Coldsnap: The Billionaire Alpha's Fated Pregnant Princess (GL)-Chapter 348 - Deadlines Change Priorities

Chapter 348: Chapter 348 - Deadlines Change Priorities
Anise appeared beside me, wiping pink tailor’s chalk from her hands onto a black handkerchief. I showed her the message without preamble. Her reaction was immediate - a sharp inhale followed by a grin.
"Citra, this is huge! Ember is certainly eccentric and willful, but he doesn’t just invite the magazine models to walk his showcases. He must have really been impressed."
"That’s what I needed to know. Whether this was genuine interest or just... professional courtesy."
"Oh, it’s genuine. Trust me."
She pulled me bodily toward her work table, already talking faster while searching for a pad of paper to start sketching and notating. An energetic human for her middle age. All I can think of is that my upper back is still a bit stiff.
"Along with the Winter Gala between Christmas and New Year’s, this is one of the season’s major events for our city. You’ll be walking with experienced runway models, industry people will be there with front rows, it’s-"
"So what you’re saying is I should accept."
"I’m saying you’d be insane not to. Unless you have some reason to avoid it? Is this about what you said before... limiting how long you’d try this career out?"
She looked disappointed and concerned all at once. But I don’t know how to tell her that I let her start mentally building a life for me that has no way to continue in less than a month.
I really don’t know how to tell her anything - or when. And I’m saved by my phone chiming over and over. This time from a number I have listed in my contacts.
Z: [ellie says there’s an anime club meeting this week and she’s inviting both of us - and paul!]
Z: [please please please can you talk to my mom?]
Z: [she thinks it’s a waste of time but ellie promised there would be other responsible adults there and everything]
Z: [you’re good at convincing people, right?]
Z: [just... let me know quickly if you’ll try]
Z: [before I start doing extra chores]
Z: [and she figures out I want something...]
I couldn’t help the small smile that broke through my other concerns. Why couldn’t dealing with all my acquaintances be this adorably straightforward?
Her other texts always used proper capital letters, so I assumed she had the automated correction option on. But now I see that she had been doing it manually all this time - and couldn’t be bothered when a ’date’ involving Paul is on the line.
"What is it?"
"Just... realizing that I’ve somehow accumulated a bevy of meddlesome adults in my city life. And one very sweet teenager."
The blonde older woman laughed at me, as I responded to the message on my phone succinctly - with two powerful letters, a picture of the two teenagers together, and a teasingly smug ’sticker’. I felt her hand touch on my hair and turn my head, clearly having noticed the gleam up there.
"Welcome to having actual friends. I know we’re all terrible, but you’re stuck with us so long as someone else does not monopolize you. So? Are you going to accept his offer?"
And to the motherly seamstress, who seems to think my acceptance of these beautiful hair cuffs means something... I smiled and spoke another two letters. Entirely different from my answer to Zoé Morin.
"No."
⧖
☾ ❄ ☽
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Mr. Morrison had done excellent work, as far as I can tell. I’d transferred the final payment from my account while I returned to the warehouse that afternoon - with extra sent into Davie’s account thanks to a chat with Claire.
I also made sure to have her threaten him to use it to buy his girlfriend that ring immediately. To propose in under three weeks, or else ’Ms. Lomdi’ would introduce herself to the woman, become her friend, and... well, that he certainly would not be happy once that happened.
"...Really?"
"Yes."
A smile that did not show in my glowing eyes gave the Omega even more insinuation of the threat - though to say I had a plan beyond this is incorrect. Be what I may, I don’t have a habit of badmouthing others who do not deserve it.
Nor do I seduce the intendeds of others over resources that mean nothing to me. My morals on that may be willing to loosen if the funds were still important to my survival and that would get them back, but I am running out of time and things to think of buying in the first place.
Luckily, Dave just nodded gratefully at me and pulled the other man into the truck. Now the warehouse felt properly empty again. Except for a shipping container to fill back in with a small fortune in one deceased hunter’s things.
Hands on my hips, I stood surveying the office space and so much stuff I needed to move. A lot of it heavier than I want to deal with, so it will be a lot of Stash and slow walking.
After taking a picture of the interior with its piece of tape on the ground, showing how far back I should keep from the mounted battery racks, I come up with a plan. I’m still lamenting the loss of the back shelf, but everything else including the bed should still fit?
"Especially if I’m not trying too hard, as really getting it set up perfect looking could always be done after I get it to... where it is going."
Finishing my sentence with a paranoid feeling moment, as if someone could be listening in, my wolf made a throaty sound that might have been agreement to take it easy... or might have been commentary on talking to myself. In any case, it makes me remember that I should be wearing my earpiece at times like this.
The spirit seemed more interested in daydreaming about white wolves today than engaging with my practical concerns. Now that it has worked out how to mold whatever it wants inside my soul, the area on top of the central slab of | Guardian’s Composure | is looking like a pup’s playpen.
> So you fought me on going there, but now you are feeling the denning instinct too, huh? <
Shaking my head, I put down the first shelf on a container side wall and turned toward the doorway, when something made me pause. Not any sound. Not any smell. Just a sensation.
| Mother’s Intuition | flared like static electricity building on my skin. Or like the pressure change before a thunderstorm. My head whipped around just as a soft gray glow began to emanate from the center of the battery rack.
Like the smoky color of moonlight filtered through clouds. It spread across the metal casing rapidly, though not as rapid as a blink like I was used to. By two seconds it was crawling up the entire back panel like living light.
Encasing the inverter box and the secured cable conduits as I backed out of the container in a startled leap. Nearly falling on my rear as my eyes ticked up and saw it had even covered the roof... like it was following the wiring path up toward where the solar panels connected onto the roof.
> But it’s not after me, so you can stop panicking, Vrika! No- I’m not panicking, you ARE! Get her- *that* out of here! <
For once, it’s not just me being a hypocrite. The stupid wolf summoned a giant ghost-like Kyrie ’doll’... and is curled up shivering and whimpering in their lap. Maybe I’m not as alright with the black wolf staying as long as it likes in my soul after all...