Philautia || Amour Éternel Series BOOK ONE ||

Eleven - SHANNON

February 2015

Shannon felt a wet tongue licking his nose and mouth as he rolled over in his bed. He scowled and moved away with a groan, opening his eyes unwillingly. Trio was laying next to him, panting happily, his puppy breath hot on Shannon's face. The dog whined and tilted his head before letting out a loud bark that startled Shannon.

"Alright. I'm up," he said with a sharp intake of breath. He sat up and ran his hand across the dog's head. "Come on. Let's go outside."

Trio bounded off of the bed and barked as Shannon slowly meandered his way through the house, rubbing sleep from his eyes. He pulled a jacket on over his bare chest and opened the back door to allow the puppy to go outside to the yard. He watched as the dog easily made his way down the steps and trotted out into the grass. The vet had been correct; you could hardly tell the difference in the dog's strides and he seemed to have adjusted to the amputation very well. Trio had put on a considerable amount of weight and the good cleaning he'd gotten revealed he was actually a warm brindle color.

"Come on!" Shannon called, clapping his hands to get the dog's attention. "Let's have breakfast!"

Trio bounded up the stairs and slid across the hardwood floor into the house. Shannon opened the pantry and scooped out food and poured it into Trio's blue bowl. The dog ate ravenously as Shannon started grinding coffee beans. The two of them had become fast friends and he wondered what would happen when he had to go out on tour and Trio would have to go to Talia's rescue. He almost didn't want to give him up.

After he had ground the beans into a fine powder, Shannon put them into the coffee machine and flipped it on. Trio was done eating and licked his mouth happily before waddling over to the water bowl and lapping for several seconds. Shannon leaned over and petted the dog's head before going back to his room and getting dressed. He glanced at the time and sighed; he had to be at Jared's in an hour to run through songs for the tour. Breakfast would have to wait. Fortunately, Jared wouldn't care if Trio came with him.

He went back into the kitchen to pour his coffee into a travel mug. Trio was gnawing on a toy and froze when he heard Shannon's footsteps. His ears swiveled around and he waited for a solid five seconds before resuming his chewing. Once Shannon had filled his mug, he grabbed the leash from the hook near the back door and Trio bounded across the floor, barking loudly.

"Stand still so I can hook you up, you little fucker," Shannon chuckled as the dog danced around his feet excitedly.

He picked up his travel mug and car keys and headed out to his SUV. Trio rode in the back seat, shoving his face out of one of the windows. The drive was short, as the bird flew, but traffic at this time of day was bad regardless of direction. Trio was too busy watching cars and birds go by to notice they were moving at glacial pace. On more than one occasion, Shannon had wondered about the dog's intelligence. By the time they pulled into the parking lot at the base, Trio's tongue was lolling out of his mouth as he panted from the excitement.

The base was a sprawling decommissioned Air Force base in the Hollywood Hills near Lookout Mountain. Shannon had only seen it once, when his brother had invited him to take a tour of the place before he bought it. If the previous owner hadn't been on hand to give them a guided tour, he was certain they would have gotten lost. The lot had about fifteen cars in it and Shannon knew it was going to be a busy day. He helped Trio down and led him through the house.

It was sparsely-furnished and would probably remain so. Jared had never been one for useless clutter. Even at his previous house furniture was still kept to a minimum and it was a fraction of the size of this new place. Entire rooms lay untouched, open and plain. And even though he had more space to expand into, Jared's employees were still confined to a single grouping of rooms in one wing of the house.