My chest tightened. He...he can’t be. It’s just a hug, just a hug from a Beta to her Alpha King.

I shook my fingers as if brushing my own anxiety that clung in there. The hug was nothing, I convinced myself. It was nothing.

But deep down, I knew there was more to the story of that hug. Elise knew that’s my mate, that’s the love of my life. And yet she dared to lay a hand intimately on him. Not just a hand but her entire body pressing against him.

I finally headed to the dining hall once my stomach gurgled again.

***

Three days have passed since the...