Tusks

Chapter 13: Small Mistakes

(Might be some mistakes but I finally got some time to edit this one) 

"Tiegen!"

An excited striped ball of fur ran toward him, bounding around like a puppy as he swung a rope toy from his mouth.

"Bring it here, you." Tarren said with a grin.

Tiegen looked at him, then bounded away, his large belly swaying beneath him with the movements. It had only been two weeks since they had checked him out of the hospital, but he was already getting pretty big... though they were having five, so Tarren supposed that Tiegen's size wasn't too surprising.

Tarren was suddenly shoved onto his back, a grumbling pregnant tiger looking down at him with a smug look on its face.

The first few nights back had been pretty stressful, especially when several lawyers came to his door asking about needing defense for the murders Tiegen had committed. After the third one Tarren had asked Larro and Jordan to go to the courthouse and straighten things out. It took awhile, especially since Tiegen was eighteen, but after his whole story had been heard a judge had decided that the deaths were caused by the years of abuse he had suffered and his tiger was only trying to protect something his parents had unlawfully taken from it several times prior.

A few days after that Jordan had decided to welcome them into his home, but there was one slight problem... which brought them to their current circumstance. Tiegen was slowly coming back out of his shell from what had happened and his body had healed nicely, but because of the amount of times he had been bred his attitude took a dangerous turn when his hormones spiked. He had gone after Jordan's boys twice and even took a swipe at Jordan himself, but thankfully the larger lion easily put a stop to each bout of aggression and promptly put Tiegen in his place. Jordan was an amazingly sweet guy, but he never hesitated to defend himself or his cubs.

After the last attack Tarren had decided to see if exercising Tiegen more would have any kind of affect on his tiger's aggression. Today was their first try, and so far it was looking pretty good. He had introduced him to one of Jordan's boys' worn rope toys, and after an initial investigation Tiegen's tiger snatched it up and began tossing it about the yard. It was obvious that he wasn't too sure how to play, but he was making it work in his own way.

"Hey there," Tarren said as Tiegen's tiger thumped him on the chest with a heavy paw, making him cough but laugh as he shoved him off and got up to start running. Tiegen didn't hesitate to follow as Tarren shifted mid-run. He could use the exercise, too, so he ran around with him for a few minutes, then turned and grabbed the rope toy to start a good long game of tug-o-war. Of course, Tarren let him win just to see the satisfied look on Tiegen's tiger's beautiful face.

"Hey Tarren!"

Tarren's head swung around to see his father walking over to the pool cover. He had put it on once it got cold, but he remembered him messing with the controls for the jets and heater earlier in the week...

"I heated up the pool, see if he likes it?"

Oh yeah, tigers love water in the wild and it would be great exercise.

As his dad pulled off the heavy cover Tarren nudged Tiegen and ran towards the pool. He could see steam coming off of the surface and didn't even hesitate when he leaped in.

Tiegen skidded to a halt at the edge, the rope toy still in his mouth as it dangled over the edge of the water.

"You can go in, Tiegen. You'll probably like it." Jordan said with a reassuring smile.