When the Dead Come a Knockin'

by B. L. Brunnemer

  “Come on Lexie, move it.” He demanded. I quickly stomped my feet to get the snow off and hurried inside. He closed the door behind me. “It’s fucking freezing out there tonight. You staying awhile?” He asked as he walked around me and through a small archway to the immediate right. The small family room was there, a big comfy blue sofa on one wall, a yellow armchair to the left. It’s back flush to the wall. There was a TV on the left wall in a long white built in that also had bookshelves. Besides the white wooden end tables, that was it, except for several dog beds scattered here and there. I took a quick look around. The front door opened directly into a not so big area. There was a small dinner table that currently had a laptop and a pile of papers on top of it. There was another walk through on the left; it looked like the kitchen and a hallway straight ahead. The whole house had a beach cottage feel to it. It was so not Zeke. I smiled to myself.

  “Yeah, if you don’t mind me annoying you,” I said as I took my jacket off and found a row of hooks behind the door. That was handy. I hung my coat up. I walked into the family room and saw my puppy sleeping next to Zeke on the middle couch cushion. Zeke gave me a half smile.

  “I’m used to it by now, Lexie.” He pointed out. I stuck my tongue out at him, he chuckled. I sat down on the other side of my puppy.

  “So, did he destroy anything new?” Zeke smirked as he looked down at the dog.

  “No, nothing new. He’s got his toys to fuck with now.” He looked back at the TV. Zeke seemed a bit off. He never talked a whole lot, but now he seemed to be having trouble. His shoulders were tense, his thumb was tapping the remote. He looked nervous. Huh. It was kind of hard for me to believe, but there it was, right in front of me.

  “So, Zeke.” He looked over at me. “Your house man...” He rolled his eyes.

  “Is cute, I know.” He grumbled. I burst out laughing. He just shook his head. “Sylvie likes cute, so, she gets cute.” He shook his head. “As long as she leaves my room alone, she can do what she wants.” I just smiled. I heard another dog barking. Zeke tilted his head listening. His eyes were unfocused.

  “What?” I asked wondering what he was doing. He shook his head.

  “The dogs are just playing.” He said matter-of-factly. Then he smirked over at me. “Wanna meet ‘em?”

  “Hell yeah,” I said cheerfully. He smiled and got up. We stopped on the way to grab our coats. “How many do you have anyway?” He grinned.

  “Four.” My eyebrows went up.

  “You have four dogs?” I couldn’t quite believe it. I was worried about taking care of one. He chuckled.

  “Yeah, we have the space, and when we’re not home, they have each other for company.” He explained. “Their high-energy dogs, so having each other to play with keeps them happy and calm.” I followed him into the left archway which was a small kitchen. Zeke opened the back door and stood in the doorway blocking me. “Just stay in here for a sec, I’ll call you out when they calm down to introduce you.”

  “Gotcha.” He flipped the switch on the right wall, and the windows lit up before he stepped outside. He closed the door behind him fast. I heard him call the dogs. I heard happy sounds from them. While I waited, I wondered why Zeke was nervous having me here. He’d been to my house a hundred times in the last couple months. Then again this was his house, not mine. It was a little more, personal? The more I thought about it, the more I realized that Zeke was about as private as Miles. He just wasn’t vocal about it. If he didn’t want to answer a question, he just glared at you or told you to fuck off. Hell, he talked to Riley for two months before asking her out. Huh. I never noticed that before.

  “Lexie, you can come outside now,” Zeke called. “Just walk out slow.” The way he said that made me curious. What kind of dogs did he have? I opened the door slowly and stepped out just as slowly. Zeke was kneeling in the snow with four huge fucking dogs sitting in front of him. No, not dogs. Fucking wolves. I froze.

  “Zeke? What kind of dogs are these?” I asked keeping my voice calm.

  “Wolf hybrids.” I could hear the smile in his voice. He didn’t turn around his attention was on the dogs. “They’re just skittish of strangers. That’s why I want you moving slowly.” When I still didn’t move, he looked over his shoulder and laughed at me. “Lexie, it’s okay. Would I ever make you do anything where you could get hurt?” He had a point. I closed the door behind me and walked forwards slowly. When I was eight feet from him, one of the dogs started growling. I stopped.

  “Kita.” Zeke’s voice wasn’t chastising, more comforting. His hand went out to the big white one on his right. The dog calmed down when he touched it. “Lexie, stay there. I’ll send each one over, and they can meet you one at a time.”

  “Okay.” I wasn’t moving any closer, the dogs were fucking huge. Zeke looked at a gray and black dog on his far left.

  “Kato.” The dog looked at Zeke. Zeke pointed at me. “Greet.” The dog got to his feet and walked towards me slowly. I held still. “Let him come to you, he’ll get there when he’s ready. He’s going to sniff you a lot, maybe circle you then sit down in front of you. Don’t move till then.” I watched as the big dog, who looked more wolf than anything came towards me. He had a loose, smooth walk. His head was down his blue eyes on me. He came halfway then stopped. He sniffed the air before coming any closer. He was huge. His head reached my fucking waist. Was Hades really going to get this big? Shit. I waited. The dog's fur was streaked with white, black and gray. His paws were surprisingly wide for such lean legs. Kato walked towards me again; I kept my hands in my pockets of my coat as his nose started sniffing over my legs all the way up to my hips. He liked what he smelt in my right pocket where I still had some of Hades' treats. Zeke snorted. “You still have those treats, don’t you?” I nodded keeping my eyes on Kato. “Good, when he sits down in front of you slowly pull one out and hold it in your palm. Kato’s nipped my fingers trying to get a treat before.” I nodded that I heard him. Kato backed off and eyed me. Then he sat down in front of me. I slowly pulled out a treat and held it out to him in my palm. His tail went crazy. I smiled as he took the treat from me and munched on it. “Good Kato.” Zeke’s voice was positive and full of praise. Kato finished and looked at my pocket then back to my face. I laughed. “Okay, you can touch him now. Just move slowly at first.” I held out my hand and slowly moved it to his head. I went for between his ears. My hand touched fur; it was coarse and soft all at the same time. Then I scratched. Kato pushed into my hand forcing it to the back of his neck. I smiled as I scratched there. He shifted and leaned against my legs, his head against my stomach as I scratched. Zeke chuckled.

  “He’s so soft,” I said as I put both my hands into his fur and scratched the hell out of him. I think Kato’s eyes rolled back in his head.

  “He’s the easiest out of all of them, and now that his scent is on you, it’ll make it easier for the others.” I looked up to see Zeke look the next dog.

  “Nadie.” The dog looked at him. Zeke pointed to me. “Greet.” Nadie came towards me a little slower than Kato had. Nadie looked a lot more like a wolf, but she had longer fur than Kato. She was mostly white but had a beautiful tan, brown coloring along her back and tail. Nadie did the same as Kato. Only it took her a bit longer, and she circled me twice. When she sat, I gave her a treat the same way I had Kato. Kato actually whined. I smiled and gave him one too.

  “You’re going to spoil my dogs, Lexie.” He warned me. I looked up and smiled.

  “Oh totally, I’m going to spoil them rotten,” I told him honestly. He smiled then looked at the next dog.

  “Tank.” Zeke pointed to me. “Greet. Easy.” I raised my eyebrows at the new command. The big burly dog started towards me. He was fucking huge. His head was probably even with my chest. I stayed still. He looked completely wolf to me, just giant. He was black from snout to tail; his yellow eyes watched me as he came closer. The dog looked like he was on steroids. If I didn’t trust Zeke so much, I’d be running to save my ass from th
is animal.

  “Uh, why the new command?” I asked quietly, not moving an inch as Tank came closer.

  “Because he’s a klutz.” He said bluntly. “He’s knocked me over by sliding into me a few times. I said easy, so he’d know to walk slowly and be careful of you.” I instantly felt better about Tank.

  Tank didn’t come too close; he circled me four times sniffing the air around me from a couple of feet away. Then when he was ready, he came closer. The other two moved to sit next to me, Kato still leaning on me. Tank sniffed my legs and my chest. Which was weird. The fucking dog could stand on his hind legs and be taller than me. He kept sniffing me until he was comfortable. Then he sat down. His head still reached high on my stomach. I slowly gave him his treat, then followed that up with one for each of the others. Zeke snorted. I was so spoiling his dogs. Zeke got to his feet this time, he had Kita on a leather leash. That made me nervous.

  “She’s on a leash?” I asked my eyebrows up.

  “She’s the newest one.” He explained “She’s still adapting, and she’s real skittish. I’m not risking your ass to introduce you.” That sounded like Zeke. “She’s going to do the same thing, but I’ll be with her the whole time.” I nodded. Zeke had her. He’d keep me from getting hurt. He looked down at Kita and pointed at me. “Kita.” His voice was different with her; it was firm but gentler, softer. “Greet.” She looked at me then back at him like she wanted to argue. Then she started to move very slowly. Once Zeke moved with Kita, she seemed to relax a bit and walked not as slowly. She was beautiful. She wasn’t huge like the others. She had the wolf body, but her face looked all husky to me. Not to mention she was completely snow white, with beautiful blue eyes. It took some time, but she stopped almost three feet from me. And sniffed the air. Then she started circling me. Zeke talked to her softly the whole time; I couldn’t hear what he was saying, but his tone was encouraging and gentle. Kita kept circling me and the other dogs, she started coming closer. When she was ready, Zeke told Tank to move and walked with her to stand in front of me. She sniffed my legs for a bit. Then she eyed me. Eventually, she sat down. I slowly held out her treat. She sniffed my hand until she was sure of me. Then she gently took it from me.

  “You're not going to pet Kita today,” Zeke said his eyes on Kita as I was giving the others their treats too. “This is enough for one day with her.” He reached down and unhooked her leash. “Go play guys.” They took off like a shot, disappearing into the backyard. Except for Tank. He had taken Kato’s spot and was leaning on me. Seeing this Zeke laughed and looked at me. “You spoiled my dogs, Lexie.” I snickered and scratched the back of Tanks head.

  “Why is Kita so skittish?” I asked. He sighed and looked out at the dogs running back through the snow then jumping on each other.

  “She was a rescue from some fuck head over in Colorado.” His face grew hard as he spoke. “The guy starved her, beat the crap out of her. Just fucked her up.” He looked back to me. “I’ve had her for three months now, and I’m only now introducing her to new people. Hell, Sylvie met her a few days ago for the first time.”

  “Wow, how did you get her if she was in Colorado?” I had never seen this side of Zeke before he was... talking about himself or at least his dogs.

  “There aren’t a lot of people out there with enough room for hybrids, Sylvie and I are on a short list on this side of the country that will take in and rehabilitate these guys.” He shrugged. “When they’re ready, they go to families that we’ve thoroughly checked out.” My heart warmed, he really was sweet under all the pissed off.

  “So, you don't keep any of them?” I asked curiously. That seemed kind of sad, to love on them, work with them and then just let them go. I don’t think I could do that.

  “Tank is probably going to stay.” He said as he looked down at the huge dog at my side and smirked. “He’s funny as hell. If Kita doesn’t make any more progress than yeah, she’ll stay too.” He looked back out at the dogs. “I can’t give her to a family with her this skittish. She still needs special handling.” I smiled at Zeke. I don’t know what I expected of Zeke and his dogs. But it sure as hell wasn’t this. Zeke was relaxed, the nervousness he had around me earlier was gone.

  “What about Kato and Nadie?” I asked massaging Tank’s ears. He looked back down at me.

  “Kato is leaving for a family in North Dakota next week. And Nadie will probably be up for adoption in the next month or so.”

  “Oh. That’s sad.” Tank shifted against me, and I moved to stay on my feet. “Aren’t you going to miss them?” He shrugged and looked back at the dogs.

  “Yeah, but we can’t help more if we keep them all.” He pointed out.

  “Good point.” He grinned at me.

  “Come on. I need to bring the shitheads in, and I can’t do that with Hades here yet.” He said. I gave Tank another big scratch before turning and heading back to the house.

  Inside I found Hades by the door whimpering. I immediately picked him up. His tail went crazy, and he licked the hell out of my hand.

  “Do you need to go, baby?” I asked him already heading for the front door.

  “He went out thirty minutes ago, that dog…” Zeke began, closing the door behind him and took off his jacket. I turned around to listen “That dog, does not like being alone. I went to the bathroom, and he was scratching at the door the whole minute I was in there.” My eyebrows went up in surprise as I looked down at Hades. He was still happy licking my hand. “His breed is known to like to be with their person, but I didn’t think it’d be that bad.” Shit, I couldn’t take him everywhere with me.

  “That’s fine now, but what am I going to do when school starts?” I asked seriously. “Is there such a thing as puppy daycare?” He snorted as we headed back to the front of the house. Zeke hung up his coat and headed into the family room.

  “No, but I called Sylvie, and she says she’ll be happy to watch the booger when school starts.” Zeke started picking up Hades' toys.

  “Seriously?” I hadn’t even met Sylvia, and she was willing to watch my puppy? I loved her already. Zeke straightened.

  “Yeah, she works nights, so she’ll be sleeping, but he’s a puppy. He’s going to sleep a lot anyway.” He shrugged and filled a plastic bag with Hades’ toys. “Besides, she fell in love with him yesterday.”

  “I love your Aunt already,” I told him. “Just saying.” He chuckled as he handed me the bag.

  “You just need to pick him up immediately after school; that’s the only time she gets free time anymore.” He informed me. I nodded. No problem. “Besides once he’s older and knows you’re not disappearing on him. He’ll be okay staying home eventually.” That was a load off my mind. I looked down at Hades who was still wagging his tail.

  “Looks like you're going everywhere with me, like one of those annoying Chihuahuas,” I told him disdainfully. Zeke laughed.

  “I’d suggest putting that crate Rory has in the Blazer. At least until he’s not so small anymore.” He reached out and scratched Hades' head. Hades immediately moved to lick his finger. He grinned.

  “Thank you, Zeke.” I looked up at him. “I really appreciate it.” He met my gaze and gave me a half smile.

  “No problem.” he tilted his head towards the door. “Now get him out of here, so I can let the terrors in for the night.” I snickered and headed out. “Text me when you get home.” He shot out before I closed the door. I just rolled my eyes. I ended up driving with Hades in my lap, which was not easy. I was so putting that crate in here. I got home and brought him in. Rory was in the living room watching television with Tara. I smiled as I saw her.

  “Hey, guys!” I held up Hades against my chest. “Look what followed me home.” Rory chuckled, and Tara’s eyebrows went up.

  “Where did you get a puppy?” She asked without her usual grumpiness. Maybe she really did like her gift.

  “The guys,” I said as I put Hades down and watched as he started sniffing around. “Where’s the stuff I
need for him.” Rory gestured towards his door.

  “There’s a lot. The guys might have gone a little overboard.” Rory told me smiling. I headed into his room. There was a huge crate that was full of fucking dog toys, dog food, training pads and a couple of dog bowls. The number of toys the guys bought was nuts. I pulled everything out of Rory's room. I filled his food bowl and water bowl, to which he ran to immediately and began chowing down. As I figured out where to put everything for now, I told Rory about how the puppy was going to have to go to Zeke's during the day until he understood I wasn’t bailing. Tara thought that was funny as hell. She mentioned puppy daycare. I laughed with her.

  After I had everything set up downstairs, I took the training pads, another full bowl of food and water up to my room. Then I had to come back down to get Hades. I stopped by Rory before heading up. I thanked him for helping Asher with my gift. He just smiled. Then I told him he surprised the hell out of the guys. He fidgeted as his face turned pink. He said the guys already called to thank him. I went upstairs taking my presents from the guys with me and went to my room. I put Hades down and closed the door. I went around and put anything that might be chewable out of his reach. He ignored me the whole time very happy with his food dish. I got in my jammies and texted everyone I was home. By the time, I was done, Hades was on his back paws trying to get in my bed. I smiled and lifted him up. I snuggled down in bed and shut off the desk lamp. Hades snuggled up to me, his face lying on my neck. Okay. Here goes. I went to sleep.

  Chapter 16