I was so angry at myself that I wanted to scream because I just couldn’t make my throat and mouth work.
It was like dying of thirst in the middle of a clear, freshwater stream.
The water was right there, yet I couldn’t drink.
Hudson jerked the water away, and I wanted to protest, until I felt a dripping cloth against my parched lips.
He soothed the dried-up skin while I took a tiny portion of the wet material into my mouth.
The moisture was absorbed almost immediately, but Hudson kept it coming. He wet the cloth over and over again, until I finally began to suck water from it, and then started to swallow awkwardly.
When he finally put the water container to my lips again, I started to drink.
“Hey there, speedy, slow it down a little or you’ll end up sick,” Hudson instructed.
Once I’d gotten started, I didn’t want to stop, even though I knew I shouldn’t be guzzling water after being deprived of it for so long.
Unfortunately, my survival instincts were in complete control at the moment, and Hudson had to finally take the water away.
At first, I was pissed that he’d cut off the euphoric feeling of gulping down that precious liquid. After my initial spurt of anger, I was grateful that he’d done it, because my stomach was beginning to rumble.
The last thing I wanted to do was vomit on the guy who had rescued me.
I couldn’t explain it if I wanted to, but it was almost like I could feel fluid starting to hydrate my cells. It should have been a pleasant sensation, but it wasn’t.
Hudson lifted me into his arms again as he said, “We have to keep moving. There’s still a lot of distance to cover before we get to the coast.”
I was pretty sure we’d already traveled miles from the rebel camp. How was he going to keep going with my weight bogging him down?
Hudson was obviously extremely fit, but how much more could he take before he collapsed from exhaustion?
I put my lips next to his ear. “I want…to walk.” It was all I could get out of my mouth.
I heard him chuckle as he started to move again. “Not going to happen, Taylor,” he said, his voice amused. “You can’t even move your limbs, and you’re still severely dehydrated.”
Dammit! He was right. But I didn’t have to like the fact that he had to lug my ass around like a huge sack of flour.
I hated feeling helpless.
“You’re just going to have to deal with taking a little help right now,” he rasped, like he’d read my mind.
A sigh escaped from my lips, and I rested my head on his shoulder. Like I had a choice?
I felt the darkness of unconsciousness take hold of me, and this time, I didn’t fight it.
For some strange reason, I felt safe with Hudson. I didn’t have time to analyze exactly why before I slipped into the blackness.
Hudson
It was past daybreak when we finally got to the coast.
Taylor hadn’t said a word since we’d stopped for water, and I was starting to get worried.
I could feel her breath against my skin, and I knew she was still alive, but I didn’t like the fact that she wasn’t responding at all anymore.
Jax and I had remained silent as we’d worked our way through the woods for the last several hours. The only time we’d spoken was when my brother had offered to take Taylor, and I’d refused.
She was already confused, and I didn’t want her waking up to being held by a different guy.
Honestly, she was a lightweight, and way too thin. It wasn’t like she was exactly a burden, and Jax had both of our packs on his back.
I picked up my pace as I heard water, and then stopped at the edge of the wooded area to survey the shoreline.
Jax halted next to me. “Looks like Marshall came through, as usual.”
There was a man waving his arms as he jogged toward us. “We have the tent set up, mates. Bring the woman over.”
Marshall had promised to have a doctor somewhere near our launch point, so I could only assume the guy sprinting toward us in dark jeans and a black T-shirt was that physician.
Who the hell else could he be?
“I’m good,” I said stiffly as the newcomer tried to take Taylor out of my arms. “Just tell me where you want her.”
He nodded sharply and led the way to a tent that looked like it had been rapidly pitched twenty or thirty yards back into the trees.
Yeah, maybe Lania was friendly territory for us now, other than the few rebels who had obviously never left, but I hadn’t hauled this woman out of one bad situation just to put her into another one.
Taylor was my responsibility until she could take care of herself, and I wasn’t letting her out of my sight until I knew she was safe.
“Put her down on the cot so the doctor can have a look,” our guide directed.
There was no door on the makeshift structure, so I strode right in and put Taylor onto what looked like a clean, sanitary sheet on a cot. An older man stood inside the tent, apparently waiting for his patient.
“Aren’t you the doctor?” I asked as I looked at the man who had come to greet us and escort us to the tent.
“Sadly, no,” he answered from the doorway. “But I wanted to be here when you arrived. I hate the fact that she was hurt while she was on Lanian soil. I approved that exploration. I thought your team would be perfectly safe.”
I stepped away so the doctor could work, but Jax and I watched what was happening from right outside the tent.
I finally studied the man who had brought us here, wondering if he was actually Lanian. The guy sounded like a Brit, but jeans and T-shirt aside, he looked a hell of a lot like… “And who might you be?” I questioned gutturally.
Since Lania was initially made up of a melting pot of people from different countries of origin, not unlike the United States, it was sometimes hard to identify a Lanian strictly by their physical appearance.
However, they had developed a native language, and his accent was most definitely not Lanian.
He grinned. “I’m Crown Prince Niklaos, but please call me Nick. I’m not exactly a fan of formal titles.”
Okay, so he was the Lanian ruler, just like I’d suspected. I’d seen pictures of him, but I’d never seen a live interview.
“It would have been nice if you’d actually gone in to rescue her before she was half dead if you’re that damn sorry,” I snapped.
“I would have, mate, but it’s a big country. We’ve been trying to locate the rebel camp since we got news of the kidnapping. Unfortunately, we still have to do it the old way, and hunt for them, since we don’t have all of the fancy military advances you have in the States. Not yet, anyway. Marshall just called me a few hours ago, and told me to meet you here so we could get the rebel location from you. We’ll deal with them now that you have your last hostage out. I certainly didn’t turn my back on your team. We just didn’t find them soon enough,” Nick said tersely. “It makes me ill just to see her in this condition, and to be sending a dead body back to the States.”
The guy really did sound disgusted, and he was so sincere that I couldn’t really argue with his conviction that he would have tried to rescue my team if he could have done it.
“If you’re Lanian, why do you sound so British?” Jax asked in a cautious voice.