4/26/2026, 1:17 AM
Elaine had gone still again but not with fear this time. Something gentler, something far more fragile, held her in place. His words landed with the weight of truth, and she didn't flinch from them. She listened. She always listened. When she finally spoke, her voice was quiet, steady in the way only a healer's could be. " Rivers … I know what you are." Her paws paused in their work, resting lightly against his fur. "I've heard the stories since I was a pup. Every tale about your kind, every warning."
A breath.
A swallow.
A truth she had never said aloud to anyone.
"And I've never been with anyone before." Her ears dipped, not in shame, but in honesty. "Not because I was waiting for a one‑and‑only. Not because I expected forever. Just… because nothing ever felt right. No one ever felt right." Her gaze lifted to him. Open, unguarded, impossibly sincere. "You do." She didn't shy from the rest of what he'd said. Didn't try to reshape him into something he wasn't. "If you can't give yourself to just one soul, that doesn't frighten me. I'm not asking you to be anything other than what you are. I trust you. That's enough for me."
But then..
Her breath hitched.
A warmth bloomed beneath her skin, sudden and bright. Her paws trembled where they touched him. Light: soft, luminescent teal began to thread across her pelt in delicate, curling shapes. Runes, or something like them, rising like fireflies caught in her fur. Elaine stared, wide‑eyed, first at her own body, then at him. "Rivers…?" Her voice wavered. "What is this? What's happening to me?" The glow intensified, tracing along her shoulders, her ribs, her throat. She took a step back, instinctive, frightened not of him..but of herself. "I don't want to hurt you." Her tail tucked, her breath quickened, and the teal light pulsed like a second heartbeat beneath her skin. "Please..tell me what this is."
Not a demand.
A plea.
A reaching hand from someone who trusted him enough to be afraid in front of him. To be vulnerable.
![[Image: 115855725_9X4DTC8VVVLkTXo.png]](https://f2.toyhou.se/file/f2-toyhou-se/images/115855725_9X4DTC8VVVLkTXo.png)
