Page 24 of Carter's #Undoing

Nine

CARTER

“Carter!”

I awoke to the startling sound of Serenity’s screams, blood rushing to my head at her terrified cries. Reaching under my bed, I grabbed my pistol before dashing out the door and taking the stairs three at a time to get to Serenity.

I hadn’t gotten a call from Scotch alerting me about anything, and cursed myself that I’d even fallen asleep in the middle of the day. I never did that shit, but after that conversation with Serenity, I’d been exhausted and succumbed to the sleep my body needed.

As I’d suspected from the distance of her screams, she was on the deck, standing on my chair while waving the broom in front of her. It took me less than a second for me to realize that what she thought was a threat wasn’t really a threat after all.

“Carter, thank God you’re up! We’re being attacked.”

I looked from her to the culprit of her deathly screams and despite my heart racing because I had thought she was in real danger moments prior, I laughed. I laughed so hard, I had to remember to put the safety back onto my pistol.

“What are you doing? Shoot that thing!” She waved the broom some more.

“I can’t,” I said, leaning my hands on my knees to try and stop laughing.

“Why not?” she asked. I stood up and motioned for her to come to me so I could help her down. She shook her head. “I’m not getting down until you make that beast leave your deck.”

“I can’t do that,” I told her. “Because that beast that you’re referring to is my dog.”

She continued to clutch her chest, looking at me like I lost my mind. “That ain’t no damn dog!”

“Okay, Martin,” I teased, referring to an episode off the sitcomMartinwhere an animal had gotten into their hotel room and they’d originally thought it was a puppy. Serenity and I used to watch that episode on repeat.

I looked down at my dog, taking into account his fur that was filthy like he’d been rolling around in dirt and his big, brown eyes that still caught me off guard sometimes when I was sleeping and woke up with him staring at me in the face.

“Serenity, meet my dog, Colt.” I leaned down to rub the back of his dirty ear. “Colt, meet our first houseguest, Serenity.”

Serenity still didn’t move. “Carter, please tell me you did not find a random wolf in the woods and turn him into a household pet?”

I shrugged. “Okay, then I won’t tell you.”

“Carter! What the hell is wrong with you?”

“He’s not a wolf,” I said with a laugh. “Well, he may be part wolf, but I don’t really know. The closest vet is more than four hours away, and when I took him there when I found him outside of my front door when he was a puppy, he told me he was definitely mixed with German Shepherd, but was probably a mutt with different variations of the Husky breed.”

She squeezed the bridge of her nose. “Carter, why have I been here over a week and I’m just seeing this dog?”

“He was out scouting the area,” I explained. “Colt isn’t a house dog. He needs to be out in the wilderness. Plus, he has the skills of a sentry dog, so he’s an extra precaution to make sure we’re safe.”

“A sentry what?”

“A sentry dog. Guard dog. I trained him the same way they train the dogs in the military and police force. He’ll attack anyone he’s not familiar with.”

“Like me,” she said, waving the broom again. “He tried to attack me!”

I glanced at Colt who was sitting still. “The only thing moving is his tail.”

Serenity rolled her eyes. “Okay, so maybe he didn’t attack me.”

“I know he didn’t. If he did, you’d be dead already.”

She gasped. “Oh my God.”

“I’m kidding,” I told her. But I really wasn’t. “Listen, I’ve been prepping Colt for your arrival. He probably picked up your scent way before he came onto the deck.”

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