Jadyn had never been one to judge based on gossip and rumors. She liked to make her own judgment of people no matter what she heard about them. Over the years, she had heard quite a lot about the infamous Dog King. None of them were good.
But her distrust and dislike of the Dogs had nothing to do with the rumors. They had more to do with the encounters she had with some of the members. She didn’t want to overgeneralize, but they didn’t exactly help prove they were any better than what was spoken of them. She was sure there were good people here. Not everyone was bad. There were women and children. Families. To say they were all scoundrels was unfair and narrow-minded. She prided herself in being better than that. So, aside from the ones she had clashed with, she disregarded everybody else. If she saw them out on the streets and they were just minding their own business, then she would simply mind her own and continue on her way. She didn’t confront or interfere unless there was a justifiable reason to.
As far as she could currently tell with their leader, Jadyn couldn’t say that she hated the man. But she couldn’t say she liked him either. She definitely didn’t trust him, but she had already made that point clear to him. Some people would say she had a permanent stick up her ass; others could say she was unnecessarily stubborn – but she was willing to play the part of the uptight bitch if that was what it’d take to protect her people. Her job wasn’t to be liked.
Unfortunately, intimidation was both a gift and a curse. It’d earned her respect, but it’d effectively killed her eligibility. Women with authority weren’t appealing to most men. She personally didn’t mind it, but it did bring in a lot of jokes on her nonexistent love life.
It happened to be one of Gray’s favorite jokes. One she sadly couldn’t rebuke.
“It’s Jadyn,” she corrected as she fell into steps beside him. She honestly wasn’t a fan of a first name basis between them, but she couldn’t exactly have him call her anything else. “You can save the darlings and sweethearts for somebody else.” She needed to be cordial, yet retain control of respect. Something that wasn’t easy to come by in her field. Maintaining the smile on her face, Jadyn decided it might be better to skip any small talk and get straight to the point. No need to prolong the conversation. She was certain he’d be better off without it despite what he’d said. But she needed to do something else first.
Tucking a few blonde locks of hair behind her ear, her gaze darted over to meet his as she said, “I want to personally thank you again for saving Gray and taking him into your shelter. No matter whether you actually need my gratitude or why you did it, he’s only alive now because you were there, so thank you.”