They both gave a short laugh and Rose nodded for Elise to go first. Since she was technically the higher-ranking wolf present, Elise decided to take what was her due. “Rose, I know what you think you saw the other day—”
“I didn’t think anything. I know what I saw.”
Elise raised her eyebrows and the other girl fell silent. “Yes. You saw me with another male, but your interpretation of what you saw was all wrong.” Rose cocked her head obviously not understanding. “I mean, it looked like I was having a...a romantic meeting with someone, but it wasn’t. Bryan is an old friend from my former pack. We grew up together. At one time, we thought there was something between us, but now we both realize that we’re more like brother and sister than lovers. It’s a platonic friendship.”
Rose walked along silently for a moment, considering the information. She looked at Elise out of the corner of her eye. “So there’s absolutely nothing between you two?”
“Nothing at all. Just friendship.”
“And you’re in love with Kane, not this other guy?”
Elise hesitated, but then decided it could do no harm to tell Rose the truth. She did love Kane, even if it wasn’t reciprocated. “Yes, I really do love Kane.” Impulsively she decided to press the point and pulled her jacket open, revealing her neck. “See? We’ve even blood-bonded.”
Rose stared at the mark, apparently speechless. Finally, she smiled and spoke cheerfully, though it seemed a bit forced. “Well! If you guys are blood-bonded then what you’re saying must be true. Kane would know if you were cheating on him.”
He would if he cared enough to try and find out, Elise thought sadly to herself, but put on a happy face for appearance sake. “So, are you convinced now?”
Flushing, Rose nodded. “I’m sorry, Elise. When I saw you with that other guy I was so surprised, and then angry for Kane, and mad at you.” She shrugged and looked at Elise apologetically. “I guess I’ve always sort of hero-worshipped Kane and the idea of someone hurting his feelings really had me upset.”
Did Kane know how lucky he was to have so many in his pack worried about his well-being? She supposed it was a statement of how much he must care for them, that they would have such devotion towards their leader.
A sound drew Elise’s attention and she saw Julia slowly loping towards them, her breath appearing as little white puffs as she ran down the woodland path. Once she drew near, Julia phased into her human form. “Hey, Elise. I haven’t seen you for a few days.”
“I know. I’m sorry. The time seems to fly by now that I’m working more days.” Elise apologized.
“It’s okay. I understand. Where are you off to?”
“Just taking a walk and talking,” Rose supplied.
“Do you want to join us?” Elise noticed that Rose seemed to stiffen a bit at her suggestion and wondered if the two didn’t get along, though Rose was usually so soft spoken and demure it would be hard not to get along with her.
Julia checked her watch. “As much as I’d like to, I really don’t have time today, but we’ll get together soon, okay?”
After promising to call each other and saying their goodbyes, Julia left and Elise glanced at Rose as they continued to stroll along. “Don’t you like Julia?”
“Why do you say that?”
“Well, when I asked her to join us, you didn’t seem thrilled with the idea.”
“Oh. Well, I have a confession to make and I’d prefer not to have an audience. I... I told Zoe and Phoebe what I saw, or what I thought I saw.”
“I know. I met them in the mall and they were really mad at me, but since then I’ve cleared things up with them.”
“And you’re not angry with me?” Rose looked rather surprised.
“Not now. I was a bit put out with you at first, but I can understand how it looked from your point of view.”
“But they probably told everyone...”
“No. I was lucky. They decided to keep it to themselves. What about you? Did you tell anyone else?” Elise braced herself for the answer.
“I... I also talked to Marla about it.”
“Marla?”
“Well, actually, she approached me, saying she was suspicious that you were cheating on Kane and asking if I knew anything about it.”
Oh really, Elise thought to herself. The conniving bitch knew all along that there was nothing going on, but just twisted things around to make it look bad. “When was this?”
“Um...the morning after I saw you.” That would have been Wednesday.
So Marla had most of Wednesday and Thursday to plan her sabotage. Had the other woman somehow known Bryan would be in town yesterday and manipulated events so they’d have to see each other? If the Marla-Ryne relationship was still intact, then she would have known because Ryne was Bryan’s Alpha. Did that mean Bryan was also somehow involved in all of this? She hoped not.