Coldsnap: The Billionaire Alpha's Fated Pregnant Princess (GL)-Chapter 400 - Claiming Food And (Some) Choices

Chapter 400: Chapter 400 - Claiming Food And (Some) Choices
I wasn’t told *not* to eat it before he left. Neither did I ask explicit permission - they do say in this world that forgiveness is the less thorny path to take in the first place.
That may have been paraphrasing, but... convenient, that.
In a much different way than the responsibility of making a decision *before* things are done, a party gets to do what they wanted while the consequences of those actions then become shared one-sidedly between them. Forming negative links.
> I suppose secular leadership involves bearing the authority and repercussions of everything in the first place. But not everyone is a leader and not all decisions are made with beneficent intent. Some needs and decisions simply are. <
Watching a horse gallop through my mindscape, built from memories of a visiting retinue of them that had attended my eldest brother’s fifth marriage to an *outwardly gentle* broodmare... I chew on meat in reality that was a bit tough, just like she was to get along with.
Though at least this creature had cold weather and the exertions it went through before death to blame it on. But I’d been hungry enough not to care. The stew was filling enough last night, but that was last night.
I feel like my day is only going to get me more anxious, so getting all my food worries sorted is best. And Kyrie just keeps reassuring me that the things I do are fine.
"Is horse... any good?"
Leaning on my flank to keep herself and my son warm through | Nurturer’s Tolerance |, she finally asks the first new question since ’are you ready to go?’, back when the hunter headed up the trail we had come from.
> He should be able to track my path in reverse if he’s any good. And she gave detailed instructions. <
"We’ve had rules about what is scavengeable for over a century - and that wasn’t one animal I’d lifted it from, so that visiting rogues didn’t ever ’accidentally’ find one dead at any surrounding farm or ranch."
I lifted my bloodied muzzle from the carcass, eyes fixed on the treeline where a different kind of ’rulebreaker’ had disappeared. His path would still be fresh enough to follow.
Including the time she spent helping and talking to Rick - and that I’ve been eating - it’s been less than a half hour since Mateo departed that way. She must have guessed what was on my mind, because she started whispering a bit angrily.
"I told Barnes not to say anything, but the Sandhowl and any that ally with them will know. I’m not sure what they’ll do, but-"
Growling softly, I stood and began to nudge her over toward where the container had been summoned before. It was a good a place as any to make her stay with the pup. Though she either misses - or willfully ignores - what I’m really thinking this time.
"Alright, alright, you’re ready to go. Just let me get on and we can leave."
She moved to remount - and I backed up while holding her gaze... she understood me again with only that. I was sure. Because she frowned without any confusion.
> Quite good at pretending she doesn’t know things. Just like with the pregnancy. <
"Citra... he has retreated."
The Alpha of the Rimecoat tries to voice a stance, but I still looked deliberately toward the drops of leaking blood Matteo had left on the ice. Then back to my son in her arms, before raising up to her eyes again - and turning away with another growl.
"Are you going to murder him, or capture him?"
I shook my head once, decisively. Both of those are wrong. This Mateo had already chosen to align twice now, against me. Against her. Openly.
> As far as any shifter royalty would ever be concerned, his entire being was a declaration of antagonism. <
War had rules in this world *because* of society. Diplomacy, clemency, all these sort of things are used for seeking peace - but that is a state which requires two sides to be working toward the same goal or to be willing to make concessions for the sake of neutrality.
He will make none. This man will kill me if given the chance, I can sense it. Will kill members of her pack. Will kill or take my pup. Turning on humans was a statement of supremacy - and few are happy only being better than the weakest around.
All of that belongs to my own years of noble intuition as much as the system’s tingles. For he feels the same to me as every visitor to our Fox kingdom that was ever executed for hiring assassins against us.
| TASK: Your First Territorial Show Of Force |
And now it is going to reward me for this ’desire’... quite a sick joke. I see her eyes unfocus and then harden. I guess her knowing of my Tasks was not going to be a one time thing. Is it because we are close by when I received it?
"...Is it pushing you to do this? Citra. Take your son back. Let me go and be the one to-"
Shifting forms as she tried to talk and change my mind - or take the responsibility of the decision for herself - I transform not back to a ’human’ but instead to the hybrid state I haven’t been in since before the bear.
The air sizzles with that new divine energy. That small spark of it capable of so much. Notably less than returning to something smaller, but still present and loud to my mystically trained soul.
My claws extended a bit further than before - and feel even more like sharpened steel than they ever had. The lilac glow of eyes remains reflecting on the white snow beneath my snout.
And when I stand, my size now rivals her own large white-furred werewolf display that I saw up close when she killed Damien.
The shadow I’m casting over them is unpleasant. The edges of it implying nothing but the induction of terror. Reminding me of that state of rage when I left the tower that night.
But there are other changes to find than just my profile in silhouette. One difference in particular even tears right out of my freshly modified throat.
"He won’t stop. He called our son an abomination - and he’s a threat that knows where we’re going. He is what is pushing me, Kyrie."
A voice that sounds less smooth than I’d want, while touching the human-made cloth in which my child rests. Vanity tells me this is not the one I would want to sing lullabies in.
But the fact that I can talk at all is an... improvement.
"...You said *our* son."
Or maybe not. Maybe I should have gone without saying anything. Averting my face from those fierce eyes and twisting my hips, I lower down into something of a runner’s starting position.
"You must be hearing things, Pyari."
While breathing hotly in a shudder onto the ice, tense silence formed when she placed her hand on my spine.
"Let me come with you."
Whoever said permission was harder to ask for was right. She isn’t even pressing any harder to hold me down, but it feels like I can’t even move.