I had to be out of my mind. As in, seriously not right in the head. When I was with Mac, everything seemed so simple. I wanted him. He wanted me. There was no in between. No gray area. It was as if all the answers to every question I had were right there, staring me in the face.

Fated mates.

I’d never heard the phrase before. Never thought in a million years it would be something that could apply to me. But, it did. Mac was mine. He was mine. It wasn’t some trick he played or delusion. It was something I felt and it came as natural as breathing. And yet, here I was sitting on a bench across from the public library, probably about to be kidnapped or worse.

The good news was, Chris Woods had left me alone. Sort of. I had two missed calls from him on my phone. That he used the same tactics as Joel had to track down my number unsettled me, but at least he hadn’t shown his face again. Nikki had finally come home after three days missing. She acted like nothing at all had happened. She seemed to waft through the dorm in a dreamlike state, a perpetual smile on her face. Though she hadn’t come out and said it, I knew she was planning on leaving school. It meant whatever Mac was planning, we had very little time.

The bad news was I’d gotten no new leads on what might have happened to his sister, Lena. But, I knew Nikki might be the key. I suspected if she had been marked by a wolf like Nikki, she had left school with him. Did that make her a lost cause? The answer to that is what brought me to this particular bench.

April had reached out to me, taking me completely off guard. The whole thing had been so clandestine, I didn’t know what to trust. Someone had slipped a note under my dorm room door this morning right after Nikki left. When I looked down the hall to see who it was, there was no one there. But, the note was from April. I recognized her handwriting. So, here I sat, waiting to meet her, realizing this whole thing might very well be an ambush. She was marked too, after all.

After an hour, I almost left. A cool breeze kicked up. Winter was in the air. We still had a few more weeks left, but it was coming.

A shadow fell behind me and my heart tripped. April sat on the bench beside me and pulled her backpack off her shoulder, rooting for something. To anyone casually looking, they might not think we knew each other. Off campus, we were less likely to see people who knew us both.

“I didn’t think you’d come,” she said, her voice low and she spoke through a plastered-on smile. I took my cues from April and kept my gaze focused straight ahead.

“I didn’t think you would.” I had a million questions for her. Who marked her? Why wasn’t she acting robotic like Nikki was? What the hell had made her reach out to me?

“There are some rumors going around about you,” April said. Her statement shocked me enough that I raised a brow and stole a glance at her. She kept her back straight and pretended to focus on her phone. Looking around, I didn’t see a soul near us. There was a streetlight at the intersection kitty-corner to our bench. In the last few minutes, I’d counted only half a dozen cars going either way. The library itself was mostly empty. There was a bank across the street, but it had only one or two people inside.

Tendrils of fear curled their way up my back. All these things I should have noticed before. Birch Haven wasn’t normal. It was a ghost town. I wondered how many people actually lived in the cookie-cutter townhouses lining Beach Street. No, not a ghost town. It was something else. The place had the feel of a movie set, maybe. It was all a backdrop. A show. Why had I never realized it before?

“And I’m not sure it’s safe for me to even be talking to you,” I said.

“You’re right. It’s not. I’d like to tell you you can trust me. The truth is I can’t trust myself. Not anymore.”

Screw it. I turned to her. April blanched, but she didn’t stop me when I gently wound her hair around my hand and pulled it to the side. The tiny scar on the back of her neck was still there, but it was faded, not fresh like Nikki’s was. If I had to guess, April had only been bitten once. Nikki had been bitten over and over again.

April let me look for a moment, then she jerked her hair away and turned to face me.

“Satisfied?” she asked.

“Not even close. Did he send you? Whoever marked you?”

April’s eyes reddened and she blinked back tears. It had been a simple question, but it had caused her pain. I hadn’t wanted that. She was just a woman, like me. Though I didn’t know her backstory, I suspected her invitation to Birch Haven College had seemed like a dream come true. Just like mine.

“He’s gone,” she answered simply. “Thank God.”

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I’d been holding. “All right. So tell me about these rumors.”

April’s breath hitched and she dropped her eyes. It became apparent that whatever risk I’d taken meeting her like this, hers was greater. “You’ve been asking a lot of questions. And some people are saying you’ve been meeting with someone...out there.”

April lifted her head and nodded toward the long, red brick wall that surrounded Birch Haven on three sides. Of all the things she could have come here to say, I hadn’t anticipated that. A protective wall went up around my heart. Mac. She was talking about Mac. God, if the Pack figured out he was nearby…

“Is he one of them?” April asked.

I reared back. “One of whom?”

“Your friend,” she continued. “There are men out there. Shifters. Some people I trust have been saying they’re trying to get people out of here. Out of Kentucky. Is he going to get you out? Does he know a way?”

Before I could stop her, April reached for me. I recoiled, but when I understood what she wanted, I went very still. It was only fair. April felt along the back of my neck, looking for the scar that wasn’t there. Yet.

“Does he have a mark?” she asked.

“A mark?”

April put her hand on her chest, just above her breasts. She traced a vee-shaped line. “A tattoo,” she explained. “A wolf’s head with wings and crossed swords. Does your friend bear that mark?”

My heart thundered in my temples. I felt lightheaded. I couldn’t trust her. Mac had never shown me his chest. Though, just the thought of seeing him...seeing all of him set off a storm inside of me. I wasn’t marked. But, Mac already affected me physically. My need to protect him burned fierce.

April put her hands in her lap. The breeze blew a lock of her dark hair across the bridge of her nose. With delicate fingers, she pushed it out of the way and fixed her eyes on mine. “You don’t have to tell me,” she said. “I suppose it’s better if you don’t. It’s just, hope’s a tricky thing. Even a glimmer of it can tear you apart.”

“April, I want to help you. Tell me how.”

“Is your friend the one looking for that girl? Lena Morris?”

My mouth went dry. I couldn’t stop the pounding pulse inside of me. “Yes.” The answer ripped from me. I prayed I hadn’t done anything to betray Mac. But, I couldn’t find Lena alone. Common sense told me to say nothing and run. Instinct kept me rooted to my spot.

“She’s strong,” April said, turning away from me. She stared straight ahead as I watched her in profile. Deep lines creased her eyes. I’d never noticed it before, but April had aged in the year since I met her. She could pass for forty maybe, not the girl of twenty-one I knew she was.

“She was your friend,” I said.

April didn’t turn, but she dropped her chin in an almost imperceptible nod. “She fought.” Just two words uttered in a breathless whisper and my heart broke apart.

“April. Tell me. I have to know. Is she...is Lena still alive?”

April’s eyelids fluttered. She folded her hands in her lap. “Yes,” she answered. “She’s a shifter’s daughter. It makes her more valuable than the rest of us. But, they’ll break her. They always do. They’ll break me too.”

One fat tear slid down April’s cheek. I reached for her, putting my hands over hers. “Will you tell me where I can find her?”

April finally turned to me again. Her lips quivered; they’d gone white and parched. She looked over my shoulder, but no shadows fell. We were alone for as much as I could tell.

“Can your friend help us?”

“Us?”

“There’s a group of us. Some are marked like me, but their wolves are gone. There are others, like you...who haven’t been touched yet. There are still a few more...like Lena. At least, we think so.”

“How many?”

April shrugged. “Ten. Maybe twenty. But, I can get word to them. If you tell me when, we can be ready. We’ve been waiting...hoping for a very long time, Eve. We have to get out. I have to get out. One way or the other.”

She said the last bit in a different, darker tone. The gravity of her meaning hit me right between the eyes. April was telling me she’d die before she went back to her forced mate or anyone else. God, I’d said almost the same thing to Mac. Did I mean it? I hadn’t suffered what April or Lena had.

“Is Lena still here in Birch Haven?”

April bit her lip. “You know, she’s the one who warned me what this place really was. She figured it out before any of us. She understood these shifters better. She had a brother like them, I think.”

I should have kept my mouth shut, but my reaction came swift, fiery, and unbidden. “Her brother is nothing like them.”

April didn’t miss it. Her eyes widened with understanding. Then, she gave me a sad smile. I could only pray my carelessness hadn’t cost Mac anything.

“As you say. I suppose you’d know best. As for Lena, I’m not sure. You know it was the town’s mayor who wanted her. Shelby Cole.”

I’d only heard about Shelby Cole in passing. He was one of the state’s youngest mayors, that I knew. When I first came here, there had been a billboard with his giant face plastered over it. He was dark-haired, handsome, with straight white teeth and gleaming blue eyes. Still, there had been something about that picture that gave me the creeps. Nikki had said the same. He’d held office only briefly though. I’d read somewhere about a personal scandal that kept him from running for reelection last year.

“He handpicked Lena,” April went on. “When he couldn’t control her...well...the Pack moved in. One night, Lena came home with scratches all over her arms and bloodstains down her back. Then, she stopped coming home at all. I know of a house. Maybe she’s there. Maybe she’s gone.”

“Can you find out? Because April, if you want me to help you, Lena is part of the deal. That’s non-negotiable.”

She took a hard breath and blew it out. Maybe I’d overplayed my hand, but I could almost hear Mac’s voice inside of me. Lena was his family. If it weren’t for her, I never would have met him. I owed her.

“I’ll try,” she said. “But I can’t promise.”

“You’ll have to do more than that. Because I do have a plan to get the hell out of here. If you want in, I need a show of faith. I need you to find Lena.”

“She might not be worth it.” April’s blunt words nearly knocked the wind of me. In an instant, she’d grown hostile and cold. Maybe her mate’s mark was stronger than she was letting on.

“She is. The question is whether you are. I’m not going to put my literal neck on the line without something in return. Figure out a way to get to her.”

I took control. I rose quickly and slung my backpack over my shoulder. April looked up at me, her mouth open in surprise. Whatever she’d expected me to say, it wasn’t this.

“No Lena, no help,” I said. “Tell the others. When it’s time, you’ll hear from me, not the other way around.”

I turned and walked away, my heart hammering in fear I refused to show.