Ross tried to console himself.At least they were only going to have six dogs.It could have been worse.He could havereallylost his mind and brought Fyffe along too.Then they would have ended up with nine dogs.
Sidling up to him, Chloe hooked Ross’s elbow and drew him further away from the other two, pointing hopefully to a dog.“I really love this boy here, he’s a sweetie.But he tells me he likes this girl next to him, this pup.Don’t you—”
Holding up a hand, Ross told her firmly, “I am not enabling you.You two are set on rescuing as many dogs as you can, and you’re grown adults so I can’t stop you, but I’m not adopting dogs for you.No.”
Chloe pouted like a five-year-old denied a pony.“Fine.I’ll wait until Hetta gets here.”
Those distant alarms clamoring earlier?They were back with a vengeance.“Why would Hetta come here?Wait, were you texting someone earlier?”
“Of course!”Chloe rolled her eyes, flicking her ash-grey hair casually over one shoulder.“I know you can’t talk to these guys like we can, but they’resoover being cooped up in here.They want to run with us so bad.And they’re all good, sweet dogs.How can I leave them here?”
Ross, from what he could discern, estimated twenty-something dogs in the kennel right now.There were six kennels on either side, two aisles, so twenty-four altogether, but there wasn’t a dog in every kennel.He had the paralyzing suspicion that by the end of the day, there wouldn’t be a single dog left in here.Hoping he was wrong, he asked slowly, “Who all did you text?”
“I used the group chat,” Chloe answered with a brilliant smile.
“So, in other words….all the dogs.”
She didn’t seem to find a problem.Shrugging in agreement, she went to the next kennel while making cooing noises.
Ross looked around at all the dogs who were happy to meet the werewolves, and kicked himself for not thinking ahead.It wasn’t that he disliked dogs.Rather the opposite.But getting twenty-something dogs all at once was a bit much, right?Right?Limits needed to be imposed somewhere.
And he had a feeling this wasnotwhat Glenn had had in mind.
Ross hesitated, thinking of time schedules and such.Glenn would surely be asleep by now.He normally went to sleep around dawn.Sometimes he stayed up later, though.Ross mentally crossed his fingers that this was one of those times and made the decision.Hoping a higher power might be able to get through where he could not, Ross called up his boss.
Glenn answered on the second ring, his baritone sounding sexy and a little rough.“Hello?Ross?”
Ross kicked himself.Glenn had obviously been asleep.“Glenn.Sorry to wake you.I might have miscalculated.”
Only slightly worried, Glenn inquired, “How badly and what’s going on?”
“On the scale of one to ten, maybe a three?We’re out here looking for a good church grim candidate.They’ve got two senior dogs here, which means we’ll achieve our objective just fine.The problem is that I took Chloe and Dunham with me in order to vet the dog and, well….”
“Now they want all the dogs?”Glenn didn’t even sound surprised.
Ross pulled the phone away from his ear to glare at it.Replacing it against his ear, he growled, “If you knew they would do something like this, you could have warned me.”
“They’ve not done something like this in thirty years or more.We ended up with a pack of ten last time.Ha!It was funny, actually, seeing them all in wolf form running and frolicking with their dogs.I used to stand at the window and just watch.But you’re at one of those rescues, right?So they only have a few dogs to get.”
“We’re at the pound, and I estimate there’s twenty or so to adopt,” Ross corrected dryly.
There was an audible hiccup.
“You see the problem now?”
“Shit.Who all knows about this?”
“All the werewolves.Chloe texted them before I realized what she was doing.”
Glenn sighed, long and loud.
Ross couldn’t help but add, “In my defense, you didn’t warn me.”
“In my defense, I forgot they do this from time to time.It has been thirty years and I’ve slept since then.But twenty dogs won’t be so bad, right?”
“Who are you trying to convince—me or you?”
“Me, mostly.Is there no reasoning with them?”
