Coldsnap: The Billionaire Alpha's Fated Pregnant Princess (GL)-Chapter 408 - [V] They Love Me Not, He Loves Me Not, I Love Him Still

Chapter 408: Chapter 408 - [V] They Love Me Not, He Loves Me Not, I Love Him Still

I followed their familiar scents to a residential floor, then back down a different stairwell that lead to the lower levels. Where storage and maintenance areas provided privacy.

If you knew to cover the camera.

"-doesn’t matter. Bringing that thing here, that abomination-"

"Pineheart wolves also started to call it a miracle, honey. Gonna be hard to convince folk otherwise."

Xandra interrupted Arnold’s anger with a sultry tone, but he was having none of it. Pressing myself against the wall, I listen to more of what I came to hear.

"I’ve been talking to the Duskpaw kid. He’s already gathering support. There are other packs who will see this for what it is. A threat to our species. We get rid of it, this ends."

My teeth almost clenched too hard. They didn’t just have connections to Eschenhorn. They were as bad as him.

Thinking they could use... what sounds like Chad Duskpaw. That menace that kept sending more vile rogues into *our* territory.

"What about... Victoria? She’s been against this mate business and trying to ruin her acceptance from the start. Maybe we could... I don’t know, ask for more help by using her?"

"She is a coward. Folds the moment anyone pushes back. We need wolves with conviction. With strength enough to hold any defenders back."

I might hate rogues, lies, and things that threaten our pack. But... that stings to hear.

I know that’s what people think of me. Doesn’t mean they have to say it.

"To do the real combat deeds, sure. But women like her... they *move* the sort of men you need. Besides, Xara is still all broken hearted about her boyfriend getting his throat torn out so won’t be of use."

She chuckled, that annoying one she has. The one that turns her from ’probably a bitch’ to definitely one.

"And that other Whitecrest girl I was molding into something more useful got her arm pinched off. Damaged goods... well, that’s popular with some, but not the kind you can control."

"You’re right. We could use a new warm body. What about yours? Gonna donate to the cause?"

"Only for you, Arnie. I’ll bite off any other man’s co-"

Tuning out their vulgarity, I retreated as stealthily as possible - under the attack of some rather unpleasant sounds. Sounds that remind me why I usually avoid these areas and the raunchy wolves that use them.

Organized opposition. Extremist ideology with potential violence against... a child. With what... me, being used as the next convenient recruiting face for it?

Ridiculous. That they think I could be convinced of that. But what do I do with this knowledge?

I could report to Luca immediately. Tell him about Arnold and all the others I suspect are still up to no good. If I reveal it too soon and he makes a move, before understanding the full scope... would their threat not simply go underground?

Just like they must have during the investigations around Damien. I don’t even know how they avoided being caught in that. Their pet human snoop up there had *everything* on me.

She showed it without a smile while I was in the infirmary. That emotionless face she wears at work. Not that I was ashamed of any of it.

I’ve done nothing wrong.

...But I could gather the others around me like they want. Let them think I was still the voice of their traditionalist ways. All with the goal of bringing everything out to light.

I’d been a socialite even before getting my wolf. A networker even in middle school. Someone who collected information on people and pushed narratives around them...

I could do that again. In fact, I *want* to do that again.

Because I hate it down here at the bottom. I-

"Victoria."

Freezing up when I hear his voice, I fall down the stairs and collide with him. He caught me carefully, but also quickly pushed me to arm’s length. The same kind of frustrating actions that made me feel...

"Beta."

The formality came out as sharp as the nails I pressed into my palm. Because I could smell the scent of a woman all over him.

< Human. Claire. >

"You left the assembly early. Why?"

"Suddenly interested in where I go now that they are back..."

Bitterness leaked through despite an effort to play it cool. He hadn’t checked on me since the arena. No one has been sent to question the complaint reports I filed.

"Lodestone flagged three heading to the lower maintenance areas. Two of them are persons of interest we’ve been monitoring. The third was you."

Of course it did. Of course *she* was watching. My chest rumbled with a growl.

"Monitoring them? For how long?"

He took my shoulders and moved me into the wall. Trying to stare into my eyes, his voice dropped to an angry whisper.

"Doesn’t matter. What matters is what you heard down there. And what you plan to do about it."

I should lie. He’ll ruin it if I don’t. But Luca had always been able to tell when I was being fake. It was part of why he’d rejected me in the first place.

Said I wasn’t brave enough. That I *pretended* to be obnoxious too much.

"Well? Out with it."

What does he even know about being mean? About having people that call you friends lie to you and pitch a fit when you tell them what you knew.

What does he even know... about seeing people flirt with the person you like to the point that your wolf tells you to *ruin* them to show who stands on who?

"I’ll handle it. Myself."

"I’ve heard that before. But I’ve never seen it carried through well."

He let go of me. And even though there was nothing positive in his face while being so close, I still feel a pang when he moved away.

"They’ve been careful since the kidnapping. We suspect Arnold is going to make a play soon based on how he has been moving since news of Kyrie returning began. But couldn’t prove it. So now I need to know whether you’re trying to join them or not."

The way he said it - as if both options were equally plausible - made that curl of humiliation that has been hot in my chest for weeks *explode*. My hands found the collar of his jacket and pulled.

"I’m *not* a murderer. I would never help kill a newborn!"

Of course he is so damned solid that all that happens as I hiss those words... is that I drag myself into him...

And that closeness, hanging on his chest only makes me angrier! Why does he have to look so disgusted at this?!

"But you would have helped kick her out of the city to fend for herself. Even knowing Kyrie was helping her. Using a slower poison isn’t much different from strangling it yourself."

"That...was different. I thought she was manipulating Kyrie. Turns out I was right. But I was also wrong. About a lot of things - and its everyone who lied’s fault!"

"...Are you going to let go now, or must I push you off of me?"

It only took a moment of thought to answer that horrible, feckless question.

"Push. I can’t let go."

Maybe he does know how to be mean. Because he doesn’t do as I ask.

He just grabs my wrists, pressing lightly on a pressure point, and tugs at it too gently.

Until I bow my head and release the grip on my own. Until I beg - like I begged him to mark me.

"Let me get more names. More of their plan. I want to do this. Please."

"No. That’s dangerous."

"What the fuck isn’t any more? Let her do it. I’ll keep watch. It’s the least I can do for someone with good taste in men and a bad attitude about it. We’re practically twins."

Claire’s voice comes out of the device in his shirt pocket. Letting me know that *bitch* has been listening this whole time!

If I was going to strangle anyone, it would be her.

Maybe that wouldn’t be so bad. Then Luca might choose to bite me. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Even if it would be to kill me.