“Can you move him two inches toward the child’s feet?”
I slid my hand under his harness.
The moment his weight shifted, the snake struck.
Its body snapped forward with terrifying speed.
Titan barked once and drove his shoulder down, keeping Emily flat.
The strike stopped short of his muzzle by inches.
The animal control hook moved in.
The snake recoiled, twisted, and struck at the metal. The officer guided the body away from Emily, lifted it clear, and lowered it into the transport box.
The lid locked.
Only then did I breathe.
“Titan. Off.”
He stepped away immediately.
Perfect obedience.
As if the previous minute had never happened.
Emily’s mother collapsed over her daughter. Paramedics rushed in. The man with the branch dropped it and covered his face.
I stayed on my knees beside Titan.
My hands shook against his neck.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
He licked my chin.
That made it worse.
Paramedics found no bite. Emily had bruising from the tackle and a scrape on one wrist. Titan had a shallow abrasion on one paw where frozen gravel had cut between the pads, nothing more.
He had saved her.
I had ordered him shot.
Both facts were true.
That contradiction became the part I could not escape.
Emily’s mother, Karen, came to me after the ambulance crew finished checking her daughter.
Her face was blotched from crying.
“I hit you.”
I looked at her.
“What?”
