CHAPTER 9

Chapter 9: The Earned Date

Roasted coffee beans and faint vanilla drifted from the small café by the roadside. Clara’s voice carried softly over the hum of the espresso machine as she handed a latte to a tired-looking customer.

“Double shot, extra foam,” she said with a polite smile.

The man nodded in thanks and shuffled off.

Behind the counter, Clara wiped her hands on a towel, stealing a glance at the clock. Two hours left on her shift. It had been a quiet day, unusually slow for a Friday afternoon.

The dullness gave her too much room to think, about her next training session, about her move, and most frustratingly, about the man she had tried so hard to forget.

Jace.

She sighed and bent down to retrieve another stack of clean mugs from the cabinet. When she straightened, her heart jumped.

There he was.

Standing just inside the café, not in Alpha armor or behind a desk of power, but in a plain charcoal shirt, dark jeans, and an expression she could not immediately read.

He looked, unsettled. Just like any human does, almost. The sight of him made her stomach twist with too many feelings she did not want to name.

Clara stiffened. “What are you doing here?”

Jace did not speak at first. He stepped forward slowly, his movements careful, like he was approaching a wounded animal that might bolt.

“I didn’t come to argue,” he said. “Or to lecture. I just... I needed to see you.”

Clara glanced toward her manager, who was leaning in the doorway to the back room, pretending not to eavesdrop. She turned her attention back to Jace. “You’ve seen me. You can go now.”

He didn’t flinch. “I deserve that. But please. Hear me out.”

Something about his voice, the tone he used made her pause and want to listen to him.

“I’ll give you five minutes,” she said, arms crossed.

Jace inhaled sharply, like those five minutes were more than he expected. “Clara, I came to say I’m sorry. For everything. For trying to control your life, for making you feel like you were never enough, when the truth is you were always too much for me to deserve.”

Clara blinked, startled.

“I thought I had to keep you small to keep you close,” he went on. “I was wrong. I see that now. I see a lot of things now that I didn’t before.”

She looked away, her throat tightening. “You can’t rewrite the past with an apology.”

“I know,” he said quickly. “But maybe I can write something better in the future, if you let me.”

She gave a bitter smile. “Why now, Jace? Why not weeks ago? Why not before I had to walk away?”

“Because I was too proud. Too scared. I kept hoping the ache would fade. But it hasn’t. Quite frankly, I did not think you would go. You’re in my thoughts, Clara, all the time. In the silence of my house. In the decisions I make. I see you in everything.”

She hated how her heart reacted to that. How it betrayed her.

“I’m not asking you to forgive me today,” he continued. “Just... let me try. Let me show you that I’m not the same man who pushed you away.”

Clara watched him for a long moment. She looked into his eyes, it was genuine, raw, made her heartbeat skip.

“What are you asking me for, Jace?”

He stepped closer, close enough that she could see the faint scar above his brow from an old training injury. “A date. One real date. Not in secret, not as some pack formality. Just you and me. No expectations. No pressure. Just a chance.”

Clara opened her mouth, closed it again. She studied him, then finally said, “Let me think about it.”

***

She said yes the next morning.

To her own surprise, she sent him a message just after sunrise: Okay. One date. Just one.

Now, standing in her modest bedroom, she stared at her reflection in the mirror.

It had been a long time since she had prepared for anything like this. Her fingers trembled slightly as she reached for a hairpin, trying to tame the soft waves that refused to behave.

Her closet wasn’t filled with elegant dresses or luxury fabrics, but she found a simple deep-green dress that fit her well and made her eyes stand out. Clara slipped it on carefully, smoothing the fabric over her hips.

She let herself look in the mirror again. She looked... different. Not just because of the makeup or the dress. There was something in her posture, a cautious strength, like a wall built from experience and self-worth.

Still, beneath it all, there was a flutter of fragile hope.

Clara had never imagined she would give Jace another chance. Not after everything. Not after the pain and pride and silence.

But when he spoke in the café, there was something in his voice that made her believe, just for a moment, that maybe he had changed.

She glanced at the clock.

7:32 PM.

He was supposed to pick her up at eight.

Meanwhile, Jace stood at the edge of a field just outside his mansion, holding a bouquet of moonflowers, her favorite, the kind that only bloomed after sunset.

He had rehearsed this moment a hundred times in his head. What he would say. How he would keep his nervousness from showing. How he would remind her, not with words but with actions, that he wasn’t just the Alpha of a powerful pack, but a man who had finally understood what it meant to love someone enough to let them be free.

Gabriel’s voice rang in his mind from earlier.

“You sure about this?”

“Yes.”

“You mess it up, there won’t be another shot.”

“I won’t mess it up.”

He hoped.

Back at Clara’s apartment, she was just finishing the last touch of lip balm when her phone buzzed.

I had a little issue, meet me at the emerald restaurant, I would not be able to come pick you up, sorry… - Jace.

She read it three times.

Her pulse jumped with a nervous energy she hadn’t felt in years. Not even during training. Not even during her move. This was different. This was personal.

She put on a light jacket and grabbed her small purse, checking again that her keys and phone were inside. The moment felt surreal, standing by her front door, heart in her throat, about to go on a date with the man who had once broken it.

And yet, something urged her forward.

Not out of naivety.

But out of quiet courage.

She stepped outside into the evening breeze. The night was cool, the stars just beginning to peek through the veil of clouds. A soft rustle of leaves echoed in the trees nearby.

She reached the sidewalk... and froze.