Page 5 of Sheltering Instinct

“Her passing has been a terrible ache in Abraham. He isn’t interested in loving anybody other than his wife. Not in this lifetime. That's not who he is.”

“But he proposed.”

“It means he needs me. It means I have an opportunity to keep him safe.”

“From what?”

“From what comes next. Abraham’s village was destroyed, his people dispersed, and his family killed.”

“What about his brother?”

“Moses? He died in a car accident. I am the only family Abraham has left. He needs his children to be safe, and that’s what this is about. It would be the biggest honor of my life to shield his children from whatever is on the horizon.” She looked at her lap. “I have to believe that someday Levi will at least understand my decision. He's been to war. He knows the atrocity, the deprivation, and the fear.”

“And he knows all about Abraham?”

“Yes, they’ve met. He went with me to Ghana to the funeral. Levi knows what the Ya family means to me. Abraham,” Tess met Shanti’s gaze, “IloveAbraham. And Levi will eventually conclude that just like he has an ethos that he lives by, I have one, too.”

Shanti’s voice was deflated as she said, “You know if you do this to him, Levi will never forgive you.”

Tess went completely blank. “I'd never ask him to.”

Chapter One

Levi

Present Day

Texas

Dressed in khaki tactical from head to booted foot, a Beast Mode logo taking up center mass on his company T-shirt, the man stretched out a confident hand, shifting it between Levi, Reaper, and Goose.

He wanted to shake the boss-man’s hand first, but he was unsure of the hierarchy, so there he stood, hand extended, waiting for the superior to reach out.

It made more sense than it would in a normal first greeting. Cerberus Tactical K9 wasn’t public-facing. There was no way to research in advance to figure out the corporate hierarchy or to match a photographed face to a name.

Reaper was the chief K9 trainer at Iniquus’s Cerberus Tactical. Goose was one of the veterinarians. But the teammates were here looking for a tactical K9 for Levi. All three men were considered teammates, and Levi wasn’t in their chain of command. Still, Levi hesitated for a split-second because he was the new hire.

Since neither of his teammates twitched, Levi extended his hand. “Levi Elliot.”

“Conroy Dexter, I’m one of the partners here.”

After releasing Conroy’s grip, Levi indicated with a bladed hand. “Our trainer, Reaper. Our vet, Goose.”

“Welcome. Welcome. Glad to have you.” Conroy reached up and adjusted the bill of his ballcap to cast a shadow across his eyes.

Reaper pointed to Conroy’s shirt. “Beast Mode, you come up with that name?”

“Ah, we all threw names in the pot. It’s the one we could agree on. And I’m not saying that we hadn’t worked that out over a few beers.” He chuckled good-naturedly. “So I have the names of both dogs you’re thinking about, Casper and Diabla. Since you’ve seen videos of their skillsets and already have a good rundown on their health from the paperwork I sent with the inquiry, I think we’re going to have a mighty fine day today. Casper and Diabla are amazing athletes.”

“Looking forward to it,” Reaper said. “I’d like it if you could take us on a tour of the kennels while you share more granular details about your training process.”

Conroy looked wary. “Yeah, we have a policy against kennel tours and sharing details.”

He rocked back on his heels and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Now, what I can do is I can teach you how to command the dog and show you their work in action, but our training process is proprietary.”

“There’s a rationale behind that?” Reaper asked. The slow smile and back tilt of his head was a move that Levi, even in his brief time at Iniquus, recognized. Reaper had his bullshit sensor out.

“There is.” Conroy pulled his phone from his pocket, pressed a button, said, “Cerberus Tactical is here,” then slid the phone back away. “We produce highly trained beasts that bring top dollar and deserve every penny of that money. Our pups are sourced out of Europe—the Czech Republic and Belgium for the most part. You all know this—it takes years of work to fine-tune the skills they need to perform the tactical duties that save lives.” He lifted his brows and then dropped them with emphasis. “How we get to that finished product is our secret sauce. If we share it, our dogs lose value.”

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