He thought he was stopping for a stray dog in the snow-until he saw what she was hiding beneath her body

the snow. The cold soaked through his jeans almost instantly. Up close, the dog looked worse than he had thought. Ice had crusted along the fur beneath her chin. Her hip bones showed like knobs beneath a blanket. A shallow, uneven scrape darkened one side of her neck, half hidden under dirt and frost.

“I’m not here to take them from you,” he murmured.continue reading …