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He walks out, pulling the door closed behind him.

The second it’s closed, I’m on my feet, searching for a phone I can use to call Mack. There is no phone. Nothing useful at all in this basic cabin. Just a bed with simple bedding, a dresser, and a bathroom, which, like Shane warned me, doesn’t even have a window.

I look at the toilet and I have a sudden hatred for my bladder.

“Not the time to be stamping on my bladder, Thumper,” I whisper, wincing as I rest my hand on my belly.

I don’t have any options.

I use the bathroom because I need it, wash my hands, and walk out of the cabin to find Shane wasn’t lying.

He is literally parked right outside. We’re in a cabin in the middle of nowhere. There’s a short side road and leads to a main, busier road, where I can occasionally hear cars speeding past. And all around me is the forest.

I don’t think we’re in Winter Lake anymore. Last night, Mack woke me at 2 a.m. and left with the others to deal with a problem at the hotel. I stayed up with the rest of the pack, and it was still dark when Shane dragged me out of the house.

Now it’s a bright, sunny day. Mid-morning, I think, rather than early. If we’ve been on the road, we must have been on it for hours for the sky to be so bright.

I eye the main road in the distance, but I’m not stupid. I wouldn’t make it a mile down it if I ran for it before Shane was out of the car and grabbing me, so I walk over to his car.

It’s his sports car. I’d hoped to get in the back seat, but there isn’t one. So I climb into the passenger seat and slam the door shut.

It’s this or the trunk, I remind myself.

For now.

My options won’t always be this limited. I just have to buy myself time until I get to that point. That’s all.

“Good choice.” Shane starts the engine. “I knew you’d see things my way.”

They say there’s a fine line between love and hate.

I look at my fated mate, the biological father of my child, and a man I once convinced myself I loved, and I don’t think I could hate anyone more than I hate him.

2

MACK

Ispent all the rest of the night searching for Aerin as the rest of my pack battled to put out a fire in the den that threatened to burn the entire house to the ground.

I drove all the roads around Winter Lake.

It was 2 a.m. when her fated mate took her, so no one was around to notice what car he appeared in and which direction he went.

I drove until I realized I had no clue where I was driving, that I could be going in the completely opposite direction to the road he took her, and I made myself turn my car around and drive back to the house.

It’s 8 when I park outside my house.

I hadn’t realized I had been gone for so long.

Someone boarded up the broken den window, and though the scent of smoke lingers in the air, all the fire is out.

There’s a ball of dread and tension growing in my belly, and I can’t shake the feeling that I let Aerin down. I told her over and over that she was safe. That I would always protect her and the baby, and I failed.

When the back of my eyelids prickle as a spike lodges in my throat, I remember our walk in the forest days before.

“I bet you never cried a day in your life.” Aerin is grinning at me. Her hand feels soft and warm in mine, and she’s beautiful, but that’s nothing new. She’s the most beautiful woman in the world.

She was wrong.

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