Page 78 of Their Promise

And I had confirmed the pup was male after watching him pee a few times.

Going out deep into our territory, far enough that I knew I wouldn’t be interrupted, I brought a notepad and snacks for some experiments.

“Let’s see how smart you are,” I said to the pup. “Can you do a flip?”

The pup climbed out of the bag, walked a little away, and did a backflip.

I tossed him a piece of jerky. “Good job!”

It swallowed the jerky and barked happily.

“Can you count? If I tell you to count to three, can you claw the ground three times?”

His head canted to the side, tongue back in his mouth, obviously confused.

Making a note in my notepad I said, “Okay, can’t count.”

A butterfly flew by and his head whipped up, following the butterfly. The butterfly flew right over and landed on the pup’s snout.

Fumbling, I pulled my phone out of my pocket and snapped a picture. “Oh, my goodness. That was adorable!”

The next second, the pup snapped its jaws and swallowed the butterfly.

Sighing, I shook my head and lowered my phone. “I should have guessed that would be your next move. You remind me of my brother when he was a pup. He used to eat butterflies, too.” Leaning my elbows on my crossed knees, I set my head in my hands and pondered the pup. “Why were those adult hellhounds after you? Did you do something wrong?”

The pup chased after a grasshopper, ignoring my questions.

“Do you want to go home? Back through a portal?” I asked him.

His head whipped around and he barked several times as he ran around me.

Laughing, I said, “I guess that’s a yes. We just have to find the perfect place.”

“Who are you talking to?” Mason asked behind me.

I yelped, grabbed the bag, and opened it so the pup could run inside. He did so immediately, curling up as small as he could.“Um, myself,” I said, stood, and turned to face him, putting my closed legs in front of the bag to hide it.

Mason scowled at me and looked at my snacks and notepad. “Why are you so far from the house?”

“I wanted some alone time to think,” I said, which was partly true.

He took a step back. “Sorry for intruding.”

Reaching a hand out towards him, I said, “Wait! Mason, you don’t have to leave. I just …”

“I’m actually just on a perimeter run, but thought I scented demons and knew I scented you, so I wanted to check,” he said.

“Well, no demons here,” I said and laughed, but the laugh came out awkward.

He nodded. “Right. Well, I better complete my run.”

“O-Okay,” I said.

Before I could say more, he shifted into his bird form and flew off.

Sitting back down, I huffed. “Well, that didn’t go well.”

The pup poked his head out and when he saw we were alone, then crawled out to sit before me.

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