"Tiege?"

His fuzzy head looked up, eyes split partially between his tiger and human ones.

Good, he'll be coming back soon.

"Do you want to use the bed? You don't have to sleep in there." Tarren said.

Tiege tilted his head and slowly shifted back to his human form. The scowl on the kid's face didn't bother him in the least, though. Tarren had already shifted as well to speak to him and slid off the bed to grab them both a pair of flannel pajama pants. He tugged on black ones before tossing the guy a blue pair.

"It's not where I sleep." Tiege replied calmly.

"Why not?"

Tiege stood and pulled on the pants, then yawned. "Because that's not where I sleep. The bed belongs to my parents."

Eh?

"Why didn't they get you one?" Tarren asked, confused.

"Me?" He looked down at the dog crate, then back up to Tarren in confusion.

"I don't need one. I sleep in my crate at night."

"Wait... you don't like beds so you sleep in your crate, or your parents taught you that you sleep in your crate?" Tarren asked, honestly not sure what he should even say to this situation.

Tiege's attitude seemed to diminish at the question but at least he answered, though it was with a growl. "My parents taught me to sleep where I should."

He began to yawn again and Tarren took his chance, grabbing him around the waist and tossing him atop the comforter. It was the first time he felt determined to get his company to sleep in his bed.

Tiege hissed when he landed, but when he realized where he was, he froze up... then began shaking like a leaf.

"Tiege?"

Tarren stepped forward with one hand extended, hoping he'd let him try and pet him to calm his nerves, but the second he got close Tiege bolted off the bed and literally dove into the crate to curl up in the back. Tarren's lips pursed as he held in a growl. He didn't want him to think it was because he'd been on his bed or had run back to the crate... it was for his fucking parents.

After calming himself down, which took some effort, Tarren carefully slid into the crate. Tiege let out a quiet growl, but Tarren wasn't going to let that deter him. Cornering a predator always ended in aggression, but he didn't think he would attack.

"I don't care if you bite me, Tiege."

Tiege's eyes narrowed as another rumble came through his bared teeth.

"Do you want a hug?" Tarren asked.

"The fuck?"

Tiege snapped his teeth at him, but Tarren didn't flinch. Instead, he opened his arms and smiled, not showing his teeth just in case his tiger felt it was another act of aggression.

"I'm not going to hug you you creepy asshole!"

With a shrug, Tarren turned and climbed out of the crate, then disappeared into his closet for a second. When he came back out, he had his secret weapon. Tiege's eyes were immediately locked onto it as Tarren let a tiny bit drop to the floor. He learned quite quickly from growing up around other cats.

The response was immediate. The second the yarn hit the floor, Tiege pounced. Tarren yanked the string back just in time to save its life, but Tiege was quick to follow after it on his hands and knees, pouncing and growling as he moved around the room.

Several times he stalked it, ducking behind the computer chair only to jump on it seconds later. His tiger was shining through, but Tarren could definitely see the kid Tiege enjoying himself as well. When he was completely fixated on the string, Tarren yanked it up onto the bed and then let him get the whole spool. It was beyond adorable to see his face light up after having caught it, but then he rolled around like crazy as the spool unwound, eventually leaving the kid sitting up, tangled in about ten yards of yarn.

It made it that much cuter since the yarn was rainbow, but when Tiege finally realized he was up on the bed again, he started shaking and Tarren could see his eyes dart over to the crate.

Not this time.

Right as he lunged off the bed for it Tarren intercepted, catching him in his arms before pinning him down against the blankets. He struggled slightly, but then just began to shake again.

"Tiege."

The guy whimpered and turned into his side to curl up when Tarren let his arms go, the string tangling up his body quickly forgotten.

"Tiege, look at me..."

"I-I'm sorry!"

Tarren slowly moved so that he was lying more next to him than on top, but his left arm was still snug around Tiege's shoulders so that he couldn't dart again. "Sweetie, look at me."

Watery golden-chocolate eyes blinked open and hesitantly met his for a second before closing again. Tarren gave a mute sigh and shook his head. Let's try the lion. He let his cat take over his human form a little, doing as it wanted, which was calmly licking Tiege's cheek. It took at least fifteen minutes for the shaking to stop, then another ten before he slowly came out of the ball he'd curled himself into. A good half hour after that, and Tarren swore that his tongue was getting raw as Tiege finally drifted off to sleep. He waited a good ten minutes more before carefully getting out of bed. When Tiege didn't stir at all, Tarren ran to the living room, grabbed the lighter blanket, then brought it back to his room. After getting Tiege tucked in, he walked out, deciding to leave the door open in case he needed anything when he woke up.

Grabbing his phone on the way, he flopped down onto the sofa, his head falling onto the pillow before he dialed Erin's number. The guy picked up after the third ring and Tarren quickly got straight to the point.

"Erin, I need some information."

"Let me guess, Tiege?"

"Yeah, I want to know his history. Everything you can find on him. I can't help thinking that something's wrong, but he's definitely not going to tell me himself. Hell, I don't think he even understands."

"Uh, alright. Give me a bit. I'll call you back."

"Okay, thanks man."

"No problem, bye."

"Bye."

To keep himself busy so that he didn't begin to drift off, Tarren got his butt up and went into the kitchen, taking the sandwich Tiege hadn't eaten earlier with him. As he munched on that, he got busy setting up the crock pot. He seasoned a good three pounds of beef, then added a cut up onion and tomato to the pot with it. Once that was cooking, he started boiling potatoes to mash later and then cut up a good amount of fruit.

By the time his phone rang five hours later, he was fidgeting at the small round dinner table he kept near the kitchen.

"Hello?" He answered quickly.

"Hey Tarren." Erin replied quietly.

"Hey, so, what did you find out?"

I heard him shooing away his little brother, Rory, before beginning.

"Um, well, you're not going to like it, but here goes. His real name is Tiegen Laraway and his parents died a few months after he was born in a car accident. His mom was evidently his birth mother, the father had chosen not to have kids through his cross-shifting ability.

So, Tiegen was sent to his aunt's to live, but when he was three years old she gave him up to the Center Street Orphanage. They, unfortunately, didn't work well with foster homes and were actually under investigation for child abuse on repeated dates over a span of at least two years. The odd thing is though, was that Tiegen was adopted one day before the place voluntarily closed its doors."

"That's not odd at all. Did they know he was a cross-shifter?" Tarren asked, angry.

"Highly likely since his parents' history was on file. Well, when they adopted him out they only put the new parents' names as Mr. and Mrs. Smith, which was technically illegal since they hadn't had a home check or any meetings on file. My guess is that money talked. Anyways, once they had him they enrolled him in school and just raised him normally until his maturity, from what I could find."

Yeah, because sleeping in a fucking dog crate is raising a kid normally.

"I looked up some ads on sites known to be connected to black market deals and quickly found some leading back to this area. There were six ads in total but none had his name in the search tabs. Instead, they had a picture attached of the cub, which was obviously a tiger, and also a photo of a pedigree... with Tiegen's name on it, along with his parents and grandparents."

"Those asshole were..."

"Breeding him like a dog. Yes. Both female kittens were sold for twenty thousand each, and the four males, which sold in less than a day, were forty thousand a piece."

"Do you have anything on his adoptive parents?" Tarren asked.

"No. Considering the names they used to adopt him, I wasn't able to find much. Each ad they posted had a different number so I'm guessing they were prepaid phones, too. Tarren?"

"Yeah?"

"Be careful. If they are making that kind of money from him, there's no doubt in my mind that they'll get rid of you if you try to keep Tiegen away from them."

"I know. But I can't just let him go back to that..."

"....Why?"

His question made a growl slip from his lips and he quickly extended his question.

"Why is this bothering you so much? Why did you care enough to look into it? He's one of the worst bullies in our school, so why are you so interested in helping him?... unless."

Tarren bit his tongue and glanced toward the bedroom.

"Shit. He's carrying your cubs, isn't he?"

Sighing, Tarren gave him all the information he needed as an answer.

"His parents let him out of the house on purpose each time he goes into heat. They beat the shit out of him when he came home pregnant with a liger instead of a purebred tiger. They want to abort it, but he desperately wants to keep it."

Erin was quiet for a moment on the other side of the line before replying. "After them taking away so many, I could definitely understand why he would want to keep it. Now uh, I'm not saying that you need to abort the cubs, but he needs to get fixed as soon as possible if he's already had six litters. Cross-shifters can develop issues just like their animal counterparts if over-bred. Tumors and cancer are the most common but the list can go on..."

Tarren's fingers slid trough his dirty blond hair, tugging lightly as he bit his lower lip with worry.

"He thinks they saved him though. He wants to go abort them just because he's afraid of disappointing his parents. He wouldn't even sleep in my bed without me forcing him. He ran to the damned dog crate in the corner I use for fostering patients!"

He could tell Erin was getting frustrated, just like he was, but he couldn't put everything on him right then.

"Hey, thanks for the help, man. Can you email me the stuff you found?" Tarren asked.

"Yeah, sure."

"Thanks. I'm gonna go for now. I appreciate all the help."

"No prob, let me know if you need anything else."

"Sure thing, see ya, Erin."

"Later."

Right as he hung up he noticed Tiegen in the entryway to the hall. He looked a little better after having slept, but definitely still needed a good meal and some pain medicine.

"Hey..."

Tiegen's hand partially wrapped around the corner of the wall as he took a hesitant step forward.

"Who was that? You were talking about me."

Tarren started getting up as he replied. "Just a friend."

"I-I'm not afraid of my parents."

Tarren's lips pursed as he forced himself to not walk over to him.

"They didn't save you, hun. They bought you."

Tiegen's eyes narrowed as his aggression came forward into a snarl. "You don't know a damned thing about them! They adopted me. They saved me from that terrible orphanage!"

"Tiege, your parents got you the day before that placed closed. A day before you were moved to a much better orphanage or even a foster home."

"So what? I was adopted and got a better life!"

Okay, that statement had him getting more than a little pissed. Tarren took a step forward, making Tiegen bristle further, but not back up.

"You think you're supposed to sleep in a damn dog crate? You think you're supposed to breed continuously? Do you have any idea how damaging that can be to your body? No parent would ever send their baby out to get pregnant every time they got horny!"

His shouting had evidently startled the kid a little, because Tiegen did take a step back then, but he still didn't look like he was going to give up the fight.

"M-My parents love me! They said the only way to get rid of the heat was to breed. They find good homes for my cubs a-and I end up feeling better afterwards."

"Oh yeah?" Tarren growled as he took a step into his personal space.

"How much fun has it been to give away every single cub? You go into heat more often too, now, right? You get more angry each time they take away your babies, but then you just go out and do it all again thinking that it's right? That it's how you should be treated?"

Tiegen had taken several steps back as Tarren shouted, but he refused to let him back away, eventually pinning him against the closed door to the bedroom. When Tiegen didn't respond, Tarren was more than happy to continue.

"Your parents are disgusting, worthless, pieces of trash that should have never been allowed near you. They are using you to pump out babies that they turn around and sell for thousands."

"Th-They aren't..."

"They aren't? You think that they just happen to find someone willing to take a tiny cub every time you have to breed, when no one came for you at the orphanage for over a year? You think they have people lined up to help you with your heat issues by taking your babies?"

He knew reminding him of the time he'd spent in the orphanage was a low blow, but he needed to get it across to him that he was still being abused.

"If you go back to them, you'll lose the cubs you so desperately want, and then you'll go into heat again and breed. Then that baby will be taken away and sold just like the rest of them have been."

"Sh-Shut up!"

"No! Because you know what, Tiege? You need to open your damn eyes and realize that you're going to be in serious trouble if you don't stop doing what they want!"

Tiegen's eyes were blinking to try and keep back tears, but then he finally broke down and shouted back. "I d-don't know anything else! I-I don't know how to stop the heat! I-It hurts so bad if I don't mate..."

Tarren's heart broke, along with his temper, when he saw the poor guy break down.

"Come here, Tiegen."

The kid's head snapped up, eyes wide, though still flowing with tormented tears.

"What did you call me?"

"Tiegen, hun. Your real name. Tiegen Laraway."

His face fell apart again as he finally dove into his arms. Tarren grunted, catching him in a strong hug. He'd bet Tiegen's pathetic parents had never bothered to even show him such a small bit of affection... and considering how much he was clawing at his shirt to get closer, he was probably right.

When his legs began to shake Tarren carefully lifted Tiegen into his arms and headed for the kitchen after trying, and completely failing, to put him down on the sofa. He wouldn't let go and actually started mewing sadly when Tarren tried to coax him to let him go. So, he decided to just work in the kitchen with him holding onto him like a young child would.

He got the mashed potatoes into a bowl with a bit of effort using his free hand, then took the lid off the slow cooker. The amazing smell that came with it nearly had him drooling and he definitely felt Tiegen shift a bit to look down at the delicious food. His belly rumbled loudly, making Tarren grin as he got down a big plate and filled it with a base of mashed potatoes, then added beef and vegetables on top. Once that was set on the table, he went back to get a small bowl of the fruit he had cut up, then with one last trip, a glass of ice water.

Tarren sat down at the table, Tiegen in his lap, as he reached around him to grab the fork. Tiegen's eyes followed the movement as Tarren poked a piece of amazing smelling beef, then lifted it towards Tiegen's lips. At first, he turned his head away and growled quietly, but Tarren wasn't going to back down.

"If you don't eat, you'll never have your new cubs to hold."

Tiegen's eyes began to blink back fresh tears as he looked up at him.

"Eat, hun. I'm not going to let anything happen to you or our cubs. They'll be yours to hold, take care of, and love."

Tiegen glanced at the meat, his belly grumbling loudly with anticipation.

"I promise."

That got him to finally take that most important first bite. After another few nibbles he grabbed the fork and started inhaling the huge plate of food. Tears were running down his cheeks, but at least he was eating.

When he had finished the entire plate, plus most of the fruit salad and water, he turned a little and curled up against Tarren's chest, earning a hug in return.

"They'll come find me..." Tiegen mumbled after a few silent minutes.

"They can try."

His worried eyes looked up at Tarren.

"I'll protect you, Tiegen."

The idea of leaving the guy being alone on days he had to go into work when Tiegen didn't have school made Tarren feel uneasy. He considered asking his father to watch him sometimes so that someone was always with him when he couldn't be. He knew that he was getting a little overprotective, but Tiegen was technically his mate now, and after everything he had gone through, he deserved to be safe and loved.