Soldier Dogs #5 by Marcus Sutter

Author:Marcus Sutter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2019-09-24T16:00:00+00:00

A whuff echoed out of the cave, and Delta trotted out, looking pleased with herself.

“Look at you, checking it out ahead of us!” Juliette laughed, feeling a little warmer than she had a moment ago. “Good girl! Come on, let’s get inside.”

Chapter 16

OUTSIDE RIVAGE, BELGIUM

DECEMBER 30, 1944

12:02 A.M. LOCAL TIME

There it was again.

Boss lifted her head, twitched her ears, and listened. Definitely footfalls in the snow. She sniffed the air.

It was a deer. They were fine.

She lowered her head back to the floor and stared into the dying embers in the circle of stones. She was so tired, but she couldn’t sleep. Every noise woke her, made her alert to the next fight she might run into, the next moment she might have to hide.

This mission was nothing like training.

In training, Boss had been one of the best. When Gregor had whistled, she had come, no matter how many mounds of snow or fallen trees had been in the way. When Gregor had taught her how to leap from the plane, she’d done so fearlessly, had landed perfectly, had immediately gotten into formation. When she’d been taken for a long hike and sent into the woods, she’d always found her way back. She was one of the best dogs in the pack, stationed right behind Tank in the line. A swing dog, one of the navigators. One of the smart ones.

But today, everything had gone wrong so quickly.

In her mind, she saw Tank the way she’d first seen him, over and over again: blood on his leg, his chest rising and falling fast, his eyes staring off in pain and helplessness. She’d never seen Tank that way before. Alphas should never look like that. She watched him now, asleep in one corner, his leg bandaged. He seemed peaceful—nothing like the Tank she’d seen earlier that day.

Boss huffed. They’d only been at war a few hours, and already it was a fight to survive.

She heard a shifting beside her and saw eyes glitter in the darkness. Delta was awake, too; she’d probably heard the same deer. Boss had to admit, Delta had been a great help today. She wasn’t always graceful, or powerful, and she was a long way behind Tank in the line. But she’d hidden Tank’s blood from the enemy, and she had helped Boss pull Tank along without so much as a whimper. And she’d been good about helping the human pups, scouting out this hole in the ground before Boss even had a chance to sniff for big animals. There had been a bear with cubs in this cave—but they’d left seven or eight winters ago. The dogs could still smell them.

Delta had been good. For her place in line, she was a smart dog.

Boss narrowed her eyes. She had to stop thinking of the line. Tank was hurt, Delta was helpful, and Gregor was miles and miles away. They had been so worried about Tank that they’d entirely ignored their mission and were now probably way behind schedule.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.