Charles is an Obsession I

The minute hand of the clock Raguel had on her door post had not moved to the next dot, but Emily felt it had moved across several dots, almost up to an hour.

    "You… mean?" She struggled to ask.

    The words she wanted to say were "could you recall?". She could not remember Raguel's question, or did not hear it. The pounding of her heart could have created a sound that was louder than Raguel's voice, and she just could not hear anything.

    "I hear your heartbeat." Raguel said.

    Emily was looking at her as though she was a sculpture.

    "Your heart is beating too fast." She placed her hand between Emily's breast. "It could be a panic attack."

    "No… it isn't."

    This time, her voice was shaking.

    "Master the art of calmness." She placed her two palms on Emily's face, trying to focus her eyes on her. "Take a deep breath… slowly… then breathe out."

    She spoke in a form of recitation, and it worked. The heaving of Emily's chest gradually weakened to take a slower pace. She closed her eyes for a second, and opened them with sweat on her face.

    "Thank you." She said.

    They held each other's hand, walking out of the bathroom to sit on the bed, but she could not avoid another look at the picture on the wall.

    For a moment, thay sat quietly, simply facing the door of the room. Somehow, they knew they had some pains in their hearts, but no one could ask the other. How was it going to sound? Emily saw it as removing a speck of dust from her neighbor's eyes, when she had logs of wood in hers.

    "You look to be drowning." Raguel got the courage.

    "Sometimes, I'm just that way." She faced Raguel directly, and it was her turn. "And you?"

    "I've never been okay with my mate not being around me." She said, plain and simple. "He left me, and I can't look for him."

    Emily allowed the time to go for a while as Raguel changed her expression to reminiscing on past events. That was her guess of what she was thinking. Raguel's eyes were not looking at anything, but every moment was accounted for. She went on with changing her face's expression to portray different moods.

    Emily would have said she was sorry, but she knew Raguel's problem also had a place in hers.

    "The wine." Shel realized that the wine she had placed on the table had not been touched. "We should talk with wine."

    Obviously, she was making an effort to warm up their mood. It would be like kicking problems aside, and enjoying the very moment they had.

    She filled up two glasses.

    She took a sip. "The mate test ceremony is near."

    Emily nodded, she had an experience in it, one she wasn't going to recall to her.

    "You should go."

    "Yes." She didn't hesitate to agree.

    After a glass and then another, Raguel couldn't keep her eyes open, and slowly, she laid her back on the bed, facing the roof. The lit candles played their role of making the room a perfect place to sleep.

    With a chuckle, Katie came into view. "A small dose was enough for her."

    "And was that necessary?"

    Emily could have scoffed at Katie if she had the time, but then, she still wasn't sure whose picture was on the wall.

    "Have any idea?"

    Katie climbed the bed the same way she had done the first time, and was rubbing her fingers all over the picture.

    "I haven't told you I am interested in someone."

    Emily frowned a little. "An affair?"

    "I don't know. He said he liked me."

    She started to imagine the crazy possibility for Katie to love someone, and it felt like she was separating herself from her. She could not bear the thought of that.

    "What about him?" She rushed to ask.

    "He looks so much like this picture." Katie rubbed her palms all over the face as though it was the face of the man she was talking about.

    "His name?"

    "We haven't gotten to the stage of using names."

    It sounded too absurd to Emily's ears, using names weren't for friends alone, and no one took names to be secrets.

    "It isn't strange." She twitched her eyes. "Those are the rules of that world."

    She had applied too much pressure in touching the picture, and it left off the hook that was holding it, falling directly on Raguel's head. It gave her a sharp cut, and blood flowed from her head to the bed. Her eyes opened widely. She turned her head to each side, perhaps wondering how she had fallen asleep. When she saw the blood on the bed, she rushed to hold her head with her hands, keeping a wrinkled face.

    Emily rushed over to her with a box that looked so much like a first aid box.

    "What happened?" Raguel asked, her hand still holding her head to stop the bleeding. "How come I fell asleep?"

    The back of the picture revealed a writing, it read "Charles". The both of them fixed their eyes on it, and Emily instantly knew the picture was of Charles, not just a resemblance.

    "He was always with me." Raguel started. "But I never knew why he left."

    Emily recalled one of the last moments she had with him. It was at the mate test ceremony, a form of gathering for werewolves without mates and those with mates. The gathering was always in two parts, those who had mates would stay inside the main hall where they were required to undress, while those without mates would form a long line before whoever was in charge, with no underwear worn behind their gowns.

    She was standing before Charles, he was in charge of everything.

    "Your mouth," he had said to her, holding a can of oil that he was going to let a drop to her mouth.

    She wasn't opening her mouth, but instead, looking at his eyes. Everything was to be done as swiftly as possible, and he felt she hadn't heard him.

    "Your mouth."

    She opened it, and the same feeling she was having started affecting him. The word "mate" screamed in their heads that those who stood around could almost hear it. He almost leaned closer to kiss her, but then, the actual condition of things returned to his mind, and he used so much strength to hold himself.

    "I'm Raguel's mate." He made sure his voice sounded low, to avoid the others waiting in line from having a grasp of what he was saying.

    "But this is a true feeling."

    "It was also a true feeling with Raguel."

    It was too bizarre an occurrence, the alpha's mate being mated to another wolf?

    Charles had ended the mate test ceremony that same night, claiming he was too sick to continue. 

    It didn't take long before he was lost from the pack, and no one had found him since then.

    Raguel touched her thighs, interrupting her stream of thought.

    "Emily, have you ever had a mate?"

    The question pushed her back to her moments with Charles, the day she begged him to run away with her as the only way she could solve the issue of Raguel already being his mate. That day, he didn't resist the urge to kiss her, and it sent electric waves all through her spine. Of course, she would not forget that moment.

    "Yes, but just for a short moment."

    Raguel squinted her eyes, she had never heard of her having a mate.

    "When was that?" She had a physical curiosity.

    "I mean no… I haven't had a mate."

    "Do you know how it feels to have a mate?"

    She kept quiet for a while, and remembered the feeling she had when she realized Charles was her mate.

    "Yes."

    They both laid their backs on the bed, and Katie's voice came softly in Emily's head. "Now, you understand that not having a mate is also a problem."

    Emily nodded. "That's why I've been trying so hard to find a mate for us."

    Charles was no longer considered to be a mate, but was tagged as Linda's killer. The dream would not lie, and she still needed to reject him.

    "For us?" Katie asked.