Puppy Love. Kelly Moran

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      The next thing she knew she was shivering and a cooling cup of cocoa was next to her on the end table. There were mysterious chunks floating in it. Blinking, she straightened. Her mother was asleep in the chair beside her.

      Wow. How long had they been out?

      Taking a moment to stretch before checking on Hailey, she stood and glanced across the room to make sure her mother had turned off the stove. It wouldn't be the first time she'd gotten distracted and forgot. Assured it was off, Avery tried to find the source of the draft circling the room and froze when she spotted the open back door.

      No. God, no.

      “Mom!” Avery screamed, already halfway down the hall. Her heart hammered in sickening panic.

      Hailey's bed was empty.

      No, no, no, no, no…

      Bolting back into the living room, she slammed into her mother and quickly moved around her.

      “What is it?”

      Avery shoved her feet into boots and grabbed her coat. “Hailey's gone. We fell asleep. I didn't secure the door.” A mistake she knew better than to make. Hailey took off way too often. Not to run away, but because she lived inside her head and had no concept of danger.

      Oh, God. Her daughter was out there in the cold, in the middle of nowhere, at night. The region had mountain lions not to mention…

      “Call the police.”

      She ran for the back door and rounded the house, but Hailey wasn't in the car or on the porch. Avery circled back around, fear clawing her throat as she slammed into her mom again.

      “There's footprints.” Mom tied a scarf around her neck. “She went straight into the woods.”

      Avery looked down. A small set of tracks her daughter's size led away from the cabin and deeper into the dense trees. She took off, following the tracks. Cold air rasped her lungs, and her fingers were numb by the time they reached the copse of pine.

      Hailey was so small. She wouldn't make it long exposed to these temperatures. It had to be in the twenties. Hailey couldn't talk, either. If she needed help, she couldn't ask for it. Avery had done her research before the move. She knew the vegetation and wildlife, knew her daughter was at risk for an animal attack and from what animals. Black bears, mountain lions, and bobcats sprang to mind. Hailey wouldn't know how to defend herself.

      Tears blurred her eyes. She quickened her pace to a sprint, kicking up snow in her wake.

      Be okay, sweetie. Be okay.

      The footprints made a hard right and, as they rounded a bend, the breath left her lungs in a whoosh.

      Hailey was sitting on a stump, her back to them. Her pink coat was still on, but she didn't have her hat. The relief was dizzying.

      “Hailey.” Avery circled the stump and squatted. “We talked about this, sweetie. You cannot go running off—”

      There was blood. Lots of blood. At Hailey's feet. On the front of her coat.

      “Where are you hurt? Where are you hurt, sweetie?” She ran her trembling, frozen fingers over Hailey's head, down her neck, to her chest, and stopped.

      A furry, warm head poked out of Hailey's partially opened coat.

      A scream wedged in Avery's throat until she realized it was a dog. No, a puppy. A little, tan-colored fluffy thing. Hailey was rocking it, stroking its head, and jerking her gaze around.

      Recognizing the motions as nervous and scared, Avery kept her voice quiet. Hailey would never hurt a living thing, so she had to have found the animal out here. “You found a doggy. It's okay, Hailey. Is the doggy hurt? Is that where the blood is coming from? Can Mommy see?”

      Gently, she lifted the trembling ball of fur from her daughter's grasp and the poor thing yelped. Surprised by the noise in the quiet night, she fell back on her butt in the snow. It couldn't have been more than six weeks old. Seven pounds, max. Sad, scared brown eyes looked into hers and Avery melted.

      “Well, crap on a cracker. You're adorable.”

      “Avery…its leg.” Mom jerked her chin toward the dog and shoved her hands into her pockets.

      Avery's gaze swept over the animal in the moonlight and eyed what her mother was talking about. The lower half of one of its front legs was severed clean. Blood saturated the fur. Her stomach churned. What could've happened to it?

      Nausea swirled in her gut. “You poor thing.”

      Hailey began rocking in earnest.

      Avery reached over and clasped a hand on her daughter's arm. “It's going to be okay, sweetie.”

      She looked at her mom, at a loss. She'd never had a pet before. It was freezing outside and who knew how long the little guy had been hurt out in the woods or how much blood it had lost. By all the red marring the snow, it seemed like a lot for such a small thing. It didn't have tags or a collar. It was doing little more than whimpering and trembling. She needed to get Hailey out of the elements, too.

      Her mom unwrapped the scarf from her neck and passed it to her. “I'll call the O'Gradys. They own the vet clinic in town. Go. I'll take Hailey back to the cabin—”

      Hailey shot to her feet and grabbed Avery's jacket, a sound of duress escaping her throat even as her gaze darted elsewhere.

      “She wants to come.” She looked at her mom. “Zip her coat, would you? Call the vet. We need to go. This little guy doesn't have long.”

      * * * *

      Cade O'Grady stared at the tiny gray kitten as it sucked milk from the bottle he held. The furball was small enough to fit in one of his hands. Anger surged again, so he blew out a breath and glanced around the small confines of his clinic office.

      It was late, and he'd decided to stay to catch up on some charts. That was two hours ago, and said charts were still in need of dictations. Good thing he'd stayed or the tiny kitten in his hand would've died, just like its mother and siblings.

      What the hell kind of person left a box of kittens outside a clinic door in the snow? Cade had no idea how long they'd been in the elements—someone had dropped them by the kennels outside the back door—but the kitten he was currently feeding was the only survivor. He gnashed his teeth, mad enough to kill the SOB if he ever found him.

      Luckily, the kitten, which looked like a Brazilian Shorthair, was made of strong stuff. She'd taken to feeding right away and didn't need an IV. In his exam, the temp and BP had been good, all things considered, and he found no outward signs of trouble.

      Closing his eyes, he listened to the answering machine kick on from the reception desk outside his office. If it were an emergency, he'd be paged, since it was his week on call. Animal Instincts was a small clinic, started by his father forty years ago and run by Cade and his two brothers since the old man had passed away. Almost nine years now. Hard to believe.

      The bottle empty, he set it on his desk and eyed the kitten. “You are a cute little bugger.”

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