To Tempt A Tiger(54)
Many of those who’d aided his father hadn’t been identified by the elders yet, either. Vlad was still working on uncovering them all himself. He had to work carefully to avoid making his brothers question why he was looking for them.
“Then you know,” Alexis continued, “that even within the compound, even with all the resources we’ve set up, there are some we can’t trust, and we don’t know who they are.”
“I don’t trust anyone right now.” When she raised her brows, he said, “No offense. I suppose I’m trusting you to a certain extent. But you’ll understand if I stay on guard around all tigers.”
She snorted. “Yeah, I can’t blame you. If she was my baby, I’d be viciously protective, too.”
“I’ve heard you already are.”
She grinned at that. “Guess it comes with being a parent. And speaking of which, how do you like the job so far?”
He thought of that beautiful little girl, sound asleep in the other room, the way she’d taken to her tiger nature as if she’d always expected it to be part of her life, the way she ordered him around when she was in human form, and the way she’d play-attacked him in tiger form. He smiled softly. “Love it.”
“Good. I assume you and Rose are…reconciling?”
“Working on it.”
“Then I assume you intend to stick by her and Zoe in the years ahead.”
“I do. Why do you care?”
“They’re going to need you.” She glanced back at the hallway leading to the rooms. “There’s been a change… A few of the females in the generation just before my daughters, they’re coming into their first estrous early. We’ve been keeping it pretty quiet.”
“Who’s we?”
“Elizaveta and me, the girls, and a handful of scientists Elizaveta trusts.”
“How do you know?”
“I work with most of the female tigers in the US.”
He raised his brows. “Work?”
“Self-defense training. Remember Su-jin Lee-Bennett?”
Vlad sucked in a breath. Everyone remember Sujin’s murder. It had rocked the community because her murderer was human.
“Well, after, it was decided the females needed to learn how to defend themselves properly. Instinct is all well and good, but training goes a lot further.”
The conversation suddenly made him very grateful Rose was a highly trained martial artist. They’d have to be sure Zoe got training, too. Thinking about Su-jin’s death, especially now that he had a daughter of his own to worry about, was too uncomfortable, so he went back to the original topic. “How early is the early estrous?”
“Two started at twenty.”
“That early?” Most tiger females didn’t come into their first estrous until around twenty-five.
“One girl had her first estrous at nineteen. We’re not making this common knowledge. They’re all too young to go into the Mate Run.”
“Theories about why it’s happening?”
“The extinction threat. We’re still right on the edge. The few scientists Elizaveta trusted with this have theorized the earlier estrous is a way for females to start breeding earlier so they have a longer reproductive life.”
“Why now? Why not a century ago? Why not two centuries ago when the problem first became serious?”
She shrugged. “Got me. But it’s the only logical explanation we have at the moment. The thing is, this probably means my daughter’s generation will have more females coming into estrous early. The secret won’t remain a secret much longer. The males will get wind and will expect these girls to start running.”
“Why are you telling me all this?”
“You have a daughter. A tiger daughter. Mixed or not, she’s a shifter, and she will be pressured to run. I know it’s years down the road, but you should know you might reach that point a lot sooner than you expect. It’s hard to tell with a hybrid. We have no way of knowing what road her biology will follow. But she’s going to need a strong advocate on her side. The best person to do that is her father.”
The urge to run away and keep Zoe and Rose hidden from his people got even stronger. “I’ll be with her,” he said. “I’ll keep her safe.”
“Good. Now, I’m going for a run. I’ll be back in a few hours.” She winked and ambled toward the front door, pulling her shirt off as she went.
Giving him and Rose some privacy from shifter hearing.
Privacy he intended to take advantage of. He paused in the hall outside Zoe’s door, assuring himself she slept soundly, surprised at how much he needed to check on her and how often. He found himself listening for her breathing almost automatically.