The Ugly Duckling Of The Tiger Tribe-Chapter 317: The meeting with the disgruntled mothers

I took a deep breath, trying to steady my racing heart from the whole Fated mate realization. The words were still ringing in my ears like someone was striking a gong, but I had to lock that realization in a box for now. I had a different kind of predator to face.

The hall was filled with the low, discordant hum of hushed whispers and the occasional small voices of children. As I stepped fully into the light, the room went dead silent.

Talia had been efficient—and perhaps a bit malicious—in her recruitment.

Seated on the stone benches were about two dozen women. Some looked bored, some looked ready to commit murder, and others just looked exhausted. But they all had one thing in common: their eyes were fixed on me with a cold, territorial scrutiny that made my skin crawl.

And then there were the pups.

My heart softened in spite of the tension. Scattered among the mothers were little boys and girls, aged anywhere from toddlers to five-year-olds. They had all fully morphed from their beast forms into small children, but their heritage was unmistakable. Tufts of grey, brown, and black wolf ears poked through messy hair, and small, bushy tails flicked nervously behind them. Some had Noah’s eyes, and some had their mother’s eyes. They were all staring at me with wide-eyed curiosity.

"She’s smaller than I thought," one female whispered loudly, her arms wrapped protectively around a young boy who was busy chewing on a piece of dried meat.

"The King’s ’Special’ Tiger," another sneered, her lip curling. "She looks like she hasn’t slept in a week. I suppose keeping three husbands busy is hard work."

I felt a flush creep up my neck, but I didn’t look away. I walked to the center of the hall, my bare feet silent on the cold stone, and stood before them. I wanted them to see me—all of me—including the exhaustion and the determination.

"Thank you for coming," I said, my voice steady despite the flutter in my stomach.

"We didn’t come for a ’thank you,’ tiger," Talia said, standing near the front. She looked better than she had this morning, but her expression was still guarded. "We came because you threatened our pride as mothers. You said we were failing our children."

"I said you were letting your bitterness divide them," I corrected firmly. "Get it straight."

I looked around the room, making eye contact with as many as I could. "Look at them. Look at your pups." I pointed to a pair of boys who looked almost identical, sitting with different mothers but eyes on each other, as if they were looking in the mirror for the first time. "Those two are brothers. Do they even know each other’s names? Do they know that they share a father?"

The room shifted. A few mothers looked down at their laps. Others tightened their grip on their pups.

"Noah is a King, but he’s also just a man who made a lot of... complicated choices before I got here," I continued, choosing my words carefully.

I knew the majority of them ’ambushed’ him to get pregnant and have a claim to the position of queen, but if I say it so bluntly, I’ll just be asking for a fight. And I didn’t come here for a fight.

"I’m not here to take his past away from you. I can’t. But I won’t let his past ruin the future of these pups. I want them to grow up knowing they have a pack. A real one. Not just a collection of houses in one street, but a real family."

A female in the back, her face scarred from what looked like an old hunt, stood up.

"And what do you get out of this, ’Queen’? Do you think playing nice with us will make us forget that you’re the one he chose? That you’re the one who gets his nights without effort while we get nothing?"

The bitterness in her voice was so sharp it was almost a physical weight.

"Yeah." Another added. "The King doesn’t even glance at us, doesn’t ask about us or the pups. It’s like he doesn’t even care about his offspring, cause I’m sure he definitely doesn’t care for us females. So tell me, why are ’you’ caring?"

There was a sharpness in her tone that made me feel how heavy and serious the situation was. Noah didn’t just abandon them; he crushed the little hopes they had for their pups.

They must’ve felt, even if he doesn’t look at me, he will at least acknowledge his flesh and blood, the one I suffered and labored to bring to this world. But his defiance and nonchalance towards even the pups broke their hearts.

At the end of the day, making sure your child doesn’t suffer in life is a mother’s goal. So, not getting acknowledged by their father, not even giving time to play with them, must’ve hurt a lot more than his rejection towards them.

That is why they hate me. That is why they see me as a thief. I could understand it because I, too, was a mother.

I took a step toward them, my heart aching with a sudden, sharp empathy.

"I am not doing any of this to mock either of you, nor am I doing things to rub my position in. I simply want a kingdom that isn’t rotting from the inside," I said softly. "And I want these pups to have a father," I added, my voice cracking slightly.

The hall went silent—a heavy, suffocating kind of quiet. I saw a few of the females flinch. Talia’s eyes widened, her hands clenching at her sides. I wasn’t just talking about a King anymore; I was talking about the man who hadn’t looked at his children’s faces in months, maybe years.

"Noah is... he is a great King," I continued, stepping closer to the woman with the scar. "But as a father to these children? He’s failing, woefully. Even I can see that. And he’s failing because he’s afraid that if he looks at them, he has to look at the choices he made with you, even if he felt... he couldn’t help the situation. He told me, after my delivery, that he couldn’t bear to watch a female giving birth after he watched the first one because of how hard it was, and I assume that also adds to why he doesn’t want to take a look at the mothers or the pups. He feels guilty, and isn’t man enough to face that guilt, and so, he’s running away from his own blood with the excuse that it’s ’complicated’." My gaze lingered on them for a while, and I shook my head. "Well, I’m done with his complicated mess."