The Ugly Duckling Of The Tiger Tribe

Chapter 423: I don’t want her innocent cubs to die

I was already a mother of three. Four, if we’re counting the first baby that just came out. But the word that stands is, I am not weak. I will not be defeated. I will birth my last child safe and sound.

And nothing... not even when my vision is swirling...will stop me.

With a final, desperate heave that took every ounce of my remaining soul and strength, I let out an agonizing scream, and the second twin slid into the world.

As I felt it slide out of me, I knew it was time to stop fighting.

I had won... another war.

The silence that followed was heavy, broken only by my ragged gasps and the soft splashing of the midwives cleaning the newborns, followed by their newborn wails.

Sweat rolled down my forehead. Once again, I’ve brought life to this world.

I shut my eyes for a second.

"Look at them," Noah whispered, his voice thick with awe as he stepped closer, and I opened my eyes.

The midwives brought them to me. Two perfect, human-shaped infants, not cubs. Strange. But as the steam cleared, the sight made the males gasp in unison.

The boy and girl both had a thick shock of deep, royal purple hair that looked like silk dusted on their heads. Along their tiny, pale limbs and the sides of their torsos were rows of shimmering, diamond-like scales—the mark of the sea.

But when they opened their eyes, they didn’t have Thalor’s violet eyes. They had the fierce, glowing amber-gold of a tiger, their slit pupils focusing on me with some sort of knowing intelligence.

"Tiger eyes," Fenric whispered, his hand still bleeding from my bite, but he didn’t care. "They have your eyes, Arinya."

Obviously. I couldn’t have done all that work only to have Thalor steal their genes.

Thalor reached out, his fingers trembling as he touched the boy’s tiny, scaled arm.

"My hair... and her fire." He looked at me, his face a mess of tears and salt. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Thalor cry this much before. "Thank you. Thank you, my Savior."

Damar pulled me closer, his chin resting on my head, his entire body finally stopping its frantic shaking. "You did great, Ari."

I looked at the twins—my little purple-haired predators—and then at my four ’mighty’ husbands, who all looked like they’d just survived a war.

I pushed out the placenta with the bunny midwife’s help, and that truly marked the end of it.

"Next time..." I wheezed, my eyes fluttering shut as the exhaustion finally took me. "Next time... one of you... is doing this..."

"Never again," they all whispered in unison, their voices filled with a terrified, loving resolve.

I let out a weak chuckle, and just then, as I was about to drift off to sleep and rest, a guard came to announce that Veyra had entered labor.

It wasn’t supposed to be my concern, but then I heard she was having a difficult labor.

She and her unborn cubs were in danger, and the midwife who was in charge of her said that there had to be a choice. Either the mother or the cubs would die.

It was awful to hear, given I had also just experienced labor. I may hate her, but I would never wish for her to have to make a choice between her life and the cubs she’s had growing in her for months.

Besides, the cubs don’t deserve to die.

I felt a little shattered and then thought, If I were in her shoes, I could almost see myself choosing to save my babies.

The babies that I looked forward to seeing this world with, the babies that I was already planning the future with... The babies that were my pride and joy.

I cannot see myself giving them up, even if it were a hard decision. Though I suppose my husbands would try to talk me out of it.

We can have more babies in the future, they’d say. So long as I was alive to birth them.

I was just having that thought when the guard added,

"She chose to save herself without hesitation."

The room was still heavy with the scent of the sea and the echoing cries of my new twins, but that announcement felt like a bucket of ice water being poured over me.

What?

"She chose herself?" I whispered, my voice cracked and dry.

I know one would want to live, but... without hesitation?

Damar’s arms tightened around me instantly, his chin still resting on the crown of my head.

"It doesn’t matter, Ari. It’s not your concern. You can barely keep your eyes open."

"I want to see," I said, struggling to shift my weight in the water.

"No," Fenric barked, his voice sharp with a protective edge I rarely heard directed at me.

He was still holding his bleeding arm, but his ruby eyes were wide with alarm.

"You just went through hell, Arinya. You aren’t going anywhere. Your body needs to rest, or you’ll lose your own strength."

"Arinya, listen to them," Noah urged, kneeling by the pool’s edge. He looked like he’d aged five years in the last hour, his dark eyes filled with a desperate plea. "The midwives need to check you and then sew you up. The babies need to be settled. Veyra’s choices are her own, but yours belong to us and this kingdom now. Don’t throw your health away for a woman who would have stabbed you yesterday."

Thalor, who was still cradling the purple-haired boy, looked over with cold eyes.

"If she has no love for her own blood, she is truly a beast of the lowest order. Why would you waste your final breath of energy on her?"

I looked at my husbands, then at the two tiny, tiger-eyed miracles resting in the midwives’ arms. I felt a hollow ache in my chest that had nothing to do with the labor.

I knew Veyra was selfish. I knew she was a ’witch.’ But to hear that she didn’t even hesitate to discard the lives growing inside her...

It made me realize that while I was building a world based on love and sacrifice, she was still trapped in a cycle of pure, venomous survival.

"I’m not going because I care about her," I wheezed, leaning back into Damar’s chest as a wave of exhaustion threatened to pull me under. "I’m going because I want to see if there’s truly nothing left in her. I want to know... if she’s even human anymore."

"You aren’t going," Damar said, his voice a low, final rumble.

He didn’t say it as a common predator, but as a mate who had almost lost his mind watching me in pain. He gently shifted me so I was tucked against his chest, away from the edge of the pool.

"If you want to know what she’s thinking, I will go. Fenric will go. But you are staying here in the warmth, with your children."

I wanted to argue, but my eyelids felt like they were weighted with lead. The heat of the pool, the rhythmic beating of Damar’s heart against my back, and the soft, mewling sounds of my new twins were a siren song I couldn’t resist.

"Fine," I murmured, my voice drifting off into the steam. "Go. See what the ’Golden Child’ has become. But don’t let her die... not because I love her. But because I want her to live with the knowledge of what she threw away."

"I think she should die," Fenric suddenly said, and my eyes darted towards him softly. "She has too many sins. But the cubs are innocent. So, instead of saving one who is evil, I would rather we save the cubs."

Yes, I get his point. I don’t want her innocent cubs to die. And if Veyra dies, doesn’t it just mean she was destined to die for new life?

After all, she was irredeemable. She was one who would never apologize, and all her wrongs were right before her eyes.

I was the monster. I was the witch. I was at the end of her malice. I was in danger of her evil.

So, ridding the world of her was... the best thing to do.

Yet... I would not have her blood in my hands.

"Do what you must," I muttered, panting, breathless. "Just... do not harm her cubs."

"Yes, Arinya. Leave it to us and go to sleep," He said, and I nodded.

As my eyes finally fluttered shut, I heard the heavy thud of the door as Fenric and Damar stepped out to face what was going on in the hall.

I wonder... what would I wake up to? The beautiful faces of my babies, that’s first. And then, the situation in my palace... it must be grim.

But if Veyra is gone, and I can assign Zevak and Ashren to a position where they do not pose a threat to me, the rest of the stormhole tribe will be settled.

’You did good, Stephanie.’