The operation six years earlier had gone wrong within minutes.

Claire was treating a wounded operator when the compound came under heavy fire.

Ranger was beside her.

An explosion tore through the building.

Claire remembered the ceiling collapsing.

She remembered Ranger disappearing beneath the smoke.

Then she remembered crawling toward him.

He was badly wounded.

A piece of metal had torn through his side.

Claire dragged him behind a concrete barrier.

“You’re staying with me,” she whispered.

Ranger’s eyes found hers.

Claire treated him for nearly twenty minutes while the rest of the team fought to reach the extraction point.

Then another blast hit.

Claire was thrown backward.

When she woke, the building was burning.

She couldn’t move her left leg.

Ranger was beside her.

Still alive.

Still watching her.

She whispered,

“Go.”

He didn’t move.

“Ranger, go.”

He stayed.

Then someone grabbed her from behind.

Claire tried to fight.

But she was too weak.

The last thing she remembered was Ranger barking.

Then darkness.

Part 5 — The Secret

Claire survived.

But the mission had been classified beyond ordinary clearance.

She was transferred into a medical intelligence program and ordered to disappear.

Her identity was changed.

Her records were sealed.

She was told never to contact her former unit.

And Ranger?

He was eventually transferred to Ryan’s team.

Ryan had spent six years believing the woman who had saved the dog’s life was dead.

He had no idea she was standing in front of him.

In his emergency room.

Wearing blue scrubs.

Saving him again.

Part 6 — “You Saved Him”

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