Prologue

MOLLY THE COLLIE had the sweetest smelling butt the black and white speckled mutt had ever sniffed. Her long white mane accentuated her silky-smooth red and black coat, and her narrow snout made her irresistible. Her small, floppy ears hovered above invitingly dark eyes, which beckoned to the mutt like Mata Hari every time he passed her yard. She loved his handsome face and blue eyes and couldn’t resist teasing his bashful demeanor. Their romance had endured for years, but only for a few minutes at a time, as he passed on his way to work each morning, and when he returned home in the afternoon. A sniff here, a chase there and the occasional tumble on the lawn defined their affair, leaving both pooches briefly satisfied, but longing for more.

The mutt glanced up as a flock of yellow canaries swooped down and darted past him like lightning. A gust of wind rustled the nearby trees as the sound of children at play echoed from afar. A noise from the house shifted his gaze, and a woman opened the front door and poured out murky water from a mop bucket. She stood in the doorway and smiled at Molly and her suitor, delighted by their courtship.

A passing motorcyclist tooted his tinny horn and distracted the mutt’s attention. As it zoomed by, he glanced at an old man strolling down the hill on the side of the road. He wasn’t just any human; he was the dog’s companion, the only family the mutt had ever known, his everything. To most people, the old man appeared feeble—on his last leg—but the mutt knew better. He had seen him chop down trees with hand tools and lift boulders down by the riverside. A thunderclap boomed overhead, and the pooch looked up into the heavens. He rolled his head and looked back at the road, watching the old man amble on into the distance. The mutt loved the rain—loved to splash and roll and cover himself in mud—but he knew his human liked to stay warm and dry.

Molly pounced, knocking her speckled beau on his side, then gripped his snout in her jaws. He jerked free, tongue lolling from his mouth, eyes filled with pleasure. He rose to his feet, hopped onto his hind legs, and landed with the grace of a butterfly. He dropped down, barked, and then ran in circles, Molly speeding on his heels. The mutt faked to the left, then shifted to the right, before sprinting to the edge of the yard. Molly swiveled her head from side to side, baffled, then barked with glee before rejoining the chase.

She regained ground, closed the gap, a tail’s length behind him, then stopped at the edge of the yard. The mutt persisted, darting across the road, before plopping down on his haunches on the other side. The lovers gazed into each other’s eyes over the asphalt divide —yelping with joy, tails wagging, saliva dripping from their dangling tongues. The mutt rose to all fours, panting, gathering energy to continue the pursuit. Staring intently at the object of his affection, he slowly padded onto the road.

Tires screeched and the mutt stopped in his tracks as a white truck barreled toward him. He jogged left before spinning back to the right. He sprinted across the road as the truck sped past, his speckled fur swirling furiously in its wake. Tail between his legs, he reached the other side, anxious, yet relieved, as he sat down beside his sweetheart. Molly cocked her head to the side and wagged her tail before leaning over to lick the side of his face.

The mutt’s head jolted as brakes squealed. He looked down the road as the white truck shuddered to a stop in front of the old man. “Hey, old timer,” the driver called out to the mutt’s human. “Looks like you could use a ride…storm’s coming.”

Clear, yet barely audible from a distance, the voice sounded familiar to the mutt. It was the voice of the stranger he’d seen talking to the old man downtown. He’d heard the outsider from a distance there, too, while he was wrestling with his canine friends under an oak tree. It was an uncommon voice, not like all the other humans. The mutt growled under his breath; he did not like the stranger.

The old man kept his distance, gazing at the driver from the shoulder of the road. The stranger’s voice sounded muffled now, carried away by the strengthening wind. The old man stood like a statue, then looked up at the sky as a black cloud twisted and turned overhead. He took two steps and opened the truck’s passenger door, glancing back to lock eyes with his pooch. He nodded to his canine companion, then climbed inside and closed the door as the driver revved his engine.

The speckled dog sat silently, his azure eyes watching the truck reach the crest of the next hill, then disappear. He wasn’t concerned. He knew the way home; he’d traveled this road a myriad times before, alone and with the old man. Molly turned and sashayed toward the house as the woman opened the door and dropped table scraps into her bowl. The mutt sat silently, staring down the road, then shuddered as a chill surged along his spine.

Pre-order Today!