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Llifen watched as the other wolves slowly filed out of the temple into the central square to watch the fight. He felt as if a lead weight had formed in the pit of his stomach and was growing with each passing minute. Eventually, there was nobody left in the temple except him and Zaulii. He turned to address his mentor.

"Master Zaulii?"

"Ah yes, Llifen. I expect good things out of you in your fight with Jilong."

Llifen rubbed the back of his head in a display of self-doubt. "Well, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. I...don't think I'm ready for this right now."

Zaulii narrowed his eyes at Llifen. He had a distinctive gaze that never failed to make Llifen feel like a tiny pup. Despite having known him for nearly his whole life, it was something that Llifen had never gotten used to. "Tell me, do you know why I chose Jilong to fight against you?" Llifen looked into Zaulii's eyes and shrank back in a mixture of fear and shame. He could only shake his head in response, having been left completely speechless. Zaulii continued, "I saw the little spat that you two had yesterday. I will not have two of my initiates at each other's throats like that."

How did he find out about that? Llifen sighed silently to himself. Of course he knows. Why wouldn't he know everything that happens in this monastery?

"I saw how easily you got flustered at Jilong." Llifen wanted to interject that Jilong's ruthless antagonizing counted as far more than flustering, but he held his tongue. "We've been over this before; while your fury is an admirable trait when you're fighting, you must learn to channel that fury only when it's appropriate. The rest of the time, you must keep it under control, lest your mind become unfocused. And an unfocused mind is easy prey for the Beast. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, Master Zaulii. I understand."

"Good. Now, whatever issues the two of you may have, I hope that you can sort it out in this sparring match."

Llifen watched as Zaulii moved toward the door of the temple to join the other wolves outside. He still did not feel confident about the upcoming fight. His mind raced as he tried to figure out any way he could to stop it. "B-but...training! More training!" he suddenly blurted out without thinking.

Zaulii looked at Llifen with a confused expression. "Excuse me?"

"I mean...Rusan and I need more training together to get him up to speed. We didn't get to do much yesterday, and if I fight Jilong, it will detract from the time I could be spending teaching him, won't it?"

Zaulii appeared deep in thought for a moment. "Rusan...ah yes, the new initiate. Very well then, you may take the afternoon to train him. Instead, I will postpone the fight between you and Jilong until tomorrow. Does that work for you?" Llifen nodded tentatively, surprised that an idea he had on the spur of the moment would actually be effective. "And one more thing: I know about the poor training session you had with Rusan yesterday. Our new initiates deserve better than that and you're capable of far better than what you demonstrated yesterday." Without waiting for a response, Zaulii turned and exited the temple.

Llifen's entire body seized up, only relaxing after Zaulii had left. Well, that could have gone much better, Llifen thought to himself. He felt like a child who had been giving a harsh scolding by a parent. Still, it was only reasonable for Zaulii to treat him like he did. After all, Zaulii had been the one to raise him since he was a pup, and in that time, he had come to see Zaulii not just as a teacher and a mentor, but as a father as well--a stern, sometimes imposing father who only wanted to see his child succeed to the best of his ability. He followed Zaulii out of the temple and into the awaiting audience.

Zaulii addressed the entire congregation. "Attention, everyone. The fight has been postponed until tomorrow. Instead, you may all resume your individual training. You are all dismissed."

A soft murmur of disappointment echoed among the wolves. The crowd slowly dispersed until there was nobody left in the square except Llifen and Rusan. His companion came running up to him with a worried look on his face.

"What was that all about? Why was the fight called off?"

"It's nothing you need to worry about." Llifen put on a cheerful smile, hoping that Rusan would not notice the artificiality of it.

But Rusan was clearly not convinced. "Are you afraid of facing Jilong?" He shot Llifen a quizzical glance.

"No, no. Nothing like that. Zaulii and I just decided that I should take a little extra time to train you, that's all." Llifen could see a look of doubt forming on Rusan's face. He cut him off before he got a chance to respond. "Now come on, let me show you to one of our training rooms."

To Llifen's relief, Rusan appeared to acquiesce to this abrupt change in topic. "Fine," Rusan said, "but can you please not yank my arm around like you've been doing these past couple of days?"

"Of course," Llifen said with a chuckle as he led Rusan over to one of the nearby buildings. They both entered, and Llifen watched as Rusan looked around the interior, which consisted of nothing more than an empty room with a special mat laid out on the floor. Llifen closed the door, which produced a satisfying echo that rang throughout the cavernous space. He always loved that sound. These training rooms had thick walls which blocked noise from the outside, conducive for private training or meditation. As a result, any sound made inside reverberated around the room in profound fashion.

Llifen walked over to the center of the room, the mat under his paws providing the perfect amount of cushion for practicing his moves. He assumed a fighting stance and beckoned Rusan over to him.

"Okay, I will be demonstrating three different moves: a rising block, a forearm block, and a downward block." He then proceeded to execute all three moves in a slow yet deliberate manner, emitting a sharp exhale with each technique. Rusan stood beside Llifen and copied his moves in a more tentative fashion as Llifen coaxed Rusan's limbs into the optimal alignment.

"Very good. Now, I will be aiming six punches at you: two to your head, two to your upper body, and two to your lower body. I want you to block all six using the techniques I just taught you. Do you understand all that?"

"I...I think so," Rusan replied. But before Rusan could get a chance to hesitate much further, Llifen immediately commenced with the exercise.

The punches flew over and over at Rusan, only to miss his body at the last moment by being deflected by his blocks. The exercise started slowly at first, but over time began to pick up speed. After several minutes, the two of them switched places. As Llifen deflected Rusan's punches, he began to notice a distinct change in Rusan's form; his movements were becoming smoother and more precise. He was clearly a fast learner.

"You're getting a lot better at this, I can tell."

"I know, I can feel it too. It's because I have such a good teacher. I can't imagine why Jilong insisted you wouldn't be."

That statement was enough to get Llifen to lose his concentration momentarily. His rhythm faltered, causing Rusan to accidentally give him a small smack on the snout. In response, Llifen reeled backward and gave a shocked look to Rusan. His fighting instincts took over as he growled menacingly and reared up into a fighting stance with his teeth and claws bared.

"How do you know that name? Do the two of you know each other?"

Rusan stepped back and timidly crossed his arms over his face in defense. "No, I don't! I mean, I met him, but we only talked briefly, I swear!"

Llifen took a second to compose himself. Seeing Rusan cowering in fear gave him flashbacks to yesterday's disastrous training session. He was determined to not let that happen again. He took a few deep breaths before speaking in a calm tone of voice.

"No, it's fine. I believe you."

That seemed to have done the trick, as Rusan stood down from his defensive posture. Llifen looked down sheepishly at his own body, which was still tensed up and ready to attack. He had to find a way to get this lesson back on track somehow.

"Um, here, let me show you a few moves that you can execute from this position."

"O-okay."

Llifen was surprised that this attempt to deflect attention away from his little outburst had worked, but he was grateful for it. Up to this point, everything had been going to plan and he didn't want to risk ruining it. He demonstrated several more techniques to Rusan, and to his relief, the rest of the lesson went by without incident.

Much later, Llifen decided they had put in sufficient work for the day, so they both walked back to their quarters, tired but also satisfied at how the lesson had gone. But as they arrived back at the room, they were confronted with the fact that their door was still broken and ripped from its frame, an issue which had been forgotten amidst the chaos of everything else that had happened yesterday. Llifen instructed Rusan to retrieve a hammer and nails from one of the supply rooms as he inspected the damage. After Rusan had returned with the tools, Llifen began to work on repairing the broken hinges. He used the primitive tools to replace the nails on the hinges as Rusan stood alongside and assisted as needed.

"Llifen, what is the history between you and Jilong?" Rusan had talked to Llifen while he worked, but mostly idle chitchat. This was the first time in this conversation that he had decided to broach such an uncomfortable subject and it managed to catch Llifen off guard.

"I don't have any history with him," he said quickly in an unnatural tone of voice. He cringed slightly as those words left his mouth. It was an obvious lie. "I mean, the two of us barely know each other." He knew that Rusan would see straight through his deception. In his panic, all he could think to do was abruptly change the subject and hope that Rusan wouldn't press the issue further. "Now hand me some more nails. This door needs more work."

"That's not good enough. Now tell me how you know him." No such luck. Llifen reached out for the handful of nails clutched in Rusan's paw, but Rusan pulled them out of arm's reach.

"It's not any of your concern. The two of us had a..." Llifen hesitated as he resisted the urge to relive painful memories. "...We had a disagreement a long time ago, and since then we haven't seen eye-to-eye."

"What kind of disagreement?" Rusan looked at him with skepticism. "Like a lovers' quarrel or something?"

Llifen nearly dropped his tools in shock. It took nearly all his effort not to burst out laughing. Relationships between initiates were not forbidden, but for him to be in a relationship with a brute like Jilong? It was ridiculous to even think about.

"What? No! Why would you think something like that?"

"I don't know, but you won't tell me anything else, so I just made a guess. Clearly I was wrong."

"But why would you guess that I used to be in love with him? Unless..." A thought suddenly dawned on him. Here was the opportunity he needed to turn the tables on Rusan. "Don't tell me that you're jealous."

"Of course not! It's nothing like that..." Rusan looked away from him as he nervously scratched the back of his head.

"It's true, you're jealous, aren't you?" Llifen was in near disbelief that an utterance he had made on the spur of the moment would have such a pronounced effect on Rusan, but he wasn't going to question it. He was enjoying every moment of the torment that he was putting him through.

"I'm not! Just knock it off, will you?"

"Don't worry," Llifen replied tauntingly, "you're far better company than he'll ever be." He shot a smug grin at the embarrassed wolf.

"All right, I'll drop the subject if you will, okay?"

"Fine, we won't talk about it anymore, if that's what you want." As he promised, the conversation immediately turned back to more casual topics as they got back to work. But Llifen was left with the satisfaction of knowing that, this one time at least, he had managed to get the upper hand over his companion.

***

The next day, the congregation was gathered outside the main temple to watch the fight between Llifen and Jilong. Llifen could feel dozens of eyes on him including Rusan's, and this time, there was no opportunity to back out again. He took a few deep breaths to steady his nerves. There was no reason for him to be so anxious. He had the skills to defeat anyone in the monastery. Jilong would be no more difficult than any of them; the only difference was that Jilong happened to hold a major grudge against him. Even though what happened wasn't his fault, right?

But what if it was his fault? What if Jilong had a right to be angry at him?

No. He had to push that thought out of his mind. Jilong had already gotten into his head without saying a single word. Instead, he had to focus solely on the fight.

The two of them assumed fighting stances on opposite sides of the fighting ring as Zaulii then addressed them both. "Now then, I want you both to remember that in this ring you are not just competitors, you are also teachers to all of us as well. Therefore, it is imperative that you demonstrate your best skills as well as your best sportsmanship. Is that understood?"

"Yes, Master Zaulii," Llifen and Jilong both said simultaneously.

"Very well then. Begin!"

At Zaulii's signal, the fight commenced. The two combatants began the fight by moving in slow circles around the edge of the ring, each one sizing up the other. Jilong was the first to strike, rushing forward and grabbing Llifen in a crude clinch hold. As he did so, he whispered in Llifen's ear.

"I know all about your new protégé. Don't think I wouldn't find out."

Llifen escaped from Jilong's hold far more easily than he expected to. He knew from past experience that Jilong was a much better fighter than this. What had gotten into him?

"I don't see how it's any business of yours." Llifen threw a cursory jab at Jilong, but his attack was easily dodged. Even if Jilong's attacks were subpar, his defense was on point. Llifen would need to try harder to find an opportune moment to strike.

"That's where you're wrong. Do you even remember the lives you ruined? Or the lengths we had to go through to put everything right again?" Jilong struck out at his opponent, but Llifen managed to bat it away as effortlessly as if he were swatting away a fly. "But I bet you don't even care about the destruction you leave in your wake, do you?"

Suddenly, Llifen realized what Jilong was doing. He was only engaging him just enough to put up the barest semblance of a fight, when in reality, his objective was to merely taunt his opponent. Llifen shot a helpless glance at Zaulii, hoping he could put a stop to this. Surely he had to see what was going on, right? But Zaulii remained either ignorant to, or was outright unwilling to stop Jilong's ploy.

"I even managed to have a little chat with your new student--Rusan, I think his name was?"

Llifen let out a menacing growl. "Don't you dare bring him into this!" He tried to unleash a flurry of swipes against his opponent, but each one of his blows was effortlessly deflected. Immediately, he knew that Jilong had goaded him into a careless attack. He had to make sure not to let that happen again.

"Oh, you don't need to worry about him...for now. For the most part, he refused to talk to me. I don't know what kind of power you hold over him, but he seems loyal to you like some kind of pathetic whelp."

"Well did you ever think that maybe you're wrong about me and that I actually can be a good influence on others?" He attempted to rush toward Jilong with all his might.

"Good influence? Ha! You've got a lot of nerve to say something like that after the beatdown you gave him yesterday." Jilong retorted as he deftly sidestepped Llifen's attack.

The shock of hearing that nearly caused Llifen to stumble over his own feet. "What? How do you know about that?" he snarled ferociously. He was becoming irritated both with himself and with Jilong over how easily the latter was able to fluster him. Sensing this, he took a short moment to attempt to regain his composure.

"Did you expect it to remain hidden? When something like that happens, word gets around. What I don't understand is why the little whelp you're training would still follow you around after something like that. But it's no matter. It won't be long before he wises up and abandons you."

Every hair on Llifen's body stood on end. He could feel his rage building like a burning sensation at the back of his skull. No, he had to maintain control. He couldn't let Jilong win, not like this.

Jilong continued, "For his sake, I hope he realizes the danger you pose sooner rather than later. Do you know why? Because if he doesn't, it'll only be a matter of time before you end up turning Rusan, just like you turned him. And then everyone will see the truth. They're going to know that--"

Something inside of Llifen snapped. His vision went blurry as the world around him faded, save for the wolf directly in front of him. Like an animal that had just located its prey, he lunged forward, tackling his opponent in a vicious assault that not even Jilong could have anticipated, much less have resisted. He straddled the other wolf's helpless body as he unleashed blow after blow against his face and torso.

"You utter bastard! I will kill you on the spot! I will--"

Out of the corner of his eye, Llifen could see Rusan jumping into the ring. Suddenly, he felt two arms wrap tightly around his body as Rusan grabbed him and pulled him off Jilong. He flailed about, attempting to release himself, but he eventually yielded, not wanting to hurt his companion.

"What are you doing? Let me at him!"

"No, this isn't like you, Llifen. Call this fight off, I beg of you!"

Llifen could see that Zaulii was looking at him with a questioning gaze. Next to him, the other wolves in the audience stared at him with shocked expressions on their faces.

"Master Zaulii, I...forfeit this fight," he mumbled in a shameful tone.

"Very well then, it has been decided. Jilong is the winner."

Jilong picked himself up off the ground and smoothed down the fur on his body. There were a few scratches on his torso as well as a small trickle of blood oozing from his nose, but he was surprisingly not in bad condition. Rusan had stopped the fight before things had gotten worse. He stumbled off, presumably in the direction of the medical facilities. But before he left, he turned back to the two wolves. A sneer crossed his face as he made eye contact with Rusan and delivered one last parting shot: "See? He's nothing but a savage."

***

Llifen and Rusan walked back to the living quarters with Rusan trying his best to console his companion over his loss to Jilong.

"Why did you have to step in?" Llifen asked, shuffling his feet along morosely.

"Llifen, I don't know how those fights are supposed to go, but I know something was wrong. There was this look on your face, it was vile and twisted. It wasn't right." Rusan turned to face Llifen. "I never want to see that again from you."

Llifen looked deep into Rusan's eyes. There was concern written all over his face, but apart from that there was another emotion: fear. He couldn't bear the thought that his friend could possibly be afraid of him. He placed his hand on Rusan's shoulder and spoke with determination. "I assure you, that wasn't the real me. You have nothing to fear from me, trust me." He leaned in for a hug but to his surprise, Rusan merely ended up pushing him away instead.

"Llifen, I have to know, why is it that you and Jilong hate each other so much?"

"It's like I told you before, it's no--"

"I can't accept that as an answer anymore. I was willing to let you keep it to yourself yesterday, but now I have to know."

Llifen thought back to yesterday, when Rusan broached the subject during the training session and again while repairing the door. It did seem as if he was able to get Rusan to stop talking about it a little too easily. "So all those times yesterday, when you let the matter drop..."

"What, did you think you were so good at changing the subject that I wouldn't notice? I'm not stupid. I saw how abruptly you tried to shift away from that topic. But I let you think that I was fine with you controlling the conversation like that because I could see how much the topic hurt you. I just wanted to protect your feelings, and I felt a little deception was necessary to do that. I'm sorry for that. But I don't think I can let you keep it a secret anymore."

"But why? Why do you have to know?"

"You just told me to trust you. But how can I, with this massive secret between you two? You know you can't avoid Jilong forever. The two of you are going to interact with each other. It's inevitable. But I can't trust that you won't lose control like that again if I don't know what it is about him that makes you so angry in the first place."

Llifen swallowed hard. Rusan was right about that, and he hated it. He didn't know which appalled him more: that Rusan could be afraid of him or that he couldn't trust him. By this time, they had arrived at their room, so Llifen motioned for Rusan to sit on the bed. He then sat next to the other wolf as he began to recount his story.

"When Jilong joined the monastery, there was another one with him, a twin brother named Lujing. They were close--very close. I think that they were newly orphaned and had been relying on each other for survival before they decided to seek shelter here." Llifen paused for a moment as he tried to remember Lujing's face. But to his dismay, nothing came to mind. How could he not remember even a single detail? But would it even matter if he did? Wherever Lujing was now, Llifen knew that the young wolf that he once trained was long gone.

"Back then, I was young and didn't know what it took to teach others. Lujing was assigned as my protégé. I remember that when he learned of this, his demeanor toward me was nothing but pure fear. But as far as I was concerned, he had to do everything I told him to, regardless of what he felt toward me. I think you got a taste of that a few days ago." He paused again, thinking with disgust about how close he was to reverting to his old ways.

"As you can probably expect, I wasn't a good teacher to him. I criticized every little mistake that he made. I forced him far beyond what he was capable of for his skill level. But I didn't care about any of that. All that mattered to me was that he wasn't meeting my standards. Now I realize that those were standards that were impossible to live up to. And I promise you that I won't make the same mistake again. But it was too late for Lujing. One day, he..."

This time, Llifen hesitated for far longer than before. Rusan, who up until this point had been sitting in total silence, must have sensed this, as he interrupted for the first time since Llifen began telling his story.

"What? What happened to him?"

"He...left. He left the monastery and I never saw him again."

Rusan gave him a skeptical glare. "I can't believe you. After all this talk about trust, after telling me this entire story, you choose now to lie about why Jilong hates you?"

"But it's the tru--" he began before cutting himself off. What was the point in lying? Rusan would immediately see through it anyway. But he couldn't bring himself to relive what had happened. "You're right, I lied. But I can't tell you what happened that day, I'm sorry."

"Why not?" Rusan's voice was stern, but at the same time Llifen could tell he was attempting to make it sound gentle enough to coax the truth out of him.

"No, I...I can't. Please, I told you enough. Just stop..."

But Rusan was unyielding. "Llifen, tell me: what happened that day?"

Llifen could tell that Rusan was losing his patience. His voice wasn't at the level of a yell yet, but it was close. He was fearful that Rusan would get angry if this continued any longer. He took several deep breaths before speaking in a timid voice. "It was after one of our training sessions. That was when he..." Suddenly, an image flashed into his mind. He found that he was now able to vividly recall Lujing's face, but its countenance was not the same as the scared wolf he used to train. Instead, staring back at him was a face of pure vicious rage. He remembered the words that Rusan had used to describe him after his fight with Jilong: vile and twisted. He wondered if it was the same as the face he was now picturing before him. His stomach turned. An overwhelming feeling of panic suddenly gripped him.

"I...I'm sorry, I need some air," he blurted out quickly. He felt as if the walls were closing in on him. Without even giving Rusan a chance to react, he stood up and rushed out of the room.

Llifen ran down the twisting alleys without even thinking where he was going. He only stopped when he was overtaken by a debilitating cramp in his stomach. He clutched his midsection with one hand and used his other hand to brace against a nearby wall as he tilted his head down to vomit. But nothing came out. He spent the next several minutes dry heaving until his abdominal muscles were sore and his legs were weak. Finally, he turned his back to the wall and slumped down on the ground. He felt as if up until this point, he had been trying to suppress most of the details of that horrible day. But now they were all as clear in his mind as when they occurred. He knew he had to confront what had happened sooner or later. But what was he going to tell Rusan? He was probably still waiting for him back in their room. After some deliberation, Llifen decided that he had the right to know. With heavy steps, he slowly made his way back to the living quarters.

As he predicted, when Llifen got back, Rusan was still sitting on the bed, patiently awaiting his return. As he entered the room, Rusan stood up to greet him with a concerned expression.

"Are you feeling better now?"

"I think so, thanks for asking. Look, I probably owe you an explanation, don't I?"

But before Llifen could speak further, Rusan put his hand up to interrupt him. "No, I've been thinking while you were gone. I feel like I should apologize for how I acted. It was wrong of me to try to force the truth out of you like that. I still feel like I should know what happened between you and Jilong, but you only need to tell me when you're ready to."

Llifen was relieved to hear that from Rusan. Nevertheless, he couldn't help but be confused by his words. "What made you change your mind?"

Rusan stood up from the bed and slowly crossed the room toward Llifen. He stood directly in front of him and stared deep into his eyes. "Do you know what my life was like before I came here? It was miserable. I never knew where my next meal would come from. And whether I would have a roof over my head that night depended on whether I could hide from whoever owned it. But I don't have to worry about any of that now. Because of you, I now have food, a bed, a..." He paused, briefly but noticeably. "...a person who cares about me. You said you owed me an explanation? You don't owe me anything. I owe you everything, and that's why it wouldn't be right for me to demand any more out of you than what you've already given me, even if that means letting you keep some secrets to yourself."

After Rusan had finished his speech, Llifen noticed that Rusan had moved extremely close to him, close enough that he could feel Rusan's hot breath on the fur around his snout. But far from being bothered or threatened by his proximity, he found it inviting, alluring even. Rusan looked at him questioningly, as if waiting for him to make the next move.

He suddenly found his body moving on his own, as if on pure instinct. He leaned forward. The tip of his snout delicately touched Rusan's. As he pressed his body into Rusan's, he felt a weakness in his legs. His body collapsed slightly, only to be supported by Rusan's hands, which then proceeded to lovingly stroke the fur along his back, sending shivers throughout his body. He felt Rusan's tongue sliding into his barely open maw, and returned the gesture in kind, intermingling Rusan's tongue with his own as he emitted soft moans of pleasure. After what seemed like a blissful eternity, they finally broke the kiss.

Rusan looked at him with a slightly apologetic expression on his face. "I'm sorry, I didn't know whether I should've..."

Llifen immediately responded before Rusan could get a chance to finish. "No, it's fine. Thank you."

The two of them stood in awkward silence, neither one wanting to say anything to risk ruining the moment. Finally, it was Llifen who was first to speak. "It's getting pretty late, don't you think?" he said, looking around the barely illuminated room. "We should go to bed soon if we want to get an early start for morning meditations." Rusan simply nodded and shuffled toward his cot on the side of the room opposite Llifen's bed. But before he got there, he was interrupted by Llifen.

"Wait..."

"Hmm? What is it?"

"Umm...well..." Llifen struggled to not let his voice convey his embarrassment. "My bed's big enough for two people, and it's probably more comfortable than a cot, so I was wondering if...you'd like to sleep in my bed...from now on."

Rusan emitted an excited gasp before attempting to speak in a more nonchalant tone of voice. "Yeah, I mean if that's okay with you, that is." Llifen could tell that Rusan was trying to hold back a chuckle. He let Rusan get into his bed first, then followed soon thereafter. He turned his back to the other wolf and moved his body backward until he was nestled against Rusan's chest. As he let out a soft sigh of comfort, he couldn't help but think how nice Rusan's fur felt rubbing against his back. One of Rusan's arms wrapped around his body and hugged him tight, causing him to shudder with delight. His companion then proceeded to rub the front of his body, starting at his chest and working his way downwards at an alluringly slow pace. He let out a soft moan as he let Rusan have his way with his body. It was then that he became aware that his member was starting to get hard and partially emerge from his sheath. Rusan moved his hand down toward his crotch and lightly grazed his thumb along the tip of his cock. Without intending to, he tensed up his body and moved away from Rusan.

"I'm sorry!" Rusan said, jerking his hand away. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

"No, it's okay," Llifen said, consoling his companion. "I don't think I'm quite ready for that just yet." He moved back against Rusan's body and wrapped the other wolf's arm around himself. "Just hold me like this. That'll be fine."

"Of course," Rusan replied with a warmth in his voice that put Llifen at ease again. Rusan embraced him and nuzzled the fur on the back of his neck, sending shivers throughout his body. He thought about the fact that even though he had never shared his bed with someone else before, it somehow felt right to have Rusan next to him like this. If this was what he had to look forward to every night from now on, he could quickly get used to this. The thought brought a smile to his muzzle as he slowly drifted off into a peaceful slumber.