❀
Oh, boy. He got a bright one. “I’m not,” was all he said, glancing at her from the corner of his eye. He didn’t really want to deal with this right now. Or ever. Children were - well. They needed to be protected, and that was important, but how often were they kept safe from harm? Not enough. He preferred the role of guardian, if needed, but distant from his charge (unless that charge happened to be a beautiful woman, of course). It certainly wasn’t his responsibility to be nice to her, and she wasn’t in danger, so…
”Not as new as I’d like to be.” He sighed. The ivory stallion looked at her as she introduced herself. Hajduk sat beside him, grooming a paw. ”I’m Toro. This is Hajduk.”
Hajduk preened at the compliment. Toro smirked. ”He’s not so bad. Keeps me on my toes.” In truth, Hajduk had done more to keep him from the ledge in his short life than anyone else had in all of Toro’s. ”He was born from my rib, you know. He’s like my…brother. Or my son,” his lip curled up mischieviously as Hajduk shot him a glare. He’d raised Hajduk from a cub, and now he was a lanky young upstart, like Toro once was. (Or still is, on occasion.) Rib! Hajduk snarked. What rib?
”How’d you come across that bird of yours? Indy, was it?”
@
everybody loves a winner, honey can’t ya love this losing man?
