Coldsnap: The Billionaire Alpha's Fated Pregnant Princess (GL)-Chapter 438 - Gaining & Lacking Tolerance

A/N: Same as before~ eventually I’ll get out of these shitty moments...

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"Roaming the city without need of heavy gear. Working around the boilers without sweating. Sleeping soundly at a consistent temperature. Not to mention what it means for food."

She listed off her collection of things I may not have thought of without me asking. Half of those I *did* realize, thank you very much, you smooth necked CEO...

> Focus. <

"...What about food?"

"You may not truly understand with your appetite, but there is a reason that the caloric intake requirements in winter - and especially regions closer to the arctic - increases. People need more just to cover keeping their core body temperature up. With your ability, it cuts every member of your pack’s ration requirement in half."

"I do not like referring to them as mine. I came to the tower with you for safety. For the sake of my son. Not to become a competing power in the structure."

Of course, I have to take a little umbrage with her wording. That way... she doesn’t know how much the suggestion of my usefulness to her is sating something in me. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"Who said anything about competing? You already said you intended to be a stabilizing force. You are my power when you choose to be - and I am yours always."

"...Are you intentionally trying to provoke me by pointing out the inequality there?"

"I honestly wasn’t. It... was an attempt to express to you that I don’t expect to be given more help than you are willing. Ever. But I do desire it. I want you to be a part of things. Because I know you will make everything better than I can alone."

This... experience. It feels related to the bond mark. Because from head to toe, just like when I was claimed by that molten feeling in my blood, my body *sings* at the concept of being appreciated.

Even if it’s for a system ability that I can’t genuinely trust I will always have. In her fiery eyes, her mate has utility. What a truly wonderful word to compliment myself with!

Princess Citra Lomdi is being *useful* to someone with the power to shape and affect things on a ’kingdom-wide’ scale. Not just a young royal being watched - waiting for her to make mistakes to take advantage of.

Not just a shifter who had tricked away a hundred male suitors and was growing into a *problem*. A little lengthy laugh comes out of me at that line of thought.

> Might even be classified as a giggle. I fall into all sorts of hysterics around her, don’t I? <

"It sounds like something about this situation has tickled you."

It makes sense she heard. But I wish she hadn’t. I don’t want to be remembered for giggling while chopping up intestines!

"Kyrie. If at any other time I started off a conversation describing a CEO, a Princess, and a Dead Bear high upon the tallest place in the near vicinity... one would think I was beginning a sort of long form joke, would they not?"

"I wouldn’t begin to know the punchline, but yes. It has that setup quality to it."

"Well, there you have it then."

The quiet returned, along with an idea. I feel a bit silly for not thinking of it until the fourth length of gut. After I cut it off and while thinking of the nice clean pieces I’ve already made, I grab hold while my hands glow blue.

Focus only on the casing. Ignore the will to store away anything other than it. Reverse the process that she took advantage of for her gear - where things connected to each other count as a single item.

Treating it like a container whose contents I didn’t want. Which is honestly an experiment I think I’ve skipped all this time, since I always *wanted* the ability to hold everything I possibly could inside what I tried to Stash away.

"Why is it that you lie terribly when you are around me?"

Kyrie asks me this as I groan. At my shortsighted choice. What in all nineteen hells caused me to hold *on* to this intestine in this manner?

"Short answer... when you are not involved, Mrs. Voss, I find it much easier to channel my courtly persona."

I could have just maybe poked a finger at it for this test. Sat my hand down lightly on the surface. No, I had to *grab* the entire thing filled with something wretched that was going to have nowhere to go but where gravity told it to.

With my fingers in the way of that traversal.

"Long answer?"

Luckily there is plenty of snow to scrub with and the cold and sharpness of its edges doesn’t bother me. And gives me time to contemplate how to respond to this... interrogation.

I truly do think it over, even though she is clearly teasing me. Even though the answer is obviously just that she riles my torrid side. That I feel flooded by her voice, looks, and often just that scent of hers.

> Well, two can play at that. <

"Honestly, Pyārī... tricking a supreme beauty such as yourself feels like a karmic debt that I am still paying off from a prior lifetime, but haven’t quite learned the lesson over. However, who knows?"

Raising my hand as pretend to muse, the Stashed away part comes out for me to inspect. Clean as a whistle - not that I intend to put my lips on this object at all. I’m sure my son can figure out how to gnaw on it once it is dried without giving him an example...

"Perhaps I have merely learned how to feign being caught at lying to attract someone who finds it endearing. Could it be you’ve never thought of that?"

Expecting her to take a moment, I’m instead floored by an immediate response.

"I have. I don’t believe it. But if I am being deceived, it’s fine. Because your tricks seem very sweet, your touches very tender, and your-"

"Shut up. Please? I apologize for engaging with this! Just let me curl up and whine alone here while you go do something that isn’t... isn’t tempting me to just curl up and whine in your arms, please?"

"You said please twice."

Another throaty growl comes from the Alpha as I have my head stuffed in the little snowbank. Turning off my own Tolerance and trying to cool down my face. Actually, despite this situation, I find myself curious...

If they can toggle the ability too? Oh no. I haven’t created a situation with a bunch of people burning their own hands on accident, have I?

Actually... wait.

> Thermoregulation. Cold doesn’t do anything at all. Even this severe, biting, bone chilling cold. My skin isn’t even particularly dry or flaky. Then... <

"...How did I not test this yet? Instinctive fear, maybe."

"Test what?"

Extra rapidly, I cut the remaining pieces and store them away one by one to clear them of the last of the feces. Bundle them all over my shoulder while skipping closer toward her. Because I absolutely have to see the look on her face when I say this.

"Kyrie Voss. Would you do me the honor of setting a fire... that I can stand directly in?"

"No."

The woman gave it zero thought! Without change of features at all, no sharp glow in her eyes or flinch in her face... instant denial.