Chapter One
“Come on, babies, just a little farther.” Xias was lying through his teeth, but the cubs didn’t need to know that. The longer they could remain blissfully ignorant of the danger they were in, the better.
He nudged one with his nose when it started to fall behind the other two. He knew there was a cave close by. He’d scouted it out while the cubs were still sleeping, but with the snow coming down so hard he could barely see a step in front of him, he was beginning to wonder if he’d ever find it again.
The blizzard had come out of nowhere, hard, cold, and dangerous. Xias knew if he didn’t find shelter for himself and the cubs soon, they’d be lost in the flurry of bitterly cold snow. They’d freeze to death by morning for sure.
Maybe he should have left the cubs behind where they would have been warm and dry. Xias quickly dismissed that idea. His heart ached just thinking about it. Everything in him balked at the idea of anything happening to his cubs.
They were his babies. He had carried them for four months, given birth to the three darling little fur balls. Just because clan law stated they belonged to their sire didn’t make it so, especially when the bastard decided to put two of them to death because they hadn’t been born male.
Xias grew enraged every time he remembered his alpha’s declaration that two of his cubs were defective. His cubs were precious, each and every one of them. He didn’t care if they were boys or girls or purple penguins. They were his cubs and he’d fight to the death to defend each and every one of them.
Which was what had led him to where he found himself now—racing through a blizzard with his cubs, trying to find a place to wait out the storm and escape from the alpha intent on killing everything he held dear.
Xias jumped forward when Bai, the oldest of his litter of cubs, tripped and went face-first into a snowdrift. He gently grabbed the cub by the back of his neck and lifted him out, giving him a little shake to get some of the snow off of him.
He set Bai on the ground and then nudged him up to his sisters, Liang and Ying. They needed to keep going. If they didn’t find that cave, they would perish out here in the snow, which was getting deeper by the second. The snow was coming down in thick plumes.
“Come on, keep moving.”
Xias had just about given up hope of ever finding the cave when he spotted a familiar-looking rock outcropping. He was almost giddy as he herded the cubs toward the towering wall of rock.
“Keep going, babies. The cave is just ahead.”
By the time they climbed up the rock outcropping and stumbled toward the cave entrance, the cubs were barely moving, sluggish. Xias knew once they got warmed up and had something to eat, and then got some sleep, they would be fine.
When they reached the mouth of the cave, Xias stepped forward and drew in a lungful of air. He needed to make sure no one had found the cave and taken up residence before he was able to bring the cubs back. He didn’t want to escape one dangerous situation only to take his cubs into another one.
When he didn’t smell any other scent than his from inside the enclosed space, Xias urged the cubs in through the narrow opening. It was dark inside, but that was no surprise. It was a cave after all. Xias led the cubs over to the far wall, away from the cave opening.
He lay down, smiling when his cubs hurried over to him. In a matter of moments, they were snuggling in, each cub latching on to a teat. Xias began to purr as he fed his babies, leaning down to lick the snow off of each of them in turn.
By the time they were clean and dry, their little tummies were rounded with milk and their eyes were drifting closed. Xias continued to purr until they curled together in a kitten pile and nodded off.
He lay there for a few minutes, soaking in the peacefulness of the moment. There was just something about providing for his cubs that filled him with a calmness he couldn’t find anywhere else. The world around him could go to hell as long as he had his cubs right by his side.
Xias glanced up toward the entrance of the cave when he heard a noise. He couldn’t quite place what had made that sound, but it raised his hackles. He extracted himself from his cubs and climbed to his paws.
When he heard the noise again, Xias took a few steps forward, placing himself between the cubs and whatever was outside the cave entrance. When the strong, unmistakable scent of an alpha male floated into the cave, Xias thought his heart was going to burst with fear.
Alpha males were known to kill cubs not their own, especially those with crystal-blue eyes. They saw them as threats. It didn’t matter if the cubs were in their territory or not—it was instinctual to try and eliminate all threats to their rule and the succession of their own offspring.
He tried not to whimper when what was quite possibly the largest white Siberian tiger he had ever seen stepped through the opening. There was no way Xias could ever beat this tiger in a fight. The large feline easily had three hundred pounds on him, most of it muscle mass.
Xias shot his cubs a desperate look. They were partially hidden behind a small outcropping of rock. Maybe the tiger wouldn’t see them. Xias could only pray they stayed asleep because he could think of only one way to keep the large cat from attacking.
His heart in his throat, Xias moved to the center of the room. Tears sprang to his eyes as he turned and faced the other way, lowering his muzzle to the floor while sticking his ass in the air and lifting his tail. It was hard for tigers to be angry and aggressive when they were sexually sated, something he had learned while under the paws of his alpha.
Xias shuddered when fur brushed against his hip. He could do this, no matter how much of his soul it destroyed. He’d been doing it since the moment he shifted for the very first time and his alpha discovered he was an omega snow leopard.
He squeezed his eyes closed at the heavy sniffing. He knew his body was preparing itself, growing slick for the alpha’s possession. It was a natural trait of being an omega, one he hated. His pheromones would go into overdrive, luring the alpha in, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
The alpha’s scent washed over Xias first. The air was already growing thick with the heady smell of an aroused male. Earthy. Xias’s mouth watered. Nothing had ever smelled this good. The scent sent shivers up and down his spine.
The long swipe of the tiger’s tongue across his eager opening drew a long groan from Xias. He hadn’t been expecting it. His alpha never touched him except to fuck him. He always said he preferred women, but he fucked Xias easily enough, time and time again.
Xias was just another in a long line of leopards forced to cater to the man’s obsessive desire to father as many cubs as he could manage. He doubted he’d be the last to be forced to submit to the self-serving bastard, either.
