Using a combination of speed, strategic barking, and a few carefully placed herding moves, he managed to round up the brightly colored troublemakers one by one and drive them back toward their enclosure. It was difficult work—mostly because the theebles found the whole thing hilarious and kept shouting encouragement to each other.
“Run—run—run!”
“Good boy! Good boy!”
“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” they shrieked.
At one point, one of them actually landed on Buck’s back and rode him for several seconds like a triumphant little king before Kiera scooped it off and deposited it into the repaired enclosure.
By the end of it, Brux had all twelve secured and Kiera was laughing so hard she had to lean on the gate for support.
“Oh my God,” she gasped, wiping tears of mirth from her eyes. “You’re amazing, Buck! Who needs work—bots when I’ve got you?”
Brux had puffed out his chest at that and accepted the vigorous ear—scratches she bestowed upon him as his due. He was glad he’d been able to save the day—it made him feel like a hero and her words—you’re amazing!—echoed in his head for hours afterwards.
After that, Kiera began employing him more and more often.
He helped her round up a trio of snufflers—round, pinkish creatures with transparent bellies full of softly glowing organs—that escaped when one of the work—bots accidentally left a latch open. The snufflers looked harmless enough until alarmed, at which point they inflated themselves to three times their usual size and zoomed blindly around the enclosure making deep, sonorous sounds like bass instruments gone berserk.
He also assisted with a particularly difficult incident involving a juvenile jibblet from Roon—Tar Seven, which had a distressing tendency to climb vertical surfaces when upset. The little beast—which Kiera said looked like ‘a goat crossed with a lizard’—had somehow made its way onto the roof of the feed storage dome and refused to come down despite her best efforts to lure it with treats.
“Buck,” she had said finally, hands on hips, staring up at the orange—and—blue striped creature clinging upside down to the curved roof. “I need you to bark at it.”
Brux had looked at her…then at the jibblet…then back at her.
“Please?” Kiera had asked, smiling that smile of hers—the one that made him feel as though the sun had risen just for him.
So he barked.
The jibblet gave a startled bleat, lost its grip, and slid down the curved roof in a flailing blur of stripes and indignant squeals, where Kiera caught it in a big net.
“There!” she exclaimed triumphantly. “See? Teamwork!”
Brux had endured another enthusiastic round of praise and petting, though privately he had begun to suspect that Kiera found it far too amusing to watch him do things no self—respecting Lykan warrior ought to be asked to do.
Still…he would do almost anything she asked—anything, to please her.
There were quieter moments too, though…afternoons when the wind moved through the chiming trees and Kiera walked with him through the sanctuary, checking notes on her wrist—screen and talking softly as they went.
Sometimes she sat in the shade of one of the cinnamon—trunked trees and ate her midday meal while Brux sprawled beside her with his head in her lap. Sometimes she read aloud to him from a datapad, telling him facts about one species or another.
He found himself deeply interested in her work–she really loved animals. But even more than that, he adored the sound of her voice and so he listened as though she were revealing the deepest secrets of the universe. Just being near her was enough to make him happy.
And every night they went to the bathing pool.
Brux had quickly learned that Kiera liked to soak in the warm water at the end of the day, often after checking the sanctuary one final time and making sure all the nocturnal enclosures were secure. She would undress without self—consciousness around him now—why should she have any, when in her mind he was only a very devoted animal companion?—and slip into the water with a sigh of relief.
Then Brux had to endure the exquisite torture of watching his mate with too little fur and too much beautiful naked skin moving through the warm pool like some kind of goddess.
He tried to be discreet, but he often failed.
The first time she caught him staring openly at her breasts as she washed herself, she had laughed and tapped him lightly on the nose.
“What?” she had asked him, smiling. “Never seen a naked woman before?”
No, Brux had thought instantly. Not one like you. Not one who made his body ache and his heart pound and both his shafts begin to harden with painful urgency.
Worse still were the pleasure blooms.
