The fourth line was still in the bag when the dorms went quiet.
Soren didn't take the pen out again. He let the wolf decide whether to come closer, and she did, eyes shut, and lay along the foot of the bed instead of under it.
◆◆◆◆
Morning came in loud, which in this room meant Maren.
She got there first, because proximity was the prize and Maren always got there first. She put herself at his left, the warm side, ears out, and stayed welded there while he tried to eat.
"You smell like the wolf," she said.
"She slept on the bed."
"On the bed." Her tail went still. "Not under it."
"Is that a problem."
"It's a problem if I'm under it." She bit into his roll instead of her own. "Move me up."
Selah took the chair across, cold and amused, frost laid thin where her hand rested. "She's not asking. She's negotiating."
"There's nothing to negotiate. I had the bed first," Maren said.
