The elevator stopped on the tenth floor.

Ding.

The huge tiger father instantly pushed his three children behind him.

His pupils narrowed into golden slits.

“Take them inside,” he whispered.

I looked at him.

“What’s your name?”

He seemed confused by the question.

“Now?”

“Yes. If people are about to destroy my hallway, I’d at least like to know what to yell.”

“…Kael.”

I pointed toward my apartment.

“Kael, get your children inside.”

His expression hardened.

“I can fight.”

“I know.”

I glanced at the three cubs clutching his trousers.

“But they need their father more than I need backup.”

That silenced him.

The elevator doors opened.

Three men stepped out.

Human clothes.

Human faces.

Not human smell.

Silver.

Gun oil.

Old blood.

And something bitter enough to make my stomach turn.

Tiger-bane.

The man in front wore a black coat and smiled when he saw Kael.

“There you are.”

Kael growled.

The children immediately began growling too.

Three tiny:

“Grrrrrr.”

I looked back.

“Inside.”

The oldest cub shook his head fiercely.

“We protect Dad!”

The youngest copied him.

“Protect Daddy!”

I pinched the bridge of my nose.

Wonderful.

A heroic kindergarten.

Kael scooped all three children up at once and carried them into my apartment despite their furious kicking.

“Stay here.”

“No!”

“Dad!”

“Grrrr!”

He shut the door.

Then he stood beside me.

I stared at him.

“I told you to stay inside too.”

“They came for my family.”

“So?”

He looked genuinely offended.

“So I’m fighting.”

The hunter laughed.

“Touching.”

He raised a small crossbow.

The bolt was coated in the same substance as the dart embedded in my window.

Kael’s entire body tightened.

I lifted one hand.

The hunter fired.

The bolt stopped.

Midair.

Everyone became silent.

I caught it between two fingers.

Kael slowly turned toward me.

I examined the tip.

“Concentrated moonwort, iron dust, tiger blood…”

Then I looked at the hunters.

“And grave ash.”

Their leader’s smile vanished.

“You’re not human.”

“Congratulations.”

I snapped the bolt.

“You’re observant.”

Another hunter reached inside his jacket.

I stamped my foot.

The entire corridor trembled.

Every light went out.

The walls groaned.

And underneath my feet, something ancient woke up.

I had lived quietly in this building for twelve years.

The neighbors thought I worked remotely.

Nora thought I was simply antisocial.

Mrs. Liu believed I needed a boyfriend.

Nobody knew that the apartment complex had been built directly above an old spiritual vein.

And nobody knew who had been guarding it.

Until tonight.

Golden symbols spread across the floor beneath my feet.

Kael stared.

“You’re a territorial guardian.”

“Technically.”

The hunters stepped backward.

Their leader whispered:

“What kind?”

I smiled.

“The kind you should have researched before entering my building.”

Then all three attacked.

It ended quickly.

Not because they were weak.

Because they had prepared to hunt tigers.

Not me.

One tried to throw a binding chain around Kael.

I redirected it around his own legs.

Another released a cloud of poisonous powder.

I opened the stairwell door.

A violent draft sucked every grain back into his face.

The leader reached for a whistle carved from bone.

Kael moved.

For one instant, the gigantic man disappeared.

A massive striped shadow replaced him.

The hunter froze.

A tiger bigger than a car stood in the hallway.

His fur was almost black beneath the dim emergency lights.

Golden patterns burned across his shoulders.

The man dropped the whistle.

Kael placed one enormous paw on his chest.

Not enough to injure him.

Enough to make the message very clear.

I crouched beside the hunter.

“Who sent you?”

He clenched his jaw.

I picked up the bone whistle.

“Interesting.”

His eyes widened.

That reaction told me more than words could.

I turned it over.

A symbol had been carved underneath.

Three broken mountains surrounding an eye.

Kael changed back instantly.

His face had gone pale.

“No.”

“You recognize it?”

He grabbed the whistle.

“The Black Ridge Guild.”

Even the name carried an ugly spiritual residue.

I frowned.

“They disappeared decades ago.”

“They didn’t.”

Kael looked toward my apartment.

“They changed what they hunt.”

The leader laughed from the floor.

“Tell her.”

Kael’s hands curled into fists.

I looked at him.

“Tell me what?”

The hunter answered instead.

“Those cubs aren’t ordinary demon tigers.”

Kael lunged.

I stepped between them.

“Kael.”

He stopped.

Barely.

The hunter smiled.

“Their mother came from the White Crown bloodline.”

That meant something.

Something very bad.

White Crown tigers hadn’t been seen in almost a century.

Ancient records claimed their blood could strengthen spiritual artifacts, break certain seals and extend the lifespan of lesser spirits.

Which meant—

I turned toward the apartment.

“They don’t want to kill the children.”

Kael’s voice came out rough.

“No.”

“They want to capture them.”

“Yes.”

Suddenly the tiny apartment across the hall made sense.

The night hunting.

The constant moving.

The fear.

“You weren’t hunting after midnight.”

Kael lowered his head.

“I was erasing our scent.”

Every night he had traveled around the city laying false trails.

Every morning he returned before the cubs woke.

“You’ve been doing this alone?”

“For eleven months.”

“Where is their mother?”

Silence.

I immediately regretted asking.

Kael looked at the whistle.

“The guild found us on the mountain.”

His voice became flat.

“She stayed behind so I could take the children.”

I didn’t ask anything else.

I didn’t need to.

Behind my apartment door came a small voice.

“Dad?”

Kael moved immediately.

I opened the door.

Three pajama-clad children crashed into his legs.

The oldest looked at the captured hunters.

His little face became fierce.

“Bad men?”

“Yes,” Kael said.

The youngest raised both fists.

“I bite!”

“No biting,” I said.

He looked deeply disappointed.

At that exact moment, doors began opening along the hallway.

Oh no.

Mrs. Liu stepped out first.

Then Mrs. Chen.

Then the retired teacher from 1006.

Six elderly neighbors stared at three men tied up on the floor.

Then at Kael.

Then at me.

Mrs. Liu narrowed her eyes.

“What happened?”

I answered immediately.

“Burglars.”

One of the hunters shouted:

“She’s lying! They’re monsters—”

Mrs. Liu hit him on the shoulder with her grocery bag.

“Breaking into homes with children inside! You should be ashamed!”

The hunter stared at her.

Mrs. Chen pointed furiously.

“Call the police!”

Another neighbor looked at the children.

“Were you scared?”

The cubs nodded.

All six women became furious.

I almost felt sorry for the hunters.

Almost.

We couldn’t hand them to ordinary police with weapons covered in supernatural toxins.

Fortunately, I knew someone better.

I called Nora.

She answered sleepily.

“Ying?”

“I need your uncle.”

Silence.

Then:

“What did you do?”

“Why do you always assume I did something?”

“Because you only ask for Uncle Wei when something has exploded.”

I looked at the cracked wall.

“Nothing exploded.”

A ceiling lamp fell behind me.

Crash.

“…Much.”

Uncle Wei arrived forty minutes later.

Officially, he worked in environmental crime enforcement.

Unofficially, his department handled supernatural trafficking.

He examined the hunters.

Then the whistle.

Then Kael.

Finally, the children.

His expression became grim.

“The Black Ridge Guild isn’t operating with three people.”

“I know.”

“How many?”

Kael answered.

“At least seventeen followed us down the mountain.”

Uncle Wei looked at me.

“And now they know where he lives.”

I sighed.

“So the apartment is compromised.”

Kael immediately said:

“We’ll leave tonight.”

The oldest cub tightened his grip on his father.

The middle child’s lower lip trembled.

The youngest still wore one bear slipper and one sock.

I looked across the hallway at apartment 1008.

Their home.

There were three tiny toothbrushes in the bathroom.

Crayon marks near the kitchen table.

A broken toy truck Kael had repaired with tape.

For him, it might have been a temporary hiding place.

For the children, it was home.

“No.”

Kael looked at me.

“What?”

“You’re not leaving.”

“Ying—”

“I hate moving furniture.”

He stared.

I continued:

“And Mrs. Liu already bought them winter jackets. If you disappear, she’ll hunt you more efficiently than these idiots did.”

Mrs. Liu nodded solemnly.

“I will.”

Kael looked completely overwhelmed.

Uncle Wei rubbed his forehead.

“You understand the guild will come again.”

“Good.”

I smiled.

“Then we don’t have to find them.”

Three nights later, we gave them exactly what they wanted.

A trail.

Kael deliberately left traces leading toward an abandoned botanical research station outside the city.

The guild followed.

All fourteen remaining hunters.

They expected one exhausted father and three valuable cubs.

Instead, Uncle Wei’s entire supernatural enforcement unit was waiting.

So was I.

The guild tried to retreat.

The mountain seal closed behind them.

No one escaped.

Their leader—the real one—was arrested carrying records of dozens of captured spirits.

Fox children.

Snake spirits.

Two cranes.

Even a young river dragon.

The investigation lasted months.

Their hidden facilities were raided.

Captives were released.

Buyers were identified.

The Black Ridge Guild finally disappeared for real.

And Kael?

He kept apartment 1008.

He got a legitimate night job through Uncle Wei’s department monitoring supernatural activity around the city.

Technically, he became a security guard.

The neighborhood ladies were delighted that their prediction had been correct.

His parenting also improved.

Slightly.

He learned that human children should not eat raw meat in public.

That school forms required signatures.

That socks were supposed to match.

And that leaving three tiger cubs alone with six elderly women would inevitably result in matching sweaters.

The cubs started preschool.

On their first morning, Kael stood outside the classroom looking more terrified than he had when fourteen armed hunters surrounded him.

The oldest marched inside bravely.

The middle one followed.

The youngest ran back, hugged his father’s leg, then looked at me.

“Ying.”

“What?”

“Bad men come?”

I crouched.

“No.”

“How know?”

I tapped his nose.

“Because they know where you live now.”

His eyes became enormous.

I smiled.

“And they’re scared of your neighbor.”

He considered this.

Then nodded seriously.

“Okay.”

He ran into class.

Kael remained beside me.

For a long moment, neither of us spoke.

Finally he said:

“Why did you help us?”

I thought about the night I first saw him in the elevator.

A creature powerful enough to dominate a mountain, pressed nervously into a corner because he feared I might discover his children.

Then I remembered the three cubs covered in soap bubbles.

Mrs. Liu chasing them with towels.

Kael standing in his doorway staring at clean pajamas as if civilization itself had defeated him.

“You behaved.”

He blinked.

“What?”

“The first thing I told you.”

I turned toward the elevator.

“You behaved.”

Behind us, the classroom suddenly erupted.

A teacher shouted:

“WHO BIT THE TABLE?”

Three tiny voices answered at once:

“NOT ME!”

I stopped.

Kael closed his eyes.

Slowly.

I looked at him.

He looked at me.

Then we both turned back toward the classroom.

I rolled up my sleeves.

“Correction.”

Kael sighed.

“I’m working on it.”

And that was how the terrifying demon tiger family across the hall became the most troublesome neighbors I had ever protected.

Not because they were monsters.

Not because hunters wanted their blood.

But because three little tiger cubs discovered that, once someone finally gave them a safe home—

they had absolutely no intention of behaving in it.