Bentley pressed down as gently as possible on the dog's paw. The cry that he let out when the nail finally pierced through his paw pad, shook him to his core. He never showed it, but his job always mortified him.

"Go press your paw on that wall over there." Bentley gestured with his head and the light brown dog immediately obeyed. He saw Samuel take in a whiff of the air. "Another child marked..." As Azriel would say. He wasn't fond of the leader of this place at all. Always claiming to care, but never bothering to show it.

His core shook again. He hated his job, had done it more times than he should have.

Yet he still did it, because no one else would bother to do it safely. The cries of everyone he marked rang in his head. William and Bill fought not to be marked, were almost killed by Harley in the scuffle. They were promptly punished afterwards. Mostly everyone else had simply gone along with it, afraid of what would happen if they didn't. He always used his most gentle tone when speaking with them, it seemed to always do the trick.

He watched remorsefully as the dog limped away to explore his new home. There was no amount of apologizing that could make what he had just done okay. He could only hope that he was gentle enough.

Still it was a far cry from the time that he had been made to mark the puppies. Azriel came to him and told him to do that. Naturally he protested, mortified beyond all else. Looking at the puppies, he vigorously shook his head 'no', many of them had opened their eyes just a few days prior, barely above the age of three weeks. He turned away from Azriel, determined to not do this job. "Of course I wouldn't mind doing it myself...just don't expect me to be so gentle."

The words stopped him in his tracks. He looked down at the ground. They hung in the air for a few seconds, before he looked up again and made eye contact with the mongrel. Begrudgingly he agreed, crying out in his heart as each puppy let out a pained squeal.

He snapped himself back to the present and scowled at the nail, the wall and the old Bloodhound, Samuel.