Page 115 of Scent to the Feral Cowboys

"What is it?" I whispered, my voice sounding strange in the vast silence of the night. "What's out there?"

His ears twitched at my voice, but he didn't relax his vigilant posture. His hackles remained raised, body coiled with tension as he guarded against whatever lurked beyond my sight. The realization sank in slowly, cutting through my relief—he wasn't the source of the threatening sounds. He was responding to them, just as I had. Whatever had made that strange whistling chirp was still out there.

My momentary relief evaporated. I pushed myself up onto my knees, wincing as fresh pain shot through my body. The boots felt soaked inside, and my back ached fiercely. A suddengust sent cold air kissing the back of my thighs. I reached back, realizing I’d torn Cooper’s sweatpants. Holes, right below both ass cheeks.

“Can you take me back?” I asked the dog, as if he could speak English.

To my surprise, his head whipped up, both ears falling a fraction, then raising again.

He pushed into my body, as if saying, ‘yes’.

I pushed fingers into the fur of his neck, finding a thick leather collar. Taking hold of it, I let the animal guide me back down the driveway. I was relieved to have the dog’s protection, but retracing the path of my failed escape flooded my system with overwhelming defeat. What had I expected to happen? I was a city-bred ballerina. I wasn’t Rambo. There was no running away on my own, here in the middle of nowhere. I’d have to come up with a better plan.

"Okay," I murmured, as much to myself as to the dog. "Okay. You’ll find another way."

The admission of defeat tasted bitter on my tongue. Stubbornness prodded me to turn back around and try again, but the night suddenly seemed filled with unseen threats. Even the gorgeous stars above felt cold and distant instead of breathtaking. I tightened my grip on the dog’s collar, as if it could save me from more than just the terrors of the darkness.

Behind us, that strange whistling chirp sounded once more, farther away now but no less unsettling. The dog’s growling response rumbled against my hand as the hackles on his back rose. I found myself slowing, but the dog didn’t match my pace. Instead, he moved a little faster, urging me onward.

"I'm going, I'm going," I muttered, trying not to lose myself to new panic.

A hundred yards to the front door.

God, I’d barely made it past the property line.

What a fucking useless dancing doll I was…

Tears pricked my eyes.

I wasn’t good for anything anymore.

Broken.

Kicked out of Imperial.

No family I could turn to.

Pathetic, and jobless again.

I can’t even control what happens to me.

I can’t even runaway properly.

A massive shape materialized from around the road bend ahead, freezing me mid-step. The dog beside me kept moving, but this time I held my ground, refusing to budge. My heart launched into my throat as the enormous shadow cut through the night, closing the distance. I realized now that the dog’s shape in the darkness had been nothing compared to this new one. The new threat’s outline blurred with the darkness. For one paralyzing second, I was certain the chirping, snarling predator had somehow circled around, cutting off our retreat to the house.

But the dog leading me relaxed, his hair lowering and gait slowing to a stop. As the shadowy creature closed the distance, the dog’s tail wagged once, then twice. A casual greeting to the approaching behemoth. Finally, the moon and stars revealed another dog, this one nearly twice the first one’s size. A mountain of fur and muscle.

"Jesus Christ," I whispered, instinctively stepping back.

The animal’s shoulder reached my hip, his massive head level with my ribcage.

For a heartbeat, I wondered if I’d left the frying pan for the fire, but the new dog just moved to my other side, gave me a brief sniff, and started loping forward. The dog whose collar I still gripped, followed suit.

After an eternity of laborious, limping steps, the ranch house came into view around a final curve. We were still a good two hundred feet from the front door, but almost there.

Back to my cage.

Movement erupted from different parts of the ranch, five figures bursting towards me in a chaotic rush. One launched off the front porch. Two scrambled out from the driver’s seats of different trucks. One was heading back from the stables. And the last was moving away from the construction site. Even from this distance, despite the dimness, I could make out their hurried movements, and their obvious agitation. They'd seen me. They were coming for me.