Page 14 of Betrayed Mate

He held out a bottle of water and a couple of sticks of jerky. The scent of dried, salted meat made my stomach rumble, and that’s when it hit me. I hadn’t eaten since before the mating ceremony. The lack of calories had caught up to me.

I snatched the meat and water from him and took a large bite. The food tasted like heaven, but I struggled to swallow it past my dried, parched throat.

With shaky hands, I unscrewed the bottle of water and took a large sip, dislodging the stuck meat. I coughed and took a deep breath.

“Okay, you seem to be getting better.” He rubbed his hands together and stepped back. His gaze drifted below my face.

I felt too awful to care, though I suspected, when I looked back on this moment, I’d be mortified.

Instead of answering him, I focused on the things that would most definitely keep me alive—food and water. Ryker was more of a threat than an ally, though the thought of what I should do next petrified me.

Reid would figure out, if he hadn’t already, that Briar and I weren’t killed along with the rest of our pack. He knew where I worked, so I couldn’t go back there. Once I found Briar, we’d need to restart from scratch, with no money, while trying to replace everything, including essentials like clothes and food. We could live in the woods for a while in animal form, but that wasn’t helpful when it came to making money, and wolf shifters weren’t meant to stay in either form too long.

If I could get to my feet, I could shift into wolf form and hunt. I needed to be strong enough that Reid couldn’t easily find me and finish me off.

My eyes burned, and I blinked and swallowed. I didn’t want to cry in front of Ryker.

Multiple pairs of footsteps hurried in our direction.

“I’m heading out.” Ryker gave me a semi-salute then spun around and headed in the direction of the footsteps.

I shoved the rest of the stick of meat into my mouth and chewed, hoping the energy would hit my system fast.

The world did steady around me as I took a large gulp of water. I tried to stand, but my feet slipped, and I landed back on my ass yet again, introducing mud into even more precarious places.

“Ry, what the fuck are you doing?” a raspy voice asked. “You took my breakfast and ignored me this morning. We thought something was wrong.”

“I didn’t ignore you.” Ryker sounded annoyed. “I told you I was handling something.”

“Something…or someone?” a third man asked. “Because you’re definitely hiding another wolf shifter.”

“Bruh, no,” a fourth voice interjected. “Tell me you aren’t torturing someone else? We talked about this. We’re going to get a worse rep.”

My heartbeat quickened. The food and water were helping me. But then a lump formed in my throat. What if he’d drugged me and it hadn’t taken effect? But why would he do that? He’d given me some of his food.

I didn’t have a clear head.

“I’m not torturing anyone.” Ryker’s tone held an edge of warning. “We should head back.”

“Man, what don’t you want us to see?” The footsteps came closer, and I got onto my hands and knees to crawl away. Myfront side didn’t have as much mud on it, so I moved to the other side of the tree and rubbed mud all over it as well. It would reduce my scent and at least put a barrier between me and them, albeit a small one.

The three new people got close, and I cringed. There was no way I wouldn’t get caught.

Their musky scents floated in my direction, and I grabbed a medium-sized rock and placed it behind my back. If they decided to harm me, at least I had something to catch them by surprise. A split second could make a difference—me being alive right now was proof of that.

A man walked past the tree and froze. His head turned back, and he scanned me.

My breath caught, and I didn’t move. I didn’t have even a quarter of my strength back and couldn’t shift.

“Uh… What do we have here?” It was the man with the raspy voice scratching his head. He had tan and dark brown hair, which stuck up messily. His brows furrowed. The skin around his dark eyes tightened.

I hated being talked about as if I wasn’t a person, but I bit my tongue. I was outnumbered.

“Wait.” Someone hurried over. “Don’t tell me that Ryker has been keeping afemalefrom us.” A new man with fair skin appeared on the other side of the tree trunk, his navy-blue eyes widening as he took in my state. He jerked his head back, his sleek, dirty-blond hair hitting his face. “Uh…what the hell? It’s cold out here. What do you think you’re doing, Ryker?”

Yeah, I could only imagine how I appeared to them. In fact, not knowing had to be for the best.

The blond, fair-skinned guy removed his black shirt from his body and bent down in front of me.

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