Do you want to wrap this up soon or keep going with it?
“Some more than others,” came Toby’s response, as if from miles away. Her blue eyes lifted to meet his dark ones, but he had looked away, his dark ears lowering against his fine dog skull. She was confused, again, by how seriously he was taking the statements, but she supposed he wouldn’t have looked so guilt-ridden if something bad hadn’t happened in his past.
Torture can drive canines to do things they wouldn’t do of their own free will. Her expression grew infinitely more concerned. Then Vesper shocked herself.
The coywolf slowly rose from where she was seated, crossing the space between them with uncertain steps and nudging him lightly with her nose. She glanced at him in an almost protective way, like a big sister might look at a weaker sibling—a look she’d never quite worn before, definitely not for Sparrow. And here she was, standing close to a male at least a year older than her, looking at him as if she could protect him. As if she could do anything to make him feel better.
But she couldn’t do anything. She sighed and butted her head gently against his shoulder, letting her forehead rest there for a moment before she drew back and sat down.
“I let my father take my sister away. I tried to help, but I didn’t try as hard as I could have. I could have died for her; my father was power-hungry, a rapist. I let them walk off.” Vesper made her voice form, a mask of control sneaking across her slender features so that she didn’t show weakness—though she was admitting to more than she normally would. “I joined a band of coyotes and killed the leader—no, I killed a kid who could’ve gotten the message without death. I could have just scared him and made him treat his followers fairly. I closed my jaws around his neck even as he was crying for his mom.”
The female gave a quick shrug, finding herself steely to the events even as she just confessed her guilt in them. She was not quite repentant, not quite regretting her past sins—because there was no changing the past.
“I will not ask what you’ve done, Toby,” Vesper said levelly, trying to hold his abysmal gaze. “But it’s obviously hurting you, and you obviously seem worried about something happening again. That alone shows me that you aren’t a monster.”
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