Page 21 of Sheltering Instinct

“Different slaughterhouses,” Reaper said, “so a variety of smells and tastes. Non-human.”

“What’s your theory on why they didn’t let them get that blood bite in?” Noah asked.

Reaper scratched the side of his face. “I’ve given that some thought. Here’s what I came up with—the team sources their dogs out of Europe, right?”

“Usually, a good thing,” Goose said. “Cleaner bloodlines.”

“But they get the pups as soon as they’ve weaned,” Reaper said.

“Their dogs don’t do basic training in a Schutzhund program in Europe?” Noah asked. “They bring them back as puppies? Why? Are they trying to save money?”

Noah’s dog, Hairyman, wandered over to sniff Levi, and Levi leaned to the side, giving Hairyman room to crawl under the table and curl up with Max. “Conroy said their training methods begin at the beginning.”

“I see,” Noah said.

“Do you?” Reaper asked. “Because I don’t think that group could have left us anymore in the dark.” He made air quotes again. “‘Our training methods are proprietary.’ It was their drumbeat answer to all my questions.” Reaper edged down in his seat until his head rested on the back of the chair. “So my theory: Beast Mode buys these dogs as weaned pups. They take them before they’ve had their basic training and before they’ve gone through their adolescence. The price is a fraction of a Schutzhund-trained K9. It’s a high gamble, potentially high reward scenario. I think they purposefully don’t let their dogs taste blood, or they could lose the money they invested in that dog.”

“So Casper,” Halo swiveled toward Levi, “I would have laid wages you would’ve picked him, mate. On video, he’s an amazing athlete.”

“Beast Mode was playing games,” Levi laced his fingers, pressing his thumbs together as he rested his elbows on the chair arms. “Before Casper came in for our inspection, they ran him ten miles.”

Noah let out a low whistle.

“Levi put on the bite suit,” Goose said, “and Casper nearly ripped his arm out of the socket. It took both Conroy and Pete and a shock device to get Casper to release.”

“That level of prey drive?” Halo asked. “That dog’s not safe. I’d imagine after seeing that, you all didn’t trust the training.”

“It was all smoke and mirrors,” Levi said.

“So where do we go from here?” Goose asked.

Levi grinned. “How about Namibia?”

Hailey looked up from her computer.

“That’s about a sixteen-hour flight.” Reaper pulled his brows together. “Seems far for a joy ride,”

“What’s in Namibia?” Hailey asked.

Levi pulled out his phone and scrolled through his video files. “I have a buddy, Enrico. We went through K9 training at the same time. Former SEAL dog handler. He was a lot like Reaper, just a natural feel for how to get a dog to know the job and have fun doing it.”

Reaper caught Levi’s gaze.

“Hey, man, I’m not trying to butter you up. I’m just trying to make a fair comparison for folks, so you all know Enrico is the opposite of Conroy and Pete.” Levi handed his phone to Reaper with a video queued up.

“No flattery taken,” Reaper chuckled, accepting the phone and tapping play. “You like his training methods? He produces well-trained dogs?”

“When you were in the SEALs, Reaper, you told me you had a dedicated K9 for your team. But you probably knew some teams, like mine, that picked a dog from the kennel to meet the mission’s needs.”

“Pros and cons to that scenario,” Reaper said, his gaze fixed on the video. He replayed it in slow motion.

“Enrico was in a similar situation to mine. I’m good at what I do when I’m handling a dog, the tactical side of the equation. But I’m not a trainer. Where Enrico, on the other hand, is a natural. When he returned the loaner pooch tothe kennel, the K9 had always vastly improved its skillsets.” Levi flicked a finger through the air for emphasis. “Two things happened. On the good to interesting end, handlers, me included, tried to figure out which dogs Enrico had just worked so they could choose that one for their next assignment. And—”

“The kennel started steering all the problem dogs Enrico’s way.” Reaper handed the phone to Goose. “What’s that dog's name?”

“That’s Mojo. He’s Enrico’s pride and joy.” Levi nodded at the phone. “And you're right. They gave him the troublemakers. Don’t get me wrong, Enrico loved the challenge. But it’s not great to be out running and gunning with a questionable fur-force when lives are on the line.” He watched Goose’s face as he tapped pause and zoomed in on some aspect of the video. “I remember one time that the risk put Enrico’s team in danger. When he went back, he chewed everyone a new hole. It was a sight to behold. But he was right to do it.”

“Why’s he in Namibia?” Goose asked, passing the video to Noah.

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