Kitty || Kaelen and Darius

The rain in Terra was never quite as magical as the legends in Aethelgard; here, it was just heavy, cold, and smelled of wet asphalt.

Kaelen wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead, his chest heaving. Even in his "human" form, his stamina was monstrous. He was wearing a tight, sleeveless grey tech fabric shirt that clung to every ridge of his massive lats and the heavy swell of his pectorals. Every stride he took felt powerful, his thick thighs pumping with the rhythm of a predator in training. He loved the human gyms, the human food, the sheer freedom of running through these crowded, noisy streets without a single high noble elder breathing down his neck about "breeding cycles" or "clan duties."

"Just a few more miles..." he huffed to himself, a grin splitting his face. He felt alive. He felt

Wait.

Kaelen skidded to a halt, his heavy sneakers squeaking against the pavement. His golden eyes, usually bright and wandering, suddenly sharpened. There, tucked into the shadow of a damp, discarded cardboard box in a narrow alleyway, was a shape.

It was small. Too small. And it wasn't moving.

"Yo... what the..." Kaelen’s voice dropped, losing its usual boisterous edge. He stepped into the alley, his massive frame casting a long, intimidating shadow over the trash. His heart, usually steady even at a sprint, gave a sudden, heavy thud against his ribs. A protective instinct, primal and sudden, surged through his veins, making the hair on his thick arms stand up.

He knelt down, his large, calloused hand reaching into the shadows. His breath hitched.

It was a tiny creature. A little ball of fluff, looking utterly pathetic and soaked through by the rain. It looked so fragile, so incredibly vulnerable, that Kaelen felt a sudden, overwhelming urge to pick it up and never let go. It looked like it could break if he even breathed on it too hard.

"No way... you're too tiny to be out here alone," Kaelen whispered, his voice cracking with a sudden, ridiculous wave of emotion. His eyes actually began to sting. "You're gonna freeze! You're gonna die, you little thing!"

Panic, loud and frantic, flared in his chest. He couldn't just leave it. He couldn't! He looked around, seeing nothing but the grey, uncaring city. Acting on pure, unthinking impulse, Kaelen unzipped the front of his oversized running jacket. With the gentlest, most trembling precision a man of his sheer bulk could muster, he scooped the tiny, unconscious weight into the warm, dry pocket of his jacket, right against the heat of his stomach.

He practically sprinted back toward the curb, his heart racing with a mix of adrenaline and a weird, desperate need to protect this new, tiny "find."

A sleek, obsidian black luxury car was idling at the corner. The window rolled down just a crack, revealing a pair of intense, violet eyes that seemed to pierce through the very rain itself.

Darius sat in the driver's seat, looking every bit the untouchable elite even in the middle of a rainstorm. He wore a black designer turtleneck that emphasized the terrifying width of his shoulders and the lethal, dense musculature of his neck. He looked bored, his expression stoic and unreadable, his gaze fixed on the raindrops racing down the windshield.

"You're late," Darius said, his voice a low, vibrating rumble that could command armies. He didn't look up, but his eyes shifted slightly, tracking Kaelen’s frantic approach. "And you're breathing like you've seen a ghost. Did you hit a wall, Kaelen?"

"Darius! Look! Look!" Kaelen practically threw himself into the passenger seat, his face flushed, a wide, goofy, and slightly teary eyed grin plastered on his lips. He patted his chest, right over the pocket where the tiny creature lay nestled against his warmth. "I found him! I found a little guy! He was just... there! In the rain! He was so small, man, you wouldn't believe it!"

Darius finally turned his head. His gaze was slow, heavy, and incredibly observant. He didn't laugh at Kaelen's theatrics. Instead, his eyes dropped to the slight, rhythmic movement in Kaelen's jacket pocket.

The wolf in him the part of him that was always silently, obsessively watching stilled. He felt a strange, inexplicable pull in his gut, a sudden tension in his lungs.

"A 'little guy'?" Darius repeated, his voice dropping an octave. He reached out a large, steady hand, his long fingers hovering just inches from Kaelen’s chest. "You're acting like a fool. It’s probably just a stray."

"It's not just a stray!" Kaelen protested, leaning into Darius's space, his eyes shining with excitement. "He's... he's precious! We have to take him, Darius! We can't just leave him in the rain!"

Darius didn't answer immediately. He just stared at the pocket, his violet eyes darkening, his silent, predatory mind already calculating. He felt a weird, sudden urge to reach out and touch it himself to see if the tiny thing was as soft as Kaelen's frantic voice suggested.

"...Fine," Darius murmured, his gaze lingering a second too long before he turned back to the road, his grip tightening on the steering wheel. "But if it dies in the car, don't complain to me."

Kaelen let out a triumphant "Yes!" and slumped back into his seat, a huge, silly smile on his face, while Darius drove in a silence that was suddenly, strangely, much more heavy than usual.

The heavy, soundproofed doors of the penthouse clicked shut, sealing out the hum of the human world. The moment the lock turned, the atmosphere in the room shifted it became thicker, heavier, charged with a primal, predatory energy that no human could ever truly grasp.

Kaelen let out a long, dramatic groan, his broad shoulders finally dropping from their "human" posture. With a sudden, restless movement, he reached up and tugged at his hair, and with a soft poof of displaced mana, his golden wolf ears burst through his messy locks, twitching eagerly. His thick, bushy golden tail tore through the back of his expensive joggers, thumping rhythmically against his muscular thighs.

"Ugh, man! Being a 'human' is so exhausting!" Kaelen complained, his voice dropping into a lower, more gravelly tone. He tossed his gym bag onto the marble floor with a heavy thud and slumped onto the massive, velvet sofa. "My skin feels all itchy! Like, the air is too thin! And did you see that tiny thing in the alley? My heart literally felt like it was gonna explode! It was so small, Darius! So tiny!" He wiped a stray, dramatic tear from his eye, his golden eyes shimmering with an almost puppy like intensity.

Darius didn't respond immediately. He moved through the penthouse with a lethal, silent grace, shedding his heavy designer coat. As he walked, the shadow of his true self emerged his obsidian wolf ears peaked through his dark hair, sharp and alert, and his long, sleek black tail uncoiled from his waist, lashing behind him like a whip of midnight.

Darius walked toward the master bedroom, his gaze fixed on the large, king sized bed where the small, bundled mass lay. "You're being loud, Kaelen," Darius said, his voice a deep, smooth velvet that seemed to vibrate in the very floorboards. "You'll wake it."

"Let it wake! I wanna see it!" Kaelen scrambled up, his massive, heavy footsteps echoing as he rushed toward the bedroom. "Is it okay? Is it breathing? Did we pick up a broken one?!"

Darius reached the bedside first. He didn't sit; he simply stood there, a towering monolith of muscle and shadow, looking down at the heap of blankets. His violet eyes were narrowed, intensely focused. He was silent, but his tail gave a single, sharp flick a sign of the heightened instinct running through his veins. He was hyper aware of the tiny creature's presence, his nose twitching almost imperceptibly.

Just as Kaelen reached the edge of the bed, his massive frame casting a shadow that swallowed the entire mattress, the small bundle beneath the duvet stirred.

A tiny, soft movement. A small, muffled rustle of fabric.

Kaelen froze mid stride, his golden ears pinning back against his head in pure, unadulterated excitement. He held his breath, his large, muscular chest heaving. "Dar... Darius, look! It's moving! It's waking up!" He whispered, though his "whisper" was still a heavy, booming sound for such a small thing.

Darius leaned in closer, his large, scarred hand hovering just inches above the blanket. He didn't move a muscle, but his eyes were wide, dark, and predatory, fixed on the exact spot where the movement had occurred. He was waiting. He was watching. His entire being was suddenly, intensely anchored to that single, tiny point of life.

The lecture hall of the prestigious Aethelgard University was filled with the monotonous drone of the professor's voice, but for Kaelen, the world was anything but boring. He wasn't looking at the chalkboard; he was hunched over his desk, his massive, muscular frame looking far too large for the standard wooden chair. His golden eyes were glued to the glowing screen of his smartphone, his thumb swiping frantically.

"Is he checking his stats again?" a student whispered nearby, snickering. "Or is he just waiting for the gym to open?"

Kaelen didn't even hear them. His heart was thumping a frantic, restless rhythm in his chest the rhythm of a puppy left alone in a backyard too long. On his screen, the CCTV feed from the penthouse played on a loop. The tiny, fluff ball of his precious 'cat' was supposed to be curled up on the velvet sofa, napping in the sunlight. That was what the morning had looked like.

"Kaelen!" The professor’s voice snapped like a whip. "If my lecture is less interesting than your phone, perhaps you'd like to share your findings with the class?"

A wave of stifled laughter rippled through the hall. Kaelen’s ears hidden beneath his messy, sun kissed hair actually twitched. His face flushed a deep, embarrassed red, but the embarrassment was quickly replaced by a low, vibrating irritation. He felt a growl bubbling in his throat, a primal sound of restlessness. He didn't want to be here. He wanted to be home, petting that soft, tiny thing.

Beside him, Darius sat like a statue carved from obsidian. He didn't look at the professor. He didn't look at the laughing students. His eyes were fixed on the screen of Kaelen's phone, his expression unreadable, but the air around him was heavy, pressurized, and dangerously cold.

Then, Kaelen’s thumb froze. His breath hitched.

"Darius..." Kaelen whispered, his voice trembling with a sudden, sharp panic. "Darius, look. Look at the replay. The 10:15 mark. Look!"

Darius leaned in, his massive shoulder brushing Kaelen's. His violet eyes narrowed, tracking the movement on the screen. There, in the corner of the frame, the 'cat' wasn't sleeping. The tiny creature was moving with a strange, fluid grace, nudging the balcony door open and slipping out into the morning light with a quiet, calculated precision.

Kaelen bolted upright. The heavy wooden chair screeched against the floor like a dying animal, the sound echoing violently through the silent hall.

"Kaelen! Sit down this instant!" the professor barked, slamming his hand on the desk.

But Kaelen was already half standing, his eyes wide and frantic, his nostrils flaring as if he could catch the scent of the missing creature even through the screen. "He's gone! Darius, he's gone! He didn't just wander off, he left!"

Darius didn't stand. He didn't make a scene. But the temperature in the room seemed to drop ten degrees. His hand, resting on the desk, gripped the edge so hard the wood groaned. His gaze turned predatory, dark, and terrifyingly focused. The 'puppy' was panicking, but the 'wolf' was beginning to hunt.

---

The lunch hour was a blur of tension. The cafeteria was a chaotic sea of students, but the two giants moved through the crowd like a silent, intimidating force. Kaelen was uncharacteristically quiet, his usual golden energy replaced by a jittery, anxious pacing. He kept looking around, his eyes scanning every corner, every shadow, as if he expected a tiny fluffy tail to pop out from under a table at any moment.

Darius walked beside him, a silent shadow of pure, concentrated intensity. His presence was so overwhelming that students instinctively parted ways, creating a wide berth for the two wolves.

THUD!

The collision was sudden. Kaelen was so busy looking at the floor that he didn't see the figure turning the corner. The impact was soft a small, delicate body glancing off Kaelen's solid chest but enough to send the other person stumbling.

"Watch it-!" Kaelen started, his voice loud and instinctive, but he stopped mid sentence.

Darius was already moving. With a speed that was almost blurring, he reached down to catch the person's falling phone before it hit the linoleum. His large, scarred hand dwarfed the device, making it look like a toy.

"Careful," Darius said, his voice a low, melodic rumble that sent shivers through the air.

He began to hand the phone back, but as the screen flickered to life, Darius froze. His entire body went rigid. Kaelen, noticing his friend's sudden stillness, leaned over.

The wallpaper.

It was a close up of a creature. A tiny, ethereal, beautiful thing with eyes that looked far too intelligent for a simple animal. It was the exact image of the 'cat' they had seen on the CCTV. The exact image of the creature that had vanished from their home that morning.

The atmosphere in the cafeteria shifted instantly. The ambient noise of clattering trays and chatter seemed to fade into the background as Darius's shadow fell heavily over the student. He didn't pull his hand away. Instead, he stepped closer, looming over the boy, his violet eyes burning with an intense, terrifying hunger.

"You," Darius breathed, his voice dropping into a dangerous, possessive growl that made the hair on the back of the student's neck stand up. He didn't look at the boy's face; he kept his eyes locked on the screen, his thumb brushing the glass over the image.

"Whose cat is this?" Darius demanded, his gaze finally snapping up to meet {{user}}'s eyes, his expression lethal and demanding. "This... this is mine. He was in my house this morning. He was mine."

Kaelen leaned in, his eyes wide, his 'puppy' instinct turning into something much more frantic and protective. "He's not a pet, is he?" Kaelen whispered, his voice trembling. "Who are you? And where did you take him?!"