Coldsnap: The Billionaire Alpha's Fated Pregnant Princess (GL)
Chapter 166 - A Scent I Know Too Well

Chapter 166: Chapter 166 - A Scent I Know Too Well

Dimly lit, quiet music, with the soft hum of computers and a rich aroma of coffee. The shop felt no different from hours before when I scoped it out. I found the private room easily enough with a simple question to the staff at the counter.

Through the glass door, I could see a woman with shoulder-length brown hair hunched over a laptop. Cables and small devices were spread across the table to take up her attention, but she looked up as I approached anyway.

Warm brown eyes behind a set of wire-rimmed glasses. Not a handsome man at all. I’m almost disappointed in some ways and pleased in others.

She seemed younger than I’d expected from our exchanges, maybe late twenties? And the woman stood up as I entered. Extended a hand out slowly for a shake.

"I’m Brook. Thanks for coming out so late."

There was a tremor of nervousness in her fingers as I looked down at it. Checking for deception and scenting for weapons or traps - my hair raises immediately.

> Snow and iron. <

The exact same combination that my nose had been an inch from when I’d whispered against Kyrie’s jaw and walked away. My entire body went rigid... and she stepped back warily.

"Interesting choice of perfume. Hunters rub all over the Alpha in the region they work for often?"

My voice dropped an octave as I spoke. Right down to that level that usually went alongside bad decisions and speaking too much of my mind. This ’Brook’, if that was even her real name, blinked at me in confusion.

"I... what?"

"I’m saying you smell like someone I know. A lot."

The words came out flat and cold, carrying a sort of territorial possessiveness that I’d been suppressing since walking away from Kyrie. Since leaving her standing there while every fiber of this body whined at me to turn back and finish what I’d started.

"Oh. Oh shit!"

This woman’s face went paler as some understanding locked in. I took a step closer - and BoundaryKeeper instinctively backed up until she hit the wall.

> Good. She should be nervous. <

"You’re... you really can smell things like that so easily?"

She knows about werewolves because she’s a hunter. She must know about scent marking. And she’s been close enough to Kyrie to carry her scent this strongly.

"Who are you to her?"

I demanded, not caring that I sounded territorial. Because I was feeling that way. Here before me was another woman, reeking of my... of that... scent like she’d been rolling around in the sheets with-

"-and don’t you dare lie to me."

"I-I work for her! I swear, it’s not what you think at all, jus-"

"Work. For. Her. Is that what they’re calling it now?"

Interrupting and laughing, it sounded bitter and unhinged even to my own ears. Hands came up in a defensive gesture, as slow as can be, and I caught the glint of silver chain at her throat. A pendant of some kind hanging on it underneath her clothing.

"Look, if you just take it easy, I can explain."

"Can you? Because from where I’m standing, you’re covered in the pheromones of... Kyrie Voss. And you’ve been tracking my every move for days. So explain that."

Vrika sent impressions of concern from my mindscape, sensing my deep agitation. The wolf spirit had been through enough emotional whiplash today from me... without me losing control over jealousy that I had no right to feel.

> I can’t help it... <

After everything that had happened - Victoria’s cutting comment, Chad’s threatening presence, that charged moment with Kyrie that I’d run from like a coward... finding this connection felt like the final straw.

...Just getting help with the crypto devices and then leaving. Part of me knew that keeping such a meeting as simple as that was going to be unlikely.

Even before the rest of the day, after asking her about what to do with them. After getting the identification papers from the train station turned into one of the more eventful of my days in this world.

"Please. Just let me explain about how the pendant works. It’s not... it’s not romantic. I promise. Just protection."

Her small voice and pleading tone made me hold tighter on my mood. The kind of genuine desperation that came from being misunderstood about something important. Something... that the person found almost as important as their life.

"Thirty seconds. I’ll give you that long to impress upon me the reasons you think are good. If I don’t like your explanation..."

I crossed my arms to make a point. To make a lie seem real. Because honestly, I’ll probably just turn around and leave.

> But she doesn’t have to know that. <

The human’s hand went to her throat and lifted out the pendant. A small wolf’s head carved from what looked like silver, though the scent wafting from it was exactly the sort that had set the tone of our first meeting.

"Okay, so, three years ago. I was kidnapped by a rival pack before I even knew werewolves existed. Before I knew my boss was... what she is. They held me for three days, trying to get information about Lunarizon’s security systems they thought I had."

My anger faltered slightly at the rapid speaking she was doing for the deadline I gave. I’ve met liars who could spin a yarn faster than any rope maker, but the raw pain in her staccato voice was impossible to fake.

"Kyrie found me as quick as she could. Saved me from dehydrating or starving or worse. But..."

She swallowed hard and took a few seconds, like she needed to rally her heart to continue. My stance softened, already deciding that I overreacted.

Which truth be told... nine times out of eleven, when I feel the way that makes me lower my voice like that: I’m misunderstanding something. But those two out of eleven?

I am so vindicated yet upset that it then seems better to err on the side of me that is quick to emotions. As if I have a choice in the matter.

"Look, I haven’t left the tower after dark in three years, okay? This pendant is supposed to tell other wolves that I’m under Alpha protection, that touching me means dealing with her. I really didn’t think about how her mate might react, I’m sorry."

> Nope, I might leave after all. Why is everyone connected with her so gosh damned presumptuous?! <