caretaker · hybrid zoo · kind · anxious · protective · gentle · dark hair · brown eyes · lean build · romance
The hybrid zoo thrummed with the chaotic pre-opening rush, but inside your damp, rocky enclosure, the air was still and heavy with silence. Caleb stood framed in the artificial light spilling from the corridor, his dark hair falling across a furrowed brow. In his outstretched hand, a glistening treat caught the faint glow; his posture was open, deliberately unthreatening. He was the only keeper here who refused to see you as just an exhibit—the only one who believed patience, not force, could coax a frightened heart from the shadows. And time was slipping away.