Rowan moved instantly.
‘Atlas. With me.’
His voice was low. Controlled. But Marcus heard the change in it. The thread pulled too tight.
Atlas did not move.
The Labrador barked again, excited by the chaos.
‘Get him outside,’ Rowan snapped, not loudly, but with such command that the woman immediately grabbed the trailing lead and backed towards the door.
Marcus’s heart slammed against his ribs.
He clipped Jack’s lead tighter to the table hook, then turned back. Rowan had angled himself in front of Atlas, one hand low, palm open, his body blocking the smashed glass, the barking dog, the doorway, all of it.
‘Atlas. Look at me.’
For a second, nothing happened.
Then Atlas’s eyes flicked.
Only once.
To Rowan.
‘Good. With me.’
Atlas took one stiff step backwards. Then another.
Rowan moved with him, slow and steady, never crowding him, never dragging him. Marcus saw the colour drain fromRowan’s face, saw the muscle jump in his jaw, saw how hard he was fighting to stay present.
This was not only Atlas’s fear.
It was Rowan’s too.
Marcus quickly looked to the Labrador’s owner. ‘Could you wait outside for a moment, please?’ He glanced back at Christine. ‘Christine, can you hold the door?’
Christine appeared at once, calm as anything, ushering the flustered woman and her dog back into the alleyway. ‘Come on, love. Let’s give them a minute.’
The door closed.
The parlour fell into a ringing silence.
Atlas backed until his side pressed against Rowan’s leg. Rowan crouched slowly, placing one hand against Atlas’s chest, the other on his shoulder.
‘Good boy,’ he whispered, but his voice was rough now. ‘Good lad. I’ve got you.’
Marcus stood absolutely still.
He wanted to help. Wanted to sweep the glass, pick up the bowl, apologise, do something useful with his hands. But Rowan had taught him enough by now to know that sometimes help meant not rushing in.
Atlas’s breathing slowed by tiny degrees.
Rowan’s did not.
‘It was too soon,’ Rowan said, so quietly Marcus almost missed it.
Marcus stepped closer, stopping a few feet away. ‘He came inside, Rowan.’
