CHAPTER 70

HUDSON RUSHED THROUGH HIS breakfast and morning routine, even though he felt he’d hardly slept all night.

Mom stepped into the kitchen and smiled. “Big day at school? You’re moving like a tropical storm this morning.”

Tropical storm . . . his first thought was Katrina. He forced a smile. “Meeting Pancake and Maggie early.”

She kissed him on the forehead. “Do you miss the homeschooling —just a little?”

“Actually, I wish I was staying home today.” With all his heart.

“I needed to hear that. I wish —” She stopped. Gave him a hug and stepped back. “I’m glad you’re adjusting. You just have a real good day, okay?” She blinked back tears and smiled.

He gave her a tight hug. A bridge hug —that’s what Dad called them. Long and strong, like she was hanging off a bridge and Hudson was keeping her from falling. Only right now it was really the other way around.

“You’re a good son, Hudson,” she whispered. “I’m proud of you.”

Would she be proud if she knew what he was planning to do?

She gave him a pat on the back. “Now get going. You’ve got friends to meet.”

He took two stairs at a time back to his bedroom and grabbed his backpack. Was he doing the right thing? Both Maggie and Dad had warned him about becoming a bully. In the same day. But there was a big difference between what the pack and the litter did and what Hudson was doing. Huge.

Dad’s story about that Denny guy was intriguing. Kindness may have turned his dad around, but that didn’t mean it would work on Wolfe and Kat and the others. They didn’t deserve kindness. If Hudson’s plan didn’t work this time, maybe then he’d try Dad’s way.

What he really had to do was stop second-guessing himself. Computers got hacked all the time. Why would anybody suspect a simple little change to the Rolling Meadows community message board had anything to do with him —or his mom? This could work. He just had to stop overthinking it —and focus on the results.

If they pulled this off, it could create real change with the pack and the litter. The impact may not register on the Richter scale, but it definitely would shake up their world.

Hudson should have been gone by now. He slid his hands down the stair rails like they were a pair of parallel bars. He swung his body to make the distance in two jumps.

“Hey, Mr. Hurricane,” Mom said, “slow down before somebody gets hurt.”

But there’d be no slowing down now, would there? And if Hudson pulled off his plan, his mom would be more right than she realized. People were going to get hurt.