and terrible uses of focus! - that offered a glimpse into her life. Kyrie Voss in her natural habitat... atop the tower that dominated the city skyline.

> Sharing her current surroundings, mentioning that something made her think of me. <

Vrika has been rolling on its back happily kicking its paws in the air ever since the photo appeared. Neither of you are pressuring me at all, huh?

C: [Don’t work too hard. I’m going to bed. Goodnight, Kyrie.]

K: [Goodnight, Princess. Sweet dreams.]

I stuffed the phone in the nightstand instead of on top of it, suddenly even more exhausted. Wrapped up in the dark... my hands formed the ’silent fox’ sign she’d shown me and I felt oddly content.