Page 132 of Pack Baby for the Silver Foxes

I smiled as the front door opened hard enough that voices rose in the hall, and my whole body reacted before my mind did.

Hudson and Lincoln.

Their scents hit me before I saw them, more awake in a way I hadn’t smelled from them before.

Sienna stepped aside.

Lincoln came in first. His hair was wet from the rain, his coat open, his broad chest rising as if he had run from the car. Hudson followed half a step behind, controlled enough to look composed unless you saw his eyes.

“Mary.” Lincoln crossed the room and dropped to his knees in front of me.

I reached for him. His hands closed around mine, warm and shaking. That shocked me.

“I’m okay,” I said.

His gaze moved over my face, my body, my hands, then down to my stomach. “Thank God. And the babies?”

“Okay, I think.”

“You think?”

“Lincoln.”

Hudson was already beside me, one hand cupping the side of my face. “Any pain?”

“No.”

“Cramping?”

“Jesus. What is it with the cramping? No. And Artem already asked all the terrifying questions.”

Hudson’s thumb moved over my cheek. His hand was cold from the rain. “The doctor is on his way.”

“Now?”

“Today,” Lincoln said, and there was iron under it.

I looked between them.

This was the other side. The one hidden beneath the feeding, the jokes, the way Lincoln bought me cake and fed it to me, and Hudson remembered appointments.

Now they showed it.

I should have recoiled. But Hudson’s hand stayed open against my face. Lincoln’s thumbs moved over my knuckles as if he knew exactly how close the line was.

“I’m okay,” I said again, softer.

Lincoln leaned forward and pressed his mouth to my belly through my sweater.

The room went quiet. Even Artem looked away.

Hudson’s forehead touched mine. “He came for you,” Hudson said.

“He tried.”

His jaw tightened. “He came for you. I’m so angry that we let you go. I should have listened.”

“Callum McCarthy is a persistent man.”