Ethan moved with them, his hands steady but his heart hammering. Minutes stretched long, each one heavier than the last. But the line on the monitor told the truth. Flat. No response. The lioness who had fought to bring life into the world was gone, leaving behind three cubs who had no mother.
A silence fell heavy as stone. Everyone knew the odds. Lion cubs without a mother rarely lived long. Formula could keep them alive, but warmth, grooming, comfort—the intangible lessons only a mother could give—those couldn’t be replicated by machines or human hands. Meetings followed. The director worried about headlines and lawsuits.