Perhaps you could defeat me in combat, the tiger allowed, reading his mind.
You are a natural fighter. Lethal in the way of tigers; bold and aggressive like lions.
Sin perked his ears forward again. He did like to be praised.
But you are still a cub compared to my experience.
I have fought and lived for tens of millennia, liger Beast. You are what? Only a few hundred years old?
Sin snorted through his snout since his mouth was still full of the lion’s neck.
I can still beat your ass, old cat,he growled through their telepathic link.
Call off your fighters. This Dark Hunter ismine.
Let the lion go, Goya said instead.
His name is Leo—
Original, Sin taunted.
Goya continued speaking as if he hadn’t been rudely interrupted.
He has reasons for attacking…your hunter.
The fact that Goya accepted Sin’s claim on Zai mollified him immediately. Perhaps that was the Tiger King’s intention all along.
Well, it worked.
His jaw loosened slightly around the lion’s throat.
Let Leo go, Goya commanded again.
We will talk.
No one will harm my Hunter, Sin insisted, his ears flattening again as he growled his threat.
His name is Zai.
We know who he is, liger, Goya said quietly.
The reputation of the Blood Moon Queen’s Master Hunter precedes him.
I will have your word that no harm will come to what’s mine, Sin persisted doggedly.
You have it, Goya replied.
For now.
When Sin’s hackles raised again at that qualification, Goya brusquely spoke over him.
You are in my domain now, cub. Do not test my patience.
You are outnumbered even if you have the strength to fight each of us one by one and win. You will never defeat us all together.
Know when you are beaten, when to retreat. Think before you speak.
That’s never been my forte, Sin tossed back, narrowing his eyes.