My Snow Princess

Biding My Time

I lay down on one of the four beds. He put me in one of the larger rooms at least. The rooms on this floor were for political prisoners. People who need to be treated well essentially.

I looked out the skylight as I thought through every angle of this situation, so I would be ready for every outcome.

I'm not sure if I was put in here as a prisoner, or if I had lost his trust. I had carried out every one of his commands to the letter and I doubted he was aware of my activities outside of that, or I wouldn't be in one of these rooms. I would be in a cell in the dungeons or dead.

It would really suck having to spend the foreseeable future in this room, but knowing that I wasn't actually trapped would get me through it. When renovating these rooms, we added escape hatches. The one for this room was in the bathroom in the cabinet under the sink. It was a built-in vanity, and you could slide away part of the back and enter into a tight passage in the walls.

I wouldn't ever use it except if I needed to escape, but it kept any claustrophobia or panic at bay. I was known for loving the outdoors, so I'm sure Stone was getting some sadistic pleasure out of this. He didn't actually need me in here until the girl arrived.

I needed more information before I could make any decisions. I grabbed a pen and paper to write a note. I would leave it just inside the escape hatch, so someone could come find it and get me the information I needed. By dinner time today, people would know I was missing. I was too integrated into the running of the castle to not be missed so I'm sure someone would find the note soon enough.

Stone would probably announce to the pack that I was here. I'm not sure if he would say it was a punishment or if he would tell them the same thing he told me. That I would be here to protect his mate. He would probably use the former excuse because the latter pointed to the fact that his future mate may be a risk to herself.

There was no way that he could hide that his chosen mate was the Gamma's fated mate, and we all knew how damaging it would be to her to be away from her mate and forced to mate another.

My first letter had been to ask for more information about the girl. I didn't want to alert Stone to the security weaknesses that we'd built into the castle. Keeping them secret would help us save a lot of faceless people from harm. We used passageways and hiding spots daily to stay out of his sight and that of other high-ranking shifters just to get through the day.

If I helped this girl escape, Stone would scour this castle for exits. He wouldn't find them all, but he would definitely find some, and he would kill anyone involved with the renovations. We needed to be prepared for that so we could hide as many people as possible.

However, if this girl was important to the Gamma and to the Imperial pack, then I would need to do everything I could to get her back to them. The Imperial pack Gamma would be one of the few people with a chance of defeating Stone. I couldn't allow him to be weakened. Without his mate, he would be no match for Stone; he might even die.

For now, I would wait for more information, but it seemed pretty clear that I would be spending all the time until she arrived planning an escape for her. There were a lot of arrangements that needed to be made because this would mean I would have to leave the Northern pack. If I stayed I would be killed. There would be no way to convince Stone I was innocent.

I would need to find people to fill my role in the organization.

We weren't really centralized under one leader, but I was the only one aware of all the moving parts. My proximity to Stone and my parents made it so that I was able to visit most places within our borders. I also had the most freedom of movement within and around the pack house.

I took a calming breath and enjoyed a lazy day in front of the TV. While I waited for the girl to arrive, I would have downtime for the first time in my life. I can't remember the last time I could read and watch TV all day. Spending a week or two like this wouldn't be so bad.

Unfortunately, it would take two months before she was captured. All the plans were made, confirmed and reconfirmed, while I slowly lost my mind sitting in that room alone. I imagined using the escape passage every day to go visit the staff so I could have some human interaction, but I knew I couldn't. I couldn't risk being gone in case Stone decided to check on me.

Seems I was out of sight and out of mind. I was grateful because being in Stone's presence meant risking his wrath, but I was still going a little crazy.

I tried to make a routine, but there wasn't much to do outside of working out, watching TV, eating and keeping up my hygiene.

When the door finally opened to reveal a beautiful young woman that I instantly knew to be Josie based on her description, I was elated. I definitely came on too strong, but I was ready to set things in motion. In under two weeks, I will be leaving this room and this pack house for good.

There were a lot of people I would miss, but once I left the Northern pack, there was so much more I would be able to do to help my people.

Now I just had to get Josie back in fighting spirit. She'd been away from her mate for a while, and her foiled escape was an obvious blow. This young woman was smarter and more powerful than she knew. I saw how she got under my brother's skin, and I was impressed, but most importantly, she had a pure heart.

Years of slowly biding our time had come to an end. My pack was going to fight for a better life and it started today.