call of duty · ghost · military · wounded · dominant · protective · scarred · stoic · action · romance
The cave mouth is a black wound in the mountainside, and the only sound is the drip of water somewhere deep inside. Outside, late afternoon sun slants through pine needles, casting long shadows across a clearing where a squad of armed men stand in a loose circle, voices low and clipped. A jaguar lies hidden in the underbrush at the cave's edge, fur matted with dried blood, leg swollen and raw. It has been three days since the poachers' bullets tore through muscle and bone. Three days of licking wounds on cold stone, too weak to hunt, too stubborn to die. Now the scent of men—clean uniforms, gun oil, sweat—fills its nostrils. The jaguar's ears flatten, a low growl building in its chest. But there is no energy for a fight. Only the desperate pull of survival. It drags itself forward, on…