A bitter betrayal

A great wave of weariness came over Vika and she lowered her head to rest in Leader’s lap, his presence making her feel safe. As it often did as she dozed, her mind returned to the night of blood and fear, replaying the events again, as vivid and fresh as if they had just happened. A deep contentment settled on her, a feeling of rightness and belonging at odds with the fear and the anger and the violence.

It had been raining outside, but when she heard the telltale jangle that meant Leader was leaving home she had trotted to the door, eager as ever to go with him. But instead of getting down the long rope that meant they were going for a walk me made the noises that meant she was to stay and guard home. She was a little disappointed, her walks with leader were one of her favourite things, but she could hear sister playing inside the house and knew it was her job to keep her safe.

Sister was small and helpless, not like Leader and Mother, but she was part of the pack and that was the most important thing. Thinking of sister made Vika feel very protective and she went at once to check on her, a quick inspection reassuring Vika she was safe and playing happily. Outside Vika heard the bang and slow roar that meant Leader was going in the fast box, which meant he could be gone for some time, she hoped he wouldn’t be gone too long as she knew Mother would not be home for a while either and she was hungry. With a martyred sigh she settled down in front of sister’s door and rested her head on her paws, when in doubt nap she always thought.

A sudden crash followed by a strange tinkling noise woke Vika and she scrambled to her feet, trying to identify the sounds. She quickly moved down the hallway to the food room, which was where the sounds were coming from. One of the walls you could see through had been broken, glittering pieces of it were lying scattered all across the floor and there, standing in the middle of her room was a large stranger. Vika sniffed, best to make sure she was right, the man was definitely a stranger and he smelled scared and angry. The smell of the stranger told Vika he was dangerous and should be kept still until Leader came home and told her what to do.

A warning growl alerted the man to her presence as she stalked towards him, stiff legged and head down. The backed away from her and the fear scent grew stronger, she changed her approach so the man backed towards the corner where he would be easier to hold. Suddenly the man shouted something, sounding angry and Vika heard a sound behind her, followed by the smell of sister. With all her attention on the stranger Vika had not heard sister come into the room and now she was dangerously close top the intruder. The man shouted again, the smell of anger growing stronger than the fear, the angry noise scared sister, who began to cry.

Suddenly the stranger lunged forwards and then he was holding sister by her leg, dragging her between himself and Vika. Sister screamed, a strong fear smell coming from her as the stranger dragged her across the floor. Then there was a smell of blood in the air, the shining shards on the floor had cut sister and now she was hurt.

Since she was small Vika knew it was bad to bite strangers, it was her job to keep them still until Leader could come and deal with them, but she understood instinctively that this situation was different, this stranger was hurting Vika’s pack and it was her job to stop him at any cost. She had stopped growling, there was no more need to warn this stranger, he needed to be hurt now so he would stop hurting sister. She lunged quickly at the stranger, her powerful jaws clamping down on the arm holding sister.

Shouting in pain the stranger had let go of sister, trying to escape from Vika’s hold, blood filled her mouth as she bit down harder, trying to hurt the stranger as much as she could. The stranger had kicked her hard in the side then and she had let go her hold, she was stunned for a moment, but quickly recovered. She closed in on stranger again as he backed away, blood dripping from his mauled wrist onto the food room floor, the soft whimpering of sister behind her. The stranger glanced towards the broken wall he had entered through and that was all Vika needed, she leapt at him, ramming him with her muscular chest, the impact sent the stranger stumbling backwards to fall on the food room floor. Vika followed him as he fell, her paws on his chest, conscious of the threat to sister his continued presence represented. In using his arms to break his fall the stranger had left his throat exposed, which was exactly the opportunity Vika had been waiting for, she lunged forwards again with a powerful jerk tore strangers throat out.

She remembered a lot of confusing things after that, Leader had come home and smelled very afraid when he saw the dead stranger, but once he saw that Vika had kept sister safe the smell of relief and happiness on him had been very strong. Vika remembered how he had praised her then, hugging her tightly and making all the sounds that meant he was happy with her. It was the proudest moment of her life without a doubt, she had done her job as well as she could and Leader loved her, she had kept sister safe and everything was good.

Things had been a little strange since then, but Vika did not understand a lot of the reasons Leader and mother did things, she just did what she was told and did her job. There had been a lot of strange men who came through the house over the next few days, some came and took away the dead stranger and then some had come and tried to take away Vika, but Leader had gotten angry and shouted at them and they had gone away. More of the strangers had come and tried to take Vika away again a few weeks later, but Leader had stopped them again, this time hitting one of them until they left. Then leader and Mother were shouting at each other a lot, smelling scared and angry and sad. Leader had been smelling sad a lot since then, she tried to cheer him up but her usual tricks only seemed to make him sadder than every.

Even if they were all sad and angry a lot they still all loved Vika though, she couldn’t remember getting as many hugs and good noises ever as she had in the last week. She had even been allowed to sleep on the bed with sister, she knew it was because she had been doing such a good job and she felt proud and happy.

And now she was at the place where Leader brought her when she was sick. She didn’t like coming here, it made her scared sometimes when Leader left her here. But he wasn’t leaving her now, he was sitting down with her, letting her rest her head in his lap. Something falling on her face made her open her eyes and she saw there was water running down Leaders face and he smelled sadder than ever. Tired as she was, she lifted her head and licked the salty wetness from one cheek, but then she had to rest her head again, she was feeling so sleepy the way she did some times when she came here. With a deep sigh Vika lowered her head into Leader’s lap and closed her eyes for the last time.