The approach of Valentine's Day didn't make my situation any better. I had always hated this day because it was cheesy and expensive and significantly unequal when you considered the fact that girls expected to get pampered even though they didn't have the plans to return the behavior for their beau. Part of me always considered that I would get into it more if I wasn't single and had someone to share it with, but there was absolutely no chance of that at this point.

Even though I had come to terms with the fact that my ex-boyfriend was actually a standup man who still loved me (without reciprocation considering I wasn't going to do that to his actual soul mate), I still had a big ass soul mate problem myself—the fact that he apparently didn't want to be with me even though he had apologized suggesting otherwise and didn't dare step up to my challenge considering he had steered clear from me since that interaction. More than that he kept conveniently getting excused from the classes we still had together—that he couldn't transfer out of. Wes and Eli told me it was because he had "an internship" that excused him, but no amount of Billy-excused letters would let me believe that.

I didn't believe it any more than I believed what I saw on Valentine's Day.

When I arrived at my locker, a card dropped out of it. By the time I bent down to pick it up, there were hands covering my eyes which defeated the purpose. Instinctively, I wanted to kick and buck the mysterious person because the last person who did that to me was Micah on Halloween, but I also had an instinctive guess about the warm hands they belonged to. I guessed it was Wes so I went along with it. I allowed them to walk me through the loud hallway and I was pulled off somewhere much quieter because I stopped hearing the foot traffic.

"Um—"

"Shh," I was silenced and then I knew it wasn't Wes. I pulled the hand down and glared up at Chase.

"I'm guessing this is from you," I said, holding up the card in the red envelope.

"You are correct," he smiled. His eyes were bright and gorgeous despite all the reasons my scowl could give him to indicate it wasn't a joyous occasion. I gave him a suspicious look because instead of suppressing my feelings with him with my utter disappointment and anger, his apparent happiness was lightening my own mood.

He smiled as if something I said was amusing and I had communicated that our feuding would be over. It was strange. I added the back of my hand to his forehead to feel for a temperature. He had to have a temperature...aneurism...something. There's no other reason he would act this way out of nowhere.

"Something is wrong with you," I finally commented. His composure stayed content and he reached his hands up to mine and brought it down to his lips, where he kissed the heel of my palm that had just neared his forehead. Even though it tingled, I hesitantly pulled it away. "Chase...?"

Green tints of color danced in his eyes and I was getting freaked out. It had been nearly a month of nothing between me and him yet he was acting all weird! He should've (literally) kissed up to me a long time ago. As if he read my mind, he suddeny grabbed my waist and placed me against the wall.

"Chase, what are you—"

"Just shut up and stop looking at me like I'm crazy," he commanded. I shut my mouth with his hard eyes. "Today, you're mine."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked confused.

"On Halloween you let Wes believe you two were together before you even were," he reminded, his dimples having a shadow to them as he down to me. Part of me wondered if Wes had told him about my theory of me being a theoretically good Valentine, but I knew better than that. Wes wanted me and Chase to be together because our imprint dictated so, but he wouldn't make it all that easy for Chase. He created a bar on the left side of my face. "It's Valentine's day. It's my turn to treat you like that."

"Oh no, no, no," I said. Wes hadn't planned to lead into us getting together though. He just fell for my little gimmick costume and one thing led to another. He didn't have six months of precursor. "If this is just to just get me to make out with you—"

"We're mates," he stated, "as much as I'd want to make out with you and as much as you'd actually like it, that's not what I'm asking for. All I want is just a day for you and me."

"Why?" I asked suspiciously to push the conversation forward instead of dwell on the fact that I was imagining making out with him now.

He doesn't want you, Alicia. He doesn't want you, I had to tell myself even though I still had a crush on him and didn't want the overpriced hearts and flowers to just allow me to forgive him so easily.

"Last time I checked, you don't want to be with me," I added since he didn't immediately say something back.

"I didn't," he replied, allowing for the perfect emphasis on the past tense.

"What's with the change of heart?" I asked skeptically as I crossed my arms. He breathed out heavily.

"I've spent every year of my life single on Valentine's Day and I know you have too. I may have messed up way too many times to count with you, but as your mate, I feel obligated to at least treat today as a day to be together and pretend everything's fine like these other bullshit couples at school who want to pretend like they're together for a reason other than the only fact that they see each other five days a week—"

"You had a choice to be with me and it actually be fine—you could've been with anyone by today, actually," I reminded because I wasn't too apt to giving into whatever plan that was being concocted in his head. Pointing out his transgressions was the only way I was distracting the part of me that really did want to be pampered by Chase today. His eyebrows combed together in confusion because I already knew (through Wes) that he could sense every feeling I was feeling and he was probably wondering why I was trying to drown out the more positive ones towards him at the moment. "You could be with Kayla or Zoey right now," I continued. Or me. "Nothing's stopping you. You wouldn't have had to be alone all those years or this one."

"You don't get it," he told me immediately. His voice was hard along with his gaze. "I only went out with Zoey because of you. Even though I needed a cover for Riley, I still wanted to be close to you," he explained. "And f*ck Kayla," he added as if I needed to give him credit for saying something.

"That's exactly what she wants," I mumbled and hid a laugh.

"What?" he squinted his eyes as if trying to get me to admit I was cracking a joke for once.

"Never mind," I rushed. "So how did going out with Zoey work out for you in regards to anything with me? If anything, it sucked for her and me considering the outcome."

I was saying this offensively, of course. But if I thought about it, even if he was silently trying to make moves by showing me "what could be" with him, he wasn't exactly the greatest boyfriend ever when he was with Zoey. They weren't very affectionate and Chase never really claimed her to the public unless it was after Chase was angrily secluding them after interacting with me and Wes. He didn't defend her behind her back, even when it was me critiquing her. Clearly, I wouldn't want that given my relationship with Wes who acted entirely opposite.

"You trusted me to be with her even when you thought I should've broken up with her. You told me about your family because you thought I wanted to know for her sake. We got to be close friends and I got to notice things about you without you even realizing why so I think it worked out pretty well honestly," he notified and then I was uncomfortable that he was being so honest. "Why the hell else do you think I always said I didn't love Zoey and said I had ulterior motives?"

I remembered asking him why he was with Zoey and he said it was for an ulterior motive. I was stupid; I should've pressed him for more questions back then because maybe I would've eventually figured this whole thing out a long time before now. It made me look at things differently in a way because even though I was set up, Chase was pretty honest the whole time, even if it involved bits and pieces of omission in the process. He never actually lied to me. It all made sense quite frankly. And I hated it.

I smacked his shoulder.

"You really are a jerk," I exclaimed.

"Ali, she never even liked me that much. I only asked her out for you considering the whole reason I just explained plus you didn't want her pinning after Micah," he reasoned.

"I don't care, Chase. I didn't tell you to ask her out. You could've been close to me without playing my sister in the process," I retorted. Plus, he kind of screwed the pooch when it came to deterring her away from Micah.

"Yet somehow, I was the one played in the end," he reminded.

"Serves you right," I said even though I did pity him a fraction because I didn't know all he went though and had secretly planned. This certainly gave some insight into how his brain worked though. But I still started to walk away from him and he grabbed hand. I jerked away from his touch and turned to him.

"Whether we like it or not, I was born to be with you. I'm fighting that fate all the time for reasons you still don't understand, but today, I want to see how it is. Just today," he whispered down to me. I glared up to him. His gorgeous eyes still beamed down to me, basically compelling me to oblige to his little request against his seemingly strong will. "Please."

Were mates supposed to feel this? We weren't together, but I had a constant gravitation to oblige him and also seal the distance between us. Sure, I liked him and certainly disliked him from time to time, but even though he was saying all the right things and seemed to be reformed in his approach to us, I didn't even know his feelings. Were they the same? Did his think this complexly? Did he feel like he was fighting to keep distance between us?

"Answer me something," I said and dropped my eyes to his maroon shirt instead of his distracting orbs. But with my question, my eyes returned looking directly into his. "Do you have any feelings for me?"

His face stayed the same aside from two things; a dimple showed up in his attempt to hide a grin and then his eyes lit up green along the bottom to tell me my answer. "I guess we'll find out by midnight," he still managed to joke before his slid hand slid into mine and laced our fingers. He pulled me back out into the populated hallway with me in tow to already begin all the rumors.

I felt all eyes on me instantly. This was Chase Cane. Even though the school didn't know he was a complex Alpha werewolf, they knew how exclusive he was. And if they weren't impressed with that, they were disgusted with how I would do that to Zoey (even though I had talked to her once before and she let it slip that she didn't know why Chase ever asked her out instead of me). Even though I had all of those opinions to dwell over, the only one I really cared about was Wes' because I saw how heartbroken he looked at every hand hold, touch of my waist or book held between me and Chase.

Even though I loved Wes in a caring way rather than an intense romantic way, I was still empathetic. Even though he was pro-Chase-and-Alicia-being-together, I don't think he actually prepared for it to actually happen. Maybe he thought the same as me and that after seeing him with Zoey and Kayla that it wouldn't actually be all in his face considering Chase didn't do much in public with either girl. But he wasn't like that at all with me. He was movie-level perfect when it came to my Valentine's Day pampering apparently—like he had trained for this day his whole life. He knew when to hold me, he knew when to leave me alone. He knew how to respond nonchalantly to all the questions thrown at us. It confirmed that we were actually meant to be together, but nothing about his actual feelings for me.

It wasn't midnight and I didn't know his feelings for me at all even if he wanted to put on this act at school. The unknowingness caused me to be nervous all day even though I thought I'd be more nervous towards the foreign affection I'd receive from him. But to my surprise, every touch was comforting and appropriate. And even though my anxiety was rising at the revelation of his actual feelings at midnight, my feelings for him rose as well.

***

"Chase..." We were laying down under the stars on a hammock at my house at around eleven o'clock. Well...he was laying on the hammock and I was half on him and half on the netting. Either way, my head rested contently on his chest. I looked up to his face and saw as his eyes were closed as his arms were folded beneath his head. He was peaceful for once today and in this moment, but I pushed on his chest to sort of prop myself up. "Chase—"

"Ali, I'm trying to enjoy this, so what is it?" he whispered after his eyes snapped open. When he was done with that, he lightly closed them again.

"I have a question." The anxiety was getting to me.

"Good for you," he retorted. I scoffed even though I kind of liked the push back after he had been a pushover all day. But I knew how to respond to him just as cheeky as he was acting. I had dated Wes Knight, after all. I knew how to push buttons alright. I started getting up and he immediately changed his tune. "Wait," he altered, wrapping an arm around the front of my waist and keeping me there. I eased back down almost all the way and his now-open eyes were looking at me. "I'm sorry. It's just that I like laying here with you and didn't want to ruin it with whatever answer I'll have to your question."

He sat up and grabbed a hold of my head with one of his hands. I tried studying his face, but I was suddenly interrupted when he pulled me towards him so he could kiss my forehead. "Okay. What's your question?" he allowed with a sigh.

"You never said if you had feelings for me or not, so what's the verdict?" I asked because essentially this day was useless if it didn't change anything. Actually, it would make things worse if he treated me so well only to discredit it all and put another layer of false hope into my mind. He pursed his lips briefly and then formed a quick smile before hopping up to walk off. Um. "Chase!"

"I said you had until midnight," he called over his shoulder. I sat there with my jaw hanging open because even though I sort of liked his sarcasm and stubbornness, this was not the time for it no matter how cute he thought he was being. But I let him walk out of the backyard, charmed by his actions. I waited until exactly midnight to ask him again.

He didn't immediately respond, which annoyed me even though my impatience only really gave him two minutes.

UGH. I threw my phone onto my table and climbed into bed.

That's what he was taking away from all of this? I was over it.