Chapter 4

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Flare

Flare

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A week passed by faster than a sunset turning dark, all the while her stomach twisting and turning in a horrifying cold certainty.

She now knew what breeding was, and she knew that it was expected of the female dogs in the yard.

Across the yard on evenings when it wasn't hot, Mocha and Grey dog went behind the dog houses for privacy. Flare didn't get to see much of what they were doing, but she wasn't all that interested anyways. Just morbidly repulsed.

Jax had fought Grey Dog a number of times, with feirce attitude and snarling stances at an attempt to show his raw power. Though the male was small, he had in turn left quite a few bites on Grey Dog's neck in the past week. And White Dog hadn't done anything... Which was strange to Flare. Perhaps he respected Mocha and Grey Dog as a pair, but not Grey Dog alone. What sense does that make?

Although rare, there was times when the proclaimed mates came to the middle of The Yard to drink or smell the area around it. Grey dog was almost always close to Mocha's flank. Flare turned away at the first sign of it every time, disgusted that Mocha seemed willing to breed with the controlling male dog. Why wasn't it an option for her to not have puppies, if she didn't want to?

She was more aware than ever of how she was getting older. Grey Dog's authoritive control over Mocha and the breeding rights had not distracted Flare from her own aging. The dog's legs and tail had grown longer, and her pelt no longer had any downy puppy fur.

The male dog's urine scents were more pungent than ever in spring. So Flare had also become more aware of things than she ever was before, especially the smells of the other dogs. Mocha's scent was present even know, even though she couldn't pinpoint it exactly because the wind was swirling around.

Jax began to approach her out of the darkness. The hazy street lamps hanging over the yard's fecetops flickered and buzzed with milling insects.

Flare's eyes flicked right past Jax and towards the others, even as he muttered a greeting. The short dog rudely stepped on her paw, but she ignored it.

Mocha was now near the back fence and for once, Grey Dog was picking his way through the piles of feces towards his tire. It was hard to see the both of them with hardly a sliver of light touching the yard.

Jax followed her gaze.

"Oh, Mocha and Grey Dog. He's stopped following Mocha around this evening because they're done breeding, and now Mocha will have her litter of puppies soon," he chattered on eagerly as if he was proud to know so much about what was going on in the yard.

"It's not fair, that I didn't get the chance to. As soon as I smelled her, I wanted to like any other male!" He sounded resentful as his neck-fur rose the slightest. Flare gave him a nervous look through her golden-brown eyes as she laid her head on her paws. What if Grey Dog hears that? She hated when Jax spoke so bluntly, and once he started he usually went on forever.

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