Chapter Text
I.
Unlike his other strays, Will found this one in the middle of the day. He was simply driving home following one of his sessions, or rather, conversations with Dr. Lecter, and when he aimed to turn into his driveway, he found his path blocked by a strange, large, dark brown-haired dog. It sat upright quite calmly in the middle of his driveway, its ears perked and eyes seeming to follow his car. Will pulled the car forward to park along his lawn on the road and turned off the vehicle. He slowly opened the door and got out, trying to not frighten the dog. But it was still sitting calmly, its head turned towards him, and eyes definitely following him.
As Will neared the canine, it stood up suddenly and started walking towards Will. He froze. Never had a stray approached him like this before. Normally, coming within a few feet of a dog took some time and (usually) some meat. But not this dog. This was no ordinary dog.
It strode purposefully towards Will, never hesitating with constant eye contact. Looking into the dark eyes, Will was struck with the notion that this dog is not afraid. Once close enough for Will to reach out his hand and stroke the dog’s head, it stopped and looked at Will. Apparently Will was deemed to need further inspection and the dog started sniffing him. Will lowered his hand to allow the dog to scent him, but before he moved an inch, the dog raised its hackles and growled a low, dark, and extremely menacing (if not promising) snarl. He slowly pulled his hand back, and was still. After a moment, the dog calmed and went back to smelling Will.
Confused and a bit dazed, Will did not know what to make of such a dog. How was he supposed to keep a dog that he had no idea how to interact with, besides the wordless instructions given to him? Could he even keep it? Would it behave with the other dogs? Will was not too worried on this last point. This dog had the height of a Great Dane, with the bulk of a Rottweiler-a very formidable dog that anything would be mistaken to cross. As long as none of his dogs tried to attack it, they should be fine.
A low sound brought Will out of his thoughts, and he saw the dog a few steps ahead of him, waiting impatiently. Impatiently? Am I now empathizing with canines as well as murderers now? Nevertheless, Will took the direction and followed the dog towards his house.
-
As it turned out, the rest of Will’s family of strays got along perfectly fine with the new addition. When the new dog had led Will into his house, the rest of the pack had not been troubled in the slightest that a strange dog just walked into their house. Based on their body language, Will could tell that there was a new alpha of the pack; Winston had been replaced and by Winston’s lack of injuries, it had seemed like a peaceful transfer of power.
All was going well with the new addition, whom Will had named “Cer” as a shortened version of “Cerberus” after the Ancient Greek’s own hound of the Underworld. It had seemed fitting as Cer demanded attention and power and with his dark coat and deep eyes he did not reflect a power from above. Life at home remained rather uncomplicated for Will, if his near-constant nightmares and loss of time were seen as normal. Cer fit into his life seamlessly, just as the other strays had when Will had adopted them.
But as all good things do, these peaceful times came to a rather abrupt end.