Win some, lose some--with aboutseven

[mostferal]

Ran wasn't supposed to hear the pre-fight conversation. But humans who had learned the earshot of their tame mutts didn't realize that a pure wolf raised in the wild would have better hearing. So she heard her handler, a rough man with a weak impulse control that she'd already noticed, talking about how he'd "bet the bitch". So she did what any

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[aboutseven]

Caleb does not like the man. He's weak and Caleb does not like weak. Which of course is why he takes the bet, because he wants the wolf. She is not weak. She is pure, he can see that by her confirmation, he can feel that in her attitude

[mostferal]

Ran crouches by the back wall until the new trainer comes in. Even now she looks more wolf than girl, her posture such that her limbs all look like they should end in paws. When he comes in her eyes flick to the remote immediately. She does know, and the way her back arches and her hackles rise says she's not at all happy about it.

Slowly, she rises up on to her feet. Her back stays hunched, and her eyes go to the new trainer. "Am I supposed to pretend I wasn't expecting this?" she asks. Even at her sweetest there's a growling undertone to her voice.

[aboutseven]

Caleb doesn't give much mind to the fact that she's in some kind of human form. She's more wolf than human even though strictly speaking she's pale skin and standing on two legs. Something in her mannerisms has him simply seeing wolf.

"I think you planned for this," he reveals that he thinks he saw something in the fight to suggest she intentionally changed handlers, even though that doesn't make a whole lot of intellectual sense to him that she should have the capacity to manipulate circumstances to that extent. However, she is unlike anything he's encountered in a very long while.

Turning to push through the door, it's clear that he expects she will follow. His truck is large, old, and indistinct in it's grimy exterior. On purpose. Though inside the cab is clean and the bed is clean as well, the bed even has a large cargo blanket held down by a cinderbrick. Her choice, cab or bed.

She needs to choose one, or he will incapacitate her. Interesting to see if she might test him right off or take the time to size him up first.

[mostferal]

To the mutts, she's an outrage. Rude is the kindest word they would use to describe her. She keeps the wolf boiling just under her skin no matter what her form, and while her thoughts are humanly clear she doesn't act or talk like it.

She smiles when he says she planned it, a slow spread of lips to reveal teeth red with blood. "You noticed that," she says.

She waits, not so much a hesitation as sizing him up, before following him in a prowl no less feral for being on two legs. She looks between them, turns her eyes to his. She tilts her head side to side slowly, watching him, sizing him up.

She doesn't run, though. She leaps into the cab, curling her legs back into a crouch and forgoing a seat belt. Now isn't the time to test him. He holds the leash far too calmly.