Lady Grace & the War for a New World (Earth's End Book 2) Read Free Page A

him to follow with her head. She had a rabbit stashed by the oak’s trunk and grabbed it as she trotted into the forest. He could barely keep up with her. Only the howling behind him kept him going. She led him deep into the forest, to a hill he’d never seen with a small clearing in front of it.
    Flossie took him to a hole in the hillside and disappeared inside. He looked at it, not knowing if he could fit. A howl from the forest behind him had him clawing at the hole’s dirt sides. He made his way in, leaving some of his skin on the walls. Inside, Flossie fed her babies while having her own dinner. She ripped the rabbit’s guts open and devoured the contents. She made a handy job of it, also consuming one of the rabbit’s hind legs. The rest, she prodded to him with her nose.
    “Thankee, Flossie,” he said, attempting to speak the brogue of the old village.
    Jeremy’s stomach growled. He didn’t eat the rabbit for a long time. He kept thinking of parasites in raw flesh. He hadn’t eaten meat in Ellie’s world. They were too kind and nonviolent to consume flesh. Some of it had rubbed off. The real part, he hoped. What was she doing now, his beautiful wife? Crying. He could feel Ellie crying. They didn’t tell her what they were going to do to him.
    A bark of a laugh escaped him. The goldies didn’t know how to lie before he and the others had come. Having five humans in their midst had corrupted them.
    He devoured the meat and chewed the ends of the bones. He scraped the inside of the skin with his teeth, both for whatever flesh clung to it and to clean the skin for later use. Shoes?
    Finally he slept, the worst sleep of his life. He was so traumatized that his body was stiff. When shock let go of him so that he might sleep, the fleas attacked. Flossie scratched and whined as she slept, never having known a life without fleas. Jeremy scratched and hoped they didn’t carry diseases and that he’d live through the night.
     
    “Well, Flossie, we’re alive.” The sun flooded into the den’s opening. Flossie was reserved now, keeping her pups behind her. She still dropped her head when he moved. “Thankee, ma princess. Ah hope we never sleep together again.” She tilted her head when he spoke and whined.
    “Remember Sam, lass? Ah do.” Jeremy said as he dragged himself out of the opening of her den and into the day.
    “Whoa!” He found himself blinking in the sunlight, facing a snarling male dog. Around him were twenty or so of his mates. The pack leader and his lieutenants.
    The snarls were low and deep, signaling that they meant business. What would Sam have done? Jeremy thought furiously. He had about three seconds to establish dominance before they tore him apart.
    He stood to his full height. The dogs were ringed around him, with the big male closer than the rest. Jeremy didn’t make eye contact, just looked at him out of the corners of his eyes. The animal had matted hair and was covered with scars. His ears were tattered. This guy had been around.
    Jeremy took in a breath and let it out slowly and audibly. He relaxed his shoulders and settled into the earth and himself. He’d seen Sam do that working with rough horses and dogs. If they went for him, Sam knew what to do. Jeremy had seen him throw an attacking stallion on the ground with a flick of the wrist. Sam would have huge hounds groveling at his feet. All of it effortlessly and apparently without violence. But what did he do ?
    The leader looked at him, ears erect. The growl turned over in his throat. The other dogs’ eyes darted between Jeremy and the leader. They would spring if their chief did. Jeremy took another breath and stood, doing nothing. The dogs seemed to settle down, still looking at the alpha male.
    “Hey, lads. Ah got bit o’ business this morning. So whadya say, ah’ll scoot.” He aped Sam’s accent and whistled the way Sam did. The dogs looked startled. He balled up the rabbit skin and threw it as hard as he could out