Mirabella wouldn’t stop pushing me on her brothers. “Come on, explain why one can be so attractive and the other repulsive when they look nearly identical.”

“It’s not all about looks. Your brothers have different personalities, but like I said, I’m not into either of them. I’m quitting my job when we get back anyway.” Mirabella was acting too weird. I was done. No more changing my mind.

“Why?” She pulled her legs up to sit cross-legged.

“I just am.” I felt defensive in a way I’d never felt with Mirabella before. There was an unspoken change between us, and I had no interest in hanging out with her here. “Are you ready to go?”

“What’s the hurry?” She leaned back.

“The hurry is this place is weird.” I glanced over my shoulder, half expecting to see Justin there.

“It’s paradise.” She gazed out at the water.

“It’s not what I was picturing.” I stirred my drink with a straw.

“What were you picturing?”

“A bunch of hot guys running around. That sounds more like your kind of paradise.”

“It is paradise when you’re with the right person. That’s the whole point of this place.”

“The point of it? Then why’d you ask me to come? And where’s your right person?”

“He’s not here. That’s why I’m ready to go.”

“Ok, so let’s go.” Was she completely losing her mind? I’d just asked her to go two seconds before.

“You’re going to forgive me eventually, right? Things will go back to normal? Do you promise? I really don’t want to lose our friendship.”

“Forgive you for what? Wasting my time?” It wouldn’t have been the first time, and if even after I quit her dad still paid me, well then I hadn’t really wasted my time after all.

“No.” she sighed. “I hate that you know nothing about any of this. You’re so human.”

“Uh, last time I checked you were human too.” I eyed my drink skeptically before setting it down beside my phone. Was there something in it? Was that why she was acting so funny?

“I’m not. I wanted you to pick up on it earlier, but you didn’t. You never did.”

“I’m lost.” I rubbed my temple. I hoped I didn’t start acting loopy too. I’d had more than a few sips of the drink.

“Do you like Justin at all?”

“No, but it doesn’t matter.” Was she really going to bring up her brothers again? I was over that conversation.

“It does matter. A lot. Why don’t you like him?”

“You know why. He lives to make me uncomfortable.”

“That’s not true. He likes you.”

“He likes to make me feel like prey or something.” Just thinking about his recent actions made me tense.

“I think he likes that. I obviously don’t know my brother’s sexual fantasies, but my guess is he’s into games.”

“Um, let’s stop talking about this.” I wrapped my arms over my chest.

“It wouldn’t have come to this if you’d liked him. It’s my fault for not pushing it harder. but I didn’t want to ruin our friendship. And that’s why I left. I thought if I was out of the picture I would miss the mess and you wouldn’t blame me, but then my dad called, and well, here we are. I really thought he’d have given you more than two weeks at the office before turning to this.” She spread her arms wide, spilling some of her drink on her tan skin.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. When did your dad call?”

“Two days ago.”

My whole body froze. “He said he hadn’t talked to you.”

“Yeah well, he also told you he was worried about me too, right?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry, Hope. But in the end you’ll be happy. The sooner you accept things, the sooner you’ll be back home, and things can go back to normal. Well kind of normal. You know what I mean.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” I sat up. “Can we go home now?”

“Not yet. Like I said, the sooner you accept things, the sooner you’ll be home.”

“Accept what?” I groaned. “You’re the reason I’m here. Can’t we have this discussion on the plane?”

“No.” She sat up. “You are the reason we’re here. Your inability to do what you’re supposed to do.”

“What I’m supposed to do?” Anger boiled inside me. “What the hell are you talking about?”

“All you had to do was give in to Justin. Every other girl throws themselves at his feet, but you? No. You ignore each and every one of his advances.” Her eyes darkened until they were nearly black. “I get it. You liked Clayton more, but get over it. He’s not the one. Justin is. If it makes you feel better, pretend it’s Clayton when Justin’s on top of you.”

“What the hell is wrong with you!”

“Nothing.” She knocked my drink over, spilling it all over my phone.

I reached for it, but she took it and threw it into the water.

“Are you insane?” I gaped at her. “That’s my phone.”

“You said it yourself; it doesn’t work. But the sim card might. Can’t take the chance.”

“The chance of what?” Fear spread through me.

“Someone finding you. I promise Justin will buy you a new phone when you get back. He’ll buy you whatever model you want.”

“I don’t want Justin buying me anything. I don’t want anything to do with your family other than getting a ride home.”

“You’ll get a ride home when it’s time.”

“It’s time.” Anger and fear warred inside of me.

Mirabella pulled on a cover up over her bathing suit. “The stupid part of all of this is how easily you could have avoided it. All you had to do was stop falling all over Clayton. But no, you couldn’t handle that.”

“Your dad could have just fired me. I didn’t realize it was a problem.”

“It was only a problem because Justin noticed. He always noticed, and he was tired of waiting. You’re twenty-two, and technically he doesn’t have to wait. Dad thought this was the best way.”

“The best way of what?”

“Let me ask you something.” She returned her sunglasses to her eyes. “Why do you think my dad started fussing over you so much?”

“He didn’t fuss over me.” Was that what this was all about? Was she mad that her dad liked me?

“No? So it was normal for your friend’s dad to help you pick college classes, get you internships, introduce you to all the right people? You’ve been on all my family vacations for four years. Does that seem weird to you?”

“We’re best friends…” Or we were. We weren’t now.

“We are. And that’s not going to change. At least I don’t want it to.”

It had changed, but I wouldn’t tell her that until we were back home.“Please, explain.”

“My dad liked you on move in day, but that’s not when it became an unquestionable outcome that you’d one day join my family. That happened when you got me out of that mess with the Sigma guys. Remember? I had way too much to drink, and you got me out of there, back to the dorms, and to class the same day?”

“I remember.”

“Well, you impressed him. Justin was already gaga over you. He was ready to propose the first night he met you. It was embarrassing, but luckily he graduated and couldn’t make it so obvious anymore.”

“Justin and I aren’t going to get married. I have no idea why anyone would get that impression. I’ve never led him on in any way.” In fact she’d just been giving me an attitude about not returning his flirtations.

“No, you haven’t. You’ve been cold and standoffish.”

My jaw dropped. “This again? You’re the one who told me to ignore him.”

“I did. But that’s when twenty-two seemed far away. Now it’s time to focus on his good traits. I know you think he’s cute. You admitted he was sexy once when you were drunk. You said he was sexy, but too bad his personality got in the way.”

“I never said that.”

“You did.” She grinned. “Best friends know this stuff.”

“Let’s go home. I promise I’ll stay far away from both your brothers.”

The sound of a car had me hurrying around the deck to the back side of the bungalow.

Justin parked a silver sports car. “You’ve had enough time.”

“For once I agree with you.” I was so ready to get the heck out of there.

He gave me a funny look. And then caught his sister’s eye. “Didn’t you talk to her?”

“Yes, but she didn’t get it.”

“How could she not get it?” He got out of the car but left the engine running. “It’s simple.”

“Justin, please take me back to the plane. Your sister has lost her mind. She was talking crazy, about not being human, about me not leaving. I’m not sure what was in that drink.”

Justin looked at his sister, “Get in the car, Mirabella.”

I breathed a sigh of relief and moved toward the back seat. Justin blocked me.

I watched as Mirabella got into the driver’s side.

“I love you, Hope. Forgive me.” She jumped into the driver’s seat and drove away.

“Justin! Stop her!” I screamed. “You’re going to just let her drive away?”

“Yes,” he replied calmly. “She’s got a plane to catch.”

“So do we!” I tried to walk around him, but he blocked me.

“Hope, calm down.”

“Justin, why aren’t we in that car? Why did you let her drive away like that?”

“Because we’re staying.”

“Staying? Here? On this island?” Was he crazy too? Was the whole family out of their minds? I was starting to really believe that.

“Yes.” He nodded.

“No. No, we’re not.” I pushed him and tried to move around him; he caught my arms and pulled me back.

“You will never catch up with her. The plane will take off in a few minutes, and it isn’t coming back until I call for it.”

“Let go of me.”

“I will, once the plane takes off.”

I stepped on his foot as hard as I could.

He laughed. I kicked backward, hoping I got him in the balls, but by his laugher I knew I missed.

He pulled me back against him in a crazy strong grip. “I love the enthusiasm, but you can’t hurt me. Save your energy. We’ve had a long day.”

Silent tears streamed down my face. “Justin, please. Whatever it is you want, I’ll give it to you once we get back.”

“No, you won’t.” He ran his lips over my neck. “You won’t. And this isn’t something I can take. You have to want to give it to me. After enough time here you’ll want to. I promise.”

I heard the sound of a plane engine roaring to life. “Let go of me!” I tried to kick him, but he had my legs locked. He had super human strength. It was insane.

“You’re only going to hurt yourself. Please. Relax,” Justin pleaded as if he actually cared about my well being.

I maneuvered my elbow, trying to stick him in the ribs.

He grunted, and I dug it in harder, ready to take any chance I could get.

He spun me around in his arms so I was looking at him. “Stop!”

“No!”

“It’s too late. The plane is leaving.”

I looked up in time to watch the plane take off into the sky. It was carrying my best friend, rather my ex-best friend, and leaving me on an island with a psycho.

But maybe I wasn’t totally alone. I remembered the porter. Surely there were other people here too. “Are we alone here?”

“No.” He shook his head. “We have the island to ourselves. No other couples here, but there is some staff.”

“Other couples?” I glared at him. “We are not a couple.”

“We will be.”

“You are absolutely insane.” And I was absolutely screwed. I was an idiot. A complete and utter idiot. Why had I gotten on the plane to begin with?

When the plane disappeared above I fell to my knees.

Justin knelt down beside me. “My sister was supposed to prepare you.”

“Prepare me for what? For my death? Is that what this is? You get a high off hurting people?”

“Seriously?” He narrowed his eyes. “You think you’re here so I can kill you?”

“There’s no other reason for me to be here.”

“You’re here so that you become my mate. It’s why we are here.”

“Your mate?” He sounded even crazier.

“Yes. My mate.” He reached out for me, and I crawled away backwards.

“People don’t have mates. Animals do.”

“I’m kind of an animal.” He followed me, still on his knees.

“No, you’re not.” I shook my head. “You’re a human. What is it with you people?”

“I’m not human, Hope. I’d rather not show you yet. I don’t want to freak you out.”

I reached for my phone, but my pocket was empty. I remembered Mirabella had thrown it in the ocean. I was stuck with Justin. I was going to have to find someone else on the island with cell reception and beg them to let me use their phone.

“Give it up. It’s not happening.” He grabbed my around the waist and pulled me to standing.

“Stay away from me.” I tried to shrug him off.

“I’m not going to hurt you. Let’s go inside. We can discuss this over dinner.”

“No. We’re not discussing anything.”

“What’s your plan then? You going to run away? Did you forget we are on an island?”

“I’ll find someone else.”

“There’s no one here who will help you get home. I’m the only one who can arrange that.”

“Then arrange it.” I closed my eyes. I couldn’t stand to look at him any longer. “Take me home.”

“I will. I promise we’ll go home as soon as you’re my mate.”

There went that word again. Mate. I didn’t hesitate. I bit down on his hand as hard as I could.

He let go of me in surprise, and I took off running back toward where our plane landed.

“What are you doing, Hope?” Justin yelled after. “There’s nowhere to run.”

I ran as hard as I could, but I saw nothing. No evidence of the plane or any other people. I walked down to the shore and lay down on the warm sand. I wished I was dreaming, but I knew I wasn’t that lucky. My best friend had just deserted me in the middle of nowhere with her brother—who turned out to be crazy, in addition to being a creep.

I felt him lie down next to me, but I refused to look at him. I knew I should be afraid of him, but I was more annoyed. “Can you just be honest with me?”

“Of course.” He grabbed my hand, but I pulled it away. He didn’t try again.

“Why are you doing this?”

“You know how I feel about you. We discussed this on the plane.”

“I know you aren’t this desperate, so it has to be more than that.”

He laughed. “Desperate?”

“To create this elaborate ruse to get me to a deserted island? I know for a fact there are a hundred girls back home who would sleep with you in a second.”

“But those girls aren’t you.” He kicked off his flip flops.

“Where are we?” If I was stuck here I might as well get some answers.

“Kekry Island.”

“Now you admit it’s real?”

“Yes. It’s always been real. It’s here to help people like us.”

“Like us?” I wondered where he was going with this particular line of thought.

“People who need some time away to ease into mating. It’s private and—”

“We aren’t easing into mating. We aren’t easing into dating, or having sex, or anything else either. After this I want nothing to do with your family. I want to forget the last four years of my life.”

“That’s impossible. You know it as well as I do.”

“It’s very possible. Nothing is impossible.” At least I needed to believe that. I wasn’t staying on this island, and I certainly wasn’t getting involved with Justin.

“I decided I wanted you. My father approved. I’ve spent four years waiting for you to realize the same thing and come of age. You came of age, but you’re still blind to our destiny.” He sat up. “And it’s all because of Clayton.”

“Ignoring the whole coming of age thing, what does Clayton have to do with this? Does everyone know I crushed on him?”

“Crushed. Past tense?” He turned so he was looking directly at me.

“I’m over him.”

“Now that’s welcome news.”

“I’m not into you. I hate all of you, him included because he obviously knew what I was in for when I got on the plane.”

“This was his idea, you know.”

“Yeah, I’m sure.” I was annoyed at Clayton, but he didn’t care enough about me to put me in this situation.

“Don’t get me wrong, I readily agreed, but he thought it was for the best.”

“That’s why he was messing with me right before the stupid meeting.” I dug my feet into the sand.

“Messing with you?” Justin paled. “What did he do?”

“Nothing worth repeating. He just…he purposely made me get all stupid around him. I never realized it before, but he did that fairly often. I was so busy being annoyed at your flirting, I never noticed the way he made fun of me.”

“I shouldn’t relish the fact you’re mad at him, but I do.” He leaned back on his elbows.

“So I’ve been through enough already. Please, take me home.”

“The only home I can offer you right now is our bungalow.”

“I’m not going in there.”

“What are you afraid of?” He moved above me, his hands pressing down in the sand on either side of my body. “That you’ll actually want to be with me?”

I pushed at his arm, but he wouldn’t budge. “Leave me alone. I’m never going to want to be with you.”

“You’re attracted to me.”

“I’m not.”

“You are. I can sense it. I’ve always sensed it.”

I closed my eyes, trying to come up with a plan. I got nothing. “Please move. I can’t sit up until you do.”

“That’s kind of the point.”

“I need space.”

“The whole point of this island is to have no space.”

“Right now I want to throw up.”

He moved off me. “Are you okay?”

“No. I’m not okay. I just found out the last four years of my life have been based on lies. I’m stranded and really want to go home. I’m not okay at all.”

“You need to eat. It’s been hours.”

“Stop pretending to care. I know you don’t.” I got up and started walking away. That turned out to be a mistake. I was immediately light headed.

“I do care.” He put a hand on my arm.

I stepped away.

“You look like you might pass out. Eat. Think of it this way, how can you run if you can’t stand up?”

“I’m not stepping foot inside a house with you.”

“We can get served on the deck.”

“Get served?”

“Yes, I told you there was staff.”

And we’d be interacting with staff. That was the best news I’d gotten all day. “I’ll have a little something to eat, but only because you’re right. I can’t run without it.”

He grinned and held out his arm. “Come on, let me help you get back.”

“I can do it on my own.” I felt ready to collapse, but that didn’t mean I was accepting his help.

“Ok, but if you start to fall over I’m catching you.”

“Good to know.”

“What do you want to eat?”

“I get a choice?” My stomach growled.

“Of course you do. This isn’t prison.”

“It is though. Maybe not in the traditional sense, but I am here against my will. Tell yourself what you want, but this is illegal. You kidnapped me.”

“This island doesn’t exist.” He walked right beside me.

“Yes, it does.” I was walking on it, wasn’t I?

“I mean to the rest of the world. Not even in the supernatural world. The Society would have a fit if they knew about it.”

“The Society?”

“Forget it. Don’t worry about it. This island is off the grid. Completely.”

“Yet Mirabella’s phone worked.” That was keeping my hope alive. Someone else’s phone might work too.

“She talked to my dad when she was in Fiji. We know the coordinates here. So did her pilot.”

“I should have realized this job was too good to be true.” I wrapped my arms around myself. I thought over every interaction I’d had with their family, every little thing, trying to find a clue I’d missed. The Wellingtons were psycho crazies. Mirabella wasn’t really my friend. She’d left me on an island with her brother. He claimed I couldn’t leave unless I mated with him. Mated. And, oh yeah, they both didn’t think they were human. And I was the idiot who got on that plane without telling anyone where I was going. My own parents didn’t even know.

“I know what you’re thinking, Hope. You couldn’t have predicted this.”

I spun around. “I hate you.”

“Sometimes we hate the ones we love.”

“I don’t love you.”

“You do, underneath that anger.”

“No.” There were many other things I wanted to say, but I didn’t have the strength. I would play nice and eat a meal, then I would plan my escape. If I went down, it was going to be fighting.