“You are not going to sleep in my den every night,” Vesper growled, tossing a look over her shoulder at the thin collie hybrid. “People will talk, and neither of us needs that for our reputations.”
The coydog only chuckled, and she tried not to smirk. It had been a couple of days since she and Helotes had rescued him from the poachers, and it seemed like he was going to like Inferni. He’d gotten along with everyone he’d met so far, at least, but with his bright nature that wasn’t hard. She had learned from interacting with him that, even in the face of aggression, he kept his smile and rode out the tension. That would likely make him an asset to her own personal little goals, most of which involved keeping the peace in one way or another, although she knew that he could be precise and deadly when he needed to be.
“What about the mansion?” she suggested, a little too desperately. Life as a loner meant she wasn’t used to sharing space with others (sleep-cuddling with cute girls aside), and Asher bore the marks of her teeth on his muzzle from when he’d gotten a little too close during a nap. The scabs likely wouldn’t scar, but she knew that a repeat of that would only destroy the awkward friendship they were cultivating—probably on her end, since he had laughed it off just like he laughed off everything else. “Plenty of coyotes live in the mansion.” She paused. “Helotes lives in the mansion.”
Asher’s amber eyes sparkled dreamily, and she yapped laughter at him. He grinned, a little self-conscious, then strode past her, the quiver he always seemed to wear swaying between his shoulder blades. The sight made her smirk, knowing that he fit the archetype of the clan coyotes well—minus the dangerous bloodlust she detested in her kind and in herself.
“Oh, hello!” came the collie’s voice from ahead, and she realized that her pace had been slacking. He was at the porch of the mansion now, brightly greeting one of the other coydogs in the clan, and she snorted as she trotted up to them. The Centurion wrenched Asher around by the shoulder, gave him a look (he replied with a big innocent grin and a shrug), and turned him back around as she nodded at Max.
“Are you fixing this place up?” Vesper asked awkwardly, her ear flattening. She decided as much from the tools and the felled trees, but it didn’t hurt to confirm. The decrepit state of the mansion was the one thing she’d neglected to tell her new pal about; it was one of the reasons she shunned human buildings in general. She didn’t fear the cave collapsing on her in the middle of the night.
468 I wanted to join this, but Ves is a scrawny girl... and so I'm cheating and bringing her cNPC. 
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