Nobody moved.
The cub had gone quiet. Only his ears showed above the curve of the bigger tiger's leg, one white, one black.
Kael stood where he was. His hands had closed into fists, and Ren watched the knuckles go pale.
"Kael." Ren's chest tightened.
The tiger's growl rose a notch. A small black nose poked out beside his foreleg, then one red eye.
Kael looked at it.
Ren stepped between them before she had decided to.
"Hey. Look at me. Not him."
He looked at her. It took a while.
"He's a baby," Ren said. "He's been stuck in a tree since Altair put him there. He didn't pick his father. And his mother tried to drown him the night he was born."
Kael's ears twitched.
"I pulled him out of the swamp," Ren said. "I named him. I'm not leaving him here."
Kael said nothing. Behind her, the cub hissed at him, a thin little sound with no weight behind it.
Then Kael let out a long breath through his nose.
"I was feral once," he said quietly. "I broke the nursery."
Ren didn't answer.
