Kelsey's POV

"But that was our agreement! That I would make them believe that I had joined you, then you would release them somewhere and never attack them again." I shouted at Lokesh. We were in one of his meeting rooms, which was soundproof.

"Yes, but you did not have me make a royal oath, so any agreement I made with you does not apply." He sat back with a smirk, because he knew he had me there. "But, you still have to keep your side of the deal."

"Why? You said that any deal you made with me doesn't apply?"

"Do not try my temper, young woman. You have had it very easy here, and so have your tigers." One of his henchman entered the room and bowed, giving me time to process that. He wasn't hurting Ren or Kishan? Why not? Of course, I was relieved that my tigers weren't in some excrutiating agony, but why had he spared them?

"Sir," the guard said, straightening up but keeping his eyes from connecting with Lokesh's. I didn't blame him. It was hard for me to make eye contact with him, and I had had a couple weeks of practice.

"What? I am quite busy, as you can see!" Lokesh yelled at the guard.

"Sir, one of the workers reporting the cheetah feeding some of the prisoners here. I remember we had an incident like this before, and you told me to report anything similiar directly to you, sir." The man was almost trembling by the time he was done.

"That will not do. I will have to take care of this immediately. Take her," he gestured towards me, "to her cell. The new one."

Uh-oh.

I was dragged through doors and down the hall to a room that had only two cells in it. The guards threw me into the cell, and I turned toward the sound of angry roars from behind another door that connected this room to the rest of the cells.

"Have fun," the guards laughed and left the room, making sure I saw that they locked it.

"Crap," I muttered to an empty room.

Immediately the other door opened as Ren and Kishan were hauled in, muzzled, with thick muslim bags over their paws so they couldn't claw anyone. They were sure as hell trying, though. It took about five men each to finally haul them into the cell next to mine. Once the men had gotten out of the cage, they slammed the door shut, leaving the tigers still muzzled, and still with the bags over their feet. They were slipping and sliding everywhere trying to get a grip on the smooth floor.

The second they saw me, they stopped and just stared at me, ears pinned back flat against their heads. If you've never had a tiger stare directly at you, it's a terrifying experience. And there were two of them staring right at me. Even though I knew and loved them both, I knew they were unsure of whose side I was on, and I was scared of them. I kind of deserved the way they were looking at me, I thought as I looked back on the events of the last twelve hours. I had earned their distrust. Now I just had to earn it back.

"Ren? Kishan?" Their ears immediately pricked up as I called them. I tried to reach through the cell bars, giggling, to try to help them. They were up and moving now, and falling all over the place. It was hilarious. Sad, but hilarious at the same time.

"Ren, stick one of your paws through the bars, and I might be able to pull the bag off of it." As soon as I was finished talking, he was stretching a paw through the space between the cages.

I couldn't reach with both hands, but if I turned and only put my right arm through, my shoulder was small enough I was able to get a little bit closer to Ren's paw. I pulled the bag off, and motioned for his other paw to pull the bag off. I then repeated the process with Kishan. Unfortunately, I could tell from this little experiment that I wasn't going to be able to help with the muzzles.

"You're going to have to get the muzzles off yourselves, guys. I can't get my hands over there to help you with that one." I said, regret heavy in my voice. This was all my fault. My fault that they were trapped here, my fault that I had gotten captured, my fault that we were up this particular creek.

"I could help with that, if they will let me," a male voice said from behind the door to Ren and Kishan's cage. "The question is, can I get in there, without them tearing me to shreds." He was decently tall, about 6'2", with brown eyes and black hair.

He cautiously opened the cage, stepped inside, then very carefully, though quickly, closed the door. He warily approached the nearest tiger, Ren, who only looked at him as he began to unbuckle the straps behind Ren's head. When he finished, he let the muzzle slowly drop off of Ren's mouth. Ren licked his lips a couple times, then put his head down on his paws, no doubt to reassure the man.

Kishan was a whole different story entirely. When the man tried to get closer to him to pull off his muzzle, he would jump up and run away, eventually backing himself into a corner crouched down, growling whenever the man tried to get close to help. Eventually Ren just tackled his brother, holding his head down with a paw on his face, and bit through the straps holding the muzzle to Kishan's face, with Kishan growling at him the whole time. The moment the straps snapped, Ren jumped off him. Kishan leaped up, pawing at the muzzle that fell to the floor the instant he touched it.

"Thank you," I said as he walked out of the cage towards the door.

"No problem. I've been there before. Having to wear a muzzle is not fun. Yes," he said to my confused expression ," I am cursed much like these tigers. However, I am cursed to lead a life as something a bit bigger, so the muzzles are way too tight," he said as he walked out of the room. We all just looked at each other, wondering what had just happened.