Coldsnap: The Billionaire Alpha's Fated Pregnant Princess (GL)
Chapter 121 - Cache And Carry, Part 2 (Ravi)

Chapter 121: Chapter 121 - Cache And Carry, Part 2 (Ravi)

Walking outside with the weapon, I test the string ’dry’ - without an arrow. It pulls back very easily and I even feel the moment all its intricate parts help take the load off the draw. With so much less strain, it’s easier to focus and shift aim.

"Ravi would have loved this..."

My second brother, golden-cream fur like the sun he was named after. Always laughing, warm to me, and full of a vitality that drew others - beast, human, shifted or not. I can see him in my head still, in all those positive ways.

> In ways I sometimes would like to pretend never existed, just to make things easier for myself. Just like with that Alpha, it would be so easy to deal with if they were awful people. <

Often sneaking into the royal hunting grounds shortly after I did, his beast form would hastily shift to his humanoid appearance before hopping forward and demonstrating the proper stance with a bow. Not wasting any time lest we were caught being where we shouldn’t be.

> Wider with your feet, little sister... and keep your elbow up - like that, he always instructed with a gentle voice. Never severe, Vrika. Guided me with patient adjustments, not firm corrections like in the etiquette lessons. <

I hated those Princess lessons, as much as they became useful. Women of the royal houses across almost all shifter kingdoms weren’t supposed to learn hunting skills - we were meant for diplomatic marriages and as centerpieces for court intrigue.

But Ravi... had long seen how I watched the royal hunters with so much envy from far away. He had noticed how I practiced their draw movements and pretended to shoot when I thought no one was looking.

"Because back then he loved me freely enough to check in on me when he had free time. Or whenever he was passing by where he knew I’d be."

I let off the string slowly as I released a sigh. Remembering how, for three months in my fourteenth year, we’d stolen away twice each week at dawn. I’d learned quickly - my etiquette instilled grace serving me well, vexingly.

The first time I hit the center mark, Ravi had lifted me off my feet in a spinning embrace. Excited and happy as he usually was for my success. Both of us laughed without restraint.

> Then came that awful day. <

The bowstring had snapped and lashed back against my unprotected forearm, leaving an angry welt - when it could have been worse. Of all days, it had been one where I had been practicing alone.

Secretly tending to it on my own while staying in my beast form as much as possible lasted days. But during dinner on the third day, the Queen Mother had grabbed my arm just there over the long sleeves I hid it with - and I couldn’t hide my wince enough, though I tried.

The discovery led to my public humiliation. Exposed questioning, witnesses coerced, and scolding enough to make sure the entire court heard how a Princess does not engage in common pursuits.

I learned how a politician’s kind of power worked that day. In a lesson that settled deeper than dry words about people in history I’d never met. I saw how even the most reluctant witness could be made to speak with the right leverage.

My punishment of confinement and extra lessons was minor compared to what befell Ravi. I never learned exactly what Father had devised for him, because everyone - who spoke so openly in my interrogation - refused to tell me, the powerless one.

But when my brother returned to court three weeks later, he was changed.

> Distant. Formal. Vitality covered by a cloud when I was near. <

He’d walk the other way when he saw me coming and never went out of his way to find me. When protocol forced us to interact in public settings, he was coldly polite and nothing more.

Just like everyone else who’d avoided my pleading eyes during the royal inquisition - and after. Caring about someone, even as much as any citizen or servant does for their ’loved’ royals, could become a liability if the wrong people decided to use it against you.

"And that was the first time I truly understood. Love? Always has conditions. Limits. And when those conditions aren’t met or those limits are surpassed..."

I didn’t need to finish the thought. My wolf understood well enough what happened when someone decided the price of connection was too high. When the other person was left with the unpaid balance.

Because I showed Vrika bits of my past already. Of the state I found myself in then. The states I found myself in when I tried again to expect from people, even after that. Only to be taught what was already taught.

"It’s no wonder the tutors said I was a bad student. I mean, look at me out here. I was literally about to go for the books... when I ran off to reminisce and play with a dangerous weapon instead."

I placed the memory triggering weapon in the container and continued where I left off. When I had cleared out every practical item, made use of every shelf that seemed in good condition, I stood in the center of the cabin..

The place looked hollowed out now. All that remained were the grotesque parts that reminded me what humans were capable of when they feared, respected, or were just curious about what was different from them.

> I really don’t want to touch these. But if I remember right, the pack council has some method of surrendering finds like this. Maybe I could figure out a way to place them somewhere and report it anonymously? <

My wolf sends its own idea, just having Kyrie take them directly when I get back. I immediately want to tell the spirit it is being silly, but then it hits me with concern. About what might happen if I’d messed something up for her by coming back here.

"Then why do you want me to take it all in the first place?! Think things through better, you stupid wolf... or rather, why was I even listening to you!"

My complaints sound heated, because I know it is looking for excuses for us to meet again, but I still pack every werewolf part inside and... Stash the shipping container and all those contents. All these hours to travel here, to sort through things, and all of it just ceasing to be instantly...

Dealing with a strange feeling of it being ’anticlimactic’, I locked the door behind me and returned the key to its hiding place. A somewhat pointless gesture, but it felt like the right thing to do even as I stand here naked with only a backpack.

"The question now is: where to go. I’m not staying in there tonight, absolutely not - the smell isn’t that gone - but it’s early enough that I really don’t need to lay down yet, even if it is getting close to dark..."

Like an answer to my uncertainty, the system interface pulsed in the edges of my vision. It seemed to be drawing my attention to the checkmark and a new task that had appeared.

| TASK: Secure Additional Hunter Caches Within 24hrs |

I stared at it for a long moment, wondering at the convenient timing. I had already been planning on retrieving the additional supplies mentioned in the hunter’s journal before I traveled back to Vossden.

"Especially the one he mentioned was his ’nest egg’."

The closest cache was even only a few miles from here, hidden beneath a distinctive rock formation according to the journal - and about the same time I thought that, the map icon glowed brighter.

> It’s being too helpful, again. I guess it’s never been anything but helpful. But you know, Vrika... <

As my eyes look at the five locations now marked on the map, representing what seems to be the exact spots I need to go to... I still feel that I just can’t bring myself to trust something whose leverage over me I don’t actually understand.