Allerio entered the cave with Emily in his arms, and Raguel following behind him.
"Take me to the basement," Emily said faintly.
Raguel could not help look all around the inside, even taking a moment to touch the walls.
"Is this her cave?" She had to ask.
"Yes."
On the spot leading to the stairs to the basement that was more of a living home, Raguel gasped in surprise.
She walked down the stairs with him, and he laid Emily on one of the sofas, the same one he had laid with her just after viewing the pictures.
"How come all these?" Raguel sat on the small space that was left of the chair Emily was lying down.
It was her first time in the room, and it was a strange place to her. Her curiosity wasn't unusual, even Allerio had felt the same way when he entered.
A living home as the basement to a cave? Is it normal for a cave to have a basement?
All manners of thoughts ran through her mind.
While the upper part of the cave had just a mattress, the basement had a kitchen and a bathroom, fully furnished.
Raguel placed her hand on Emily's face to feel her temperature.
She opened her eyes at the touch of Raguel's palm, and confusion was seen in her eyes. Raguel noticed it, but had a perfect understanding.
"Raguel?"
"How do you feel?"
"Better than standing in line with the other non-mates."
"Oh…"
Allerio had gone into the kitchen to make hot coffee.
"Where is Allerio?" Emily looked around the room.
He came out of the kitchen and gave the cup of coffee to Raguel to pass it to her.
She sipped from it, and her face brightened up.
"I might have to rest for a while."
"Oh… sure." Raguel stood up from her side. "I would go up with Allerio."
"Please," She grabbed her hand. "Settle the issue that Darling would raise against me."
"Of course I will."
She beckoned for Allerio to leave with her.
He had planned to stay by Emily's side, and maybe take up the role of a mate.
"Allerio." She called him.
He had almost acted the same way he would have acted if she wasn't there.
"We would leave her to rest."
He had a bit of hesitation.
"I can stay with her."
She slowly shook her head, and he could not do exactly what he had in mind. She was the alpha, wasn't she?
After leaving Emily to rest, Raguel and Allerio were sitting on the mattress. They were not speaking, just maintaining silence as though it was called for. It was normal. Raguel had not met Allerio before this moment, and on the other hand, he had only seen her from a far distance.
She was the alpha, and he was just a member of the pack. What kind of relationship would have brought them together?
The cave had become too quiet, and Allerio wasn't himself. Sitting so close to her wasn't easy for him. He felt low.
"Charles wanted to tell me things about Emily and her family." She placed her hand on his thigh. "But he had left without telling me."
Allerio was becoming breathless, her hand on him had put him in a tight corner.
The reverence he had for her would not let him feel free.
"He was my mate." She continued, her eyes fixed on him.
Her sharp eyes could drain him out.
He had a question that he could not ask, why was she telling him about Charles?
"I have not been okay since he left me."
He knew about Charles, but the information he had about him was limited to his being the beta of the pack. That did not make him interested to know more about him.
Her hand on his thighs went higher, closer to his groin.
"What kind of relationship do you have with Emily?"
The question was a blow to him, to the extent he had concluded that her eyes staring at him could see through him.
"Normal friendship."
She had no definite expression on her face, and so, he could not tell her emotion.
"There are so many things I want to tell her." She rubbed his thigh, sending shivers to his whole body. "So many things."
At that moment, he realized Emily had not told him why she did not want him to take part in the mate test ceremony. She had not answered his question even when he had asked.
"How close are you to her?" Raguel asked.
The question set him off balance. Did he really know how close he was to her?
Why was she asking?
"I'm not able to tell."
She did not push further, but instead, turned her eyes away from him, taking her hand away from his thighs.
He felt a bit relieved.
"I'm also a friend to her, and I don't know how close we are." She crossed her arms. "I feel there are many things I don't know about her."
He was starting to gain interest in what she was saying.
"If you don't know how close you are to her, you should at least know if you are close to her or not," she said.
Her words got him thinking, but not for long. He had made love to Emily, how close could they be?
"We are close."
"Would that explain why you did not attend the ceremony?"
It was obvious that she was digging deeper into him, and for the question, he was not going to answer.
She smiled, touching his jaw. "Sometimes, it's hard to come to terms."
In the basement of the cave, Emily had woken up, and Katie was sitting beside her.
"Did you really attempt to get a mate?" Katie asked.
Emily should explain her display at the mate test ceremony.
"I could not stand the smell of the incense," Emily said softly, almost with a draining voice.
"Was it just that?"
"Darling looked exactly like Charles to my eyes." Emily stood up from the sofa, walking towards the pictures.
She touched Linda's picture. "She had suffered the loss I created."
The loss Katie knew she was referring to was the bizarre mate relationship with Charles.
"It's a puzzle for him to have killed her."
Tears had formed in her eyes, but they were not flowing out.
The next picture she touched was Ellen's.
"I still can't believe this." She unhooked the picture, and went to carry another one, the same one Katie was showing her during her intimate moment with Allerio.
She held the two pictures in her hands, as though comparing them. "She was my friend."
"It is obvious she went missing the same day Charles had left." Katie said.
She stared at Katie, trying to grasp the relationship of Ellen missing the same time Charles had left unannounced.
"Could it be…"
It was hard to accept the fact that Charles must have gone with Ellen to a different world.
"That's it. No need to think much about it." Katie spread her arms on the sofa.
With the sound of footsteps from the stairs, Katie went out of sight as usual.
Raguel was holding Allerio's hand, giving them the perfect description of a couple.
"Emily." She called out, and saw she was sitting rather than lying down.
Allerio was tensed up. The way Raguel was holding his hand might not be okay to her.
When Raguel was standing behind her, the two pictures were still in Emily's hand, and everything seemed to freeze when she laid her eyes on the picture of Charles and Ellen.
"Whose picture is this?" She took the picture from Emily, but Ellen was not familiar to her. "Was Charles having an affair with someone else?"