“Bounty! Get your ass in here, right now!” Captain Basset couldn’t believe that another officer was filing a complaint against Julia.

“What’s up, Captain?” Julia closes the door behind her.

“What did you say to Sergeant Bronx the other day?”

Julia looks at her Captain with a puzzled look on her face. She had no idea who Sergeant Bronx was.

“I have no idea who you are talking about, captain.”

“You don’t recall an altercation you had the other day out in the parking lot?”

“Oh, you mean that big blow heart that made a remark about K-9 officers not being real cops? The same guy that takes up two parking space, because he has a new car? Yeah, I recall him. However, I didn’t know his name was Sergeant Bronx.” Julia recalled him from yesterday.

“Well, he filed a complaint against you. He said that you threaten to blow his car up and sic Sphinx on him.”

A sly smile appears on her face “well with Sphinx chasing him around the parking lot, he might lose some weight. As for blowing his car up, it might free a parking space up.”

Captain Basset just shakes his head. He knew Julia could have been a little meaner or followed through with her threat to blow Sergeant Bronx car up. She always carries through with her promises.

“Well, you need to tiptoe around Sergeant Bronx, Julia. He has it out for you.”

“Well, he knows where to find me and Sphinx then.”

Captain Basset couldn’t believe Julia said that “you really don’t fear anyone, do you?”

“Actually Captain, there are two people, I respect and fear. I fear my father because he is one of the most dangerous persons around. The second person I fear is his partner. She’s is as dangerous if not more dangerous than my father.” Julia knew her father and her Aunt Cheshire could kill every cop in her precinct.

Captain Basset knew Mr. Bounty was a government agent, but he has never met his partner. He didn’t even know he had one. After meeting Mr. Bounty a few times, that he was a dangerous man.

Julia heads back to her desk and tosses Sphinx a treat. He had stayed laying by her desk, while she was with the Captain. She needed to catch up on some paperwork she has been ignoring. She loved being a cop but hated all the paperwork she had to do. Once she has her paperwork all done.

“Come on Sphinx, let's go and get some lunch.” She grabs her purse and keys.

Sphinx gets up and follows Julia out of the police precinct. She heads over to her SUV and opens the door for Sphinx to climb in. She gets in the driver seat and heads towards her favorite sub shop. She pulls up into the parking space.

“Do you want your normal, Sphinx?” Julia looks at her companion and partner.

Sphinx just thumps his tail on the seat.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Julia pulls a twenty from her purse and heads inside the sub shop.

She left the SUV running for Sphinx, while she goes into the sub shop. She spots Pedro working behind the counter, with a new female employee. She had bright neon pink hair, fair skin and was almost as tall as Pedro.

“Who’s your new employee, Pedro?” Julia walks up to the counter.

“Hey, Julia. This is Shelly Snow, today is her first day.” He turns towards Shelly “this is one of my favorite police officers. Officer Julia Bounty.
She’s a K-9 officer. You should meet her partner.” Pedro met Sphinx once and was frightened of him.

He had never seen a wolf as big as him. He knows Julia had him out in the SUV. If he came in, the patrons would be scared of him.

“Nice to meet you, Shelly.” Julia had taken her sunglasses off and hung them from her pocket.

Shelly couldn’t believe she was looking at a younger Charisma Carpenter. She had the Buffy The Vampire series and Angel series at home.

“You look just like Charisma Carpenter. Are you related to her?” Shelly couldn’t believe it.

“Nope, no relation at all. I was just lucky to be born looking like her.” Julia didn’t see any reason to tell Shelly the true reason, she looked like the actress.

“So, Julia what can we get you today?”

“I would like an Italian sub and the usual for Sphinx.” Julia knew Sphinx liked the steak sub.

“Double the meat on his, I presume?” Pedro knew Sphinx loved meat.

“Yep, hold the onions and peppers. He gets gas every time I feed him green peppers.” Julia didn’t feel like being gas to death by Sphinx all day.

“No problem.” Pedro shows Shelly how to fix Julia’s and Sphinx’s sandwiches.

Julia grabs a large soda, a bag of chips and bottle water for Sphinx. She had his portable water bowl with her to pour the water in. She wonders what her sister and father were doing in New York. She knew Anika and her people were coming home, but all her father said was that he had business in New York.

“Here you go, Julia.” As Pedro's hands Julia her order.

“Thanks. How much do I owe you?” Julia pulls the twenty she had in her pocket out.

“$14.50.” Pedro would give the meal to Julia for free, but the last time he offered. Julia told him she couldn’t accept it, because of the new
police policy.

Julia hands over the twenty she brought in with her to Pedro. She watches as he rings her up and counts out the change.

“Here, take this for you and Shelly.” She hands four dollars back to Pedro and pocket the quarters for Haylee.

“Thanks.” Pedro hands Shelly her share.

Julia heads back out to her SUV and gets in. She places her drink in the cup holder, before backing out of the parking spot. She heads towards the nearest park to sit and have lunch. Julia knew Sphinx would enjoy it.

She finds a nice place to park and eat her lunch while observing traffic. People will think she is there to ticket them, but all she is doing is eating her lunch.

“Alright Sphinx, I got you your favorite.” Julia unwraps Sphinx’s sub and put it in the back for him. She also pours some water into his portable bowl.

She watches the traffic as she eats her lunch. She wonders why Sergeant Bronx had such a hard-on against her. She glances in her rearview mirror to watch Sphinx scruff down his lunch down. She couldn’t wait, till his clone arrives. She wonders if that is the business her father was tending too.

As Julia is eating her lunch “4-Adam-12 to dispatch. I need a K-9 unit at 1545 Valley Drive.”

“4-Adam-21 to dispatch. I’m only a few blocks away. I’ll take the call.” Julia rewraps the other half of her sub.

“Alright 4-Adam-21.”

Julia puts her SUV in reverse and backs out of the parking space was parked in and drives over to the address. She knew the address was near the warehouse district. The first time she and Sphinx had gone there, four people tried to kill her and Sphinx.

When she arrives at the address, she spots three patrol cars already there. She pulls up next to one of the patrol cars and gets out.

“What’s up, guys?” Julia was happy she had her heavy coat on. It was cold out.

“We got three suspects that ran inside. All exists have been covered.” Officer Newton, his partner, and the other two officers and their partners were covering the other two exists.

“Are they armed, Officer Newton.” Julia and Officer Newton start walking toward the main entrance.

“Not that we know of.” Newton didn’t see any weapons on them.

“Alright.” Julia walks up to the main door and found it unlocked.

She opens the door slowly and let Sphinx go in first. After he goes in, she follows with Newton behind her.

“Feuch!”

Sphinx starts sniffing as he dashes inside the building. Julia follows behind him as he seeks out his prey. Julia was getting Déjà vu as memories of her doing this exact same thing in Memphis surface.

She snaps out of it as Sphinx finds the first person. He was growling at what uses to be the Men’s bathroom.

“Come out with your hands raised high. If you don’t I’m sending my wolf in to get you.” Julia and Newton both had their guns drawn.

Newton and Julia wait for the person to come out, but they didn’t. Newton pushes on the door, but it was locked.

“Stand aside Newton.” Julia holsters her weapon and stands back some.

She does a roundhouse kick to the door, tearing it off the hinges. Just as the door falls inward, Sphinx leaps up and over it into the bathroom. He chases the suspect into one of the stalls.

Richard Harrington had run into the bathroom hoping he could slip out a window or something. When he heard a female voice telling him to come out with his hands up and the growling of a dog. He knew he messed up because he was trapped. He couldn’t get caught again with the drugs he had on him. It would be his third time.

He couldn’t flush the drugs down the toilet, because there wasn’t any water in the toilets. He heard the dog growling on the other side of the door and he didn’t know what to do. He jumps when the door came crashing inward off the hinges. The next thing he saw was a huge dog jumping towards him. He ran into the nearest stall and stood on top of the porcelain toilet.

It was the biggest dog he had ever seen. The thing was black with a grey mask patch around his eyes and the tip of his ears. Its ears were laid back and growling at him with pure white teeth.

“Sàil!” Julia comes and stands next to Sphinx.

Newton watches as Julia gets her wolf under control. He has seen the dogs they use on the force, but never a wolf. Even he was afraid to get
close to it. He spots a young Latino teenage boy standing on the toilet, trying to stay out of reach of the wolf.

“Come on down, with your hands up in the air.” Newton puts his weapon away.

“Not, till you get that damn wolf away from me.” Richard watches the wolf as it looked at him like he was dinner.

“Officer Bounty, can you please move your wolf away from here?” Newton looks at Julia, while also looking at the teenage boy.

“Sure thing.” Julia motions with her hand for Sphinx to come with her.

Richard watches as the woman police officer and the wolf moves away from him and the other officer. He slowly comes down off the toilet with his hands high in the air.

Julia keys her mike “we have one suspect in custody, moving on to find the others.”

Julia looks down at Sphinx “Feuch!”

Sphinx runs off and looks for the second one. He finds the second suspect, trying to run out the main entrance. Sphinx caught the other Latino teenager by his right arm and took him down. Luis thought he could sneak out before they caught him, but he didn’t count on the big ass dog that came out of nowhere and grab his right arm. Just the weight of the dog along was enough to throw him off balance and drag him down.
Julia runs after Sphinx after she heard the screaming sound of a person. When she gets to where the screams were coming from. She spots Sphinx with his jaws around another Latino teenage boy. There was also white powered covering the young man and Sphinx.

“Sàil!” Julia hopes it’s not what she thinks it is.

Sphinx backs off and shakes his head. The powered had gotten all over him. It was in his fur, eyes, and face. Julia approaches Sphinx cautiously. She doesn’t know how he is going to react to the drugs covering his face and body.

Julia pulls Sphinx away from the teenager and handcuffs the teenager. She reaches into her pocket and takes some wet napkins out to clean his face and nose. The last time he got a whiff of cocaine, he went nuts. Her father had suggested she carries a package of them in her pocket to clear his face and nose.

“Easy boy, I’m just getting this mess off your face.” As she uses another napkin to clear his nose.

Officer Collins came in after Officer Newton came out with his perp. He spots Julia over near a down teenager with blood on his right arm and covered in white powder. As he gets closer, he notices that Sphinx was covered in white powder and Julia was cleaning his face.

“Is he going to be alright?” Officer Collins has seen what drugs could do to animals like Julia’s wolf.

“He’ll be fine. If he inhaled any, he might become a little meaner.” Julia hopes Sphinx didn’t inhale any of the cocaine.

Officer Collins picks the perp up that Julia and her wolf took down. He looks at Julia “do you think he’ll be able to find the third suspect?”

“You couldn’t stop him.” Julia scratches Sphinx between his ears.

“Feuch!” Julia and Sphinx move away from cocaine and starts looking for the third person.

Julia notices that sphinx picked up on a scent and starts to follow it. Just as they were getting close to what must have been the cardboard compactor. A bullet hits near Julia’s head. Sphinx was growling as he charges towards the area where the bullet came from.

Julia follows behind him and she spots the shooter. He was pointing his weapon towards Sphinx. She pulls her police issue.357 SIG Sauer P229R “put your weapon down!”

Diego saw the huge dog coming towards him and was about to shoot it when he heard a female voice. He pointed his gun at her and could see she had a gun pointed at him. He saw the dog leaping towards him and just before he could shoot the dog. He felt and heard as a bullet hit his body.

A second shot sounded as Julia fired at the young teenage boy’s chest. He was about to shoot Sphinx and she had to react fast.

“Thig!” Julia holsters her weapon and walks over to the boy.

Julia felt bad that she had to shoot him. He looked to be around Alyona’s age.

“4-Adam-21 to dispatch. I’m going to need the coroner sent to my location.” Julia couldn’t believe that he would rather die, instead of being sent to juvie.

Officer Newton heard what Julia asked over the radio and rushes to her location. He sees her staring at a young Latino teenage boy she just shot. He also notices Sphinx sitting next to her.

“How did it happen, Officer Bounty?” He walks over to her.

“He was about to shoot Sphinx. I tried to give him a chance to surrender, but it was too late.” She was getting tired of killing kids that were her sister’s age.

When she was down in California, she was forced to kill at least eight gang members in their early and late teens. She wonders if her father has ever had to kill people around Silvia and Alyona ages before.

“You had your cam on, didn’t you?” Newton knew a few officers who would turn theirs off.

“Yeah, mine was on and so was Sphinx’s.” Julia put a body cam on Sphinx so, there couldn’t be any questions about his takedown.

Julia walks back to her SUV, after giving her account of what happened. She glances at the time and notices she had to go and pick up her sister’s, niece and daughter at school. Normally, they would ride home with Gina or with Christmas. She heads towards their school.

Haylee, Arabella, Alyona, and Silvia were waiting outside shivering when they spotted Julia’s police SUV. They watch as she pulls up to them. Alyona opens the passenger door.

“Hi, sis.” As she climbs in.

Arabella climbs in next and sits behind Julia. Haylee climbs in next and hugs Sphinx in the back cargo area. Silvia climbs in next and shuts the back passenger door.

“Haylee, be careful of hugging Sphinx. He was exposed to cocaine powder today.” Julia watches her daughter as she hugs Sphinx.

“How did that happen, sis?” Alyona looks at her big sister.

“Just before I came to pick you guys up. I assisted in apprehending three teenage boys. They were transporting cocaine, but I didn’t know that.
The second boy Sphinx took down, must have caused one of the cocaine bricks he was carrying to explode. There was cocaine powder
everywhere, including on Sphinx. I got as much as I could off his fur, but there might still be some left on him. So, be careful if you pet him.” Julia knew how much her daughter loved Sphinx and all the animals they had.

“Oh, poor Sphinx. Did you get hurt today?” As Haylee pets Sphinx.

“Did you have to shoot anyone?” Alyona looks towards Julia and could tell something was bothering Julia.

“Yes, the last suspect I was looking for was shooting at me and Sphinx. Just as I told him to put his weapon down. He pointed it at Sphinx and I
shot him. He was around Silvia age.” Julia takes a deep breath to calm down.

She feels her daughter grab her arm and hug it. Julia just looks at Haylee as she held her arm. She pulls up in front of Gina’s house first. Arabella hugs her before she gets out. Arnold had stepped out of the house to watch Arabella get out of the SUV. Trigger and Cadmus were standing next to him. Trigger was wagging her tail.

Julia heads to her fathers and mother’s house next to drop Silvia and Alyona off next. Just before Alyona gets out, she hugs Julia.

“Are you going to be okay, sis?” Alyona looks into Julia’s eyes.

“I’ll be fine, but thank you for asking.” She returns Alyona hug.

Silvia hugs her big sister, before getting out and heading into the house. Haylee gets in the passenger seat.

“So, what do you want for dinner tonight, young lady?” Julia hopes Christmas will be back soon.

She knew Christmas took an emergency leave from school, because of her father in Florida. He had to go to the hospital because of a heart attack. He was out golfing when it happened.

“How about chicken fried steaks, mom?” Haylee loved chicken fried steak with mash potatoes and brown gravy.

“Alright, why don’t you take Roxy outside to potty and come back inside when she is done and start on your homework.” Julia knew poor Roxy had to potty.

“Okay, mom.” Haylee puts her jacket back on and heads for the front door.

Julia watches her daughter as she heads outside with Roxy. She looks down at Sphinx.

“Go on boy. Watch Haylee and Roxy.”

Sphinx gets up off his pillow and walks outside with Haylee and the Border collie. Haylee plays with Roxy and Sphinx outside on the side of the house. She gets both of them to chase her around the house.

Haylee loved all the wolves her new family had. She also loved all the horses they had as well. She pulls her cellphone out and calls her mom inside the house.

Julia heard her cellphone ring and pick it up. She saw it was Haylee’s number.

“What is it, Haylee?” Julia looks out the kitchen window at her daughter.

“I need to go and feed the horses since grandpa is out of town.” Haylee always helps her grandfather out to feed the animals.

“Alright, but don’t take to long.”

“Okay, mom.” Haylee heads over to her four-wheeler and drives it over towards her grandfather’s place on a trail that Jack had made for her.

While Julia is cooking dinner, she keeps thinking about the shooting. Seeing if there was another option she could have taken. After a while, Julia shakes her head to clear the memories of this afternoon from her mind.

Thirty minutes later, Sphinx, Roxy, and Haylee come walking into the house. Roxy and Sphinx run towards their bowls, while Haylee was taking her jacket off.

“How are the horses, Haylee?” Julia could see her daughter from the kitchen.

“They were fine mom. Grandma was outside already feeding them when I arrived.” Haylee loved her grandma Debbie.

She has always wanted a grandmother. Her birth family, her grandmother, and mother had died because of her stepfather.

“Well, go and change. Dinner is almost ready. "

“Yes, ma’am.” Haylee heads towards the downstairs bathroom and washes her hands.

The Next Day:
Julia didn’t sleep to well last night. She kept seeing the face of the young man she shot. When she pulls up to her precinct. Julia notices several television trucks and a crowd holding signs protesting the killing of the teenage boy she shot yesterday.

“Looks like we have a problem, boy.” Julia knew she’ll have to leash Sphinx, or he would attack someone.

Julia pulls into her normal parking spot. She grabs Sphinx’s leash and put it on him. She leaves her purse in the SUV locked up. She grabs her coffee and starts heading towards the entrance of the police station. As she gets closer, a reporter gets in her way and shoves a mic into her face.

“Officer Bounty is it true you shot an innocent teenage boy yesterday?”

“He wasn’t innocent. He tried shooting my partner.” Julia stops and looks at the reporter.

“You mean this wolf right here?” As the reporter looks down at Sphinx.

“Yes, my partner. He is a deputized police officer. The young man tried to shoot him and me after I told him to put his weapon down.”

“So, you're saying this wolf’s life was more important than Diego Morehouse life?” Earl looks at Officer Bounty and her K-9 partner.

“I’m saying I had two options opened to me and neither option was pleasant. Should I let Diego Morehouse shoot my partner and then me or do I shoot Diego Morehouse before he killed my partner? I chose to protect my partner.” Julia takes her sunglasses off and looks at the reporter.

“So, you consider the life of a wolf more important than a human.”

“I consider the life of a police officer over a boy trying to kill me and my partner more important. Now, if you don’t get out of my way, I’m going to arrest you.”

The reporter moved out of the way. Just as she was about to grab the handle to the door “do you have children, Mrs. Bounty?”

“Yes, I do, Mrs. Morehouse. I also have a sister the same age as your son. The one lesson my father taught us, is if you point a weapon at someone, you better be prepared to use it. Because if you aren’t, your dead. Your son knew what he was doing when he pointed his weapon at me and my partner. He paid the price for doing so.” Julia opens the door and head inside to do her paperwork.