Page 226 of My Unexpected Mate

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “I am sorry, Cassie. But, please, hurry up.”

She nodded and grabbed a book from the coffee table. I didn’t notice it before.

“This is a book of plants that Aria and I used to love when we were kids,” she said. “We read it for hours and memorized everything inside of it.”

“I remember,” Jacob said. “You two got lost one time when you tried to find some rare plant that doesn’t even grow on this continent.”

Cassie laughed. “We were so confident that we would find it.”

“Why is this book important?” I asked nervously, interrupting their trip down the memory lane.

“Well, when I heard Aria tell Victor that she thrives where others barely survive, I recognized that immediately,” she explained as she flipped through the pages.

She stopped, and a huge smile spread across her face. She handed the book to Nick, and we guys came closer to look at the page.

It was about a plant called Laurustinus (Viburnum tinus). There was a picture of the plant, and below, in big bold letters, something familiar was written.

This one thrives where others barely survive.

I gasped and looked at Cassie and Annie, who had huge smiles on their faces.

“We found the area to the north where this plant grows,” Cassie said. “She saw it, recognized it and sent me a message.”

We were still staring at the girls, unable to speak.

“Why are we still here?” Mike spoke after a while.

“There are no warehouses in that area,” Annie said. “Which means, they are keeping her underground.”

“We need to locate the entrance,” Cassie added. “It is still a pretty big area.”

Nick growled and clenched his fists. “No. I am not waiting another fucking second. Do you have any idea what I am going through?! I want to burn the whole fucking world down! I want to kill the fuckers who took her from me! I want to rip the fuckers who touched her to pieces! I am not fucking standing here another minute! Give me the fucking map!”

All of us were staring at Nick in shock. By the end of his rant, he was screaming so loudly that my ears hurt. His face was red, his posture rigid. He looked like he could explode any second now.

I moved and stood in front of him. I knew I was risking so much, but I couldn’t let him continue like this.

His angry gaze landed on me, and if looks could kill, I would be six feet under right now. He wasn’t a man right now. He was an angry, possessive, territorial wolf. And all of us were standing between him and the thing that belonged to him.

He was the definition of danger right now.

“Nick,” I said calmly, raising my hands in surrender. “Hear me out, please.”

He growled, his eyes flickering from brown to black.

“I know you want to go to her,” I said slowly. “I too want that more than anything in this world, believe me, but we can’t go blindly, Nick. We could put her in even greater danger than she is in right now.”

He remained silent, and I took that as a sign to continue.

“Think about it, Nick,” I said. “What can we do right now? Go over there and storm the area looking for an entrance? It is probably well hidden, and he would know we found the location. He would move her, and we would lose the one advantage we have over him.”

He started breathing heavily, his chest rising and falling rapidly. His eyes never left mine. I was right and he knew it. He was fighting the wolf inside him. He was fighting Nate, who wanted to go to his mate. But Nate wasn’t a man. He was an animal. He can’t think rationally. He relied on his instincts. And his instincts were telling him to go to his mate. Nick was the one who will have to make Nate see that going over there right now wasn’t our best option.

And knowing Nate, that will be hard. He was one stubborn wolf. And getting a mate only made him stronger. I think Nick’s warlock side didn’t overpowered his werewolf side anymore. The mate bond made his wolf a lot stronger and a lot more present than he ever was before. I could see that clearly.

“You are right,” Nick said through his teeth, after a few moments of silence.

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair as he plopped down on the couch.

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