"It just doesn't add up," Theo emerged from behind the desk, his fingers drumming softly against the wood, abandoning his hiding spot. Hastily, I shoved the book behind my back; my cheeks heated up at the thought of Theo knowing I was poking my head around the idea of mates – would he think I was showing interest in him?

"What doesn't add up?" Trying to suppress my surprised gulp, I was not prepared for Theo to be this quizzical about my homeland so soon. The Council had reassured me the crash would quench his thoughts. His primal instinct would take over, and he would have been more consumed with my well-being. The Council had reassured me of it; there was no way they would have led me astray. But then again, when I really thought about it: what did the Council actually know of the Outside?

Surely, they had not taken a step outside the Border. The Border between the Borderlands and the Outside was heavily surveillanced on both sides. There was an underground compound (that I had just been made aware of), so I couldn't have been too sure they hadn't. If Memphis and his family were able to sneak out undetected, then certainly the Council could pull off the same feat. It made me feel dirty inside to know there was a possibility the Council was not living strictly by the Borderland rules.

Okay, okay, don't freak out. Act natural. Act like nothing's wrong, I told myself when, in fact, I knew that was a lie.

Theo was now a few feet away, leaning up against the nearest bookshelf. He was not smirking, but I could tell he found this amusing. It was like he was stalking his prey, his animalistic side coming to the surface. He was a natural. More so, he enjoyed it — the way his emerald eyes shined even in the dim lighting.

"Tell me why you jumped out of a window to get away from me, yet less than twenty-four hours later, you were on your way back?" He breathed out, eyes narrowing in as if to squeeze the answer out of me. "You see, I've thought about it quite a lot. None of it adds up."

I took a deep breath in, waiting a couple seconds before I shakily exhaled. To be frank, I did not have much of a game plan here. I couldn't possibly tell him the truth. It would seal the fate of my homeland, but I could not bear that weight so early on in my attempt to find a witch.

"I'm sorry," was all I could muster up, my un-casted hand clutching the book with an iron grip.

Think. Think, Sage, think, I was yelling at myself.

My mind whirled around all the different possibilities I could feed to Theo:

1). The truth — while a bad decision, it was an option, nonetheless — but it felt like an option to keep in my thoughts in case things ever got dire. Luckily, from what I could tell, things had not escalated to that point yet.

2). I could sputter off something about the bond between us, how it was calling me back here. I almost gagged at the thought of saying this for the simple fact that — besides it being untrue — it was so cheesy. I imagined I would have a hard time trying to sell him this lie.

3). I could say that Memphis tried to help me escape, but once I told him my mate was someone named Theo, Memphis freaked out and decided to take me back since he knew Theo was very powerful.

Option three was my obvious choice. It made perfect sense and didn't leave a lot of room for other questions to be asked since my coming back was out of my control in this scenario. It would do just fine.

I was getting ready to say just this when it hit me; I actually had an even better option. I would tell him I decided to come back for Gracie and Natasha. They had been locked up when I left Theo's pack over a week ago. The time away from them made me feel more guilty, and I couldn't live with myself while they were locked away and I was safely out of reach. Of course, I wouldn't mention this was not true. Above that, however, I could not mention that in my foggy, injured state, I might have not clearly remembered that Gracie and Natasha were ever here, to begin with.

"I came back for my friends. The ones you locked away," I stood up straighter, trying not to smile, my demeanor shifting. I narrowed my eyes back at Theo, relaxing my ironclad grip on the book.

Theo came even closer, his mouth close to my ear, breath fanning my face. "Now, I would believe you, except your heart rate increased when you said that. You're lying. You were pretty convincing — even had me for a moment."

Instinctively, I took a step back, his proximity causing my body temperature to rise. My face contorted in confusion. What did he mean he could tell I was lying through my heartbeat? Was that possible? I knew he was a Werewolf, which meant that he had better hearing than I did, but he could really hear my heartbeat?

Maybe he was lying — no, he must be lying. But, he did sow a seed of doubt within me. I didn't think my heart rate sped up at my lie, but what if it had?

"It must just be a side effect of my medication," I decided to continue on with my ruse, remembering the laundry list of side effects Mina had read off to me not too long ago. Sure, this was not one of those side effects, but it did sound like it could be. There was no way I could back down now, not when the playing fields were so uneven.

"Is that so?" He raised an eyebrow up in wonder. "You see, I talked to those friends of yours. Gracie seemed to think you wouldn't be coming back."

"She was wrong."

"Hmm," he did not seem so easily convinced, much to my displeasure. "Then why haven't you asked about them?"

"I was being discrete," I said, my fingers fiddling with the pages of the book, but I quickly stopped when I realized that Theo could probably hear that if he was able to hear my heartbeat. "But, I was also busy trying to not die if you had not noticed."

"To my knowledge, you haven't even mentioned Gracie or Natasha to Mina," he tilted his head, finally allowing a small smirk to fall upon his lips.

"You've been spying on me," I tried to twist the situation back on him.

I couldn't deny that I was quite impressed with how well researched he was, but I was also battling with my disappointment for having misplaced Gracie and Natasha from my mind. They were locked in the depths of his basement because of me, because of my connection with Theo.

My brain started to thud, and I longed to squeeze my eyes shut. The world was moving a million miles a minute, and I was drowning just trying to catch up. Yet, I could not let Theo see me being worn down by his tactics.

"It's not spying when you have supernatural hearing," he said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Where are they? "This time my heart rate did speed up; I was scared to find out the answer, afraid it would be too gruesome to bear.

In the Borderlands, we were taught any supernatural being was a monster. They lived and breathed for the destruction of human life because humans had been the reason they suppressed their existence from the world for so many centuries. We'd been told there were rare cases where these beasts would make an exception from killing a human; that exception was a bond.

Gracie and Natasha did not fall under that exception. Of course, that did not mean they were out here eradicating humans from my understanding, but if a human ever did cross into supernatural territory, they would count themselves as dead.

"Now, you're worried about your friends," he nodded his head while he grappled with what I said. "I questioned them after you left, but they were both clueless. They served no purpose to me, so I released them. As for where they are now, I have no idea."

"You released them? Just like that?" I questioned slowly, my eyebrow raised in skepticism. It didn't make any sense.

"Just like that."

"Now," I stated, "you're the one lying. Only, I don't need some supernatural power to tell me that."

His smile grew wider, and I looked at him quizzically. Mentally, I braced my mind for the horrific details of what had actually been done to Gracie and Natasha, but they never came. Instead, Theo's reasoning was this, "there's a law about keeping humans prisoner. I had to let them go."

"Very kind of you," I muttered, this time not knowing if what he said was true or not. I did not want to come off as too naïve of this world I was so foreign to. So, instead, I would have to be strong and ambiguous to not let my naivety be a telltale sign of my homelands.

However, I could not deny that none of it made any sense – I just could not show this is what I was thinking. There was a law to protect humans? That couldn't possibly be true, because if it was true, that meant our foundation for the Borderlands was wrong. It just wasn't possible.

No, I told myself. He's tricking you.

"I do my civil duty, Sage." He ran a hand through his curly hair before checking the leather watch on his wrist. He then stood up straighter, trying to get the wrinkles out of his v-neck shirt. "I will have to keep you isolated from the rest of the pack until I find out the real reason you came back; I can not afford to put my pack in danger because of you. But, mark my words, Sage, I will find out why, whether you help me or not."

I shrunk back, as he moved closer, yet again. "If I had any sense, I would have marked you the moment you came back. It's what any other sensible Alpha would have done."

"Marked?" I looked at him like he was speaking in another language, hoping my ignorance would not cause any alarm bells.

"Put my claim on you. With a bite. It is a way to connect soul mates together," his hand reached out to the side of my neck, his fingers drawing slight circles over my skin. "Here's where yours would go."

"Why haven't you?" I didn't dare move while his hand still loomed over my neck.

"You have your secrets. I have mine," was his reply.

"A little hypocritical, don't you think?" My face contorted at his secrecy. I didn't doubt that if he wanted to, I would have been marked already. He was an Alpha. He had power and numbers behind him.

"Push me further, Sage, and you might regret it," his breath fanned my face, his lips hovering over mine.

"Hm," I held my tongue, my eyes focusing on his lips.

Theo took a hesitant step back, his eyes shifting to a darker shade of green. His eyebrows scrunched up, and he weakly shook his head before looking at me in the eyes. "Sorry to cut this short, a pack meeting is about to begin."

I didn't say anything as he went to leave the room, still mulling over what we just talked about. I heard his stern footsteps move further and further away until they stopped — they stopped too soon.

"Happy reading, Sage. It's a real page-turner," my cheeks instantly heated up to a flaming intensity, and I swiveled around to say a retort back to Theo, but he was already gone. I pulled the book out from behind me, looked at the cover, and promptly chucked it across the room.

I let out a frustrated grunt, as I took a seat at one of the tables in the center of the room. Putting my head in my hands, I was certain I would explode from embarrassment.

Boys are bad news, Sage, is what Pa always said. I used to think he was just being a tad overbearing, but I now saw his words had a lot more truth to them than I could have ever wondered even a month earlier.

Shaking my head, I knew I needed to focus on something else. At first, I toyed with the idea of researching a witch in this vast library, but researching what a witch could do would not lead me any closer to finding one outside the confines of this room. I would have to extract that information directly from someone here in Theo's pack. If he would ever release me from my isolation, that is.

Eyeing a section of newspapers in the library, I decided that it was finally time. It was finally time to look for Ma.