Free 4 Woof at the Door by Leslie O'Kane

house?”
    “I don’t know! I wouldn’t have gone in there if I’d known he was there!”
    “Did the wolf kill Ty?”
    “No. He was stabbed.”
    The full realization of what I’d just seen and experienced hit me full force. I felt nauseated, dizzy with fear. If that wolf had been fully set on attacking me, I never could have survived.
    Someone had unlocked Ty’s dog door. The same person who’d stabbed him? Who’d put the wolf in the house? I’d come so close to getting mauled! “Thanks, Beverly. You saved my life.”
    I flinched automatically as the gate flew open. Paige came running up to us. “I called nine-one-one,” Paige said. I must have looked as horrible as I felt, for her jaw dropped when she saw me. “What happened in there?” she asked.
    Hank Atkinson came sprinting through the gate after her. “Are you women all right?”
    Their pregnant Samoyed trotted along behind them on a long leash.
    “We found Sammy,” Paige said, giving me a weak smile as she pushed a handful of brown hair behind her ear. “Just like you said, she was with Hank all along.”
    “Never mind about the damned dog!” Beverly yelled at Paige. “Where are the police! Why aren’t they here yet?”
    “For God’s sake, Beverly! I just called them thirty seconds ago!”
    In the background, I heard the screech of tires as someone threw on the brakes. Meanwhile, Beverly gaped at Paige and cried, “Thirty seconds ago? What are you talking about! You left here at least five minutes ago and you said that—”
    Hank interrupted, “Beverly, please calm down. If Ty’s dead, who cares if the police are here in five minutes or in fifteen?” Hank, I noticed, had changed clothes since I’d last seen him. He was now wearing gray sweatpants and a T-shirt.
    Beverly was angrier than I’d ever seen her. She towered over Paige Atkinson, who backed up in the face of her fury. “Allida was nearly killed by a wolf! Whatever problems you might have with me, you had no right to—”
    “Hank?” The male voice came from the other side of the fence. The gate banged open, and a man I’d never seen before approached. Probably another neighbor.
    Great. The troops had arrived after the fact and were determined to start up another war.
    “Damian,” Hank said. “I thought you were out of town.”
    I did a double-take. This was the wolf’s owner. He was in his late thirties or so and had such a large, muscular build he even dwarfed Hank’s powerful frame. He had a cleft in his chin and wore tight-fitting jeans and yellow T-shirt. His hair was light brown on the sides and sun-bleached on the top.
    “I was, but I checked my phone messages and turned around,” he said. “Someone named Allida Babcock left me a message about you and my wolf. Now I can’t find Larry Cunriff anywhere, and Atla is missing.”
    “Atla?” he repeated.
    “My wolf! She’s missing!” He looked angry enough to flatten Hank with one punch. “She’s my least well-mannered animal. She’s not used to being around humans. She’s dangerous. Do you have her?”
    “Of course I don’t have—”
    “She’s in there,” I said. All along, I’d assumed the wolf was a he, but then, I’d had other things on my mind than checking for the wolf’s gender.
    “In someone’s house?” Damian hollered.
    “She’s tied to the handles of the refrigerator. I don’t know how long that will hold, though.”
    “Christ!” He knelt and pushed at the doggie door. “I can’t fit through that door.” He rocked back on his knees and pointed at me. “You! Get in there and unlock the door! I need to get my wolf in a cage before she or someone else gets hurt.”
    “Too late for that,” Hank said. “Seems your wolf already killed Ty Bellingham.”
    “Oh, Jesus,” Damian murmured. He grabbed both of my shoulders. His blue eyes seemed to see right through me. “Please, just let me inside the house so I can try and get her out of there! If I have to break a window, she might