Raguel held the picture with her left hand, rubbing the fingers of her right hand all over Ellen's picture.
Emily had not answered her question.
"You had this picture with you?" Raguel asked.
Emily felt like reversing the time in order for her to hide the picture before Raguel had walked down the stairs.
"Yes, but recently."
Surprisingly for her, Raguel did not put on the look she was expecting. She had the freedom to explain further details if she so wanted.
"Who is she?" Raguel asked.
She wanted to know about Ellen.
"She was my best friend." Emily said, "we were always together."
Raguel did a sequence of looking at her face, and then looking back at the picture.
She would have felt that Raguel suspected she was the one in the picture, but then, there was no resemblance between her and Ellen. It saved her from the suspicion that could have turned chaotic because of her obsession.
Raguel's eyes had filled up, but not a single tear had dropped down her jaw.
"Was Charles cheating on me?"
"I would not know."
"But the picture…"
There was so much she felt she needed to know. It struck her that Emily seemed to know more than her.
Emily wanted to explain how the picture had got to her, but strangely, she did not know, who would believe that?
Raguel's obsession with Charles would not let her come to the obvious fact, what else would it mean for her mate to engage in a kiss with someone else?
Charles had definitely been cheating, but she wouldn't accept it.
Emily decided to come up with a story for the picture.
"As a friend, Ellen had always spent time with me." She got up from the sofa to touch Raguel. "It's most likely that she left the picture here, and I have just seen it."
She would have insisted on knowing more, but the picture had weakened her.
"What's her name?" She asked.
"She is Ellen."
She nodded. "Where could she be?"
"She left, and I haven't been able to find her."
Emily had not lied, everything she said were likely to be true. At least she had avoided a dire situation.
Raguel would not free her thoughts. Charles was still an obsession to her. She had not gotten over him, and that might possibly be one of the reasons she had not tried to find a mate. As the alpha of the pack, she was not going to stand in line before Darling, a different process would be used.
A problem still existed though, Charles had not rejected her, and therefore, a soul tie was still between them.
"I had felt I was the only one who had Charles," she said.
'But he would have had me.' Emily thought to herself.
"I was his mate, and only one he was supposed to have." She said convincingly.
'I was also his mate, but he did not have me.' Emily made the comparison that she felt Raguel should never know about.
This time, she was the person who needed care. They had come to the cave because of Emily, but things had turned around.
Allerio stood beside them, how would he have believed that Raguel could appear so weak?
Emily had regained composure, but the person who had come to help her out had become broken.
"Have you ever tried to find Charles?" Emily asked.
"I did try, but did not go far with it."
Emily wanted to ask her why, she claimed she loved him but had not taken an extra effort to find him?
Perhaps, she could read Emily's thoughts.
"I can't go too far from the pack, I am bound by it."
That would be an acceptable excuse to Emily.
"If you wanted to go farther, where would you have gone?"
Raguel looked strangely at her, her eyes squinted, and her face already having a question, why is she asking all these?
Emily was quick to notice the change in Raguel's expression. Her question had gotten too far. Linda's picture that was always in her view had made her eager to find Charles.
"Sorry for my questions."
Raguel did not think much of it, what would Emily use information concerning Charles to do? She had thought too much about it.
"I let my curiosity take the best of me."
She nodded, Emily was truly a friend, she thought.
"Sometimes, I wonder how you cope being alone." Emily said.
"I'm not always alone." She brightened up. "You always come around."
"But I'm never as close as Charles was to you."
"You have also been alone."
"Yes."
"Maybe I would not think much about Charles if I had another man to free my urges." Raguel's made eye contact with Allerio.
Emily was curious to know what she meant. "And… how would that be?"
"We could go on these adventures together… The pack would not restrict me if I do not go too far."
Sexual adventures?
Raguel's eyes caught sight of other pictures on the wall, she could not resist but go closer for a look.
"These pictures." She laid her hands on Linda's. "Who is she?"
Emily hesitated to speak.
Her hand moved to Cade's picture. "And this other man."
"They are my parents."
Her fingers did not stop moving till they got to another picture of Ellen.
"The same Ellen?"
"Of course."
She looked at it for an unusual amount of time as though she was trying to memorize it, and perhaps, draw it out at a time when she was not going to be looking at it.
"How would I have known she had him for so long?"
She walked away from the pictures, but when she looked at Allerio, there was a slight change in her expression.
"He's your friend, isn't he?"
Emily had no clue of what she wanted to say.
Her face became so serious that Emily was eager to know what she wanted. "I have been obsessed for far too long, and I feel that it's time I satisfied myself."
Allerio had confirmed what she was thinking, the question she had asked him about how close he was to Emily was leading to this point.
Emily had got the clue, what else did she mean by 'satisfied herself'?.
It had become obvious.
"Allerio is my friend." She said.
Raguel moved over to stand with him, touching his face with her two hands, her eyes fixed at him.
"I was wondering if you could lend him to me."
Emily and Allerio were dumbstruck of words to say, could she have known all along? But that wasn't likely.
"That would be the first relief I get." She gave a light massage to his shoulders, her gaze moving all over his body.
He did not move away, but was looking at Emily, maybe she would clarify everything.
"I would repay you, it's just for a period of time."
"He will decide for himself."