The Ugly Duckling Of The Tiger Tribe-Chapter 215: It’s simple cowardice

The morning was filled with expectations. Wonderful expectations.

I was especially excited, as I was wearing a full outfit for the first time since I arrived in this world. A warm hat, a coat, and boots I had worked on for so long. They didn’t have hard soles, but they were a thousand times better than nothing.

The texture wasn’t exactly premium quality, and there was still that lingering animal smell—musky and wild. I had tried to wash the hides with the lye soap I’d made—I made more after the successful testing, plus we had plenty of fat to spare—but the scent didn’t completely dissipate. Still, it was doable. Even the smell clinging to the fur brought a sense of warmth... in a way.

I was all bundled up, my eyes bright and my lips spread so wide with a smile that it felt like they could reach my eyes. We had even packed our things and were ready to leave. Nothing could stop us. I felt like a queen of the wild ready to conquer the winter.

But just as I was about to put on my soft mountain goat wool mittens to complete the look, I heard a ramble. No, it wasn’t just a ramble. It was a group of rambling... fierce, deep-voiced rambling.

What was going on?

I walked out of the secluded area where I had been dressing—of course, it was important to dress out of sight so I could dazzle my husbands with my new look. I had envisioned them gasping, maybe even tearing up at how capable and beautiful I looked in the gear we’d made together.

Instead, what I found were three grown men arguing about who was fit to move the troller and who would stay by my side.

Could they be any more immature? Did they really think I was planning to leave the heavy lifting to just one man? Come on!

"Yes, I have the most explosive power," Fenric was saying, his arms crossed over his massive chest, his white tiger ears flattened against his head. "That’s why if we hit a slope, I’m the only one who can keep this frame from sliding back. And Arinya needs to be right behind me so I can hear her voice if she gets tired. I’ll carry her with no issues."

"Your ’explosive power’ will just break it instead of helping if we do reach a slope." Damar countered, his voice dripping with elegant disdain. "I, on the other hand, can wrap the lead line around my body and provide a steady, consistent pull. And with the grace I possess, helping Arinya when she gets tired won’t scare the cubs, unlike you. I should be the one closest to her; I’m the only one who noticed her wrists were swelling before."

"Oh, please," Noah chimed in, leaning back against the very troller they were fighting over. "You both just want to be the one she leans on when she gets sleepy. I’m the navigator. I walk in front, she walks behind me, and you two can play tug-of-war with the luggage in the back. It’s simple math."

"It’s simple cowardice!" Fenric barked.

Who even thought him that word? Sigh.

I stood there, my beautiful mittens dangling from one hand, my ’dazzling’ entrance completely ignored. The crisp morning air hit my face, and for a second, I just watched them. These were the fierce predators who protected me, the men who had shared my bed and whispered promises of forever... and here they were, acting like children fighting over who got to lead the line in kindergarten.

Seriously.

I felt a twitch in my left eye. A tired sigh, accompanied by a thick plume of white fog, left my lips.

"Is that so?" I said, my voice cutting through the chilly air like a blade.

They all froze, their heads snapping in my direction in an instant.

For a second, there was silence. They finally took me in—the boots, the coat, the perfectly fitted hood. I saw Fenric’s jaw drop, Damar’s eyes widen as they traced the stitching of my coat, and Noah’s smirk vanish into a look of pure awe.

"Ari..." Fenric breathed, his argument forgotten. "You look..."

"I look like a female who is ready to leave," I interrupted, planting my hands on my hips. "And I was feeling pretty good about it until I realized my husbands were planning to spend the first day of our departure in the dirt measuring their egos."

So many egos.

I stepped closer, my boots crunching on the floor. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"Did it ever occur to you that we have two lead lines on this troller? And a push-bar in the back?" I looked at them, my expression flat.

They looked at me a little puzzled.

"It means all three of you can move it at the same time, two in front and one in back."

Their ’oh’ faces while darting their eyes were just comical.

"Fenric, you and Damar are the primary movers while you’re not in your full beast form. You pull and push together. No one stays ’by my side’ because I’ll be walking right between you two so I can keep an eye on both of you." My eyes glinted at them.

The last thing I need is them arguing about whose muscle power is the best and dismantling the troller on the way.

"Noah, you’re the scout, so you’ll walk twenty paces ahead and make sure we aren’t going off course from the map and that we do not fall off a cliff by ’accident’."

"But—" Noah started.

"But nothing," I snapped, pulling on my mittens with a sharp tug. "I’m the one with the map, the one with the babies, and the only one currently using their head, apparently. That makes me the boss. Now, hitch yourselves up before I decide to leave you all here and take the troller myself."

Of course that was a lie. I wasn’t going anywhere without them and I definitely couldn’t lift that huge thing on my own.

The silence that followed was beautiful, if I might say.

Fenric scrambled to the harness, Damar moved to the second line without a single hiss, and Noah actually looked impressed as he glanced at me.

"Yes, Boss," Noah murmured, giving me a wink as he headed toward the treeline.

I took a deep breath of the freezing air, my heart finally settling. "Good. Now, let’s go. We have a cave to find."