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  I had a sneaking suspicion they were discussing me and my insistence that I stay behind. But why would Rafe care? For that matter, why would Lucas? We hadn’t hooked up or anything.

  When Lindsey finally returned to the tent and nudged me with a tired “Your turn,” I was more than ready to get out of the tent. I wanted to talk with Lucas, try to explain—

  What exactly?

  I wasn’t sure. I just knew that I didn’t want him to leave in the morning still upset with me. But he was the one who’d said he had more important things to worry over than me. Mason made me feel like I was the only important thing.

  A girl needs that.

  But when I stepped out of the tent, it wasn’t Lucas waiting for me. It was Connor.

  “Where’s Lucas?” I asked.

  “Asleep, I guess. I’ll take that side.” He started to walk away.

  “Connor?”

  He stopped and looked back at me. He wasn’t wearing his usual teasing grin. I wanted the reason to be that it was so late, but I knew he was upset with me as well.

  “I don’t understand why my staying is a big deal.”

  He sighed. “I know. And that’s the reason it’s a big deal.”

  “So why doesn’t someone explain it to me?” I gave him a pointed glare.

  “It’s not my place.”

  What a lame excuse. “Whatever. It’s only ten days. Geez. You guys are acting like I’m betraying you or something.”

  “We just didn’t expect you to be the one to stay. That’s all.”

  Because I was the newbie? If Lucas was really concerned about it, he could have insisted I leave. Things were so confusing. I was grateful I’d have a few days to myself without Lucas bombarding my thoughts.

  In typical guy fashion, Connor walked away as though all my questions had been answered. Only I had more questions. But he wasn’t going to answer them. I thought about waking Lucas up, but I didn’t want to bother him. Especially when he got so little sleep as it was.

  And if he was able to sleep, how bothered could he really be about me staying here? Not much.

  I walked the perimeter and when I got to the stream, I stood there and watched the moonlight dancing over the water.

  It was only then that I realized I hadn’t heard the wolf howl that night. I wondered if we’d traveled out of his territory. If we’d left him behind. It made me sad to think so, almost made me consider heading back tomorrow, just to have him closer again.

  But that was a silly thought. It was probably all coincidence anyway—his howling when I went to bed each night.

  I was going to have fun here with Mason.

  The sherpas left at dawn. As I stood at the edge of the camp and watched them leave, I saw that Lindsey was the only one who looked back. This sense of abandonment was ridiculous. It wasn’t like we’d never see each other again.

  As for the atmosphere of betrayal, that was even sillier.

  I wasn’t exactly sure why I’d thought it would be exciting to stay behind. Dr. Keane was a professor, and not to dis academics, but if he taught class with as much enthusiasm as he planned activities in the wild, I never wanted to take one of his classes. I figured everyone slept through it.

  For two days, we stayed so close to the camp that I hesitated to call what we were doing hiking. We were near the mountains. There were virgin trails to explore, skills to be tested. But Dr. Keane was constantly checking the gear—a little late for that, since it wasn’t as though an REI store was nearby—making notations in his notebook, and looking off into the distance.

  After lunch on the third day, I went up to Mason and said, “We need to make a break for it.”

  He grinned. “Yeah, my dad is a little controlling—and he can be sort of unimaginative. What’d you have in mind?”

  “Exploring the mountains.”

  “Let’s do it.”

  Even though it was early afternoon and we wouldn’t be going too far, I grabbed my backpack.

  Hiking with Mason was way different from hiking with Lucas. I told myself it was because we didn’t have any particular goal to be reached, whereas Lucas always had a goal. But Mason didn’t lead. Instead we just walked side by side.

  “So, do you know where you’re going to college?” he asked.

  “Thought I’d start out at the community college. No SATs, ACTs, or any kind of Ts needed to get into the one at home.” I gave him a rueful smile. “I suck at tests.”

  He grinned. “Me, too. Even when I study my butt off. Soon as they say to take out that number two pencil or that blue book—game over, man. Needless to say, it doesn’t endear me to dear old Dad.”

  Today was the first time I’d heard him say anything even remotely derogatory about his father. “You and your dad seem to get along.” Well, except for the night that they’d talked about werewolves.

  “Yeah, usually we do, but when you get right down to it, he’s still a parent. He doesn’t always remember what it’s like to be young.”

  “I hear you.”

  The shadows had begun lengthening. I was surprised by how much progress we’d made. We were away from everything and everyone, except the wilderness.

  “We should probably turn back,” I suggested.

  “Not yet.” He reached into one of his pants pockets and pulled out a thick white candle. “I promised you dinner by candlelight.”

  “But if we have it here and now, we’ll risk losing the light and our way back to camp. It’s really not wise—”

  “Wise, schmize. So we won’t do dinner. Let’s at least do a snack by candlelight.”

  It sounded a lot more romantic than I thought it would probably be, but what the heck? It was more romance than Lucas had ever given me. Also, I was irritated that three days later, I was still thinking about him. Without all the equipment to haul and the inexperienced hikers to slow them down, he and the others were probably already back at the village preparing to take another group into the wilderness before returning for us.

  Mason and I shrugged out of our backpacks. It felt great to get the weight off my shoulders. I did a couple of stretches. Mason balanced the candle on an empty tin can. He turned back to his backpack. “Go ahead and sit down. I just have a couple more things to set up.”

  I sat cross-legged on the ground. “You know, I don’t know if lighting the candle is really a good idea. It’s not exactly steady, and I’d hate to make the national news as the romantic couple who accidentally burned five million acres of forest land.”

  “You’re probably right,” he answered, clearly distracted.

  I tried to lean around him. “What are you doing?”

  He swung back around and sat down beside me. “Nothing.”

  “I’m glad you asked me to hang around,” I told him.

  “It really means a lot to me that you stayed.” He touched my cheek. “I’d never hurt you.”

  “That’s kind of an odd thing to say.”

  “I haven’t dated that much. All the academics, you know? Guess I’m a loser in that regard.”

  “Don’t be silly. I mean, what does it say about me if you’re a loser?”

  “Right, yeah. I really like you, Kayla.” Then he leaned in and kissed me.

  But it wasn’t gentle or sweet. It was so un-Mason-like, rough, almost desperate, that I pushed him away.

  He pushed back—hard. I hit the ground. He straddled me. “I’m sorry,” he whispered low. He started kissing me again. Rougher than before.

  Panic surged through me. What was he doing? Why was he doing it? Until this moment he’d been so nice. I started slapping at him. He grabbed my wrists with one hand and held them above my head. He lowered his mouth near my ear.

  “Just go along with it,” he said in a low voice.

  “No! Get off!”

  I shook my head from side to side, trying to break free, but he clamped his free hand on my jaw and tried to kiss me again. I fought to buck him.

  My heart was pounding insanely. I’d neve