Lara had been laughing in the kitchen, slicing mango while humming to some old song on the radio. It was warm, ordinary, peaceful — and then it wasn’t.

Shadow’s ears pinned back.

His tail stiffened like rebar.

His entire body locked.

He didn’t bark.

He didn’t growl.

He launched.

One second Lara was standing. The next, she was slammed against the pantry and sliding toward the floor while my heart detonated inside my chest. Her scream split the room open. Shadow’s paws trapped her ribcage as he buried his muzzle into her stomach, making this frantic, strangled sound I had never heard him make before.

My instincts didn’t analyze.

They attacked….