It took me about a month to realize Birch Haven wasn’t what everyone else thought it was. Things were too perfect. Too clean. Too quiet.

I knew exactly what my mother would say if she were still alive. “Eve, you’re too picky. You keep looking for the worst in everything and everyone, you’ll always find it.”

I could never figure out why that was a bad thing. Isn’t it better to know that than to go through life gullible? It’s what she did. Mama had a string of loser boyfriends, half of whom had turned into loser husbands who took her money and left her with nothing. Well, nothing but me. One of those losers had been my daddy. Tyler Dawson. Southern Kentucky’s biggest deadbeat asshole. I’m not kidding. He’s got the dubious honor of holding the record for the most unpaid child support in the whole state. Mama sure could pick ‘em. I’ll give her that.

“Earth to Eve!” Nikki had great aim. Her ball of wadded up notebook paper hit me square in the forehead. I jumped away from the window and flipped her the bird.

“I’m listening,” I said, lying. We had an Abnormal Psychology midterm in two days and she wasn’t ready. I pretended that I wasn’t either just to keep her from freaking out any more than she already was. She needed to get at least a ninety percent on it to pass the class. She’d never gotten anything higher than a “C,” so the odds weren’t in her favor.

Nikki closed her laptop and set it to the side. She sat crossed legged on her bed. Our dorm room was spacious enough for two people. We each had our own bedroom with a pocket door for privacy. In the center, we shared a common room with our television and kitchenette. No private bathroom though. We shared one down the hall with the three other rooms on this floor. It wasn’t ideal, but I was slowly getting used to it.

Nikki blew a bleach-blonde strand of hair away from her face. “You’re going to let me fail this damn test, aren’t you?”

I raised a brow and finally moved away from the window. “Let you fail? That’s seriously the argument you’re going to go with?”

I had a whole list of examples to give her of how I’d tried to help her in the two months since the term started. She only attended one out of three classes. When she did go to class, she spent more time staring at her phone than the whiteboard. I knew for a fact that yesterday was the first time she’d even opened a book.

Nikki’s chirping smartphone drew her attention away. That’s always how it went with her. It meant if I planned on staying enrolled in Birch Haven College, I’d probably be looking for a new roommate next year.

Would I stay? That was the question. Through no fault of her own...well...let’s be real...through large fault of her own, Nikki was the first reason I started to question what was happening in this town.

A little over a year ago, I’d been given an offer I didn’t think I could refuse. A simple email changed my life. I couldn’t afford college. Hell, the minute I graduated from high school, I knew I wouldn’t even be able to afford a place to live. I was on borrowed time, living in my English teacher’s basement out of the kindness of her heart. My father’s claim to fame had hit the local papers after my mother died. I had nothing and nobody. Rather than letting me spend the last few months of my seventeenth year in foster care, Mrs. Gerhardt took me in.

If she was the one who sent in the scholarship application for me, she wouldn’t admit it. But, the email came anyway and changed my life. I’d been offered a full ride at Birch Haven College, including room and board and everything. So, I came. Who wouldn’t in my situation? My freshman year had been perfect. Meeting Nikki was perfect. Like me, she had no real family left. Like me, she’d gotten an email offering the scholarship that changed her life. It had been perfect for both of us. Maybe too perfect.

She blew out an exasperated breath and tapped her fingers on her Psych textbook as if the information in it would somehow transmit to her brain that way. Her phone rang again and she gave me a shrug and answered it.

When her expression grew dark listening to whoever was on the other end of that phone, I came to her. I sank on the bed beside her. Nikki held up a finger. Her breaths started to come heavy. Her pink tank top plunged into a low vee and little red blotches started appearing on her exposed skin. I touched her leg.

“Who the fuck is it?” I mouthed.

“Do not call me again, okay? No means no.” Nikki threw the phone to the bed. She drew a shaky hand through her hair and forced a smile as she looked back at me.

“You wanna fill me in?” I asked.

“It’s nothing,” she said, but the hives on her chest blossomed. It happened when she got angry or nervous. At the moment, Nikki was both.

I grabbed her phone before she could stop me and pulled up her recent calls. The last incoming call started with three sevens, marking it as an on-campus number.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I said, taking a wild stab. “Was that Joel?”

Nikki forced another smile. It was no good though. She was freaking out. Joel Wisher was a campus police officer and nearly thirty years old. He’d been sniffing around Nikki for weeks. The guy was a straight-up creep who clearly didn’t know how to take no for an answer. He’d asked Nikki out a few times and sent flowers to our room last week. She’d been as polite as she could be turning him down. Nikki’s reaction now got my blood pumping. Joel had been a nuisance, sure, but Nikki looked terrified.

“Hey,” I said, touching her arm gently. “Don’t lie to me. That was Joel, right? How did he get your number?”

The second I asked, the truth burned through me, and if I were prone to it like she was, I might have sprouted hives too. Joel probably had access to the student information. If he’d pulled Nikki’s cell phone, it meant he’d abused his position and invaded her privacy. No wonder she was so freaked.

“Nikki, we need to call Joel’s boss. This is not cool of him to contact you like that.”

Nikki shook her head. “Can we just forget about it for now? Joel’s harmless. Probably. You heard me. I told him never to call me again. I don’t know how much more clear I can be. He’ll go away.”

I wanted to press her to do more. None of Nikki’s rebuffs hadn’t made Joel go away yet, and this phone call was pretty bold.

“Nikki, come on. We both know what he is. God. What they all are. You can’t mess around with a guy like that.”

“Eve, I mean it.” She practically shouted it. Nikki’s voice echoed off the dorm room walls. “Just leave it alone, okay? I can handle it. I promise. I just need to get a little air. If you don’t mind, I’m going to head down to the fitness center and get in a run.”

She rose from the bed and gathered her hair in one hand. Nikki wound a rubber band around it, piling her hair on top of her head. She forced another smile and grabbed her running shoes from the corner.

“Sounds like a great idea,” I said. “Why don’t I head down there with you?”

“I’m not trying to be a bitch,” she said. “But do you mind if I do this one solo? It’ll help me clear my head so we can fill it with Psych bullshit later. That is, if you’re still willing to help me.”

I leaned back against the wall. Nikki’s hives had gone away and her smile looked genuine. Standing tall in the center of the room, she put her hands on her hips. The old Nikki was back. Maybe Joel’s call had just caught her momentarily off guard.

“Sure,” I answered. “On both counts. Have a good workout.”

Nikki didn’t stick around to discuss it any further. She slipped her shoes on and bounded out the door. As I heard her footsteps head down the hall, I went to the window. We had a third-floor room. I could see most of the quad from here.

Birch Haven College was small. It consisted of six four-story buildings made of red brick with crawling ivy up the sides. There was Camden Hall, the dormitory where we lived. The other dorm was Covey Hall. All classes took place in either Dwyer or Loveland Halls. The fifth building, housed the campus physical plant as well as the campus police. That was Wyatt Hall. Broward Hall was for all the administrative offices.

Birch Haven proper was an unincorporated town laid out like the spokes of a wheel with the college as its hub. In each quadrant, the townies lived and worked. Just two hundred students attended BHC. The sign out front said the town itself had a population of seven hundred. I don’t know where that number even came from. The streets off campus were always eerily bare.

When I first came here, the place had seemed idyllic. It was that. Each tree-lined street had clean, well-kept sidewalks with dark green grass over every manicured lawn. You couldn’t find trash on the street, not even a cigarette butt tucked against the curb. We had a bank, a grocery store, a nondenominational church, even a park tucked along the banks of Rough River. A high, circular brick wall lined the perimeter of the town. No one went in or out without the notice of the watchful eyes of the Birch Haven Police Department. The campus cops worked for them.

I felt safe here. Protected. I’d grown up in a crime-ridden neighborhood near Hazard. Drug deals happened on almost every corner at a certain time of day. Birch Haven had been like stepping onto another planet. I’d spent the first few months here expecting bad things to happen. When they didn’t, that’s when I started to get suspicious.

Nikki would be gone for at least an hour. She’d left her Psych book open on the bed. I knew she’d probably never pick it up again before the midterm. It’s how she operated.

I grabbed a sweatshirt from our closet and headed outside. Pulling the hood over my head, I headed down the sidewalk and made way toward the western wall. No one ever came out here. You could follow the trail to the park. Beyond that, the riverbanks drew wildlife and peaceful sunsets. Postcard perfect. All of it. Still, a chill went through me as I crossed Franklin Street. Three more steps and I’d be off campus.

Straightening my back, I kept on going. The town library had just closed for the day. I’d only set foot in that place once. The college provided all the books I needed. But last month, I’d grown curious about the history of this town and the college itself. What I found there was barely enough to fill a brochure.

It had been little things that unsettled me at first. I’d met no one in this town over forty years old. That alone wouldn’t have bothered me so much. Birch Haven was new. Young. Vibrant. It was the gender demographics that made my blood run cold. Birch Haven was an all-women’s college. I’d known that going in. Hell, I’d welcomed it. Once I lit out of Hazard, I didn’t want any romantic distractions to keep me from my goal. I would get a degree in something useful. I’d earn high enough grades to keep my scholarship. I’d make something of myself and never be dependent on men like my mother had been.

Oh, there were men here in Birch Haven. Plenty of them. They made up the entire police department, city council, and virtually every position of authority or power in this town. No one talked about it. Hell, as far as I knew, no one but me even noticed it.

But even that might not have unsettled me all by itself. It was something else no one talked about that set off every alarm bell I had. At first, I hadn’t wanted to believe it. But, as far as I could tell, every man who lived and worked in Birch Haven, Kentucky was a shifter.

A cool breeze picked up as I headed into the park. Dusk now, the shadows grew long. An ivy-covered trellis marked the park’s entrance along with a sign warning park hours were strictly enforced. Sunrise to sunset. Anyone caught here after dark would be prosecuted for trespassing.

Why I chose to tempt fate that night, I’ll never know. I should have headed back the other way. Maybe it was something about the way Nikki reacted when Joel called. She knew what he was. We both did. His shifter eyes had blazed bright the first time he saw her. I’d seen them narrow to two red pinpoints from across the quad when he didn’t think anyone was looking.

There was something off about this town. There was something off about Joel.

The breeze turned into a gusty wind. The maple trees ahead of me swayed; their leaves shimmied and threatened to fall. It was almost time for that too. Another autumn in Birch Haven would usher in a brutal winter. It meant time was running out.

Wrapping my arms around me, I stepped to the edge of the park. Here, two trails split off. One went straight to the water. When it was warm enough, you could rent kayaks from the Birch Haven D.N.R. For the bargain price of twenty dollars, a shifter guide would take you down the laziest part of the river and back. No one was ever allowed to go alone. That was true everywhere, though it had taken me a year and two months to realize it.

No one was ever allowed to leave Birch Haven alone.

They would follow you in subtle ways. A helpful police officer picked up Marley Wentworth last week when she got it into her head to walk to the next town. They were laughing and smiling by the time he dropped her off at Covey Hall. But, I’d seen his eyes then too.

When Nikki and I were newbie freshmen, we’d taken the hiking trail right in front of me now. Nikki wanted to leave the trail to pick wildflowers. We got lost. Out of nowhere, two rangers found us and brought us straight back to the park with a friendly warning to be more careful.

Now, as the sun melted away behind the trees, I pointed my toes back on that trail. There were no cameras out here. The park was the only place in Birch Haven other than the main entrance, where the brick wall didn’t cross. Zipping my hoodie all the way to my chin, I started down the trail and didn’t look back.

I’d made no conscious decision to leave that night. If I had, I would have been smarter about it. I had no food, no water, not even my purse. In the back of my mind, I knew that would make it easier to explain. Just a silly college girl getting lost on the trail again. Harmless. Frivolous.

The woods grew denser. There was no boundary line, no natural marker to indicate where Birch Haven ended and the rest of the world began. Yet somehow, I knew. A small, gurgling creek cut into the ground. On the other side of it, the woods looked impassable.

I took one deep breath, then jumped the creek. My heart thundered inside of me. I knew I should turn back. It was getting cold. If I truly did get lost, it was dangerous out here. But maybe it was even more dangerous on the other side.

I scrambled up a steep embankment, clawing at the rotting leaves that had fallen to the ground. My pulse was a hammer blow between my temples. Righting myself, I stood up straight and started to run.

I only made it a few yards before a mountain seemed to rise up in front of me. Digging my heels into the earth, I tried to stop. It was too late. I tumbled forward and ran smack into it. Losing my balance, I started to fall. My eyes went up and up.

Of course, I hadn’t run into a mountain at all. It was a man. A shifter. His wolfish eyes pierced straight through mine, glistening silver. A growl ripped from his throat as he reached for me with lightning-quick reflexes and grabbed me before I hit the ground.