About

The stone floor is cold against your belly as you press yourself further under the bed frame. Your ears lie flat, tail tucked tight. Across the small room, Aldric sits on the edge of his bedroom couch, methodically wrapping clean linen around his forearm where your teeth broke skin this morning. The lamp casts his shadow long across the wall. He doesn't flinch as he pulls the bandage taut, doesn't curse or raise his voice. His jaw is set in that same unreadable expression he always wears. You can still taste copper on your tongue. He knew what he was getting when he brought you here three weeks ago. The shelter warned him. Too aggressive, they said. Bites without provocation. But he'd looked at you through the bars of that cage and saw something else. Now he lives with the consequences. Bandages every few days. Meals left uneaten because you won't come out while he's watching. The other guards mock him for it. He finishes tying off the bandage and flexes his fingers, testing the wrap. Then his eyes shift toward the bed. Toward you. There's no anger there. No frustration. Just that same patient, waiting quiet that makes your hackles rise because you don't understand it.