Chapter eight

"You're what?!" I hid under my blanket, attempting to hide from the wrath of the curly-headed demon yelling at me. Good thing I waited till after breakfast to tell her I was going on a date with Lucas, or she'd wake up the whole house.

"I can't let you go alone with that guy!" She screeched and I suddenly had a light bulb moment. I threw the blanket off me and tackled her to the floor. First, she yelped in surprise but then started hitting me.

"Eliza! I have a brilliant idea!" She scoffed in disbelief.

"You? Brilliant idea? You're going on a date with a complete stranger." I pouted and she raised her brow.

"He's not a complete stranger," I mumbled. "Anyway, why don't we go on a double date?!" Her eyes went wide for a second before she shoved me off her.

"You go with Cooper and I'll go with Lucas." As if the idea wasn't brilliant enough, my brain continued being smart. Mental high five.

"And I can invite Kari to go with Carter," She crossed her arms but I could see her cheeks turning pink. I got down on my knees and pressed my hands together. "Please?" She stared at my pouting face for a second, her blushing intensifying.

"Fine! Get your stupid gold eyes away from me." She shoved my face and I fell to the floor. Daisy came running up the stairs at the sound of the thud. She jumped on top of me, drenching my face in saliva. I climbed to my feet, Daisy not making it very easy. Before I knew it, I was calling Kari.

"Dan, what can I do for ya?"

"Hey, so my best friend and I are going on a double date and I was wondering if you wanted to make it a triple date with my friend Carter." She was silent for a moment.

"Are you sure you want to invite me of all people?" She said quickly.

"Of course! I can't think of anyone else!" She was silent again.

"Okay, why not?" I squealed in excitement.

"That's the spirit! Meet us at the Downtown dog park at 11." She agreed then hung up. Eliza and I took the next hour debating on what to wear. She settled on a navy blue long sleeve shirt with ruffles at the wrist. It hung nicely over her shoulders. She paired it was some denim jeans, cuffed at the bottom. To finish it off, she pulled on a pair of white vans. I wet the other direction, I paired a white thigh-high dress with a dark denim jacket and white vans as well. I tied my hair into a messy bun while Eliza let her crazy poof stay wild. As if it could be tamed anyway.

After some pleading, Penny let me take Daisy, and Eliza, of course, took her favorite dog. He was a huge cow patterned Great Dane. His name was Maximums. One of the other dogs named Angel was very connected to Max, they were inseparable. But Penny would only allow us to take two. So we had to leave the sweet pit bull behind. Then we were on the road, we took Eliza's truck so the pups could ride in the back. I already told Lucas in advance that we had the dogs, so the movies were out of the question. On the way there Eliza searched up a dog cafe for after the park.

We got their first, we took Daisy and Max into the park and let them loose. Max was by far the biggest dog there. He played with some of the more medium-sized dogs. It seemed like he missed Angel. Daisy, on the other hand, was running around with at least three tennis balls in her mouth. So many dogs were chasing her. I chuckled at that. We walked over to the same bench as the other day and set up camp. I saw Kari awkwardly standing on the other side of the dog park, she seemed out of her comfort zone. Nervous even. She had a Dalmatian laying between her legs, he seemed very trained. Even as dogs and balls soared past him, he seemed disinterested and only stared up at Kari. I waved her down and she made her way to us. The loyal dog stayed at her side.

Kari was dressed up nicely. She had a cute little shirt on that was a soft pink with black flowers on it. It was a short sleeve and it hung on her loosely. She paired it with dark denim jeans and black converse. She looked adorable but her face looked anxious. Her light brown eyes flitted back and forth, scanning each person. Her long black hair was put into two braids on each of her shoulders. It was weird not seeing it in a tight bun like at work. She looked different than she did at work actually. I've never seen her not confident.

"Hey, Kari!" I pulled her into a hug and she accepted gratefully. "Thanks for coming! Why do you look so scared." She chuckled softly.

"I've never dated." She said sheepishly. I could feel how shocked I was.

"You're joking? You're like a completely different person." She smiled softly. I looked down at the Dalmatian and ran my hand over his head. "Who is this boy?"

"That's Pongo, he's my anxiety support dog." I looked up at her surprised. I never imagined someone so confident at work, could have such bad anxiety that she'd need a support dog. I guided her toward the table and introduced her to Eliza. She sat across from me and Pongo sat between her legs, not even attempting to go play with the other dogs until Kari gave him the okay. Even then he didn't want to leave her side. But a pretty little collie changed his mind.

"So, anxiety aye? You're so confident at work." She shrugged and laughed awkwardly.

"Well yeah, at work I'm in charge. I don't know how to explain it, but I'm just a different person at work." I nodded in understanding.

"Dan!" I heard someone call, I spun around to watch the three boys walk through the entrance. Lucas set down Archie and he zoomed away, Carter's Jack Russell not too far behind the Frenchie. But I did see a new dog face. She was tall and lanky, she looked sophisticated almost. Her fur looked silky and well-groomed. She stood next to Cooper and walked by his side when he moved. A puppy attempted to play with her, but she snobbishly ignored him.

"Hey Danny," He wrapped me in a hug when they reached us. I chuckled and accepted it.

"Hi, guys this is Kari," The boys said their hi's. Carter seemed almost mesmerized by her. How cute. "Who is this?" I asked, reaching to let the pretty dog sniff my hand. She moved her nose away from me.

"This is Dolly, she's a Saluki. I got her for Christmas last year." Cooper answered while petting her back.

"She's more spoiled than a Jenner baby." He scoffed at Carter but the brother just shrugged and sat across from Kari. He casually started a conversation, and as if it was an instinct Pongo was at her side. But she seemed to be enjoying the conversation, she was smiling and even laughing. Cooper and Eliza started a conversation of their own.

"So, which dog's yours?" Lucas asked while looking around at all the running K9s. I whistled for the Burmese rolling in the grass. She struggled to her feet and torpedoed toward us.

"Can you guess?" I chuckled right before she ran into me, almost knocking me over. But Lucas caught me. My cheeks darken.

"You're blushing," He commented while helping me stable myself. Him pointing it out only made it worse.

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," I said sarcastically.

"Ahoy." He winked before petting the dog at my feet."What's her name?" He quirked.

"Daisy." He nodded. I felt something touch my ankle so I looked back to find Carter's Jack Russell with a ball too big for his mouth.

"That's Zeus, he is unhealthy addicted to fetch." He took the ball from him and flung it. "Walk with me?" I smiled and looked back at Kari and Eliza, they both ushered for me to go. I chuckled when I found Dolly sitting on the bench with Cooper instead of on the ground.

"Sure, let's go." We started walking around the dog park, following the paved path. We talked about a bunch of stuff. But our conversation stopped suddenly when the giant Great Dane stopped in front of me.

"Hey, Max, what's up buddy?"I scratched behind his ear and he barked happily.

"He's with you?" I nodded at Lucas and yelped when Max jumped up on me, placing his paws on my shoulders. We stayed at the dog park for about an hour so or more. Lucas and I continued to talk as if we weren't running out of topics. But we actually weren't, the topics just kept flowing. I had grown fond of his smile. We then went to the dog-friendly cafe and when the waitress saw Daisy, Max, Archie, Dolly, Pongo, and Zeus her jaw dropped.

"Quite the group, follow me." She seated us outside on the patio at one of the huge tables. We had to steal a chair for Dolly since she refused to sit on the floor. We ate lunch and had some great laughs. Everyone seemed to be having a great time. Kari seemed to be happy even like her anxiety melted. I hope that she and Carter work out. But before we knew it, 5 o'clock rolled around. We said our goodbyes to the huge group we had put together.

"Thank you for coming, I had fun," Lucas said after our hug goodbye, he slowly tucked a strand of loose hair behind my ear. "We need to do this again sometime." He smirked at me. I felt my throat tighten.

"I'm free Wednesday," I whispered.

"It's a date." He winked before hugging me one last time and leaving. Eliza and I flipped a coin to see who drove home, sadly it landed on heads so I was put behind the wheel. The dogs laid down in the back of the truck and Eliza passed out ten minutes into the drive home. It was dark out by the time I pulled onto the last road before the driveway. This road was extremely long and eerie, surrounded by woods. I disliked this road. This experience only made me dislike it even more.

I had to stomp on the brakes when a huge animal jumped into the middle of the road. I was panting as I stared at the thing that was standing in front of the car. Eliza was cursing under her breath since she hit her head on the dash. But my ears started ringing when the beast looked up at me. It looked like a wolf. But the animal was too large. A bear maybe? But when it slowly turned to glare at Eliza's truck, I knew it was a wolf. The dog-like features were too pronounce to assume it was a bear. It was rust-colored and it had piercing green eyes. A wave of fear rolled through me. The wolf was panting as well, but it snarled in distaste before jumping back into the woods.

"Danny, what the hell?!" Eliza snapped while staring after the beast.

"Sorry, that wolf jumped out of nowhere." I shook my head in an attempt to clear it. But the fog of each question became dense in my mind. I couldn't think straight and I had no idea Eliza was talking to me until she shoved me. I looked over at her quickly.

"What?" I asked while looking back at the road.

"That wolf was huge! We get wolves, but not that big!" I nodded in agreement but it only added more questions. We rolled into the driveway then and the dogs jumped out of the back before I parked. Max ran toward Angel and the sweet doe-eyed pitbull tackled the huge dog. We walked into the house and I went straight for a shower. I let the cold water help me clear the fog and focus on one at a time. Why was that wolf so big? Why did it remind me of Alastor? When I got out of the shower Penny was putting a band-aid on Eliza's forehead.

"What happened out there? Are you okay?" Penny grabbed my face and inspected me.

"Yeah I'm fine, an animal jumped in front of the car and I had to slam on the brakes." Frank looked away from us, standing and facing toward the window. Eliza touched her head and slightly flinched.

"Don't touch it." Penny slapped her hand and Eliza hissed at her.

"That wasn't just an animal. That wolf was 2x its size. Like a bear-wolf hybrid!" She explained to her mom animatedly. I leaned on the stair railing and crossed my arms.

"Like that one in the zoo?" Penny asked and they both turned toward me. "Should we call a ranger? If it's anything like the one in the zoo, maybe it's a new breed!" Her voice raised in excitement.

"No," She stopped reaching for the phone and turned toward me with a brow raised. "No, it wasn't like the one in the zoo. It was just a slightly bigger wolf. You're just exaggerating because you hit your head. We shouldn't catch an innocent wolf." I lied through my teeth. I spun and skipped some of the stairs until I was lying in bed. Daisy joined me a minute later.

I didn't sleep that night.