Regardless, there's no mistaking the owner of an appendage this wet and enthusiastic. I open one eye and…
… Yep. That's a dog.
But it's clear that I'm still half-asleep when my first thought isn'tWhose dog is that,but rather,Is Afon Satyrin secretly a dog shifter?
Alas, this is not that kind of story. I wish it was—there's something irrepressibly hot and feral about fated mates and alpha loners with mystical powers. But this dog is just a dog, not a prince in disguise.
He's a cute dog, though. Terrifying, but cute. A massive black-and-tan head looms less than an inch away from my nose. Brown eyes the size of walnuts stare into mine with the vacant, joyfulintensity of a creature who has never had a single complex thought and is deeply at peace with that fact.
It's a Rottweiler.
AhugeRottweiler.
I open the other eye.
The Rottweiler takes this as an invitation and licks a hot, wet, sticky stripe from my chin to my hairline.
"AUGH—!"
I scramble backward on the couch as far as I can go. That isn't very far because I'm already pressed against the armrest. The dog follows, tail whirring like a metronome set toallegro vivace, enormous paws the size of dinner plates planted on the edge of the cushion. Its whole back end is wiggling so hard that its front half can barely stay upright and the whole couch is rocking with it. It licks me again—my ear this time, so deep and thoroughly that I feel as though I've just lost a virginity I never even knew I possessed. My Ear Card? Is that a thing? Has my ch-ear-ry been popped?
"Oh my God!" I yelp as the tongue bath continues. I'm getting it from all angles now, drenching every inch of exposed skin. "Oh my God, oh my God, you're enormous, whatareyou?—"
"Wolf. Down."
Afon's voice booms from somewhere behind me. The dog—or is he a wolf? Color me confused—ceases at once. He immediately drops off the couch and trots over to Afon, tail still going absolutely berserk.
I press a hand to my hammering chest and try to regain my composure. "You have awolf?" I ask.
Afon shakes his head. "No, that's a dog. Hisnameis Wolf."
I pause and count to ten. That's a wise choice, because my initial instinct was to roll my eyes so hard at Afon's unsmiling snark that they'd definitely get stuck that way, just like my mom always warned me they would.
When my rage has passed, I scowl at Afon. "Where did hecome from?"
Afon doesn't answer. He strides past me and into the kitchen, Wolf trotting at his heels. He opens a cabinet, pulls out a metal bowl, and fills it with kibble from a bin under the sink.
The millisecond Afon nods, Wolf starts hoovering up the food. It's gone in the blink of an eye, and the bear-sized pup looks like he could easily go for seconds, thirds, fourths, tenths, and beyond.
"Good boy," Afon praises. He actually sounds genuinely kind for a second. Then he tosses a bone the size of my femur onto the rug in front of the hearth. Wolf goes lumbering after it happily and sets to chewing.
"Are we sure I'm not dead?" I muse out loud. "Because I feel like I might be in the afterlife."
"If you were, I wouldn't be here," Afon drawls in a deadpan monotone without looking at me. He's filling a second bowl with water now and setting it down on the floor. "This would be your punishment, not mine."
I clutch the blanket to my chest in mock offense. "Wow. Okay. So in your version of the afterlife,I'mthe torment?"
"No. In my version of the afterlife, there is silence." He straightens up, knees popping again like Rice Krispies, and leans against the kitchen counter with his arms crossed. The flannel pulls tight across his shoulders, which I notice only because I am a keen observer of textiles, and certainly not because of the handsome, bearded man in my vicinity who happens to be wearing them.
"So either we're each others' hell, or this is just how life on the mortal plane has unfolded," I summarize.
"So it would seem."
"Wolf seems to be enjoying it, though," I point out.
"He's a hard creature to disappoint."
I eye him warily. "He looks like he'd swallow me whole."
