“Easy there, little one,” she cooed. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
“Hudson —” Rylan started.
Ignoring him, she leaned closer and reached for the baby wolf. It instantly made its unhappiness known by attempting to wriggle out of her grasp, but she held on tighter, even when it tried to bite her with teeth that weren’t capable of breaking skin.
Once she’d secured her grip, she stood up and held her prize up for Rylan. The pup was roughly the size of its mother’s head, which told Hudson that he couldn’t be more than a month old.
“He’s alive,” she said in astonishment.
“She,” Rylan corrected.
She followed his gaze and grinned at what she saw between the pup’s legs. Or rather, what she didn’t see.
“She,” Hudson conceded, cradling the wolf pup to her chest. It was no longer wiggling in protest, but burying its face against her breasts as if it were trying to crawl into her.
“Can we keep her?” she pleaded.
He was quick to shake his head. “Bad idea, Blondie. It’s a wild animal.”
“No, it’s a baby.” Her grip on the wolf tightened protectively. “She’ll die if we leave her out here.”
Reluctance creased his forehead. “Connor will flip out if we bring a wolf back to camp. It’s just another mouth to feed.”
“I’ll deal with Connor, and I’ll feed her myself,” Hudson said firmly.
She had no intention of backing down. Clearly Rylan could see that because he let out a frustrated groan. “Goddamn it. We can’t —”
Loud ringing interrupted him, and they both looked around in alarm before realizing the noise was coming from the satellite phone sticking out of his back pocket. Xander was still trying to make the phones operational, and he’d ordered them to take one with them in case he worked a miracle.
Rylan looked confused as he pulled out the phone. He stared at it for a moment before pressing a button and raising it to his ear. “Yeah?”
He paused, listened, and then a huge smile filled his face.
“You brilliant son of a bitch,” he crowed. “You actually did it.”
Hudson was equally impressed. Wow. Xander had actually gotten the phones up and working. The man really was a tech genius.
Rylan went quiet for a beat, then said, “We’re on our way back now.” He paused again, glancing at the bundle in Hudson’s arms. “Um. Yeah. You should probably go tell Connor that we’re bringing home a guest.”
Connor spent a very tense twenty minutes waiting for Rylan and Hudson to get back to camp. When Rylan had informed Xan that they had “guests,” Connor had immediately assumed the worst – they’d come across a straggler in the woods, they’d run into a group of bandits, they’d captured an Enforcer…
The fluffy thing in Hudson’s arms had not been on his worst-case-scenario list.
“What the hell is that?” he demanded.
“We found her in the woods.” Hudson’s voice held a defensive edge. “We couldn’t just leave her there to die.”
Connor didn’t answer. He drew a long, calming breath, then turned to Rylan. “Are you out of your mind? Why would you let her bring it back here? The last thing we need is another mouth to feed.”
Rylan glanced at Hudson. “Told ya that’s what he’d say.”
“I don’t care.” She stuck out her chin and leveled a determined look in Connor’s direction. “I’ll feed her myself. She can share my portions.”
Disbelief and irritation mingled in his blood. “The damn thing can’t eat stew, Hudson. She can’t be more than a month old – she needs her mother’s milk.”
“Well, her mother’s dead.” Hudson was glaring at him now. “And she’d be dead too if we hadn’t saved her.”
Connor raked a hand through his hair. It was growing out and he needed to cut it, but right now he appreciated the length because he needed to grab onto something before he throttled the woman.
Christ, it was one distraction after the other with Hudson. Ever since she’d shown up, he’d lost sight of what mattered most to him – finding Dominik. And fine, Hudson had unwittingly brought him a step closer to that goal by telling Xander about the Enforcer comm program, but Connor knew he’d be riding Xan a lot harder about hacking it if he weren’t so infatuated with her.
It was time to stop thinking with his dick, damn it. Dominik needed to be his only concern. Vengeance needed to be his only concern. He’d tried his damnedest to be who his wife needed him to be, and though he might have failed her in life, he sure as hell wasn’t going to fail her in death.