They Called Me a Homewrecker——Then Three Wolves Refused to Let Me Go

POV: Ivy

"Rogues!"

The warning ripped through camp a second before the emergency bell started ringing.

Ace unzipped the tent and stepped into the storm.

"Stay behind me."

I followed him anyway, because apparently I had learned nothing about self-preservation.

Outside, Moon Camp had dissolved into chaos.

Flashlights swung through sheets of rain. Guards shouted directions. Elders herded guests toward armored transports parked on higher ground while younger wolves shifted near the tree line.

I tried to keep Ace in sight.

Then the crowd surged.

Someone hit my shoulder. My foot slid sideways, and I dropped to one knee in the mud.

"Ivy!"

A hand caught my arm and hauled me up.

Ryder.

"Where's Ace?" I shouted.

"Perimeter. Move."

He pulled me away just as a supply tent collapsed behind us.

The fastest route to the bunker disappeared under a crush of people, forcing us toward a narrow trail on the west ridge.

We ran.

By the time the shouting faded behind us, I realized we had lost the marked path.

"Tell me you know where we're going."

Ryder held his phone in front of him, its flashlight cutting a thin white tunnel through the trees.

"High ground. The lower trails flood first."

"That wasn't what I asked."

"Then no. I don't know exactly where we are. Happy?"

"Thrilled."

We pushed deeper into the forest.

The rain eased after half an hour, but the cold settled in. Wet branches slapped at my sleeves. Mud sucked at my boots.

Ryder walked several steps ahead of me without speaking.

At first I appreciated the silence.

Then I realized it wasn't neutral.

Anger rolled off him in sharp waves.

"What?" I asked.

He kept walking.

"Whatever you're thinking, just say it."

Ryder stopped.

He turned slowly.

The easy grin from earlier was gone.

"You want honesty?"

"I usually prefer it to being glared at."

"Fine." He stepped closer. "I know about you and Ace."

My stomach tightened.

"What did he tell you?"

"Enough."

"That's not an answer."

"He waited five years for you. Then you slept with him and told him it was a mistake the next day."

Heat rose through me despite the cold.

"You don't know what happened."

"I know my best friend hasn't looked at another woman seriously since he was eighteen. I know he pulled a girl out of a river and spent years pretending he wasn't keeping track of her. Then you finally show up, climb into his bed, and decide he's inconvenient."

The accusation landed on every bruise I had been trying to ignore.

"I thought he was a gigolo."

Ryder stared at me.

"A what?"

"A gigolo."

"You're kidding."

"Do I look like I'm kidding?"

For once, Ryder had no comeback.

I kept going because if I stopped, I might cry, and I refused to cry in front of him.

"Chloe hired someone after the cafe disaster. I had been drinking. I mistook Ace for the guy she booked. He realized I was confused, made me eat, made me sober up, and told me exactly what I was doing before anything happened."

Ryder's expression shifted.

I didn't care.

"Then I woke up the next morning, found out he wasn't who I thought he was, and went to a party where my best friend introduced him as her stepbrother."

"That explains why you ran. It doesn't explain why you're still pushing him away."

I laughed once.

There was no humor in it.

"Chloe loves him."

Ryder went still.

"What?"

"She's been in love with Ace for three years. She told me after I had already slept with him. I am the only person she trusted with that secret."

Rain dripped from the ends of my hair.

"So tell me what you think I should do. Walk up to her and say, You spent days helping me survive Dean's mess, and by the way I slept with the one man you actually wanted?"

Ryder swore under his breath.

"She doesn't know?"

"No."

"Does Ace?"

"I don't think so."

He dragged a hand down his face.

The anger left him as fast as it had come.

"I didn't know."

"Exactly."

I stepped around him.

"So maybe don't call me a game player when you have half the story."

"Fair."

That stopped me.

Ryder did not strike me as a man who said that word often.

He caught up but kept a respectful distance.

"For what it's worth, I don't think you're a homewrecker."

My throat tightened.

"You did ten minutes ago."

"Ten minutes ago I was an asshole with incomplete information. I adapt."

"How evolved of you."

His mouth twitched.

The trail climbed sharply.

Ryder took the lead again, but his behavior changed. He warned me about loose roots. Held branches aside. Slowed whenever the slick incline forced me to pick my footing carefully.

We reached a narrow shelf of rock above a ravine.

"Careful here," he said, offering his hand.

I took it.

My boot landed on loose shale.

The ground vanished.

I gasped.

Ryder caught my waist, but my momentum pulled him with me.

We slid down the embankment in a mess of mud and broken branches and hit a shallow creek hard.

Cold water closed over my shoulder.

Ryder landed beneath me with a grunt.

His arms locked around my waist before I could roll into the current.

"You hurt?"

I tested my right foot against the creek bed. Pain shot along the outside of my ankle.

"My ankle. I think I twisted it. You?"

"Ask me when I can feel my spine again."

I would have laughed if the air hadn't shifted.

His scent reached me.

Campfire smoke. Leather. A dark spice I had noticed only faintly before.

Now it hit with startling force.

My Omega lifted her head.

Not the deep, instinctive recognition Ace triggered.

Something else.

Attraction, immediate and physical, but threaded with a strange compatibility that made my skin feel too tight.

I froze over him.

Ryder did too.

His amber eyes widened.

"Oh, hell."

My hands were braced on his shoulders. His grip remained at my waist.

Neither of us moved.

The creek rushed around our legs.

His gaze dropped to my mouth.

Mine did the same.

A pulse of heat moved through me, alarming in its intensity.

Ryder released me so fast I nearly splashed backward.

He scrambled to his feet and put several yards between us.

"No."

I pushed wet hair out of my face. "No what?"

"Whatever that was."

"Helpful."

"You're Ace's mate."

The word hit me harder than the fall.

Mate.

"I'm not anything to Ace."

Ryder looked at me as if I had said the sky was green.

"You really don't know?"

My pulse stumbled.

Before I could ask what he meant, a howl sounded in the distance.

Three short notes.

Ryder's attention snapped toward the ridge.

"Search party."

He started climbing the bank, then looked back at me.

The confusion in his face had not disappeared.

Neither had mine.

He held out a hand.

"Come on."

I took it.

His fingers closed around mine, and the same dangerous current passed between us.

Ryder swore quietly.

Then, without looking at me, he muttered, "Why the hell do I want my best friend's mate?"