[Prologue]
Samuel, despite his fierce and imposing appearance, was actually quite the sweetheart. He was deemed useless as a sled dog and even more so as a hunting dog due to his mild and bland demeanor.
So, he was sent to the pound, where he was then adopted by the Remington family. He never once offered to bite or growl, and instead played with Jamie and Richard Remington's baby daughter gently and kindly. For the first three years of Samuel's life, things were great. But then, something unthinkable happened.
. . .
Samuel's nose twitched. He could smell something off. It was the middle of a cold November night in the City, and Jamie, Richard, and Amy Remington were all comfortably asleep in their beds. Amy was three years old now, the same age as Samuel, and they still enjoyed playing together and doing almost everything together.
But the smell was growing stronger with each second passing by as Samuel laid in his dog bed by the kitchen, and finally he couldn't help investigating. He perked up his long ears, looking around with wide dark brown eyes. Samuel stood silently, padding across the kitchen tile and peeking through the doorway out into the empty living room.
The smell was steadily getting closer. It had a sharp tang to it, but was also unbearably sweet. Samuel started to growl, low and intimidating, for one of the first times in his life. But his growls didn't have time to escalate, because before the dark colored dog knew it, there was a wet cloth over his nose—accompanied with the horrible tangy smell— and a prick in his neck, and the dark living room dipped and swayed as the drug slowly overtook him.
