Read an Excerpt
The following is taken from the opening of Part Three of Pack of Shadows, Michael Morrow's debut novel.
Part Three: The Siege
Prologue: Hunger — Thor
The culvert smells like death.
Not the clean death of a quick kill — the slow death of starvation. My pack is scattered around me, ribs showing through patchy fur, eyes hollow. Three of them haven't eaten in five days. The rest are not much better.
I watch them sleep. I do not sleep anymore.
Sleep is for dogs who have forgotten what hunger feels like.
The journey team made it home.
I watched from the ridge as the Doberman and the half-wolf led them into the village. Watched the Poodle collapse in the grass, too exhausted to stand. Watched the others gather around him. The Labrador, the Rottweiler, the Scottish Shepherd, all of them pressing close, touching noses, offering comfort.
Pack, they call themselves.
I used to have a pack like that. Before the plague. Before my human died. Before I learned that loyalty is a weakness and love is a trap.
Now I have this — a collection of desperate dogs who follow me because I am the strongest, because I am the meanest, because I am the only one who can find food.
And I am failing them.
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