His Wolf

Seven

I sat there with them both staring at me for a good while, wondering what they had planned. I have only ever had one handler in my life, I knew his rules, and his pattern of behavior, what he expected of me. This man was new. He might be more strick, more violent in his ways to get me to learn, although it would be hard to be more violent than my trainer and old handler. Wait.

Will I have to go through more training? And if so, will it be with the same man? I hope not.

He crouched beside me and said something about being good and I started to shake in fear, ready for the strict rules that were about to be placed, but instead he just opened the cage door and waited. It was a trick. A test. One that I would pass. Make the trainer proud. I thought to myself.

I suddenly heard a growl, and I flinched back, hitting the wires of my cage, in fear that my handler had said something and I didn't hear him because I was zoned out. Stupid mutt, why can't you do anything right? I yelled at myself. There was a pause and then a while. I tilted my head in confusion, not knowing what he was trying to accomplish with that, seeing as I was not in a fight at the moment.

Finally, I heard Handler pat his leg, and I carefully pulled myself out of the cage, not sure if it was a trick or not since he didn't say the same words as my old handler used to when he wanted me out of my cage.

This man's words were gentler. And while I wasn't too sure what the different meanings behind them were compared to the others, I like them better, but I was still wary that it was a test. Afraid that I had failed, I decided to sit as soon as my whole form was free from the tight space. I heard my handler huff out a breath of air and I winced slightly, thinking that I had made a mistake. Fear slowly started to climb its way up my spine, thinking that he would get a trainer. I was so lost in my own thoughts that I didn't realize that handler had knelt down in front of me until his hand was on my head.

Instantly I felt something shifted in me. I didn't like it when people touched me, it always ended in pain. A growl ripped through my throat and I snapped my head up, teeth-gnashing, looking for something to tear into. He jerked his hand back and held them both up in a form of surrender. I bared my teeth at him and meet his cool, grey eyes, and suddenly, whatever shifted earlier was gone and I quickly put my head back down and whined loudly. I laid down and rolled over onto my back to show him submission. The lessons were always better when I showed that I knew I made a mistake. I just hope he went by the same philosophy. A growl came from him and I whined once more, fear starting to take over. The lady beside him placed her hand on his arm, making him turn to face her, a warning look set in her features as he met her eyes in annoyance. After a moment he took in a deep breath and let it back out again and turned to face me once more.

"Come on Little Mate, will you stand up for me so Shar can take a look at you?" I tilted my head in confusion. It wasn't a command, but I could tell from his tone of voice that he wanted me to do so. I sat for a second, thinking about the consequences if I did stand up or not. I did not know this man, I did not know this place, I did not understand his way with words, but I did understand commands. And somewhere in that sentence, he told me to stand, so that is what I did. Shaking in pain and exhaustion, I found my way to my paws as they threatened to give out from under me. I heard the lady take in a breath in shock and surprise, but I had no clue why. Wasn't this what he wanted? Did I break a rule? I started to whine, thinking I did something wrong. Every inch of me was blazing in pain, fresh and old wounds were bleeding profusely, blood dripping down off my dark fur and onto the cold white floor. My front right leg was going numb from the amount of pain it was in, the branding on my flank burned in a whole new light as I stretched out the scorched and melted skin that held it together.