Hushed Willows What I would do to take away this fear of being loved

The thunder of Kavos' paws on the earth drew soft whimpers from her lips, but she quieted her tongue when he came to stand over her. There was something instinctual about that action and she let her body slump to the side, exposing her pale cream chest and belly sidelong to him. To any onlooker, Prialux was the picture of a perfect subordinate, a wolf who gave up dominance to any other canid. She would grow to be uncomfortable in any role of authority, and would accept her place beneath others, at least to a point.

And yet.

When Kavos reached out a paw to prod her, instead of understanding what he wanted, Prialux showed the first of her traits to come: feisty. She was not a pushover. She twisted, striking for his aloft paw with a half-playful and half-serious nip, a cheeky defiance overcoming her young self. The rustle of her body on the floor didn't register. Her ears had already adjusted to sound, and the deafening loudness of the world was quickly fading into the background as her instinct to establish a hierarchy pushed to the forefront. Her quick yet clumsy strike was bound to miss, but would convey things she was not yet able to consciously comprehend about her unwillingness to be further dominated. Yet her tail slapped the floor coyly, an invitation to play and test their limits.

Kavos had succeeded in stopping her cries, though, with the distraction of his dominance. She was no longer so focused on the world around her and its sounds. That would come again, later, but not now.