the dog was there in the garden.
it was a rainy night and he was feeling some strange impulse to patrol the grounds before he went to bed, as if there were some sort of imminent danger he needed to be aware of. one that was stalking them, following them, something lurking around the castle that posed a threat to all of their lives.
perhaps it was anxiety, perhaps it was instinct. perhaps it was fate leading to her.
he knew it was an awful idea as soon as he saw her. she had drawn her line, she had laid her boundary, he knew she didn't love him like she loved his friend.
but how could she know love? she'd only been there four days at the most.
was it four days? he lost track of time down here. but she couldn't have been here more than a week. if it had been a week, she'd been stuck forever.
she seemed to have been getting bored.
he circled the girl, splattered out on a garden bench. she didn't hear the crackling of his paws as he stalked through the trees, the snapping of the branches beneath his claws and the swish of his tail as he brushed along the bark of an ancient pine.
luca had never been quite skilled at keeping quiet. he was never intended to be a hunting dog. in fact, he hated being in his dog form, but sometimes it worked to his advantage. and sometimes he couldn't even help the feral beast that gurgled up from the depths of his stomach, and sometimes the teeth would grow before he had a chance to get a foul word out of his mouth.
tonight he had struggled to grind them together at the dinner table, as he watched another fine maiden fawn over his sparkling older brother, tired of being overshadowed and overlooked and never seen by anyone other than the ones he kept as his prey.
a small part of him glowered with a bitter satisfaction that paisley seemed as distraught about the fawning as him. paisley was supposed to be with rook, not fallon. that was the way things worked. that was the way things were always supposed to work. why had mama bear thrown in fallon to ruin everything they had built? it had all been the same for years. he didn't understand. didn't understand. didn't-
it wasn't fair.
this girl was supposed to be his, and she didn't see him.
he would make her see him.
she was crying on the bench. about what, he didn't know. about what, he didn't care. she didn't care about the pain she caused him, so he didn't give a damn what she felt. that unbridled rage grew stronger as he circled closer, but the rain and the crickets and her own tears drowned out the noise of his paws as he exited the woods and began to approach the girl crying on the garden bench.
she still didn't look up.
her eyes were locked on her hands, staring down at her nails, feathery pink angel wings wrapped around her body like some sort of cocoon. the wispy feathers at the bottom brushed the earth below, staining darker as their tips soaked into the earth below.
she was a tear-stained mess, but still, luca could taste her body on his tongue even at the distance. he could smell the cotton-candy body scrub paisley had given her radiating off her skin, the cheap perfume she had found somewhere in a drawer likely, reminiscent of poppy flowers and honey. whatever she had last eaten for dinner, some sort of red meat, possibly lamb, and washed down with raspberry tea.
she smelt incredible, and he wanted a taste. he had to have a-
she looked up.
their eyes linked and for a moment, he had tunnel vision. all he could see was the whites of her eyes, those beautiful blue eyes, the confusion, the empathy, the fear, the love. he wanted those eyes for his own. he could frame them. he wished he could frame them.
the girl sat up, wiping her cheek futily. "a dog," she dared say out loud, "i didn't know they had animals out here."
luca sat his rear in the grass, trying his best to appear friendly. he let out a soft whine, feigning innocence and fear of her. you're only here out of curiosity. you wandered here by accident and now you're being confronted. play the part.
he let the fear flash in his own eyes, but allowed the curious invitation to remain. he watched as her features softened, her hands outstretching below the bench.
"hey, it's okay," she cooed, the confusion still ringing clear in her voice, "it's okay, boy, come here."
and he was in. another whine, another huff, drop to his belly and scoot a little forward-
"oh my goodness, look at you," she laughed as he came towards her. "you're literally the cutest thing i've seen all day." she then looked to the sky for some reason, as if some divine answer as to why he was there would come from up above.
he lived there long enough to know that there was no divine answer. they were truly alone here, except for mama bear. but she didn't care for them any longer. at least they thought she didn't, until she sent this girl here.
it eluded him but fascinated him at the same time. the rage had faded, all he wanted was her love, no matter what form he was in.
he rolled on his belly and the girl giggled with delight, and she rubbed her soft, delicate hand all along his torso, sliding his fur up and down and he had to hold back from moaning with delight. this, this was all he wanted.
this, this was how he'd get it.
he was twisted, he knew that. in the real world, this would be a problem. but there were no problems here. no problems unless he made it a problem.
and there would be no problem here unless it was made one.
the girl continued to pet the dog, but what she mistook for the ignorant happiness of an animal was actually the predatory gleam of success in a man who had just captured his prey.
luca wasn't a psychopath. he just had a special gift, which offered him crafty ways of getting what he wanted.
