War Dog

Chapter 25

Ghost rubbed his wrists once Shaista had cut the flex cuffs off of him.  He rolled his head side to side, his neck cracking with the movement. Then he knelt and removed the muzzle from my face. One of the men stepped forward as if to stop Ghost but Shaista gestured for him to remain still. The muzzle dropped to the floor and Ghost ran his hands along my jawline rubbing it gently, his fingers lightly running over the whip mark on my cheek left by Shaista's handbag strap. My eyes closed as I felt the comforting pressure of his fingers easing a deep unsettled unease and I release a low growl deep in my chest humming through me as I press harder into his fingers. "Easy there, Wolf," he murmurs, hands sliding down to my back and giving me a good scruff. 

"Ready when you are, Ghost," Shaista purrs, her tone of voice making it clear to move now. Ghost stands up, my leash in hand and begins to lead me from the plane. We step out onto the tarmac, and I am back in Afghanistan, but not Kabul this time. Shaista's men gestured for us to follow them over to a big black SUV. Ghost slipped into the front seat, positioning me between his legs on the floor, my head resting on his lap to give us both the best amount of room in the space available. Once he was buckled in, his hand came down on top of my hand and absently began to scratch behind my ear, the feeling bring him a sense of ease and comfort. My tail hit the sides of the legs space as it wagged with a thump thump thump. 

Shaista sat in the back, one of her men sat in the back with her, the rest followed in a second SUV. The clicking of Shaista's manicured nails against the keyboard of her tablet filled the silence of the car. We drove like that for an hour before pulling up to a manned gate. The driver wound the window down, flashed a badge to the guard and the gate began to open, letting us drive through smoothly. 

We pulled up to the compound and stepped out of the car. I stretched with a low purring growl as my spine popped and stepped up next to Ghost, ready and alert to action. My ears flicked picking up noises and conversations I couldn't understand. One of Shaista's men approached us and gestured for us to follow him. He led us through long hallways and into their barracks. Fortunately he led us to a private quarters. Ghost pushed open the door and let us in. My ears flicked as I picked up a slight humming sound, almost imperceptible to even me. Sounded similar to how I could detect an incoming message or phone call before the phone rang. 

I followed the sound ignoring Ghosts silent tells to remain by his side. I followed the sound to where it was strongest, in the desk and nudged the desk with my nose before sitting and looking at Ghost expectantly and flicked my ears meaningfully at him. He nodded, imperceptibly acknowledging my find. We had suspected we'd be bugged, so nothing new but it was good to know for sure. I moved easily back to Ghost and he knelt down and released the collar around my throat, and took off the harness too. I shook my body like a typical dog might and grinned wolfishly, tongue lolling out pleased to finally be free of my equipment. 

"You've done well, pup." Ghost murmered, his hands again find my body and gives me a good scratch all over with a slight thump. His hands then gently find the makeshift bandages at my neck and tentatively pulls them off, the strips he'd used as pads sticking firmly to my skin, the blood clotting into the cloth. "Fuck." He growled standing up. "Come on pup, you need to hop in the shower. I baulked at the thought of getting my fur wet and not being able to get dry easily. "You don't have a choice pup, get in the shower." I growled at him, but walked towards the ensuite and stepped into the shower, frowning at Ghost.

He sighed. "Pup, we need to moisten the fabric so I don't go completely re-opening your wounds. I'll dry you off as good as I can so you're not walking around smelling like wet dog." 

He turned the shower on, the cold water immediately soaking me through. I leap out of the shower with a yelp, glaring daggers at Ghost. "Sorry, sorry.." The amusement flowing through him mingled with his apology telling me he was sincere, but had found my response amusing. "You got shot with less reaction than that, you big sook." I huffed at him while I sat shivering from the cold water soaking me through. He raised his hands in surrender and changed the temperature to be warmer. I tested it with my hand and finding it moderately more satisfactory I stepped into the shower. Not knowing if we had video bugs planted alongside the audio ones was a pain in the ass, having to keep up the charade even in private. I let the water soak through my fur and shook my head, water splattering everywhere including over Ghost. He stood there, hands up soaked through looking defeated. "Happy now?" He asked now unamused. I gave him a whuffing laugh, grinning at him. He shook his head and removed his gloves, sliding his sleeves up past his elbows. I examined his arms, noticing one side had burn marks all the way from wrist to under his sleeves. It was the first time he'd revealed more than just his hands to me and I discreetly looked over the scaring wondering how the hell he'd gotten burned so badly. He pulled his mask off too and chucked it to the side and his hands ladled water onto the strips of fabric, soaking them so he could ease them away from my neck without damaging the clotting too badly. He gently pulled away the fabric and inspected my neck carefully, a soft frown creasing his expression as he looked at the wounds. "If I ever get my hands on König, I'm going to kill him." He muttered darkly. I took the opportunity to lick his cheek, he looked at me darkly. "Really whelp?" He rolled his eyes, shoulder coming up to wipe away the saliva left behind. I grinned at him with a cheeky glint to my eyes. 

With the bandages all removed, he pumped some shampoo into his hands and lathered me down, the situation oddly intimate. My nose scrunched up at the sickeningly thick smell of the generic shampoo that had been supplied. "Hmmm, we'll have to minimise how wet and dirty you get here," Ghost mused, noticing my distaste for the shampoo. "Either that, or you'll just have to such it up, pup. We don't have much choice." He rinsed his hands under the shower head, and then proceeded to wash the shampoo out of my fur, being careful to protect my eyes. He grabbed the conditioner, and ran that through my fur, giving it a couple of minutes to sit and settle before rinsing that off too. 

Stepping out of the shower feeling clean and refreshed, Ghost grabbed one of the towels and dried me off, paying attention to my hair, making sure I wasn't left dripping water everywhere. The towel was drenched by the time he was done, and I still felt damp. I was almost tempted to go outside and dry off in the heat, but I didn't want sand sticking to my damp fur. Instead, I found a spot on the floor to curl up on until I dried, nose to tail and promptly fell asleep.

The door clicked open a couple hours later, and Ghost came into the room, jostling me awake. I blinked, confused about where I was and why I was on the floor. "Pup," Ghost said softly, his mask firmly back into place. "I managed to convince someone to lend me a first aid kit." I yawned and stood walking lazily over to where Ghost sat on the bed. I sat down in front of him, and he leaned over inspecting my wounds again. He pulled out an electric razor and I backed away from him growling. "Pup, I need to clear the wound, you have too much fur in the way. I don't want to shave you down either, but it needs to happen. Come here." I dropped my head with a huff knowing he was right. He pulled a bin over underneath my head to capture most of the fur he cut. He tied my hair up out of the way so that wouldn't get caught in the war of razor versus fur and he got to work, carefully cutting around the wounds. 

When he was done, I had a ring of bare skin around my neck, wounds on clear display. He pulled out some antiseptic and cleaned over the wounds, trying to kill any bacteria that had been allowed to fester. The solution stung and I hissed slightly at the bite of it. He grabbed out a dressing and stuck a small dressing to each of the wounds all around my neck. "Up on the bed, Wolf, let me have a look at the wound on your stomach. I'm sure the vet we found would be pissed off if I let you fester and die after he went through all that effort of fixing you up." I jumped up onto the bed effortlessly and then had a moment of realisation. I was likely going to have lay in an undignified position for Ghost to reach my stomach where the wound was, in case there were cameras in the room watching us. I sighed internally, lay down and rolled over, legs and arms in the air, just like a dog would on it's back. The one big downside to supposedly being completely feral was having to act just like a wolf or a dog in every action.

Ghost looks down at me for a brief second, confusion washing through him. I give a soft little yip with a tail wag. I'm hoping the additions of the typical wolf like attributes give him a hint of why my legs are in the air. Understanding seems to come to him and he begins to remove the bandage from my stomach. His fingers run around the edge of the wound, checking for any swelling or internal problems. He cleans that wound, happy that the stitches held despite König's rough treatment of me. His gentle fingers deftly bandage that wound again and I roll back onto my side.

"You've held up well despite the last couple of days, little wolf." He packs away the items back into the first aid kit and leaves it on the floor near the door. I give a soft little whuff in acknowledgement, still curled up on my side on the bed. Ghost joined me on the bed, long frame stretching out, booted feet hanging over the edge, hands under his head. Sensing that Ghost is right on the edge of the bed, I stretch out on my stomach and move over giving him room to shift. 

"Not much to be doing, but at least it's better than being in a cell somewhere." His hand reaches down to rest on my head, fingers scratching behind my ears. I bob my head slightly under his fingers and then rest my head on my paws. "It's nice to have some company too, even if you can't talk back. Though, if we're kept here without anything to engage us for too long, we might have to do some additional training to keep sharp. We're allowed out of the room, but they really do not take kindly to us wandering around, so we're pretty much confined here unless we have a reason for walking around." 

I huff in annoyance with a slight eye roll, but Ghosts fingers scratching behind my ears in combination with laying on the bed lulls me back into a light doze, my body still recovering from the bullet wound, and now the additional holes in my neck from the spikes on the collar. We stay like that for several hours, content with the silence and the company of each other while we wait for something to happen.