The Ugly Duckling Of The Tiger Tribe-Chapter 320: Talking to Noah about the Nursery

I made my way out of there, the sounds of Oryn’s crew beginning to stir behind me. The heavy thud of timber being moved was like a war drum for the revolution I was starting—a revolution of nap times and wooden slides. Hehe.

I found Noah near the half-finished perimeter of Oakhaven. The sheep-tribe’s village was coming along beautifully, but the scene in front of me was pure chaos.

Noah was standing with his hands on his hips, looking every bit the King as he pointed out structural flaws to a group of builders. But any air of majesty was severely undercut by the fact that Fenric was sitting on a nearby stump, looking like he had just survived a hurricane.

The cubs—my sweet, hungry little terrors—were currently using Fenric as a personal jungle gym. Raiden was dangling off his left ear, Phina was attempting to scale his head by tensing its tiny claws in his thick hair, and Lyra, who should be quiet by the way, was buried deep in his fur, letting out a muffled, demanding mew.

"They’re going to pull it all out, Arinya," Fenric groaned the moment he spotted me, his red eyes wide with a mix of desperation and adoration. "I’m going to be a bald snow tiger by noon. And they’re hungry. Like, predatory hungry."

Noah turned at the sound of my name, his face lighting up with relief before his gaze darkened slightly, his nostrils flaring as he caught the lingering, salt-air scent that I still hadn’t been able to fully scrub off.

He stepped toward me, his presence looming and warm, but he did not say anything about that.

"You were gone a long time," Noah murmured, reaching out to steady me as I stumbled slightly over a rogue root. "How did it go?"

"It went well," I said, leaning into his side for just a second before reaching for Raiden, currently trying to eat Fenric’s ear. "And by ’well,’ I mean I’ve promised twenty-four angry mothers a Royal Nursery by tomorrow morning. Which means, Noah..." I looked up at him, a mischievous glint cutting through my exhaustion. "You’re officially on childcare duty."

Noah furrowed his brows. "What?"

Fenric immediately noticed the rising tension. The workers had even started looking at us, feeling the deep storm in Noah’s growl.

Fenric stood up, carefully peeling Phina off his shoulder and handing her to me with a look of pure gratitude.

"Take them, Arinya. Before I lose the rest of my dignity." He gave Noah a wary glance, sensing the storm brewing behind the wolf’s eyes, and then began ushering the nearby builders toward the far end of the construction site. "Back to work! This place won’t build itself!"

I adjusted the squirming cubs in my arms, their tiny, insistent whimpers a sharp contrast to the silence that was suddenly stretching between Noah and me, desperately trying to have their meal.

"Okay, you little suckers, I got you,"

I let out both of my breasts, and Lyra took one in her mouth, losing her usual composure as she glared at her siblings.

When did she become a bully?

Raiden and Phina had to struggle with the other side. Raiden sucked for a few seconds, Phina pushed him aside and took over, and they just kept at it.

I felt my nipples suffering, but what could I do? I had starved them long enough. This was my cross to carry.

And then, I looked up at Noah.

He didn’t speak until I saw I had settled the cubs in my bosom.

"A nursery?" Noah finally said, his voice low and vibrating with a frustration he was trying to keep in check. "Arinya, I am a King. I have a kingdom to fortify, the elders to appease, and a border that is currently as thin as a dried leaf. I cannot spend my days playing with pups in a wooden house."

I shifted the weight of the babies, feeling as the two cubs fought for one nipple while Lyra monopolized the other with no stress.

"You think this is about playing, Noah? You think I spent my time in a room full of women who want my head on a pike just to give you a break from your ’important’ work?"

"I didn’t say that," he countered, his dark eyes flashing. "But you’re asking me to step away from the crown to do the work of a nanny. The people need to see their King standing tall, not covered in pup-spit and fur."

I let out a short, sharp laugh that held no humor.

"The people see a King who can face a lion but is too scared to look at his own children. I met them today, Noah. About two dozen kids. Kael, a little boy who thinks you’re a god. A girl with grey-tipped ears who didn’t even know if the boy sitting next to her was her brother. They have your eyes, Noah. Every single one of them." Well, most of them, but they all have that familiar glint.

Noah flinched as if I’d struck him. He turned his head away, his jaw working as he stared out at the forest.

"It is complicated. Those females... they didn’t want me, Arinya. They wanted the status. They wanted a claim. If I give them my time, I give them hope for something I will never provide."

"So you punish the children for the mothers’ greed?" I got up, holding my babies firmly, and stepped closer, forcing him to look at me. "You’re a coward. You can fight a war, but you can’t look a four-year-old in the eye because it reminds you of a past you aren’t proud of? That’s not being a King. That’s being a child yourself."

"Watch your tongue, Arinya," he warned, his voice dropping into an intense, dangerous tone, and for a second, I paused.

Noah had never lashed out at me before. He must be upset that I’m bringing out his flaws, and it makes me even more upset, so I stilled my resolve and glared at him.

"Or what? You’ll growl at me?" I asked, taunting him. "Look at Phina right now. Do you want her to grow up knowing her father, while about two dozen of their brothers and sisters watch from the shadows? Do you want Phina to grow up thinking she’s better than them just because her mother is the one you ’marked’?" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

I saw the moment the anger in him began to crack, replaced by a raw, bleeding guilt. He looked down at the cubs, his large hands trembling slightly at his sides.

"If you don’t do this," I whispered, the weight of the morning finally catching up to me, "if you don’t stand up and be a father to all of them, then you don’t deserve to be a father to mine." I hissed, and his eyes widened, struck cold by my words. "I won’t raise my children in a kingdom built on the broken hearts of their siblings. If you can’t face them, Noah, then don’t bother coming back to my side."

The silence that followed was heavy, filled with the distant sounds of the village’s construction and the way the trees rustled with the wind.

Noah stood there for a long time, his broad shoulders hunched as if he were carrying the weight of the entire mountain.

He searched my eyes, believing this was a sick joke, but when I did not give him the smile or the teasing smirk I usually put on, he knew for sure that this was no joke.

"You... You’re serious," he said, his voice barely a breath. "You would truly keep me from them? From Phina?"

"I would," I said, and I meant it. "Because a man who doesn’t cherish his own blood isn’t the man I fell in for. Reflect on that, ’King.’ I’m getting out of here. I have a nursery to build."

I turned on my heel, adjusting my top to keep my breasts, and clutching my cubs to my chest.

I left Noah standing in the shadow of the stone wall, and I didn’t look back to see if he was following.

I needed to get back and start building with Oryn, and didn’t have a single second to waste on a beastman who hadn’t figured out where his real strength lay.