I ripped out of her, but not before I heard her shock, 'She's already met him. It's Pete!'
As I sat back on my heels, I knew Pippa was hurt that she hadn't been told this. Something in her had assumed she would've known right away.
She looked at me, dazed. "He saw you. He knows who you are. And he's going to tell her."
My throat had a knot in it. "Who is he? Who is Pete to you?"
"He's no one. He's another wolf. That's all." She jerked upright and grabbed our dresser for balance.
'Like hell he was no one to her.'
I stood, slower, and watched the wolf. A myriad of emotions were flashing across her face, one after another. I knew Brown saw it too and she came to stand beside me. Then Pippa shook her head again and muttered, "I can't handle this."
She rushed from the room. The door remained open behind her and a second later, hers slammed shut.
Brown jumped from the sound. "Oh wow. Geez." She looked at me. "Are all wolves like that? She's jumpy for how quiet she seems. They repress too much for their well-being."
"Werewolves repress a lot. They're very secretive."
"I know. It's not healthy. Humans have a better balance of their primal and logical side. Vampires are all about the primal and werewolves are all about the logical. It's not right. There should be something that fixes it and everyone can be happy. Hmmm. Maybe I could do a spell?"
I shuddered at the thought before I started to lift Emily to the couch. Brown picked up her legs and we placed her gently down. After I covered her with a blanket, I sat at my desk with no idea how to repair anything. There had been too much damage done.
Brown sat the edge of my bed. I felt her presence trying to comfort me. "Who is Luke Roane?"
What did I even say about him? "He's complicated."
"Are you two dating like that guy said?"
Hell. Were we? "No. We're not dating."
"But you want to?"
I glanced up and felt strangely vulnerable.
She smiled to reassure me. "It's okay if you said you want to. You wouldn't be the first girl to fall for a guy they couldn't have. It's common." Her eyes saddened.
Then I stopped thinking. I let it out. "It's not how Emily thinks. I didn't meet him through her. We met because, it's complicated, but it has to do with something that happened to me, something that no one knows about. He's been helping me with it or he did help me with it until recently. Things happened. We crossed the line, did things, but we haven't since—" I took a deep breath. "Since I found out that he's in love with someone else who is dead and who died because of—he still loves her and she's still dead. Then he has this other friend who hates me. Roane's come to see me a few times, but it's never just to see me. It's always to check on me. He wants to make sure I'm okay. He feels like it's his duty that I'm okay. And Emily knew him from a class. I knew she liked him, but
I didn't realize how strong her feelings were until now."
"Who's Pete?"
I shrugged. "I have no idea. She hasn't told me about him."
"Do you blame me?" Emily asked. She sat up, looking pale. "I fainted, didn't I?"
Brown and I nodded.
Emily rolled her eyes. "That's so embarrassing."
"It happens to me all the times, especially when I try a powerful spell." She shrugged. "Or when I do any spell."
My roommate caught my gaze. "Is that true? Everything you just said?"
I nodded. I couldn't shake that vulnerable feeling.
She groaned and fell backwards. "How am I supposed to be mad at you now? You sound like you're in love with him and can't be with him. I hate this. I hate it."