He hadn’t really considered it from that perspective before. There were so very few females left, it seemed normal for them to be monitored. Since he’d grown up under the scrutiny of his own father, and later played cat-and-mouse games of spying on his brothers while they spied on him, he’d never actually considered there might be another way to live than under a microscope.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’ve never talked with a tigress about the pressure they’re under and the constant attention they receive.”
“It’d drive me crazy.”
“You’re going to have to deal with it from now on, you know?”
“Because of Zoe or because they’ll be watching me?”
“Both. Despite…what happened at the meeting, what I said, some tigers will still consider you available and try to court you. The entire community knows about you and Zoe by now, and the fact that you can have a baby with a tiger male is enough to make you a kind of celebrity, I guess.”
“I’m not available,” she grumbled.
He stopped breathing for just a moment, afraid to believe she was admitting what he hoped she was admitting. When she didn’t say more, he said, “You called me ‘Daddy’ to Zoe tonight. Did you realize you did that?”
She winced. “Caught that, huh? I’m hoping she didn’t notice. I’d still prefer to tell her in a calm moment when she can understand.”
“But you do want her to know I’m her father?”
“Of course.” She shrugged. “Okay, I wasn’t sure at first, right after you came back. Not if you were just going to leave again. I didn’t want her to be hurt.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Rose. I’m here to stay. In whatever way you’ll have me.”
“And I’m starting to believe you, which is probably why I slipped up tonight. I guess my subconscious was already settled on telling her before my conscious mind acknowledged it.”
“What will you…?” He paused, not sure how to phrase it. “Where will you tell her I’ve been? What reason will you give for not telling her about me earlier?”
She stared at his shirt, patting the flannel with one hand as if smoothing out a wrinkle that wasn’t there. “I’ve been considering that. I think we tell her as much of the truth as she’ll understand. When she’s old enough, we can tell her the whole story. But I don’t want to lie to her now just to make things easy. Especially after…”
She waved her hand toward the door, but he knew she meant the kidnapping.
“I want to be as honest with her as possible,” she finished.
“What will you say?”
“I’ll tell her you had to go away before she was born, and you came back when you realized we needed you. I’m not sure she’ll understand much more than that now.”
“She’ll ask why I left.”
“Probably. I don’t know how to answer that one without fibbing.”
“Would she understand if I told her I had to go off to school?”
“How is that not a lie?”
“Technically, I had to learn some lessons before I could be with you two. It’s not a complete lie.”
She frowned. “Semantics.” She shrugged. “But probably a technicality we could get away with for the time being.” She continued to stare at his chest, a crease between her brows.
He lifted her chin and made her look him in the eyes. “When she learns the full story, she’ll understand. And I’ll be there, Rose. I promise.”
“I believe you. Because you were with me tonight.”
She kissed him again, soft and full of emotions he was afraid to name.
When they pulled apart again, he cupped her cheek. “Are you hungry? Or ready to sleep? You take the bed with Zoe. I’ll stretch out here.”
“On the floor? That’s not going to be very comfortable.”
“I’ll shift. Sleeping on the ground in tiger form is comfortable enough.”
“What happens tomorrow? An elder tried to kill our baby. What do we do now?”
“Go back and make sure he’s punished.”
“We killed the one man who could actually verify Lei was responsible for all this. Will that make things more difficult?”
“The Tracker who was with us heard Jameson confess. Killing a female tiger is considered a heinous crime among my people. They’ll want blood for that.”
“You didn’t answer my question. Will we have to prove Lei was involved? He can lie, make something up to explain his scent in the area, the reason it was his associate involved?”
He wanted to tell her Lei wouldn’t be able to lie in front of other tigers because they’d smell it, but he knew that wasn’t true. And so did she. Instead, he said, “Zoe might have witnessed something that will help.”