---Daniel's POV---

Flicking to a different page, I let my fingers brush over the letters, resting under a particular sentence as my right hand jotted it down.

Soft music was circling through the kitchen, breaking the otherwise silent room. Behind me, I knew Colton was in the process of making breakfast and Bruce would be following him eagerly for any morsel thrown his way.

Fidgeting with the pen in my hands, I made a sound of gratitude when Colton placed a cup of tea within reach. Well out of the way of my notes to avoid accidentally spilling the liquid over my hard work.

"How's the studying coming along?" He murmured, pressing a kiss against my temple that drew me out of the book of dog training with a flush.

After we were certain that nobody was going to come after me anymore, the question arose of what I wanted to do with my future.

With my natural ease to work with dogs and win their trust, it made sense to try and become a professional dog trainer.

But in order to earn the certificate, I needed to do an exam as well as train dogs for a certain amount of time.

I had been amazed and filled with gratitude when Colton had offered an easy solution to that problem.

After all, I had already been helping Jackson train his dogs. Helping dogs that had been abandoned at the police station as well.

Jackson had even agreed to write down the hours I had already helped him with, allowing myself to have a head start with the certificate process.

"It's...going." I replied lamely, not really finding the words to describe my thought process at the moment. I wanted to learn more, do better but was also slightly fearful if I could actually learn all this.

Because what if I somehow triggered the dogs I was supposed to train by having a seizure? Dogs that weren't used to epilepsy might have an unexpected reaction.

I knew not all dogs would have an adverse reaction but some might become aggressive out of fear. Because I had done some research to make sure this could work.

And all the research pointed out that the most common untrained responses to epilepsy from dogs was either fear, or aggression.

On the other hand, some untrained dogs could in fact alert to a seizure coming ahead of time. And while I definitely wasn't qualified to train seizure alert dogs, it could certainly save some dogs lives.

Earlier yesterday, Colton had made an interesting suggestion. To offer my experience to the local dog pound and help train the dogs there.

After all, the dogs that got exercised and properly trained, would have a higher chance at adoption than those that were high strung on energy, bouncing off the walls and barking their heads off.

"I'm just worried about my...you know." I stated with a motion to my head. Colton nodded, taking a seat beside me as I continued, "I don't want to doom a dog just because they reacted badly to my seizures."

He smiled with understanding, brushing my hair out of my face. The gesture made me feel all fuzzy and warm as he spoke. "Relax Daniel. You'll have Bruce there to alert you to any oncoming seizure, don't you?"

I blinked, realizing I had completely forgotten about Bruce. He could indeed alert me to seizures happening ahead of time, allowing me to cut the training short and safely secure the dog.

"Plus, your medication staves off the worst of the fits." Colton pointed out, a nudge against my thigh making me look at Bruce before gently scratching over his snout.

Honestly, I felt a bit dumb for overthinking it this much. For not properly seeing the entire picture and instead worrying about an insignificant detail.

"It's not insignificant." Colton shook his head when I spoke my mind. "You're properly analyzing what could go wrong and are taking steps to avoid it. You're being extremely thoughtful of what may or may not happen, Daniel."

Colton smiled, pressing a kiss against my forehead as he cupped my face in his hands. "Besides, you'll never be truly alone. Even at the dog pound, there are workers there who'll be able to help if needed."

I smiled, reassured that even if something went wrong, I wasn't alone. It was something I still needed to get used to, after years of living on the streets. Years of sleeping with one eye open, always being aware of my surroundings.

On the streets, I had no-one besides Bruce to watch my back. While he did his best, I also wasn't oblivious back then.

Anyone with a gun could've taken Bruce away, permanently. I would've been left utterly hopeless and defenseless.

Now, I had people there, waiting and willing to help me. People who didn't look down at me as if I was the worst vermin they've ever encountered in their lives.

"Any specifics you wanted to teach dogs?" Colton murmured curiously, eyes flitting over my notes while I shook my head.

"Not in particular. I want to work with dogs that have been abandoned. Deemed untrustworthy and are basically waiting to be put down." My hand instantly found Bruce's head, fingers gently scratching through his fur.

Colton looked down as I continued, "I want to repay the favor. Bruce saved me. Countless of times. All he ever wanted, was love and affection."

Swallowing and turning to Colton with determination, I took in a breath. "I want to be able to save dogs that society has deemed unworthy. Untrainable. A danger to others. To show people that adopting a shelter dog doesn't mean you're bringing trouble into your home."

My eyes flitted down to the files given to me by Jackson. Files on the dogs in the pound, who were at risk of being put down.

Just by reading these simple files, I could already see that most could be saved. A Huskey/Greyhound mix that got surrendered after it killed the family's pet rabbits when they were left alone with them.

The Pitbull who was deemed overtly aggressive while in fact, the dog had been abused in the past and was more fearful than aggressive.

Several shepherd species that were bought with the expectation that they were easy to handle, surrendered because the owner didn't want to put time and effort into their training.

I puffed out a breath of frustration, shaking my head at the irresponsibility of these people. Why buy a high maintenance dog if you were a couch potato? Why would anyone let a dog alone with prey animals, especially a dog bred for hunting?

Worse was the idea, no, the fact, that after abandoning their pets to the shelter, I already knew what these people would do.

They'd go to the nearest breeder, registered or not, and get a new, cute puppy. Something that is easily entertained, easy to hold and keep indoors.

And once that puppy grew too big, lost some of it's cuteness and had been taught bad habits without any rules or boundaries to live by... it too would be dumped.

It made me sick to the core that people who had proven themselves to be completely unfit to keep animals, could just buy them on a daily basis. With little to no effort.

Not even punished by law, unless you could prove clear abuse.

"Some people shouldn't get pets. Or kids for that matter." I murmured under my breath, but Colton heard me.

Placing breakfast beside my paperwork, his hands found my shoulders before turning me towards him. A soft, understanding smile on his lips while I struggled to look at him.

After everything that happened and the creeping fear of what could happen in the future, I had done one of those Autosomal DNA tests, to try and see if I could track down my biological family.

In the past, I couldn't even afford these tests, wouldn't have considered the thought. Now with Colton's support, we had done several tests.

Most of them were simply to try and exclude any genetic illnesses.

And the results had shown several hits. Confirmations in form of siblings.

It was a hard pill to swallow, especially after reaching out trying to contact my birth family. The response I got was in the form of an official Cease and desist letter.

Which gave me all the answers I needed. It wasn't that my parents were unable to care for me, that they didn't have the money to provide for me.

They simply didn't have the desire to have a disabled child connected to their name. A few days after the notice, all of the corresponding hits had disappeared from the ancestry website.

A very clear sign, besides the official letter, telling me I was unwanted.

They had their perfect little family of a wife, husband and three daughters. They made it clear that I was not, and would never be a part of that.

But, feeling Colton pull me into his chest, silently murmuring a warning to Bruce to leave the pancakes alone, I realized it didn't matter.

I didn't need to have contact with my biological family. They meant nothing.

Not when I already had everything I wanted, everything I needed right here.

And Colton seemed to know exactly how to make my heart melt, peppering kisses all over my face until I giggled, flushing and weakly pushing him away.

"I'm so fucking proud of you." Colton breathed heatedly, making me flush even worse before I cleared my throat.

"You've said that before." I muttered, leaning into his hold before he slowly released me while I cleared the table so we could eat.

Colton snorted, placing utensils down before shaking his head. "And I'll say it every single day. You deserve to be appreciated, to get all the support and love that you need, and then some."

I produced an unintelligible sound, drizzling honey on my pancake before cutting it to bits. Hoping to distract myself from this wonderful man, who sent me a cheeky wink when I looked up.

He chuckled as I looked back down at my food, refusing to look up until my entire plate was clean.

"Don't worry about your studies too much. As for the other... they don't deserve any minute of your time, sweetheart."

He pressed a kiss on my forehead, making me actually feel my jaws heat up before I grumbled. Colton snickered, ruffling his fingers through my hair before whistling at Bruce.

"Let's go play some ball in the yard before I get kicked out of the house, huh bud?" Colton grinned, grabbing one of Bruce's favorite toys before scurrying out of the room as I groaned and rubbed over my face, hoping to calm down a bit.

That man, I swear...