A bile rose in the pit of my stomach as Nicholas stormed out of the pack's restaurant, his shoulders taut with tension. Whatever notification had popped up on his phone had clearly shaken him to his core. The connection between us as mates, raw and unfiltered, made his emotions ripple through me like a shockwave. I tried to keep eating, but the knot forming in my stomach wouldn’t let me.

"What notification could have arrived in his phone that made his countenance change in seconds?", I ...