Wounded (Dogs of War MC Book One) Read Free

entertainment, you’ll be free soon.”
     

Sidney had had a rough night. Sleep had eluded her as she lie awake thinking about the vile humans who had used the wolf as entertainment. She wondered how many dogs they’d had to put into the ring with him to injure him so badly. How many dogs had died because they wanted to watch two animals tear each other apart? So that they could bet on the lives of noble creatures who were just doing their best to obey, even if it cost them their lives. She had tossed and turned, furious with being the same species as the filth that would do something so low to another living creature. In Sidney’s mind all living things were brothers and sisters but she just wished some of them weren’t such jackasses. Some humans, some monkeys, some dolphins… jackasses. It seemed like the smarter a species got the more likelihood you had of producing a douchebag.
    The wolf had slept peacefully on her kitchen floor, or so she guessed, she hadn’t heard anything out of him overnight. She’d left him unmuzzled but had locked the kitchen door in a last bid effort to restrain herself from her own stupidity. When she had taken him out that morning, with a pitiful leash made out of two belts, he’d seemed fine. He had trotted as best he could with his bandaged leg and sore ribs, and went back into the house without incident. Hopefully he hadn’t destroyed the house while she’d been at work, she felt herself getting jittery as she approached her door. She’d given him all the food she could scrounge up for breakfast but he hadn’t had anything since and her arms were full of the raw meat she’d bought for his dinner.
    Cracking the door open slightly she peeked inside. Everything looked ok, the kitchen cabinets hadn’t been ripped off the hinges, no signs of a mad wolf demolishing everything in sight… but also no sight of a wolf at all. She gasped and hurried in, realizing she had left the door to the rest of the house unlocked and her bedroom window was open. Throwing all of her purchases on the counter she made a mad dash towards her bedroom only to come up short when she found the wolf sitting beside the couch looking for all the world like she’d just caught him being naughty.
    “What are you doing in here? How in the hell did you open the kitchen door? With your mouth?” scooting closer to him she held out her hand, palm down, she meant no threat at all to this big boy. He nuzzled her hand and wagged his tail looking like nothing more than an overgrown dog. Sitting down on the couch she ran a hand up his neck, moving hair around so she could see his wounds. Amazingly they were healing much more rapidly than was expected or normal. She started to comment on it when she noticed the clumps of hair and dirt on her beige couch. So that’s why he looked guilty. She grinned at him and his tongue lolled out of his mouth, she couldn’t begrudge a sick creature any comfort they could find, even if it meant spending a couple of hours vacuuming and disinfecting the couch.
    “If you’re going to be lounging around on my furniture, you big boy, are going to have to have a bath.” His tail thumped enthusiastically in agreement, or at least that was her interpretation. “Let’s have dinner first and then we’ll give you a good scrub,” and without further prodding he was off to the kitchen. She stared after him amazed. What person would take the time to socialize an animal so thoroughly that it knew the word dinner meant food and felt guilty about sitting on a sofa and then throw it into a ring to fight for its life? Shaking her head she followed him into the kitchen.
    After watching him gobble up a five pound hamburger, cooked just this side of raw, she told him to get in the tub and he hoped in without complaint. Sidney just marveled at him as she worked the Dawn dish detergent into his fur.  “If you’re going to stay I’m going to have to call you something other than ‘Boy’ or