He couldn’t bring himself to look at the wolf. Couldn’t look at Hudson, either. Anger burned in his blood. Anger and frustration and an odd jolt of helplessness that made him want to throw something. Jesus. He was losing control of them.
“Screw this.” He clenched his teeth and took a step away. “You know what? Do whatever the hell you want. Obviously you’ve all lost your fucking minds.”
Then he turned on his heel and stalked off.
Not even Connor’s temper tantrum could dampen Hudson’s spirits. After he’d stormed off, she brought the newest addition to their camp back to her cabin and proceeded to spend the next few hours petting and cooing and snuggling the baby wolf.
It was official – she was in love.
And she wasn’t the only one. Xander, Kade, and Rylan had all stopped by at various points of the day to see the wolf pup, and it hadn’t taken long before they were all equally enchanted.
Maybe it made her the biggest sap on the planet, but her heart squeezed whenever she looked at the wolf. The little furball had let down her guard and was clumsily exploring the cabin, poking her nose into everything and rolling around on the floor, while Hudson watched from the bed like a proud mother.
Connor might not possess an ounce of compassion, but she had too much of it, apparently.
What else was she supposed to do, though? Let the wolf die?
Still, even though she didn’t regret saving the wolf, Hudson couldn’t help but feel guilty that Pike was out there potentially risking his life on her behalf. He was the last person she’d expected to volunteer to help her, but as touched as she was that he had, Hudson wasn’t able to relax until hours later, when Pike showed up at her door.
“You’re okay,” she blurted out.
He looked startled by the genuine relief in her voice. “Yeah, I’m fine,” he muttered. “No trouble on the road today.”
She opened the door wider, and he strode inside, a canvas bag slung over his shoulder.
“I was only able to get about two gallons, but I think you can start feeding her some mashed-up meat once her teeth come in.”
“They’re already starting to,” Hudson told him, watching as he removed a plastic jug of milk from the bag.
The wolf pup wobbled at their feet, making a squeaky noise that caused Pike’s expression to soften. Then he cleared his throat and reached into the bag again. “I got this too.” He held up a small baby bottle. “Alex and Danielle’s kid is two, so he’s not using it anymore. Hopefully your wolf will take to it.”
Her eyes widened. “Your friends at the farm have a child?”
He nodded, his expression hardening again. “Keep your mouth shut about it. You know what’ll happen to them if your Enforcer buddies find out.”
Hudson bristled, but decided not to touch that Enforcer comment. She was more concerned with making sure her wolf was fed. “I wasn’t planning on saying anything. I was surprised to hear it, that’s all.” She took the bottle from his hand and unscrewed the top. “Thank you for doing this. I owe you one.”
“Yeah. You do.” Pike zipped up the duffel bag. “Fill the bottle and then I’ll stow the milk in the cellar. It’ll go bad if you leave it out in the cabin.”
Nodding, she carefully filled the bottle and secured the top, then bent down to scoop up the wolf.
Pike’s gaze lingered on the animal. “She’ll make a good hunting partner if you train her right.”
“Maybe you can help me, then,” Hudson hedged.
“Maybe,” he said, his tone noncommittal as he stalked toward the door. “Good night.”
“Wait.”
He half turned. “What?”
“Why…?” She swallowed. “Why did you help me?”
“I didn’t help you.” He nodded at the wolf. “I helped her.”
“Okay. But why?” she pressed.
Several seconds passed before he answered. “I had a dog growing up.” He shrugged. “I liked him.”
“Oh.” She absently stroked the wolf’s head as she searched Pike’s unfathomably dark eyes. “What happened to your dog?”
He made a derisive sound. “Winters were a lot colder back then. Food supplies dwindled a lot faster. So we…” With another shrug, he reached for the doorknob.
Her stomach churned. “You what?”
“We ate him,” Pike said flatly, and then he slid out the door.
It took Hudson several hours before she worked up the courage to walk to the stables. It was past midnight by then, but she knew Pike wasn’t sleeping – she felt his gaze on her the moment she entered the main room.
“Are you awake?” she asked timidly.
“What do you want?” was his brusque response.
She ventured closer, her eyes adjusting to the darkness to make out the pallet in the corner of the massive space. The wolf pup wiggled in her arms, but she didn’t relax her grip. Pike made her so damn nervous, and holding on to the warm bundle was the only way to stop from fidgeting.
“I made her a little bed on the floor in my cabin,” Hudson began, “but she keeps whining to come up on my bed, and…” She shrugged. “I’m scared I might roll over and crush her if I let her sleep with me, so, um… I figured you have more experience with sleeping with animals, since you had a dog, and…”
Pike slid up into a sitting position and waited for her to continue.
“I don’t want her to whine all night, so… you’d be doing me a big favor if you kept her here with you.”
A harsh laugh slid out. “Don’t patronize me, Hudson. I’m not —” He stopped when he noticed her gaping at him. “What?” he muttered.
“You called me Hudson.” She fought a triumphant smile. “You never call me by my name.”
He harrumphed, which only made her lips twitch harder.
“And I didn’t mean to patronize you,” she added.
“Yeah? Then don’t pretend you can’t take care of the pup when we both know you’re more than capable.” He scowled. “Are you feeling sorry for me? Is that it? You think I need a furry little beast to keep my sorry ass company?”
“No. I think you want a furry little beast to keep your sorry ass company. I just didn’t think you’d have the balls to admit it.”
“Trust me, little girl, I’ve got the balls.” To her surprise, he grudgingly held out his arms. “Bring ’er here.”
Hudson’s smile broke free, but she masked it quickly by pressing her lips together. She walked toward him and plopped the wolf pup in his arms, and damned if her heart didn’t melt when she watched the wolf snuggle against Pike’s big, muscular chest.
“Does she have a name yet?” he asked gruffly.
“Yes. But you’ll probably hate it.” Hudson beamed at him. “It’s Hope.”
Pursing his lips, he gently stroked the wolf’s head. “That’s a pussy-ass name for a wolf.”
“I don’t care,” she said stubbornly. “I like it.”
“Well, then,” he mocked. “If you like it, then I guess it’s all right.”
15
Training a wolf wasn’t as hard as Hudson thought it would be. She was copying the techniques she’d seen the Enforcers use with their dogs, only while Dominik’s men had relied on stern words and punishment-based tactics, she used a love-and-treats reward system. The only downside was that Pike kept interfering with the process, because somehow the wolf had become “theirs,” and for the past few days they’d been acting like parents bickering about their child’s upbringing.
They were arguing again that morning, because Pike had decided Hope listened only when Hudson dangled treats under her nose. He was now insisting they needed to take the treats out of the equation.
“What if we’re out in the woods and we need her to lie down, and she ignores us because we don’t have a fucking treat to give her?” he demanded with more emotion than Hudson had ever heard him voice. Granted, the emotion was a combination of anger and annoyance, but still.
“This is the initial part o
f the process,” she shot back. “Eventually she’ll listen because she thinks she’ll get a treat, and after that, she’ll just do it on instinct.”
Footsteps caught Hudson’s attention, and she turned to find Connor on the porch. His expression conveyed absolutely nothing, but she could tell he wasn’t happy. He hadn’t said more than a handful of words to her since she’d brought Hope back to camp. Forget sex – the man barely looked at her these days. And yeah, it bothered her, but not enough to give the wolf up, which was probably what he was hoping would happen if he continued to freeze her out.
Their gazes locked for a moment, and then he abruptly marched over, addressing Pike without even sparing a glance at the adorable wolf pup sitting at Pike’s feet. “I’m driving out to Lennox’s at sundown.”
Pike stiffened. “What for?”
“To give him one of the sat phones. It makes more sense for us to use them to keep in touch with Lennox. We can use our radios around camp.” A pained look etched into Connor’s face. “I’m going to track down Tamara too, see if she can get her hands on more phones.”
“I’ll go with you,” Pike said immediately.
Connor shook his head. “I’m going alone.”
Pike shook his head right back. “You’ll need backup.”
“I’ll be fine. I won’t be staying long.”
Hudson hedged in. “I can go with you, if you want. I actually wouldn’t mind talking to Tamara myself. I’m hoping she can get a few things for me too.”
He wrinkled his forehead. “Like what?”
Her cheeks heated. “You know, clothes, toiletries. Girly stuff.”
Connor didn’t ask for more details, and she was glad, because there was one item she wanted Tamara to procure that she didn’t want him knowing about yet.
“All right. You can come.”
His total lack of enthusiasm was more than a little insulting. Fine, so he was pissed that she’d adopted the wolf, but couldn’t he get over it already?
Maybe he has.
The uneasy thought made her body go cold. What if he was over it? Over her? What if they’d reached the point he’d mentioned in his ground rules? That if one of them wasn’t interested in the sex anymore, it would end, no argument, no tears.
Her heart clenched. She didn’t want it to end. They might be at odds right now, but she still wanted him. She was still as addicted to him as she’d been from the moment they’d met.
Oblivious to her inner turmoil, Connor turned to Pike and said, “Everyone else stays here.” Sarcasm dripped from his voice. “Including your little pet.”
Hudson sighed as he stalked off without another word. The man drove her crazy sometimes. It was like he was actively going out of his way to not create a life for himself at this camp, doing the bare minimum to survive and refusing to give everyone what they yearned for – a safe place to call home.
And yet at the same time, his presence alone made Hudson feel safer than she’d ever felt in her life. She understood why Rylan and the others had joined up with him, why they’d forced their way into his life in spite of his reluctance to accept them. Connor was compelling without even trying to be. He was a man you looked at and thought leader.
It marveled her to think what he could accomplish if he actually embraced the role instead of shunning it.
“Down.”
Pike’s irritable voice jerked her back to the present. She grinned when her gaze landed on Hope, who was sitting so sweetly at Pike’s feet, peering up at him in concentration.
“Lie down,” he snapped.
The wolf kept staring.
Cursing, he dropped to his knees and pounded his fist on the ground. “Down, Hope.”
Hope blinked at him.
Pike shot to his feet, growling out another expletive. “Why does she do it when you ask her?”
“Two reasons – I ask her nicely and I give her treats.”
Before he could break out in another lecture about spoiling the wolf, Hudson darted off with a laugh. She headed to her cabin to change into her work clothes, then hiked across camp to tackle the next cabin on her clean-the-fuck-up list.
The rest of the day flew by. After she’d scrubbed the cabin from top to bottom, she hopped in the shower and scrubbed herself from top to bottom, then donned all black and long sleeves and went to find Connor.
The sun had already set when she walked back to the lodge. Connor was waiting for her by his motorcycle, wearing jeans and a black T-shirt that stretched across his broad shoulders.
“Ready?” he said gruffly.
She nodded, too distracted by the sight of him. The stubble shadowing his jaw, the tattoos peeking out from his sleeves, the corded muscles of his arms.
Before she could stop herself, she grabbed the back of his head and yanked him down for a kiss. He stiffened but didn’t pull away. He stood there, allowing her to brush her mouth over his, to lick and nip at his bottom lip until finally, finally, he parted his lips and his tongue met hers.
Connor groaned and deepened the kiss, taking control as his tongue teased and demanded, and although Hudson never wanted it to end, she forced herself to wrench her mouth away.
“Stop being mad at me,” she ordered. “It’s hurting my feelings.”
He looked unusually dazed for a second, but then his carefully composed mask snapped back into place. “Stop bringing wolves home,” he grumbled.
She flashed an impish grin. “I promise not to bring another one home if you quit being such a grump about this one.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’ll think about it.”
But she could tell his anger was already starting to thaw, and his touch was gentle as he helped her onto the bike.
The drive to Lennox’s seemed to go a lot faster this time. As the motorcycle sped through the darkness, the wind turned Hudson’s hair into a blond tornado that whipped around her head, a glaring reminder that neither one of them was wearing a helmet. Connor had explained that their helmets had been stolen a few months ago by bandits who’d ransacked their temporary camp while the men were out on a raid. He said he was on the lookout for replacements, but he hadn’t found any yet. And apparently he didn’t want to owe the people who did have helmets to spare.
That was the part Hudson still didn’t fully grasp – favors. Who you did them for, who you stayed away from. It seemed unnecessarily complicated, but she was confident she’d figure it out eventually.
When they arrived at Lennox’s, Connor checked the clip of his gun before tucking it in his waistband, then walked into the house like he owned the place. Hudson trailed after him, a tad apprehensive as they approached the main room.
She had no idea what carnal scene they’d be walking in on this time, but to her surprise, almost everyone was wearing clothes tonight.
There were fewer people around too, and more than half of them were women, chatting quietly on the couches. Every head turned when Hudson and Connor entered the room, but nobody seemed bothered to see them.
Connor signaled to someone behind her, then touched her cheek with unexpected tenderness. “Stick close to Jamie, sweetheart. I’m going to find Lennox.”
He strode off, leaving her to greet the blonde who’d been riding Rylan to heaven the last time Hudson had seen her.
After an awkward beat, she stuck out her hand. “We weren’t properly introduced before. I’m Hudson.”
The woman smiled as they shook hands. “Jamie. I was rude last time you were here. I should’ve come over and said hello, but I was too caught up in Rylan.”
Hudson had to laugh. “Yeah, I noticed that.”
“He doesn’t come here as often as he used to, so you’ve got to make every second count, you know?”
Something about Jamie’s tone gave Hudson pause. And those blue eyes had softened with emotion when she’d said Rylan’s name.
Shit. Did Rylan know that this girl was in love with him?
Hudson didn’t think so. He would never deliberately lead someone on,
and he probably wouldn’t be so eager to have sex with Jamie if he knew that her feelings for him ran deep. Like Connor, Rylan went out of his way to keep emotions out of the equation.
Jamie swept her gaze over Hudson. “So. You’re Con’s woman, huh?”
Her discomfort promptly returned. “No, not really. It’s… complicated.”
“It always is, sweetie.” Laughing, Jamie linked their arms together. “Come and meet the other girls.”
For the next twenty minutes, Jamie introduced her around and talked her ear off. It turned out that Jamie and Lennox had known each other since they were kids. They’d been nomads before they stumbled across this house and decided to make it their permanent residence. Layla and Piper, who Hudson had just been introduced to, also lived there, along with someone named Nell. Everyone else just stopped by when they were in the area, and Jamie confessed that she and Lennox never turned anyone away.