He was more scared than I was. I could see it in his eyes. Oh, God. Those silver, penetrating eyes. When they flashed, heat shot through me and made my toes curl. I ran away from him as fast as I could, even though every instinct in me told me to stay with him.

I’d been around wolf shifters most of my life. Never more so than the day I got off the bus and stepped through the gates of Birch Haven. This guy was different though. I couldn’t quite put my finger on why. He seemed more...feral somehow. As if he were having trouble controlling his inner wolf. For a moment, I thought he might shift right in front of me. Some dark part of my heart wished for it. That alone should have sent me screaming back to my dorm more than his warnings did.

You see, I’ve been around wolf shifters plenty. For whatever reason, Kentucky is crawling with them. But I’ve never actually seen one shift. I’d never wanted to until just that very moment.

Voices to the left of me made me stop short. My heart beat a frenzied pace and my thighs burned. I tried to keep from gasping for air as two campus police officers rounded the corner heading straight for me. Every cell in my body itched to keep running. I knew that would be the most dangerous thing I could do.

“You!” One of them shouted, seeing me. I concentrated on taking slow, steady breaths. Shifters can sense distress. They’re bred for it. I gave them a bright smile and a wave. The pair of them quickened their pace and came to me.

The wind picked that moment to stir. It blew from the west, right where I’d come from. The officer closest to the park stiffened. His nostrils flared and he turned his face toward the woods. Oh, God. Could he scent Mac from this far away? I don’t know why I should care so much, but I knew he wasn’t supposed to be this close to Birch Haven. Though I didn’t want to let my mind go there, I wondered what might happen if they caught him. My sudden fear for Mac shocked me a little and made me reckless.

“Thank God you’re here!” I said, breathless. I thrust my chest out and put a light hand on the officer’s arm. It drew his attention away from the park and he trained his eyes on me. They flared bright as his wolf regarded me. Shifters were like living lie detectors, I’d learned. I just prayed my performance would pass the test.

“Are you lost?” he asked. The name plate over his breast read “Deputy Trey Summers.”

“No. Not lost. I just lost track of time. I was trying to clear my head. Big Psych midterm coming up.”

Summers looked at his partner. I realized I’d seen him before, walking a beat with Joel. His name was Chris-something. I squinted to read his badge. Woods. Chris Woods.

“You’re not a freshman, Miss Dawson. You know there’s a campus curfew.” Chris said. Oh, yes, he remembered me too. He straightened his back and puffed his chest. Chris Woods was huge, just like all shifters. Standing well over six feet, he towered over me along with Deputy Summers. They cast long shadows, but their wolf eyes dimmed and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“I know, I’m sorry. It just got so dark so fast and I didn’t bring my phone. Like I said, I lost track of time. You wouldn’t mind walking me back to my dorm now though, would you? I don’t know, I don’t feel safe out here.”

Chris Woods eyed me. A look passed between him and Summers. It was just a split second, but I saw Woods lick his lips and it made my skin crawl. It was like that with just about every shifter I got close to in Birch Haven. So why had Mac seemed so different?

I didn’t have time to puzzle it out. The clock in the tower chimed and it drew Woods and Summers out of their heads. I was grateful for that.

“You need to be more careful,” Summers said. “Being caught out after curfew is the kind of thing that could put your scholarship at risk.”

My scholarship? How the hell did he know anything about that? I added it to the ever-growing list of things that were starting to creep me out about Birch Haven. The biggest one I’d tried to test tonight. If I hadn’t run into Mac, what might have happened? Would Summers and Woods have dragged me back behind the wall? My need to test that theory again burned bright inside of me, but tonight wouldn’t be the night for it. I’d pressed my luck enough.

After all, these were just theories. My reality? I was almost halfway to earning a college degree that hadn’t cost me a dime. I had a roof over my head and no worries about where my next meal was coming from. Was I really willing to risk all of that because of a giant case of the heebie-jeebies?

Maybe. But, not yet. Woods’s eyes softened and he gave me a genuine smile as he held out his arm, gesturing toward the path leading to Camden Hall.

Woods and Summers waited, hands behind their backs in a military posture as I took the steps to the front entrance two at a time. I looked back and gave them a polite wave as I headed inside. When I opened the door, it earned me a shocked look from Jasmine Russell, the student receptionist. She craned her neck to try and see who I’d been waving at.

“Are you nuts?” she whispered. “It’s half an hour past curfew, Eve.”

“Are you going to report me?” I challenged her. Jasmine was a world-class busybody, but I didn’t think she had it out for me.

Jasmine’s eyes darted to the security camera pointed at the front doors. I’d managed to slip in when they were pointed at the stairs. In another ten seconds, they’d swing back toward the desk.

“You’re luckier than smart tonight, Eve,” Jasmine smiled. “But please, for my sake, don’t make a habit of that.”

Nodding, I leaned across the desk. “Anything else exciting happening tonight?”

Jasmine let out an exasperated breath. “You’d know more than me. You wanna tell me where you guys have been, or is it better if I don’t know?”

I blanched. “We guys? What are you talking about?”

It was Jasmine’s turn to look a little shocked. “Oh, come on. I’d expect this from Nikki, not you.”

Nikki. My heart raced and my throat ran dry. “Jaz, I mean it. What are you talking about? What about Nikki?”

Jasmine looked genuinely confused. “I thought you were with her. Well, shit. Eve, she hasn’t come back. She left just a few minutes before you did.”

“Right,” I said. “She was heading down to the Fitness center. But that was like two hours ago.”

Jasmine chewed her bottom lip. I didn’t like the look she was giving me one bit. She was the kind of girl who relished knowing something you didn’t and then took her own sweet time filling you in. It made her feel important. On this, I wouldn’t have cared. But, there was something in the air tonight. And she’d taken a weird phone call from Deputy Joel Wisher right before she left.

“What the hell, Jasmine?”

She raised a dark brow. “Hey, none of my business.”

“Uh, you’re making it your business by bringing me into it. You might as well spill it.”

Jasmine ruffled some papers on the desk and closed her laptop. “Hey, I like Nikki. Everybody likes Nikki. She’s fun. She’s nice. I can look the other way when you come in late for curfew once. I’ll even do it for Nikki tonight too. If you don’t want to tell me what’s going on, that’s fine. But, I know for a fact she’s not down at the Fitness center, Eve. She left the building before you did and she hasn’t come back. I’ve been here for four hours. In another ten minutes, Grace Garner is going to come down here to take over for me. You and I both know Grace isn’t going to keep her mouth shut if Nikki waltzes in here during her shift. So, whatever. Keep your little secrets. It’s fine. It’s just you might want to get word to your roommate to get her butt back here like now.”

I reared back. This was bad. Catastrophic. Jasmine was absolutely right about Grace Garner. She was the kind of person who would just love to cause trouble for Nikki.

So, for the second time in the span of an hour, I found myself covering for someone without knowing all the details. I just prayed that whatever Nikki was doing, it better be good.

“Got it,” I said. “And thanks.”

Jasmine had more to say, but I didn’t give her a chance. Nikki was my mission now, and I didn’t have much time. I couldn’t believe she just straight-up lied to me about where she was going. It wasn’t like her. With Woods and Summers prowling around campus, she wouldn’t make it very far if she was still out there.

I swung by the basement Fitness center before heading upstairs. The place was empty and dark. With no other choice, I headed up to our room. Maybe Nikki was already there. Maybe she’d slipped in when Jasmine was in the bathroom or something. It didn’t seem plausible though. We had to swipe our I.D.s when we left and entered Camden Hall. Jasmine would have checked that before spouting off about her to me. Still, maybe she’d come in with someone else and forgot to swipe her own card. That kind of thing happened all the time.

That had to be it. I liked to describe her as more of a free spirit. But, she wasn’t completely reckless. At least, I hoped not. I took a deep breath before sliding my card over the panel to unlock our dorm room door.

I opened the door into darkness. Nikki’s bed was empty. The bag she’d taken when she left for the Fitness center was still gone. Jasmine was right. Either she hadn’t come back or she’d left again without telling anyone. I checked my phone again. No calls. No texts from Nikki. No notes. Nothing.

I called her phone and started to pace between our bedrooms. I jumped out of my skin when Nikki’s phone started to ring. I followed the sound and found it on the floor pushed almost under her bed.

“What the ever-loving hell?” I shouted into the empty room. I could have sworn she had her phone when I saw her leave.

The bell tower chimed on the quarter hour. If Nikki came back now, she’d have to walk right under Grace Garner’s nose. I tossed my phone on my bed and went to the great dormer window in our common room. Pressing my nose against the cold glass, I scanned the quad.

Streetlamps cast long, ghostly shadows over the grass. To the south, emerging from the darkness, Deputies Chris Woods and Trey Summers walked their patrol.

Seeing them lifted my heart. It meant that nothing had pulled them away toward the park. Wherever Mac was, he hadn’t been seen.

Mac.

I smoothed my hands over my arms, remembering the soft warmth of his leather jacket when he slipped it over my shoulders. It had a wild, woodsy scent just like he did. I didn’t know him. He was no more than a stranger. In my heart, I knew even talking to him could be dangerous for me.

Woods and Summers’s booted footsteps echoed across the quad. I’d taken such a chance venturing beyond the campus walls. No one talked about it. No one admitted it aloud. At the same time, no one left Birch Haven.

It got hard to breathe as I let the truth wash over me. Until tonight, I hadn’t been brave enough to admit it to myself. I was imagining things. Overreacting. At best, I was doing what I always do, assuming the worst. Why couldn’t I just chill out and accept Birch Haven at face value? This place had given me a chance to make something of myself, hadn’t it? Why did I always have to try to find the dark side?

I should have made Mac answer me when I asked him what he was doing there. He said he was looking for someone. Who? And why the hell couldn’t he just come right into Birch Haven in broad daylight and ask around?

Hot tears welled in my eyes. I knew the answer. Oh, God. I’d known it for weeks. Even now, I didn’t want to admit it. Mac couldn’t come into Birch Haven because people like Joel Wisher and the two deputies I now watched on patrol would keep him out. Just like Woods and Summers would have surely found me if I’d kept on going.

Birch Haven wasn’t a normal private college. Birch Haven was a prison.

I pressed my forehead against the glass. I could hear my mother’s sandpaper voice. “Nothing’s ever good enough for you, Eve. You always find a way to shit on everything that makes other people happy. People like you end up alone.”

She’d been right. I was alone.

I kept my eyes on Summers and Woods as they made another turn and headed farther away. It would be so easy to just believe they were there to keep bad things from happening to the women who went to this college. I wished with all my heart it was true.

Laughter drew my attention from the east end of the quad. My blood turned to ice as I recognized the voice.

Nikki.

She came out of the shadows walking backward. Why was she so happy? Didn’t she realize what time it was? Woods and Summers would see her any second. Was she drunk? Fuck. That would compound things tenfold. Not only could they ding her for missing curfew, but like me, Nikki was only nineteen. With their shifter senses, they’d be able to detect alcohol on her breath in a heartbeat.

I pressed my palms against the glass, wishing I could shout a warning. Nikki seemed oblivious to the danger. She threw her head back and ran a hand through her hair. Her hips swung as she walked. Oh, I knew that posture. There was someone with her, still concealed in shadow. Whoever it was, Nikki Rogers was giving him her full-on flirt. She must be drunk.

Woods and Summers turned toward her. Even from here, I could see their wolf eyes glint. They strode toward her. One of them called out. Nikki flipped her hair again and turned toward them. She still seemed so casual and unafraid. Another beat passed and I realized why.

Deputy Joel Wisher emerged from the shadows beside her in plain clothes. He jutted his chin toward the other deputies. They recognized him instantly and backed off. I couldn’t make out which was Summers and which was Woods from this distance, but they looked at each other, shrugged, then turned in unison, walking quickly in the other direction.

The scene played out below me in what seemed like slow motion. Joel closed the distance between him and Nikki in two strong strides. He slid his hands around her waist and pulled her to him.

She wasn’t afraid. She wasn’t offended. Instead, Nikki’s hands went up, smoothing over his chest until she draped her arms around his shoulders. Then, Joel leaned in and kissed her. Nikki kissed him back. He had her off of her feet.

“What the ever-loving fuck?” I shouted against the glass.

Nikki laughed again as Joel set her back on her feet. He pulled her closer to him. The move was quick, possessive. Nikki sank into him. From here, I could see Joel’s wolf eyes flash, first silver, then red. He slid his hand down her back until he cupped her ass. Nikki did nothing to stop him. Instead, she tilted her chin toward him and waited for another kiss.

Finally, Joel let go of her. He pointed toward the front entrance of Camden Hall. Nikki gave Joel a dutiful nod, then turned and headed inside.