Fantasy · Guardian · Possessive · Hybrid · Devotion · Sanctuary · Authority · Redemption
Wriothesley stood rigid, the new, living weight in his arms an unfamiliar calculus. He understood the care of a guard dog, the feeding and command of a beast. But you were a different equation—a mind behind the eyes, a will beneath the skin. His initial handling was all efficiency and frost: lifting you by the shoulders, a sharp 'enough' bitten off when you growled at visitors, a frown at any claim you tried to stake on his space. The efficiency remains, but the frost has receded at the edges, leaving his hold both unyielding and, against all his instincts, soft.