The Ugly Duckling Of The Tiger Tribe

Chapter 346: The babies shifted

The heat radiating from Fenric was different. It was a focused, slow-burning intensity that traveled from where his lips were locked onto me straight to my core.

I kept my eyes squeezed shut, my fingers tangled in his thick white hair. I could feel the sharp catch in his breath, the way his heart hammered against his ribs like a trapped bird. He wasn’t just feeding an urge; he was drinking me in, a silent, desperate claim made in the grayest hour before the sun.

His tongue swiped against the sensitive skin around my nipple, and a low, involuntary hitch caught in my throat.

Fenric paused again. I knew he was waiting—watching for my eyes to snap open, for a reprimand, for me to push him away. But I only tightened my grip on his head, pulling him a fraction closer.

The permission was silent, but it was absolute.

With a low, vibrating growl that barely left his throat, he surrendered. His hand, large and calloused, slid up to cup the underside of my breast, his thumb tracing the path the cubs’ small mouths had taken only moments before.

It was a strange, heady contrast—the innocence of the babies sleeping right there, and the raw, adult hunger of the warrior currently devouring me.

Across the pile, I felt Thalor shift. His hand on my ankle tightened, his fingers twitching against my skin.

He probably felt the change in the room’s vibration before he even heard a sound. But he didn’t move, and he didn’t open his eyes. Whether he was truly asleep or just respectful enough to let the ’land-brother’ have his moment, I couldn’t tell.

Noah, on the other hand, let out a soft, huffing snore, his arm heavy and possessive across my waist. He was dead to the world, blissfully unaware that the snow tiger was taking his chances while he slept.

Fenric eventually pulled back, his breath hot and ragged against my damp skin. He didn’t pull my top up right away. Instead, he leaned up, his forehead resting against mine. In the faint, pre-dawn light filtering through the flap, his red eyes were glowing like dying embers.

"Arinya," he breathed, the name sounding like a plea.

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. My heart was thudding too hard against my ribs.

I just reached up, my palm cupping his jaw, my thumb brushing over the traces of milk there. He leaned into the touch, a long, shuddering exhale escaping him before he finally, gently, tucked my clothes back into place.

He settled back into the furs, but he didn’t move away. He stayed curled around me and the cubs, a solid, protective wall that felt more sturdy than anything I could ever ask for.

As the first hint of blue started to bleed into the black of the night, I felt a strange, shifting energy from the small bodies beside me. The ’deep sleep’ was thinning. The air in the tent felt thick, charged with the same electric hum that preceded a summer storm.

The shift was coming. I could feel it. I don’t know if it’s because I’m their mother, but that certainty was there.

Fenric’s hand stayed locked with mine over the sleeping cubs, and I decided to give in to sleep as well. Even if the shift was coming, it wouldn’t come right away.

As the sun rose higher into the sky, I heard cries. Like, real babies crying. I wanted to ignore it, thinking it was probably the neighbours, but... the neighbours don’t even have pups, though, let alone children.

Ah, and these cries are so close. Yes, so close that it’s right in my ears.

"What do we do?" Thalor asked, sounding completely lost.

"We can’t touch them," Noah said.

"Arinya will get mad if we carry them before her, so let’s wait for her to wake up."

"Gosh, Little Tiger, how can you even sleep through this ruckus?"

Yeah, that definitely wasn’t the cries of passing babies. Those were the cries of ’my’ babies.

My eyes shot open right away, and I sat up, ready for war, and then I saw them. Sitting in the pile of their shedded fur were three cute and round cheeked babies crying their eyes out. Well, two were crying, one was silently watching the other two, her pretty emerald eyes scolding them for being crybabies.

Ah, ah, ahhhhhh! I can already tell who was who.

"My babies are so cute!" I yelled, my voice cracking with a mix of fierce maternal pride and shock.

Phina, Raiden, and Lyra froze. Six wide, curious eyes blinked up at me from a tangle of chubby arms and legs sitting on shedded fur.

I scooped them in my arms right away, like a mother duck protecting her ducklings.

Phina’s tanned, chubby cheeks were still damp with tears, and definitely taking her father’s dark eyes. Her little ears—stubby and soft—twitched atop her head, matching the confused flick of her tail against my arm. She was so cute I could die.

And then there was Raiden. His hair was a shock of snowy white with those distinct black patches, and his big red eyes were already scanning my face to see where ’it hurts’. Despite how much of a troublemaker he was, haha. This is definitely Fenric when he was younger.

I wasn’t there when he was younger, but there was no doubt in my heart.

And Lyra... she was the image of grace even as a toddler. Her silver hair caught the morning light, shimmering like silk, while the golden patches on her ears were the only loud evidence of my own bloodline. She wasn’t crying; she was just staring at me with a regal, silent judgment, as if to say, ’It took you long enough to notice, Mom.’ Hah! Could she be any less of her father’s carbon copy?

Could she be any more adorable?

My eyes grew glossy with touched tears, my heart pounding with a very familiar warmth spreading over my entire body.

Perfect. They were perfect. And they were butt naked with their short tails sticking out of their tail bones, haha.

I snuggled them even more. My babies. My precious.