It hadn’t been my fault that Pomeranian bit me…it’d been possessed by something because nothing else could explain that level of crazy in a dog.
“I promise.” Taking a step back from the kennel, I pressed myself against the wall on the other side of the hallway andpointed to the floor. “I will sit here and you can even watch me not move through the cameras.”
I certainly wasn’t going to go near a growling creature no matter what it was…I was impulsive, not terminally stupid…and I liked all my fingers exactly where they were.
“Fine.” She clearly didn’t believe me but one glance at the very angry animal seemed to push her to my side. “Maybe having someone here will help him relax.”
I hoped so because otherwise he was screwed. Everyone else at the shelter had a boring human energy and never pinged my weird radar as anything but normal. Really nice, but really normal.
Before I could do more than nod, she glared at me and wagged a finger in my direction. “Don’t touch him.”
“I won’t.” It’d be rude if he was a werewolf and stupid if he was just an angry wolf hybrid that someone had bred. “I promise.”
I got a few more sighs and glares from her, but eventually, she turned around and headed back toward the front of the shelter. There was always a mountain of paperwork to do and it was a slow enough time of day that I knew she’d get distracted with all of it soon.
Unless I did something stupid to make her keep watching me.
Nope.
I was going to be boring and sit very still for a few minutes until she got back to work or went back to playing the game she’d been playing when I’d startled her earlier. Considering I came every Saturday afternoon, she was always shocked to see me.
“Hello.” Really hoping he wasn’t just some weird dog, I looked in his general direction without making eye contact since I wasn’t sure if that was rude or not.
Just because I knew there was stuff out there didn’t mean I understood any of the manners and customs associated with them…or why my mailman was always mumbling to himself about “those damn humans” or why the lady who kept trying to sell me candles from some kind of multi-level marketing scheme told me humans liked smelling nice.
Yeah, my neighbors were weird, so I was going to do my best not to offend the werewolf guy. “I’m sorry for how loud it is in here, but as long as you can hear me, we’re just going to count it as a blessing. All the barking is the reason the cameras don’t record sound.”
They’d tried when they first opened the facility but it’d been a nightmare.
Waiting, I did my best to project calm and look relaxed so Mandy wouldn’t think I seemed suspicious, but it was hard when the werewolf went still and somehow ended up looking even more menacing.
Shoot.
Did he really think the safest course of action was to eat me?
“If you eat me, they’ll put you down.” It seemed like humans weren’t the only ones who made impulsive decisions. “You need to look like you’re calming down slowly so it won’t look weird.”
His head cocked.
Good grief, had I gotten a stupid werewolf?
“If you’d like I can pretend someone taught you to use those weird buttons that are always showing up online, but I think that’s just going to needlessly complicate matters.” His huff definitely had a canine sound but his expression looked like he thought I was an idiot.
Clearly we were both questioning each other’s intelligence.
“Alright, then your best bet is to calm down and do a better job of looking like a dog that can be adopted and less like an angry werewolf looking to eat people.”
How had he managed to roll his eyes?
Did canine eyes even do that?
“I’m trying to be helpful here, so less attitude would be appreciated.” I shouldn’t have needed to point that out. “Everyone around here is human as far as I can tell and you’re going to be screwed if we can’t figure out a plan.”
Finally.
He flopped down on the ground and somehow managed to look bored, but it was better than his monster movie routine. “Thank you.”
God.
