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Salem Hark

Salem Hark is a quiet soul, scarred by a tragic past and learning to be happy again.

History

Salem was orphaned at a young age, left to fend for himself until his grandmother could take him in. She belonged to a tight-knit pack, the very same that Salem's father had fled after falling in love with Salem's gypsy mother. The pack was hesitant to welcome the offspring of a "traitor" into their family, but luckily Salem's grandmother was persuasive enough to convince her alpha to accept him.

The alpha had a daughter, Absinthe, that quickly took a liking to young Salem. The collie boy tried to stay as out of the way as possible, devoting himself to serving his grandmother and his alpha in order to prove himself a helpful member of the pack. But the little wolf girl followed him everywhere, fighting for Salem's affection until he finally gave in.

Salem and Absinthe courted until the collie boy turned two. Absinthe obsessed over plans for mateship, many children, and taking over her father's pack once he passed. She pressed Salem, trying to get him to commit to her when they had only begun to experience adulthood. The collie boy had had enough, and he broke it off with Absinthe. She did not take this lightly, and fled into the forest, not to be seen again for months.

Salem's grandmother passed shortly after Absinthe's disappearance. With no one to defend him, the pack began to turn on Salem, questioning his character and making life very difficult for him. He quickly sunk to the level of Omega, left to wither away to nothing while the rest of the pack thrived with their backs turned to him.

About nine months after Absinthe ran away, she returned in the middle of the night with a non-luperci named Hunter that she claimed to love. Hunter truly loved Absinthe, and he desperately wanted to become luperci after being told by her that the virus would make him immortal, enabling them to be together forever. She said they needed the blood of a luperci born with the virus - Salem's blood - to turn Hunter, and they would need to keep him for a very long time in order to ensure that the virus took hold. In truth, Absinthe planned to force Salem to be hers.

The pair kidnapped Salem and took him to a shed miles from the pack's territory, where Absinthe chained him up like a feral pet. Hunter was quickly turned with Salem's blood, and every night Absinthe would drug Hunter so he would sleep while she snuck off to be with Salem. As the collie grew angrier with Absinthe, the she-wolf's actions became less sane. She used him, disciplining him with violence when he refused to cooperate. Every morning after their little rendezvous, Hunter would bring Salem scraps of breakfast, amazed at the wounds that continued to show up on his body. Absinthe claimed that Salem continuously tried to rape her when she only wanted to talk and keep him company, and she would have to fight him off. Salem never argued, scared into silence by Absinthe's secret threats.

Hunter began piecing things together when Absinthe became sloppy as a result of her increasing depression - no matter what she did, Salem would not love her. After pretending to retire to bed early one night, Hunter followed Absinthe and discovered what she had been doing to Salem. He barged in and fought Absinthe off, killing her with her own knife, and then set Salem free. Without hesitation, the collie boy fled to Nova Scotia.

Salem made many friends during his time as a loner, but after falling in love with a member of the CdM pack, he joined their ranks to be with his 'Silver Prince.' Eventually, they left to enjoy quiet lives as travelers.

Personality

Salem is a very stoic canine. He often keeps to himself and avoids social interactions, as the scars on his body mirror the scars on his spirit. He will be polite enough to attempt conversation if approached, but he never seeks it out. He has become increasingly more serious as he ages, and he finds what most would consider lighthearted behavior to be a foolish waste of time. Thus, it takes a lot of effort to woo this man - playful teasing and flirting is lost on him.

As a result of his past, Salem has a very difficult time trusting anyone. He can easily become suspicious and pessimistic, and if he decides he doesn't like someone it takes a great deal of effort to change his mind. He is a strong man, able to bear large amounts of pain both physical and emotional. But he is not stupid - he'll avoid pain if he can.

Often, Salem has nightmares of his past and sees Absinthe's face in inanimate objects. He swears he can feel the scar of her name burn on the back of his leg when he thinks of her, and he is very self-conscious of the mark. He does not like to be touched, and will more than likely react harshly if touched. He is a broken soul, but not at all incapable of repair.

Relationships

Family

• Parents — Unknown, raised by grandmother
• Siblings — Unknown

Friends

Acquaintances

Enemies

Appearance

Salem is a very handsome border collie mix, his fur pattern unique from the typical black and white dog. The majority of his body is milk-white, while his ebony patches decorate his body like splatters of paint, coating his back and biceps, the right side of his face, and his left ear. Black spots dot his snout and forehead and adorn random places on his body, like near his collar bone and elbows. His eyes are heterochromatic, the right being a striking, icy blue while the left is a warm, cinnamon brown.

In optime form, Salem's white hair lies in a neat do atop his head, kept fairly short and pushed out of his eyes. He stands a strapping seven feet tall, his build muscular and streamlined but softened around the edges with messy tufts of his border collie fur. He wears nothing but a scrap of cloth tied around his right thigh and the bulky leather collar he escaped from Absinthe's shack with, and his body bears reminders of Absinthe's abuse in the form of thick and jagged scars. The most prominent of his wounds is the one on his left bicep, where a knife was driven deep. As a result of this injury, Salem often fights with pain and stiffness that resurfaces after hard work or stress. A less prominent but equally painful injury can be found on the back of his right thigh, where Absinthe carved her name with her knife. While it does not ache like his arm, he swears he can feel it burn when he is reminded of the crazy she-wolf. He is ashamed of it, and thus keeps the scrap of cloth tied around it at all times.

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