Chapter 6:

I waited for the door to open. As it did, a human came out, wearing nothing but some baggy olive pants. He stared at me with curiosity. I wondered what I could do to distract him. I sat down and tilted my head, giving him what they liked to call the puppy-dog-eyes. I lowered myself even further, whining once. He walked forward, holding his hand out to me.

"How cute! Who's a beautiful girl?" he asked, crouching down in front of me. I licked his hand, much to my regret. Whatever he was doing with that hand, it tasted horrible. Then Shiro finally jumped him, knocking him out with a sharp blow to the back of the neck.

"Took you long enough. What were you doing up there, reading?" I asked him, giving him a disgusted look.

"Not my fault you licked his hand. I caught wind of it too. Smelled like ass. Which means he was probably scratching his–." he replied. I stopped him, licking the ground beneath me to get rid of the aftertaste that had suddenly formed. Shiro chuckled, enjoying this.

"You son of a bitch!" I snapped, biting his hand. Instead of pulling back, he gripped the bottom of my maw and squeezed it. Somehow, this hurt, causing me to open up and let his hand out.

"Never–bite–me; Otherwise you'll get the pet treatment, including the rope tied to a tree." he threatened. It had become clear to me that Shiro was not to be trifled with; at least not over such petty things as my own mistakes. I however, was the same. I growled at him, sat on the ground and refused to meet his gaze. He sighed and walked inside of the shack those people were residing in. He seemed angry again. I wondered if perhaps I was pushing my luck with him. He did own the house I was staying in, even if he'd promised not to abandon me, he didn't say anything about banishing me. Perhaps I was pushing it.

"Wait here. I'll get this boy and come back out with him in a minute." he said, breaking my thoughts. I nodded, waiting as he closed the door behind me.

The next few seconds were like the radio in Shiro's truck. I heard the inhabitants start shouting at him. Crashing sounds happened often. I saw a knife stick out of the wall, missing me by an inch. I saw one of the inhabitants go flying out the window unconscious. Another came out the front door with a bleeding arm. Shiro said he never killed. I guessed that didn't count disarming them. He ran for a few minutes, looking back at the worst time. As he looked ahead, he ran into a tree, falling back unconscious. Another body flew through the wall in front of me, flying above me and landing behind. I looked inside, seeing the rest of the inhabitants all unconscious on the ground beneath Shiro. The boy I guessed we were after was tied to a chair with marks on his face. He seemed scared half to death. I noticed all the inhabitants, except for the boy and Shiro held knives to defend and attack with. I was surprised that Shiro was able to overpower them all without any weapons.

He picked up one of the knives and cut at the boy's ropes, freeing him from his prison. The boy ran to me and jumped off the edge of the wall into me. He was sobbing, wetting my coat with his tears. I allowed this as the boy had been through so much and a snappy wolf would have been too much for him to handle. That, plus Shiro would most likely do something I hadn't mentioned in our deal. The boy cried on, squeezing me tightly.

"You're safe now. Come on, let's take you home. Alina, could you carry the boy? They've cut the bases of his feet and he was running on adrenaline just then." asked Shiro. I sighed in defeat, nodding.

"Come on sniffles, up you get." I said, manoeuvring the boy onto my back. He couldn't have been more than six years of age for a human.

"Thank you doggy." he said with tears streaming down his face.

"I'll ignore the fact that he called me a dog on the grounds that you reward me for tolerating this." I said.

"You'll get a big treat tonight Alina. Just don't drop him. We've got to take him back to his parents." he said. I sighed, finding his lack of faith in my ability to carry a child to be irritating.

"Yeah yeah, I got him." I sighed. Shiro chuckled as he led us back to the truck. He lifted the boy off of me and placed him in the middle of the truck seat, leaving room for me to get in. I took this opportunity and sat beside the boy who leaned into me and hugged me. I stifled the urge to growl as being held brought back bad memories with humans. Shiro got in his usual place and closed the door behind him.

"You'd better drive slowly this time Shiro, I doubt even the boy can handle your driving for long." I suggested.

"Yes, I know. I'll drive carefully. Wouldn't want to wake him now would we?" he replied.

"Wake him?" I asked, looking to the boy. As Shiro had indicated, he was asleep, his head against my shoulder.

"Oh man." I groaned, making myself comfortable without waking him. Shiro chuckled, starting the beast of a vehicle. He pulled out of the forest area gently, moving onto the road. I closed my eyes as the world sped by, making me feel ill.

"So what's for dinner tonight?" I asked, trying to think of something.

"Depends what's on the menu. You didn't forget we're going out to see Mick and have dinner tonight, did you?" he replied. Truthfully, I had forgotten.

"Oh yeah. Hope the food's good." I said, sighing as I imagined eating something tasty.

"And no bacon." he chuckled. I groaned as I remembered the sensation of the bacon rising through my throat and burning my mouth as it exited onto the ground before me.

"Don't mention bacon again." I said, clearing my throat. Shiro just chuckled as he drove to the boy's home.