Coldsnap: The Billionaire Alpha's Fated Pregnant Princess (GL)
Chapter 45 - Moonlight Over Knowledge

Chapter 45: Chapter 45 - Moonlight Over Knowledge

After walking back towards the city proper, I eventually started to see places of pedestrian business. Including one that caught my eye.

The sign above the door read [Moonlit Pages], another reference to wolves and lunar cycles in this city. At this point, I was starting to think the Rimecoat Alpha must own half the businesses here.

Or at least, her pack has had a deep influence throughout the city for some time.

Light grey eyes stare back from the reflection in the store’s window as I consider entering.

Clean. Presentable. Somewhat.

My hands trace the imperfect placement of the twin tails at the top edge of my skull.

> It really is harder to do on your own than I expected. I’ll have to practice. <

I pulled open the thick glass door and was immediately hit by the scent of inked paper, hot coffee, and a peculiar chemical smell.

Some sort of cleaner that seemed to be used in most commercial spaces in this world. Because a similar smell wafted near each shop as I passed by.

Unlike the diner where I’d eaten yesterday at noon, no one looked up when I entered this place. An oddly opposite reaction both here and out on the street, today.

I received a lot more lingering looks this morning than when I walked around in that hunter’s old clothing. Then, people seemed to go out of their way to ignore me entirely.

But now that I look acceptably dressed...

> Well, appearance is valuable for a reason. I wonder if there is some way that I could possibly make money off of that? <

As my mind drifted to Helene’s memories of models and photography, which I have not the slightest idea how to get into if I could, I glanced toward the patrons that were too absorbed in their own activities.

Everything I might expect from a bookstore based on what I knew.

Some were reading in comfortable chairs and sipping from logo branded cardboard cups... just like the original occupant of this body had seen on television. Some browsed shelves with the intense concentration of hunters stalking for the choicest prey.

A little ecosystem all on its own. One which I was about to join.

While I wandered the aisles, I finally had a few sets of eyes in this place watching my movements. A couple customers and one of the staff members behind a sales counter.

But I barely had time to bother with them as I marveled at the sheer volume of information available in a single store. And that was even sticking to the non-fiction side of the shop... which was a lot smaller.

Descriptive titles on the glossy covers did a lot to tell me their contents and each section of books was labeled by their genre or purpose. Clearly meant to be accessible to the casual visitor rather than the private methods of the royal librarians in my kingdom.

I’m sure it was largely due to them that I’d never developed a love for reading. They were always so insistent that I must look through certain things before other things.

Having my curiosity limited like that only made me want to escape the lessons taking place in that room more... and the arguments with the instructors that the old married couple of book enthusiasts constantly had in front of me.

"Those were such wastes of time."

When I am passing along what appears to be a ’health’ section, I notice dozens upon dozens of different books on a specific topic. Each promising to be the definitive guide to pregnancy and childbirth.

In my world, such things had been passed on orally through midwives or the royal physicians. Never collected in a form so accessible to the common public.

Opening and glancing through, I selected three that seemed most comprehensive. Helene was an ignorant child, even if she was fairly well read for her pack.

I’m sure there are things about the human body in this world that she does not know. Assuming that everything works exactly as it did in my past would be a mistake.

> After all, we did not have hybrid forms. Who knows what else could happen? <

A section labeled [Local Interests] caught my attention next. Guidebooks and other materials on the history of Vossden and the overall region are lined and stacked together.

"Perfect..."

I needed to understand this territory beyond what limited memories provided. For now, a thin paperback called [Newcomer’s Guide to Vossden] joined my stack.

Growing excited now that I was making progress, I realized I’d started to smile. Being this happy to read may be the first time in decades!

Fragments of quiet conversation briefly broke the silence as I kept looking for my next find. People discussing the details of some piece of fiction on the other side of the shop.

Funnily enough, there were posters of werewolves on the walls in both the Fantasy and Romance sections. Yet, I would wager none of them know about the genuine supernatural world existing alongside theirs.

How strange that they could live their entire lives not knowing what walked among them. Half the humanoid population of my world were shifters and everyone knew it.

There had been no such deeply segregated and hidden division among us. True beasts, shifters, and humans coexisted in full awareness of each other’s nature.

With all the complications that arguably brought, it felt far more correct than how things developed here.

I turned a corner around one aisle and found myself in a section labeled [Self-Help]. What an odd concept...

Books that purported to solve personal life problems while somehow still attributing it to your own work? It sounds... what was the word... ’oxymoronic’?

However, one hardcover title caught my eye: [Building a New Life After Trauma].

I added it to the pile in my arm without examining why too closely. Though I was vaguely starting to feel that the overall collection was beginning to paint a picture of my situation.

One that I wasn’t sure I liked others to know.

> You’ve been pretty quiet since I left the motel, can you please just... I don’t know, bite me or bark or whimper or something?! <

Flipping into my mindscape, Vrika tilts his head at my demanding fox form. It walks over slowly, looming over me before...

Hopping and flopping its whole, black furred chest onto my cream colored back.

> Okay. I did say ’something’. This is certainly something. What are you doing? <

I struggle only a little, knowing I could just leave at any moment. But the wolf spirit doesn’t do anything else at all.

The behavior could easily be attributed to trying to show dominance... but that doesn’t feel right. Neither is it really a hug or affection exactly... not without any attempt to groom.

More like an older, bigger member of the group trying to calm or just stop the smaller, excitable one from making noise or hurting itself. Treating me like a child now...

In the ’real’ world, my free hand rubs the corners of my eyes before I make my way to the quiet part of the reading area. I settled down into a public armchair with my selections before opening one of the pregnancy books first.

The detailed illustrations and matter-of-fact descriptions are so striking. Medical knowledge in this world is so different from the veiled version of my own.

It helps that beasts and shifters from my world tend to be hardy and instinctively know what to do or eat to feel better if we do get sick. We also do not have very many problems conceiving and giving birth - unlike here.

Werewolves... there definitely seems to be a larger reason why they are a severe minority. And it is not just because they were hunted or persecuted.

Something in their ’biology’? Even the number of wolfless Omegas - essentially human entirely - that are successfully given birth to are lower than one might expect.

"It’ll be fine."

My hand rests on my abdomen as I turn the pages, starting to irrationally worry more than a bit.