Animal Nature

Chapter 11

Shy felt bone-tired. Martha had received a call that the health inspector would be coming to do a walk-through of the shelter, so she and Shy had spent all afternoon scrubbing down the entire building between doing adoptions and the usual grooming, feeding, and exercise of the animals. There'd been barely enough time to wolf down a sandwich for her dinner. And Shy was still reeling from running the animal rights club meeting all by herself.

So when the dogs started up a raucous barking minutes after she'd put them all away for the night, Shy was ready to pull her hair out. Martha had left a half hour ago. "What are you all barking at?" she yelled, standing in the doorway between the kennel and the office.

Suddenly a pair of hands covered her eyes. Shy yipped in surprise.

"Guess who?" said David's very familiar voice.

He uncovered her eyes and she turned, smiling uncertainly. The dogs kept barking. David didn't step back as she turned around, and they ended up face to face, with David's hands on her shoulders. Her eyes were level with David's mouth, and she found herself staring at his lips. He had nice lips, for a boy. They weren't chapped or dry, but they weren't too red and wet either. And when he smiled, like he did now, his teeth were perfectly straight.

"I...uh...didn't hear you come in." Shy could barely hear her own voice over the barking.

"Sorry," David said with a little smile.

Had his canine teeth always been so long?

More concerning to Shy was David's breath. It didn't smell bad; in fact, it smelled really good. But it kind of smelled like fried chicken. When Shy went vegetarian two years ago, fried chicken had been one of the hardest things to give up.

"It's okay." Shy gave a breathy laugh and tried to back away, but David's hands stopped her. Her knees felt weak. "It's just these damn dogs keep barking."

David looked past her, into the kennel. It seemed to her that the dog's barking got even louder then. The cages rattled like the dogs were jumping up and clawing at the metal wire holding them in.

From deep in David's throat came a rumble that grew into a growl.

Then he barked.

Shy cringed at the bestial look on his face, those big canine teeth bared, his nose curled into a snarl.

And suddenly David was smiling at her again. "That should do it," he said.

Shy realized that the dogs were now quiet. Not a whimper, not a rattle from behind her. She turned around, just to be sure. All the dogs were staring at the two of them, some still in their aggressive poses, but not a single dog was barking. Goosebumps pricked up on her arms. "How—how did you do that?"

David shrugged. "You just have to show them who's dominant. Come on, I'll walk you home."

"Okay, just let me lock up."

They stepped out into the twilight. Shy was about to shove her hands into her jacket pockets when David grabbed hold of her right hand. It felt warm and secure, so entirely natural Shy could imagine that she and David had been dating for years. Shy smiled and slid her left hand into her pocket.

"So how was the animal rights club meeting?" David asked.

"It was okay," Shy said. "Mara did most of the talking. I guess she was taking photos for a photography assignment and she got a picture of a wolf, practically in her backyard."