Chapter 5 Unexpected Encounters

Harry

I went to pull the car out of the driveway. For once, it looked like we were actually going to make it to school on time.

"Are you sure you have everything?" I asked Winnie again, certain that I was about to be caught up in my tracks and realize that we had forgotten something fundamental.

"Harry, look out!" she shrieked at the top of her lungs. My eyes darted to the side mirror, and I saw something just behind the back wheel of the car-a little bundle of brown fluff, practically quivering in my line of vision.

"What is that?" I muttered as I climbed out of the car to go check it out. I had no idea what had managed to get so close to the car this early in the day. We lived in a gated property, so whatever it was must have slithered in between a gap in the fence.

Winnie was quick to follow me. I considered telling her to stay where she was, but I knew that wasn't going to fly. She was too curious, just the way her mother had been.

"Oh my gosh, it's a dog!" she exclaimed as she got a little closer to it.

I grimaced. She was right, and the poor little thing looked like it had had a hell of a day. It was curled up around itself, shivering slightly, and I couldn't help but feel sorry for it. It looked up at me with big, brown eyes and jerked when I got close to it. I crouched down in front of it and extended my hand.

"Hey, buddy," I murmured. "I almost ran you over. You can't be hanging around behind my car, all right?"

I checked it for a collar, but it didn't have one. Winnie came up and extended her hand toward it, letting it sniff her, and then she gave it a quick pet on the head.

"It's so pretty." She said, and I could hear a dangerous amount of want in her voice. I knew I had to get her to school, but I couldn't just leave this thing here.

"Go inside," I told her. "Look up vets in the area. We need to get this little guy checked out."

She did as she was told, and I pulled a blanket from the back seat and put it around the dog. It was midsized with scrubby black fur and a greyish patch that could have passed for a beard. It was limp in my arms, apparently not much caring that I was heaving about this way and that, and I cradled it close to me, feeling protective already. It had come to us for help. The least I could do was make sure that it got it.

Winnie came running back out a few moments later and told me the address of the nearest vet's office. It wasn't far, and even though it would get us both running late, it was worth it to make sure that this little guy got the help that he needed.

We arrived at the vet's a few minutes later, and Winnie followed me worriedly into the building, like she was our security escort. I couldn't help but find it a little funny. She was taking such good care of this little creature, and she barely even knew who it was. She had that compassion in her, deep down to her core, the kind that could only come from genetics. The kind my sister had given to her.

"Hi, is there any chance we could speak to the vet on duty?" I asked the receptionist, a youngish woman with mousy brown hair, when we arrived at the desk. She glanced up at me, at the dog, and at Winnie, and nodded.

"She's just had a cancellation, so I think you're in luck right now," she told me with a smile.

I sighed my relief. Thank fuck. I was so glad that this thing was going to be off my hands in just a few minutes. A moment or two later, another door opened, and in it stood one of the most stone-cold gorgeous women I had ever seen in my life.

My jaw nearly dropped as soon as I set eyes on her. I had seen plenty of hot chicks before-of course I had-but she was something else entirely. My entire body prickled from top to bottom as I took her in. She was dressed in a pair of lavender scrubs, but they didn't do much to obscure the gorgeous shape of her curvy figure. Her long blonde hair was pulled up into a bouncy ponytail on top of her head, and a smattering of freckles on her face set off her green eyes.

"Is this the patient?" she asked as she approached us.

I nodded. "My niece here spotted him next to the back wheel of our car this morning," I explained. "I don't know who he is or where he came from, but we can't keep him, and he doesn't seem like he's in a good state."

"We can't keep him?" Winnie asked, her voice wavering dangerously.

I offered her a quick smile. "We need to let him get all fixed up first, don't we?"

I didn't want to get her hopes up, but I knew I couldn't just shoot them down like that.