In the Dog House

“Now you be good while we’re gone,” spoke a feminine voice. The owner of the voice was a middle-aged woman in lavish attire. Her high heels clicked on the marble floor as she walked towards the front door.

“He better be. The money we paid for him,” said her husband. He was several years older and wearing a very fine suit that matched her flashy evening gown.

Sitting before the two of them was a large, black dog with tan markings.

A Doberman pinscher.

He didn’t look like a typical Doberman. His ears were floppy, similar to the ears of a Labrador retriever, and his tail was long, curling over his back when he stood. Despite his lack of a traditional Doberman appearance, he was still a force to be reckoned with. Large and muscular, with strong jaws and sharp teeth. There was a menacing look about him that would make any intruder think twice before robbing this house.

“Well, he’s been a perfect angel so far, haven’t you, Kade?” the woman said, stroking her hand gently over the dog’s head.

Kade wagged his tail in response.

The man stepped over to the security panel and punched in the code, setting the alarm. “Com’on, honey.”

He held the door for her, then followed her out. The dog didn’t move. Not a muscle. He sat as still as a statue. Perfectly obedient.

The front door was oversized and decorated with elegant carvings. On each side of the door were tall panel windows. The wooden door made a statement, just like the marble floors and the arched ceiling of the foyer. The homeowners wanted everyone to know they had money. Lots of it.

The sound of a car starting outside finally triggered Kade to move. He approached one of the windows beside the door and watched as the car pulled out of the driveway. The car disappeared down the road and Kade sat, peering through the glass. The dusk sky faded into the full blackness of night, and still he sat. Waiting. Until a black van pulled into the driveway.

Kade watched as the sliding door was yanked open and several people climbed out. He didn’t bark. He didn’t even produce a growl. Instead, he left the window and trotted over to the security panel.

Something happened to the dog then. His body began to shift. His canine form twisted and cracked, and a minute later, he was no longer a dog at all. He was a full-grown man.

Kade had become Kayden.

As a man, he stood two inches shy of six feet. He had short, dark brown hair and blue eyes. Like the dog, his build was lean and well-muscled. With washboard abs and perfectly sculpted biceps, he looked like something from a magazine ad.

He was also buck naked.

He punched in the security code and the alarm was deactivated. Pulling open the door, he allowed the intruders to come inside. There were five of them. Three women and two men, all wearing black.

“Get dressed, will ya?” one of them said, tossing Kayden some clothes. He had a thick Irish accent that sounded very out of place considering they were in Texas.

Kayden grinned as he started pulling on the clothes. “They won’t be back for several hours. All the good stuff is in their room.”

“Show me,” said a tiny woman. Out of all of them, she was the smallest, standing at a mere 5’1”. She was also the leader of the group. “Lola, Max, grab what you can find down here. Nori, Liam, check the other rooms upstairs. Be quick. Take anything that looks expensive,” Mina instructed them.

Kayden pulled his shirt over his head, and with Mina, he started for the stairway. The group worked quickly and efficiently, making it clear they had done this before. They cleaned the house out of anything valuable. Jewelry, clothes, decor, and art. Electronics like tablets and laptop computers. Blu-ray players. Speakers. Small kitchen appliances. They would have taken the 70-inch flatscreen TV if they had the room for it. The van was loaded up to the brim.

When they were finished, the van disappeared as easily as it had arrived. They headed to an industrial part of the city, where an old warehouse sat surrounded by a chain-link fence. On the entrance gate was a large sign that read ‘Premier Protection Dogs’ in bold black letters. A contact number was written under the letters.

Max climbed out of the van and pulled open the gate. He then jogged to the building to push up the warehouse’s large garage-style door. The van rolled inside.

“Whatta haul!” exclaimed Liam.

He was the first out of the van. Lola and Nori followed after him, then Kayden.

“Tell me about it! Some of those necklaces alone are worth a few grand!” said Nori. She was a thin girl with a runner’s build. Her hair was red and styled in a pixie cut.

“Don’t get too excited, guys,” Mina said, carefully climbing down from the driver’s seat. She literally had to climb because her legs were too short to properly step down like everyone else. “You know we gotta be careful. Spread this stuff out. It’s gonna take time to get the cash.”

“Sounds good to me. I’m done playing someone’s pet for a while,” Kayden said. He strode away from the van and over to the corner of the wide room. There was a mini fridge located there, where he grabbed a bottle of water. He was always thirsty after a shift. He threw his head back and downed half the bottle.

“Same here, brother,” said Liam, slapping a hand against Kayden’s shoulder.

The rough action made Kayden dribble water down his chin. He narrowed his eyes slightly, using his arm to wipe his face.

Liam plucked a bottle of beer from the fridge. While Mina was the shortest of the group, Liam was the tallest. He stood at 6’4” and he towered over them all. It was a height that suited him. His shifted form was a Great Dane.

Liam popped the lid off of the beer with his thumb, then took a swig. “Those last wankers were talkin’ about takin’ me balls.”

That comment wiped the sour look from Kayden’s face. He chuckled. “Might do you some good.”

“Do me some good, eh? Remind me, Mina, next time we sell ‘em off, I’m gonna recommend a neuterin’ straight away,” Liam said, jutting his beer in the direction of Mina.

“Ain’t no one touchin’ my balls,” Kayden replied, pointing a finger at Liam, then shooting a determined expression around the room at the rest of them. “It’s bad enough that they always want to cut off my ears and tail.”

“That’s ‘cause you look like a fookin’ hound dog wit’ ‘em,” Liam teased.

Kayden narrowed his eyes and tossed his water bottle at him. The bottle still had some water in it. It splashed all over Liam’s chest.

“Ya fookin’ cunt! Now look what you’re after makin’ me do!” he said, his Irish accent in full force.

When Kayden first met him, he could barely understand a word he said. Now he understood him perfectly.

“You started it,” he said with a smirk.

Liam put his beer down on the fridge and stomped towards him. He wrapped his large arm around Kayden’s neck and instinctively Kayden put his arms around his waist in return.

“Get off!”

“I got ya on the karate now, youse prick!” Liam exclaimed.

The two of them squirmed around in a battle that was comical and not at all serious. The others didn’t try to break it up, instead they laughed at how stupid they looked. They were used to their shenanigans.

“Guys, knock it off!” Mina’s voice came out stern.

Liam loosened his hold and Kayden yanked himself away from him. His face was red from having his neck squeezed and his hair was messy atop his head. He let out a frustrated sigh and attempted to straighten his hair.

“Kayden, I need to talk to you,” Mina said, nodding towards her office.

He watched her walk off, hesitated a moment, then reluctantly followed after her.

Her office was a small room with a desk and a couple of chairs in front of it. She plopped down behind her desk, clearly expecting him to have a seat too. He did what she wanted.

“What’s this about?” he asked.

“I need you to hear me out. I know you said you were done playing pet but a guy called today…” she started.

Before she could finish, Kayden was standing up.

“No. I’m not doing it. Ask someone else,” he said in defiance. He just got off a job and now she wanted him to go on another one? She had to know he was going to refuse.

“I said hear me out,” she replied. Her tone matched the irritated look on her face. “Sit back down.”

There was a hierarchy in their group. A sort of unspoken dynamic like a pack of real dogs. Mina was the boss. The leader. She called the shots and the rest of them followed her lead. Without even thinking about it, he sat back down.

“I wouldn’t even be asking you but the guy was very specific. He wants a Doberman,” she said.

Kayden frowned at her from across the desk.

“He’s a bank manager, Kayden. This guy will have access to security codes, bank accounts. If you do this, it could very well be the last job we ever have to do. Think about it.”

A bank manager? Shit, they had never hit a bank before. That was big time. That was risky. They stuck to houses for a reason. Houses were safe; they were easy. How would they even go about robbing a bank? Dogs weren’t allowed in banks. They couldn’t sneak in. They would have to do it in their human forms. And that meant risking their identities.

“I don’t know. We’ve never taken that kind of risk before,” he said.

“We’ve never had the opportunity,” Mina quickly replied.

She looked at him with her round face, her big brown eyes, and her blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. To a stranger, she wouldn’t look intimidating. Kayden knew her for the powerful woman that she was. And this woman was serious. She actually wanted to rob a bank.

“You really think we can pull it off?” he asked, still on the fence.

“I know we can,” she said confidently. “You become this guy’s dog. You freakin’ become man’s best friend to this guy and it’s not gonna be long before you’ll have access to everything we need. No one’s gonna suspect the dog.”

Kayden’s expression didn’t falter. Mina made it sound simple, but he knew better. Yes, it was easier to gain access to things like that as a dog, but this wasn’t as simple as deactivating a home security system. This was a bank. He would need to be in the room at the right time. He would need to be able to get a glance at documents. It’s not like he could get into the man’s emails with dog paws! And he doubted the guy had codes just lying around his house. Doing this wasn’t going to be at all easy. It was probably going to be the hardest job he had ever done.

“I need some time. To think about it,” he finally said.

“The guy wants to come in tomorrow.”

“Fucking tomorrow, Mina?!” he yelled, rising to his feet.

“Kayden, don’t take that tone with me,” Mina snapped.

She fixed him with a glare that instinctively made him look away.

“And he’s set on a Doberman? What about Lola or Liam?” he asked.

“Guy had a Doberman growing up. It’s what he wants.”

A sigh escaped him. “Alright. I’ll let you know in the morning.”

Mina stood from her desk. She came up beside him and he felt her hand on his arm.

“I know I’m asking a lot, but this could be it. We could all be set for life. No more jobs, no more pretending to be people’s pets. We could live the high life for the rest of our lives. You can’t tell me you don’t want that?” she said.

When she put it that way, she did make it sound tempting. But she wasn’t the one that had to do the dirty work, was she? She wasn’t the one that had to suffer pets on the head, collars, leashes, baby talk, and belly rubs.

“I’ll let you know,” he said again, then turned and left the room.

The gang transferred all of their stolen goods into a storage room. Mina didn’t mention the job to the others and he didn’t either. When it was time to call it a night, he bid everyone goodbye and left the warehouse. Later that night, when he was turning in for bed, he thought about what Mina said and what this job could mean for them.

The six of them got by on the home robberies they did. They made enough money to live comfortably, but it never lasted long. Separating a score between six people didn’t leave a lot to go around, depending on the size of the take. Could they actually pull off a bank? Could this be the big break to set them for life?

He tossed and turned in his bed, weighing the risk versus reward. Eventually, he reached for his phone on his nightstand.

I’ll do it. He tapped the send button, then rolled over to finally get some sleep.