Chapter 12: A Date I Was Free to Choose

The regional trials were postponed for three days while Ashvale’s maintenance crews inspected every platform in the forest course.

Rowan was ordered to rest.

He hated it.

I discovered this when I visited the guest lodge after school and found him standing on one foot, trying to reach a tactical binder from the top shelf.

“What exactly are you doing?”

He froze.

Slowly, he looked over his shoulder.

“Nothing.”

“You’re balancing on a sprained ankle.”

“My good ankle.”

“You have bruised ribs.”

“They’re not involved in reaching.”

I stared at him.

Rowan stared back.

Then he sighed and sat down.

“Apparently the mate bond also comes with surveillance.”

“No. This is basic eyesight.”

I retrieved the binder and dropped it onto the table in front of him.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

Echo was embarrassingly pleased just to be near him.

I was beginning to understand that the bond had its own emotional gravity. It pulled, but it did not erase thought. I could feel Rowan’s presence like warmth at the edge of my senses while still deciding what I wanted to do with that feeling.

That distinction mattered to me.

A lot.

Rowan opened the binder.

“I have a question.”

“About the trial?”

“No.”

I sat across from him.

He suddenly looked less confident than he did facing combat candidates twice his size.

“Would you like to go somewhere with me Saturday?”

I blinked.

“Somewhere?”

“A date.”

Echo practically howled.

I ignored her.

Rowan rubbed the back of his neck.

“I realize fate has already made this unnecessarily dramatic, so I’m trying to do one normal thing.”

Despite myself, I smiled.

“What would we do?”

“There’s a café near the river. Then maybe the old market. Public place. No pack politics. No tactical maps unless you become desperate.”

“You planned this.”

“A little.”

I thought about it.

Not about Cole.

Not about what people would say.

Not even about the mate bond.

I asked myself one question.

Did I want to spend time with Rowan?

“Yes.”

His entire face changed.

Not triumph.

Just happiness.

“Saturday?”

“Saturday.”

For the rest of the visit, Echo behaved like she had personally won a championship.

At school the next morning, Cole returned to class with his shoulder supported by a light brace.

He looked tired.

Amber tried to carry his bag.

He took it from her.

“I can carry it.”

She rolled her eyes.

“You’re injured, not dying.”

“I said I’ve got it.”

Their old easy rhythm was gone.

I noticed only because they were directly in front of me at the classroom door.

Then I walked around them.

“Aurora.”

Cole’s voice stopped me.

I turned.

His eyes went to my cheek.

The bruise was almost completely gone.

“I wanted to ask if Rowan’s okay.”

“He is.”

“Good.”

He nodded.

For once, he didn’t invent another reason to keep me there.

I started walking again.

“Aurora.”

I looked back.

Cole swallowed.

“I’m sorry about the messages. And the mindlink requests.”

I waited.

“I won’t do it again.”

“Okay.”

It was the first apology from him that did not contain an excuse.

No *but you made me angry*.

No *you’re overreacting*.

No demand that I forgive him.

I appreciated the difference.

It still didn’t change my decision.

Saturday arrived bright and cold.

I spent twenty minutes standing in front of my closet before becoming irritated with myself.

I had gone places with Cole hundreds of times without thinking about clothes.

But this was different.

A first date.

My first actual date, I realized.

Cole and I had gone to movies, festivals, and restaurants, but we had always slipped into those outings through childhood familiarity. No one asked. No one formally chose.

Rowan had asked.

I had said yes.

I eventually wore a soft pink sweater and jeans.

For half a second, Amber’s old comments echoed in my head.

Princess.

Barbie.

Too old for pink.

Then I looked at myself in the mirror.

I liked the sweater.

That was enough.

Mom drove me insane before I left.

“Do you have money?”

“Yes.”

“Phone charged?”

“Yes.”

“Emergency mindlink open?”

“Yes, Mom.”

“Do you know where—”

“Mom.”

Dad appeared behind her.

“Have fun.”

“Thank you.”

He handed me a small portable alarm.

I stared at it.

“Dad.”

“It’s sensible.”

“I’m going out with a werewolf who can hear me from half a mile away.”

“Then he’ll hear the alarm very clearly.”

Mom pushed him back into the apartment.

“Go, Rory.”

Rowan was waiting downstairs.

His ankle had healed enough that he no longer limped.

When he saw me, he went still.

My stomach fluttered.

“Hi,” I said.

“Hi.”

His eyes moved to my sweater.

“You look beautiful.”

There was no joke attached.

No comment about how pink I was.

Just beautiful.

“Thank you.”

We walked toward the river.

The café was small and crowded, with windows overlooking the water. Rowan ordered coffee. I ordered hot chocolate with enough whipped cream to make him raise an eyebrow.

“Say it.”

“What?”

“That I’m too old for this.”

“I was going to ask whether there’s actually a drink underneath.”

I laughed.

He stole one marshmallow.

I slapped his hand lightly.

He immediately withdrew it.

The motion was harmless, but my body reacted before my mind did.

I flinched.

Rowan saw it.

The smile vanished from his face.

“I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t do anything.”

“I startled you.”

“That isn’t your fault.”

He didn’t reach for me.

Instead, he rested his hands flat on his side of the table.

I breathed slowly until Echo settled.

“I hate that,” I admitted.

“What?”

“That my body does that now.”

Rowan’s gaze softened.

“It’s been a week.”

“I know.”

“You don’t have to recover on anyone else’s schedule.”

I looked through the window.

“I don’t want one bad moment to change me.”

“It probably will.”

I frowned at him.

He continued before I could object.

“Everything changes us. Good things too. The goal isn’t to become exactly who you were before.”

That silenced me.

“Then what is the goal?”

“To become someone you still like.”

I looked at him for a long moment.

“You think about things too much.”

“So I’ve been told.”

“By your father?”

“Constantly.”

After the café, we wandered through the old market.

Rowan learned that I loved tiny stationery shops.

I learned that he collected antique coins.

He learned that I hated cinnamon gum.

I learned that he could not walk past a dog without trying to befriend it, which was ridiculous considering he was technically a wolf.

At a jewelry stall, I paused over a small silver pendant shaped like a crescent moon.

Rowan noticed.

I immediately moved on.

Ten minutes later, he disappeared.

When he returned, he held a tiny paper bag.

“No.”

He blinked.

“What?”

“You bought it.”

“I did.”

“Rowan, this is our first date.”

“It cost less than our drinks.”

“That isn’t the point.”

He held out the bag.

“Then don’t take it.”

I stared at him.

“No guilt?”

“No.”

“No ‘I already bought it’?”

“No.”

“No sad eyes?”

He deliberately widened his eyes.

I laughed so hard a woman beside us turned.

“Fine.”

I took the bag.

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

He didn’t try to put the necklace on me.

He let me decide what to do with it.

By late afternoon, we headed home.

As we approached the pack apartments, I spotted Cole sitting on the front steps.

My good mood dimmed.

Rowan noticed.

“Want me to leave?”

I considered it.

“No.”

Cole stood when we approached.

His gaze moved from Rowan to me, then to the small market bag in my hand.

He understood.

“You went out.”

“Yes.”

“Together.”

“Yes.”

Pain flickered across his face.

But he nodded.

“Okay.”

That surprised me.

Rowan gave him a brief nod.

Cole returned it.

I thought that would be the end.

Then Amber appeared from the building.

She took one look at us and laughed.

“Oh, wow. You really are moving fast.”

Cole’s expression hardened.

“Amber.”

“What? Everyone’s thinking it.”

I looked at her.

“Are they?”

She folded her arms.

“You meet your so-called mate and immediately start dating him. Convenient.”

Rowan remained silent.

I was glad.

This was mine to handle.

“Why does my dating life bother you so much?”

“It doesn’t.”

“Then stop talking about it.”

Her cheeks flushed.

“I’m just saying, maybe Cole was right that you always need someone protecting you.”

Cole went rigid.

“I never said that.”

“You basically did.”

“No.”

Amber looked at him.

“You spent years complaining that she followed you everywhere.”

Cole’s face changed.

“That doesn’t mean I wanted her gone.”

The words came out raw.

Everyone fell silent.

Cole looked at me.

For a second, the hallway, the slap, the years between us all seemed to exist at once.

“I thought you’d always be there,” he said quietly.

I nodded.

“I know.”

His throat moved.

“And that was the problem.”

He closed his eyes briefly.

“Yes.”

It was the first time he admitted it.

Not to win me back.

Not to argue.

Just because it was true.

I walked inside with Rowan.

At my door, I turned to him.

“Today was good.”

His smile returned.

“Good enough for another?”

Echo nearly knocked me over with enthusiasm.

I smiled.

“Yes.”

Rowan started to leave.

“Wait.”

He turned.

I took the crescent pendant from the bag.

“Can you help me put it on?”

His expression softened.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

I turned around and lifted my hair.

His fingers barely brushed the back of my neck as he fastened the chain.

Warmth moved through the bond.

No fear.

No recoil.

Just warmth.

When I faced him again, Rowan looked at the pendant and then at me.

“Still beautiful.”

My cheeks heated.

I opened my apartment door before he could see how much the compliment affected me.

That night, I looked at the crescent moon resting against my sweater.

It was not valuable.

It did not represent a promise.

It was simply something I had liked, offered without obligation, accepted because I wanted it.

Maybe that was why it meant so much.

For years, I had thought love was proven by how tightly two people held on.

I was beginning to learn that sometimes the safest love was the one that always left the door unlocked.