The arc was too much. I gritted my teeth and let loose my grip. The rope slipped through my hands, singeing my flesh as it burned through my fingers. My heels hit the grappling hook and I regripped; the pain nearly unbearable as friction ate at my flesh.
Max saw that he could not make the target and there was nothing he could do to change it. But then the Alpha dropped several feet on the rope and Max stretched his neck and turned to the side, allowing a fraction of an inch more, and at the last instant, bit down with all his strength, feeling the familiar texture of flesh and tasting blood and then the incredible impact as his body whipped into the Alpha’s. He heard the Alpha grunt and felt the acceleration as the combined weight and momentum sent the two of them spinning along the rope’s trajectory.
Max hit like a Cruise Missile, clamping down on my upraised arm, his scimitar-like canines slicing through the muscles and skin as though they weren’t there. The awesome, crushing force of his bite, as he closed, stole my breath. It felt like the bones had been crushed. Maybe they had. And then came the impact of his body’s weight, momentum and angle of attack. I turned my shoulder, trying to absorb as much as I could, and still he swung into my ribs and hip, spinning us viciously… and it wasn’t over. I saw the wall coming at us with terrible speed.
Max felt his teeth begin to tear through the Alpha’s muscles and realized, on the instinctual level that dogs realize things, that if they ripped through he would fall. So he ground down until he felt bone and held. But then the battle frenzy started to abate and he began to understand that the Alpha was not calling him to challenge him, but rather he had ordered the attack to save him. So instead of going into the usual thrashing mode that had proved successful on so many occasions, he simply held and waited for the Alpha to finish whatever it was that he was going to do. Once again, Max saw that the Alpha knew exactly what he was doing, and so he acquiesced and assumed the Beta position in the pack. But just barely.
And then Max saw the wall coming at them.
We struck hard, my back and shoulder smashing into the unforgiving brick. I forced all my breath out just before impact, but even then it was a complete shock to my system and I felt myself blacking out. Max bit down harder and the sheer pain brought me around just in time. I gripped the rope with all my strength and looked into Max’s eyes. The panicked death look I’d seen before was gone, replaced with the same fierce determination and indomitable will that I had come to recognize in him.
They hit the wall and a lesser dog would have fallen to his death. But Max was made of sterner stuff than that and maintained his grip, looking into the Alpha’s face. The Alpha grinned.
I grinned and started climbing. Max’s ninety pounds hanging, suspended by his hold on my forearm alone. The power of his bite, all the way down to the bone, kept the muscles and tendons from shredding, but did nothing to ease the pain.
Wrapping my legs around the rope as high as possible and gripping with my heels, I stood up and gained several feet. I repeated this three times, sweat and blood coursing down my face. I’d hit the wall between the ninth and tenth floors and still had maybe four feet to reach window height on the tenth. The windows were also spaced about seven feet to the right and a good twelve feet to the left. I’d have to get a little swinging momentum to make it and my arms were already shaking badly. That, and Max couldn’t hold on forever, jaw and neck muscles can only go so far.
At least he wasn’t thrashing.
Time to suck it up, Marine. I gripped the rope with my free hand, dragged my heels up under my butt, taking hold with my heels and stood up.
42
Max could feel his hold starting to give and crunched down, feeling the Alpha wince, but other than that, he gave no sign. Max no longer had any desire to advance in the Pack. He wanted nothing more than to stop causing pain to the Alpha, but that wasn’t possible now. He had to continue to hold the bite until the Alpha gave him the release command.
Max had killed lesser animals with bites half as deep and couldn’t begin to understand how the Alpha was maintaining consciousness, let alone still fighting, but he was, and in the way that dogs understand, he knew he was trying to save both of their lives. So Max did what he could, by remaining as still as possible as the Alpha pulled them both up the rope.
Inching up the rope with the climbers and one arm, I made it to where I thought I could hit the window. There was no way on earth I could make it to the roof, so it was the window or nothing.
Once in place, I pushed my feet against the wall and walked my way up till I was almost perpendicular. Max’s weight tore at my forearm and I gripped my shirt and harness with that fist to keep him up. If I’d let my arm hang down, his teeth would have shredded down and off, no matter how hard
