Coldsnap: The Billionaire Alpha's Fated Pregnant Princess (GL)
Chapter 54 - Morning Queasy, Connection Breezy

Chapter 54: Chapter 54 - Morning Queasy, Connection Breezy

A beam of morning light had found itself right on top of one of my eyelids through a hole in the thin curtains of my motel room. I sat up slowly while stretching the stiffness from my shoulders.

Something falls off me as I rise. Seems that I’d fallen asleep with a pregnancy book splayed open on my bare chest.

After getting a hold of myself... for wanting to contact that woman, I of course went right to learning about one of the many details of this body that was most likely to drive her away.

"Carrying someone else’s child. Not something I expect will be praised. Even if you could arguably consider me one of these ’surrogates’..."

A term I learned while reading about infertility, along with all the medical advice and potentials. I rub at my eyes and look around.

The hunter’s silver colored phone lay on the nightstand where I’d left it. Pretty sure the battery has died by now, since it was at 5% when I stopped interacting with it.

Which means if I want to start using it again I’ll need to find a... ’charger’.

> Guess I’ll have to go shopping again. Do people really deal with this temptation every day? <

My heart was already feeling weak at the thought of passing by so many interesting things. The wolf in my mindscape shifted lazily, stretching like it was just waking itself.

"We should find breakfast when we go out."

I murmured while running a hand through my hair. Loose, having taken out the elastics before I undressed and hit the bed.

My legs shift over the side along the sheets I’m starting to hate and I glance over to the book that I’d been skimming. Flipping back to where I’d left off when I reach for it.

"Surprised I actually got sleep..."

The section on [First Trimester Risks] had caught my attention last night. In the harsh morning light, the words seemed even more ominous.

"Physical stress, extreme exertion, and other trauma can increase risk of early miscarriage."

The words I read aloud while my finger traced the lines of text made me queasy. It went on to make it clear that, while moderate exercise is beneficial, activities that place severe strain on the body should be avoided.

I closed the book with more force than necessary as I stood to my feet with eyes closed and walked to the bathroom. When the soles of my feet hit cool tile, I open them and surge toward the toilet.

Vomiting just as terribly as I’d done when I’d learned that I, Citra Lomdi, had been... violated in this way in the first place. By finding myself apparently pregnant on top of everything else.

Part of me is surprised by how much I’m being disturbed by this. In the idea of accidentally losing something that shouldn’t have been mine.

"Urk... it tastes like peanut butter..."

But I did resolve to take responsibility for this new life, if I am stuck here in this body. Now it feels like... I wasn’t doing that very well.

In the past week, I’d fled through the forest for days, shifted forms multiple times, swam upriver while holding my breath longer than I should, fought hunger and exhaustion, jumped from the top of a tree, and undergone significant emotional strain.

If there was a comprehensive checklist for what not to do while pregnant? I’d practically ’completed’ it.

If it was a system Task, then I’d be getting ’rewarded’.

The thought that this thing might actually task me with doing heinous things like that makes me retch again. A couple minutes later, I crawl off the clutched porcelain and start to wash my hands and face.

In the mirror is a woman looking sullen and... distraught. I always was quick to emotion, in private.

"Maybe I should hire a maid just so I can forcefully act composed at all times..."

A chuckle that has my cadence but not my timber. A combination that makes it neither like mine or like Helene’s.

My hand drifts over the still flat stomach, knowing it is far too early for any ’showing’ on humans. When it comes to signs, I don’t actually have any that aren’t the pack roster and... an unwanted memory of copulating with Jace.

If I were a beast back in my world, I may never even ’look’ pregnant until the very last moments... when I started to produce milk for the coming children. Our insides are just designed differently.

And of course, this body didn’t know much about the whole process here. Duskpaw pack pregnancies had one clear style.

The male becomes extra territorial and prone to tempers, so the female is hidden away for the entire time. Not because he will hurt her, usually, but so that fights don’t start because she was ’looked at wrong’.

For all I know, werewolf biology is not so different from the shifters I know? I really don’t have enough information.

These books may not even be the slightest bit helpful, other than making me worry incessantly.

> Is it even real? That’s something I haven’t even bothered to think about deeply. I aligned some memories with what it was saying and assumed it was probably true. <

Considering I’ve been so suspicious of everything else about it... I wonder why I didn’t question it enough? My focus turns to the blue glow of the genealogy tree at the edge of my sight.

As before, with the two parental names linked to that mysterious white glowing | ??? |. Nothing has changed there that I can tell.

I see no obviously lesser glow, breaks in the line, or anything else I might expect in a... bad case. Which was both reassuring and frustrating!

No confirmation, no denial, just stressing me out as much as looking through the book did. The whole system does that.

A few steps places me close enough to lean down and turn the shower on. Hot... sort of hot water will help clear my mind, I’m sure.

While waiting on that to warm up, I walk back out and grab the bottle and bar of new bath goods. The small smile on my face over getting to use them sloughs away quickly when I set it all down on the edge of the tub.

I’d been stubbornly ignoring everything that was not its very useful map for a while now. My eyes tick check mark glyph that seems to be insistently pulsing.

"Great, it really did give me another Task..."

When it expanded, I was immediately flooded with a spiraling swirl of blue text coming into existence.

| TASK: Establish Connection with Potential Mate |

| TASK COMPLETION ✓ |

| REWARD IMMINENT ⚝ |

"WHAT?!"

I knock the closed bottle of lavender scented shampoo into the running water. A few choice curses in my native tongue play in my mind as it clatters and I fish it back out.

Then, sitting down on the edge of the bath, I glare at the floating text responsible.

"I did no. Such. Thing!"

The wolf in my mind gave a soft chuff at my choice to argue with something that has never talked back to me. Like it is any different!

A sound that was suspiciously like laughter for a creature that can’t even speak!

But I’m not done arguing with an empty bathroom... or rather, whatever entity is responsible for this ridiculous magical construct.

"I did not establish a connection. We did not even touch. I agreed to nothing. I merely... accepted the return of property that was mine by finder’s rights..."

A very pointed feeling spikes from Vrika, ensuring me that I was marginalizing some things.

"Yes, and allowed her to walk me home. That doesn’t count as establishing a connection... would it? Can it really be that easy?"

My justifications that nothing grew between us sounded hollow even to my own ears. But I wasn’t done fighting for an answer.

"And... oh. This was HER fault! It’s the number she put in the phone isn’t it?!"

The interface didn’t seem to care about my protests.

It was hardly done with me yet.