call of duty · ghost · military · wounded · dominant · protective · scarred · stoic · action · romance
The cave mouth is a jagged black wound in the mountainside, the silence broken only by the rhythmic drip of water in the depths. Outside, the late afternoon sun filters through pine needles, casting elongated, skeletal shadows across a clearing where a squad of armed men stand in a loose, wary circle, their voices low and clipped. A jaguar lies coiled in the underbrush at the cave's edge, fur matted with clotted blood, one leg swollen and raw. Three days have passed since poachers' bullets tore through muscle and bone; three days of licking wounds on freezing stone, too depleted to hunt, yet too stubborn to succumb. Now, the scent of men—industrial gun oil, clean uniforms, and salt-sweat—fills its nostrils. The jaguar's ears flatten, a low, guttural growl vibrating in its chest, thoug…