I felt as though my spine might rip straight out of me as I watched Eve run away. I’d told her to do it. Demanded it. And yet, with each step she took, my inner wolf wanted to go after her.

I stayed longer than I should have, sinking low to the ground. I watched her through the trees as she crossed the creek and set foot back on Birch Haven property. It should have made me feel relief. She hadn’t been seen. I hadn’t been seen. And, I’d managed to end our encounter without telling her what I was really doing there.

But, I wasn’t relieved. Rage burned through me like wildfire. The Pack was everywhere. I dug my fingers into the ground so hard they bled as two shifters approached Eve. She projected calm, but even from here I could sense the jackhammering beat of her heart. That alone should have told me how dangerous it was to stay close to her. If they made a move on her. If they touched her, I honestly didn’t know if I’d have the strength to stay out of it.

Blessedly, Eve kept her cool. Whoever those shifters were, they let her go. Campus deputies. Fuck. Girls like Eve were meant to think they were there to keep them safe. Only I knew they were there to keep them prisoners.

Finally, as Eve disappeared into the relative safety of her dormitory, I allowed myself to breathe. No matter how much it tore at me, I had to go back to Mammoth Forest. I’d pressed my luck for far too long tonight.

Tilting my head, I closed my eyes and dared one last deep breath. Eve’s scent reached me first, cool, clean, and sweet. A shudder ripped through me and my claws sprang forth. If I shifted this close to those Pack members, they’d be able to scent me just as easily.

I turned southeast. It was the wrong way. In the marrow of my bones I knew my place was here. And yet, I couldn’t stay. Staying now wouldn’t help Lena if she were truly beyond those walls. It wouldn’t help Eve either. Though it went against every instinct pouring through me, I took the first step away from Birch Haven. Then another. And another. One powerful thing made the distance easier to bear. The further away I got from the Pack, the more I could let my wolf out.

Five miles southwest and I let myself shift. In one great leap over a fallen branch, my wolf ripped forth. In an instant, my vision sharpened. My fur bristled as I kept going, propelled by powerful haunches, pistoning as the ground became a blur beneath me.

Game scurried ahead of me, sensing my approach. I wasn’t here for them. Not tonight. I let the cool, clean air fill my lungs as I leaped over a stream and relished the feel of the newly fallen leaves crunching beneath my paws. It should be like this. Forever. My kind was meant to roam over these lands free from the pull of the Chief Pack. This brief taste of freedom came with a dangerous price though. If they caught me, death would be the best I could hope for.

My heartbeat slowed as I hit the edge of Mammoth Forest. Cave City was just a bit to the north. That’s where the tourists went. Hundreds of them poured through the labyrinth of passageways beneath my feet. The National Park Service took over those trails almost a century ago, giving work to men who may have otherwise starved. But, that’s not where I was headed. For every mile the park claimed, there were a dozen more they would never find.

I slowed my breathing and pressed my belly to the ground. Just a few months ago, I never would have dared to let my wolf out unless I was underground. We’d won an important battle against the Chief Pack and taken out the Alpha’s most powerful general in this area. It made it harder for the Pack to scent us. They would regroup though. It was only a matter of time. Before I reached the secret entrance to our part of the caves, I shifted, rising on two strong legs.

I moved a large boulder near the mouth of the cave. Smiling, I found the pair of pants and shirt Molly had left for me. She was Liam’s mate. While studying to become a veterinarian, she helped keep our people stocked with critical medical supplies. Every day she went to work, I knew it tore at Liam to watch her go.

I paused before entering the tiny hole in the ground beyond the boulder. No one but our people knew it was here. If that ever changed, it could mean the end of all of us.

Liam’s heart beat for Molly’s and hers for his. It was like that with fated mates, or so I’d been told. It also made Molly a weapon the Pack could use against us if they ever found out. My heart turned to stone as I entered the opening and slid beneath the earth.

Fated mates.

The Alpha had stolen more than just our freedom to shift at will. He’d outlawed the unsanctioned claiming of mates two generations ago. No shifter under his rule could choose a mate without his approval. Anyone who tried risked death or worse. And that was the secret of Birch Haven.

“You’re back!” Liam’s deep voice reached me first. He stood at the end of the long passageway. It opened up to a grand rotunda. We used it as a sort of meeting place as it was the only space large enough to accommodate us all where we could stand upright.

Molly dashed around him, her face shining with a bright smile. I barely got my arms up in time to catch her as she threw her arms around me.

Sweet Molly. Her nut-brown hair fell in wisps around her face. She wore it pulled back in a ponytail with thick bangs cut straight across her brow. I kissed the top of her head and set her back on her feet. She brought her hands up, smoothing her thumbs over my cheekbones, down my arms then peering around my backside.

“Stop it,” I said. “I’m fine. Not so much as a scratch on me.”

She put her hands on her hips and gave me a hard stare. She was always doing that. The woman couldn’t shut off her clinician’s mind if she tried. That, and she’d become sort of a den mother to all of us.

“Well?” she asked, tapping her foot. “So you’re in one piece. You just gonna stand there, or are you gonna fill us in on what you found?”

Liam came to her and gently pulled her back. Gunnar and Payne stepped out of the shadows. The four of us formed the core of our little band of brothers. Resistance fighters in a war we never wanted.

“Well,” I said. “It’s there. Just like you thought it would be.”

Molly nodded. “Birch Haven. I was right?”

I started to pace. Gunnar’s wolf eyes flashed silver. He tore a hand through his blond hair and leaned against the slick stone wall.

“How many?” he asked. “Were you able to count?”

I held a hand up. “Hang on. I didn’t get close enough to get that much intel. This first trip was just to get the initial lay of the land.”

We all went quiet. No one wanted to be rude enough to say it out loud, but all eyes turned to Molly. She put her hands on her hips and gave Liam a grim nod.

“Dr. Bess and I have some supplies to unpack,” she said, going to Liam. He reached for her and pulled her to him. We were not pack, but Liam was my half-brother on my mother’s side. His affection and desire for Molly were palpable. Payne cleared his throat and stepped further away from them.

“I’ll come find you when we’re done here,” Liam said. Molly’s cheeks reddened and she stole a glance back at me before going up on her tiptoes and giving Liam a kiss.

It was hard for them being cooped up here. Liam had claimed her a few months ago. If things were different, they would have headed deeper into the woods to be alone for their first year as mates. I’d always heard that was the trickiest time for human women. Being marked by an Alpha meant a lot of things. Not the least of which was a heightened sex drive.

I was happy for them. I was. Liam and I hadn’t been raised together, but we were still blood-bonded. When my sister went missing, he was the only one I could turn to for help. Without him, I never would have had the strength to break free from the Chief Pack. He and our cousin Jagger had been the first ones to do it. They were the ones who found this place.

As Molly pulled away from him, Liam’s fingers trailed along hers. They seemed to try and resist every parting, no matter how short, as if it caused them both physical pain.

“I’ll check on him,” Molly said, her tone turning dark. Liam squeezed his eyes shut and gave her a quick nod. When she finally broke away from Liam, she turned to me and placed a light hand on my chest.

“I’m glad you’re back safe,” she whispered.

We waited until Molly was out of earshot. We trusted her. She was family. But, Molly was also human and Liam’s claimed mate. God forbid a member of the Pack ever got ahold of her, the fewer details she knew about what I was doing, the better.

None of us even liked to think about anything happening to Molly. Without her, we might not be able to keep going. Never mind the medical supplies she brought in, we’d lose Liam if we lost her. Losing his fated mate is the worst thing that can happen to an Alpha wolf. And it had happened to Jagger.

“No change?” I asked, turning to Liam. Jagger had been nearly catatonic over the last few months since losing his wife, Keara. She’s the reason he broke free of the Chief Pack in the first place. We’d lost her in the battle to take out the Pack general of Shadow Springs, the town where Molly worked. Though we’d killed the general and his soldiers, Keara died in the fight. Jagger would never be the same.

“He’s eating,” Payne said. “That’s something. And Molly thinks we might be able to take the chains off of him at night now too. She says he’s not likely to run anymore.”

I didn’t know if that was good or bad. Jagger Wilkes was one of the fiercest shifters I knew. To see him wasting away, broken, a shell of himself, gutted all of us.

“Tell us about Birch Haven, Mac,” Gunnar said. I was glad of the distraction.

I described the town as best I could. “Small. Bordered on three sides by a giant brick wall. The college is at the center. The streets were quiet from what I saw. But, the Pack is everywhere. I didn’t sense a general. Not last night anyway. That’s the weird thing. The Pack pull isn’t as strong there as I would have suspected. If the Alpha’s got top dogs guarding that place, they weren’t there, or they were and distracted.”

“Thank God,” Liam said. “What about Lena? Did you sense her at all?”

This was the part that was going to be hardest to tell. “No. Not Lena. But there were…others.”

Gunnar dropped his head. “Dammit. You know, ever since Molly overheard the Shadow Springs general talking about that place, I hadn’t wanted to believe it existed.”

“There were a lot of women,” I said. “I sort of ran into one. She was...I don’t know. I think she was trying to run away.”

Liam’s eyes flashed gold. Though we were only half-brothers with different fathers, we could almost be twins. He had the same ginger-brown hair and coloring, but his wolf eyes were gold; mine were silver, or so I’d been told.

“Did she see you?” he asked.

The urge to lie flared inside of me, taking me by surprise. My need to protect Eve became a palpable thing. We were not pack. Liam could not read my thoughts, but he didn’t need to.

“Yes,” I answered. “I talked to her. Her name was...Eve.”

“Was she marked?” Payne asked.

“No,” I answered. “Not yet.”

He let out an audible sigh. “Jesus.” Payne started to pace. His need to shift affected all of us. He finally settled for punching a fist against the rock.

“I’m going back,” I said. “Tomorrow night. I’m going to try to get closer.”

Payne and Gunnar talked about going with me. In the end, it was decided I should go alone again. For now. It was too much of a risk to take the others. One wolf might be able to escape Pack detection. Three was pushing it. There was something else as well. I didn’t want to give voice to it. But, the idea of Payne or Gunnar or any other wolf getting within a foot of Eve made my own wolf rage.

This was bad. Very bad. And Liam could read every bit of it in my eyes.