The day of the date was here. I tried to call it a meeting in my head, but we all knew the truth. If it was just an ordinary meeting, I wouldn't have panicked at every opportunity for the last four days.

Tobias and I text each other every free moment. Nothing extra, just normal small talk. He told me about his sister, and I told him about mine in return. I found out that he likes horror movies, but not the paranormal, which was quite ironic.

He made me laugh with every other message, and I involuntarily started looking forward to our date. The date that was supposed to happen in a few minutes.

Tobias suggested we meet by the lake. An odd choice and I won't lie, I was suspicious for a second, but then Tobias assured me that it was a place he and Annie went to often.

It was pleasant outside, so I only wore a light jacket. Although it was a date, I wasn't planning on wearing a shirt, so I opted for a long-sleeved t-shirt and navy-blue jeans. I honestly had no idea if it was a real date since we only called it that in texts and after my conversation with Annie, I was pretty sure that neither I nor Tobias was currently looking for anyone.

I felt him before I saw him. My heart raced and the wolf in my mind became restless, begging me to let him out. For a split second, I felt my eyes change but managed to return them to their original colour before turning to Tobias.

 “Hey.” He smiled at me brightly, and I felt my mouth widen as well. My eyes slid over his figure, and I had to admit he looked great. He looked like a bad boy in a leather jacket, and I was momentarily taken back to my school days when I started noticing sweaty boys with good haircuts.

“Hey,” I greeted him with a slight delay, which he must have noticed, but fortunately he did not comment on it.

I didn't know what to say next, which was embarrassing since we always had something to talk about in the texts. And it didn't help that I had trouble taking my eyes off him.

“Annie gave me an hour-long lesson on not embarrassing myself. I guess I failed her,” Tobias chuckled after a moment of silence, and I immediately joined in as I had no doubts about the truth of his words.

"What did she say when she found out we were going to hang out?" I asked curiously. After how she was convincing me that we would be a good match, I was sure that she must have been excited when she heard about our date.

"Excited is an understatement. I've seen her looking at wedding websites and since she's married herself, I'm pretty sure it's our wedding she's planning,” he said, a blush creeping into his face. If I wasn't a nervous mess myself, I would have reminded him of our conversation about blushing.

"I'm sure she doesn't even know my last name, which is pretty important when getting married, I think,” I spoke with amusement. After my answer, Tobias shifted nervously from foot to foot and came closer to me.

“Well, you can always take mine,” he said in a husky tone, and this time it was me who was blushing. Cute and charming. I was certain that this combination would be the death of me.

“Fuck, that was smooth,” I decided to appreciate his charm. Ignoring it was pointless as the effect it had on me was obvious.

"I'm either smooth or embarrassing, nothing in between. It's a curse,” he stated, and I laughed. Despite his words, his stance still showed signs of nervousness with his hands in his pockets and a slight forward lean. Obviously, now it was my turn to help him relax.

"I think we both know how to break curses," I flirted back. I couldn't afford to kiss him because of our bond, but that didn't mean I couldn't talk about it.

"Hmm… I'm not sure. I guess I'll need a reminder," he replied with a cheeky smile.

"I'm sure it depends on how today goes. So if you want to break your curse, you should try hard," I advised him with a light tone so he knew I was still joking. We haven't moved yet, but I was already enjoying our date.

"Oh, in that case. We'll start with a romantic walk on the beach. Minus the beach." He gestured around with his hand as if trying to show me an imaginary beach.

"I am not a fan of beaches anyway," I said with an overly serious face, which made Tobias laugh. My wolf jumped for joy inside of me at the sound.

Tobias moved to my side and playfully bumped his shoulder into mine. He was close to me, close enough that no one could doubt that we were on a date. And especially close enough for my wolf to go crazy from his scent. However, I didn't feel like taking a step back.

"So what exactly do you and Annie do here most of the time?" I asked him as we finally stepped forward and began walking a large circuit around the lake.

"Do not laugh." He turned to me with a warning and judging by his sheepish look, it was justified. I nodded silently, but that was obviously not enough for him, and he waited for verbal confirmation.

“I promise I won't laugh.” I raised my hand in surrender and he gave me one last warning look before turning back to the front. I won't lie, he looked beyond cute. Sometimes it was very easy to forget that he was a dangerous hunter. Not for nothing has it been said that the greatest danger looks the most tempting.

"We come here to feed the ducks," he admitted. See? Beyond cute. I don't know why he thought I would laugh at him for that, but obviously, it wasn't something typical for hunters or grown men. But it honestly suited him. I do not know why. It simply did.

"And I thought you couldn't be any cuter," I decided to be honest, and it paid off. Although I saw his face in profile, the blush that appeared on his cheeks could not be missed.

"Okay, no more making me blush," he declared and turned to me with a serious look. Well, a serious look was a strong word as his eyes gave away so much more and he didn't seem to mind my attention.

"Are you gonna make me blush instead?" I asked him, and I could tell by the twinkle in his eyes that he knew exactly where this conversation was going. His hickory eyes suddenly looked brighter. When I thought I loved them before, now I could barely tear myself away from them. I could only hope that he wouldn't realize how much power he actually had over me.

"I think I promised you something like that, didn't I?" A wide smile appeared on his face, and I immediately had to return it.

“Well, you said a lot of things.” I pretended I had no idea what he was talking about to see how he would react. It was a dangerous game, especially when I knew I should keep my distance from him, but I couldn't help it. When he was right in front of me like this, all rational thoughts seemed to disappear.

"I'm seriously thinking of something to say that would impress you, but I guess I'm really cursed," he chuckled nervously. This whole situation was strange, and I knew the mate bond was to blame. It made me feel like I've known Tobias forever and I had the urge to automatically trust him. However, in reality, we were strangers, and this fact always decided to remind itself at the least appropriate moment.

"Good thing, I'm already impressed,” I spoke the truth. Again, Tobias' cheeks filled with red, but he didn't look angry about it. Quite the opposite.

“I think it's time to sit down.” Instead of commenting on my remark, he redirected his attention and steps to the bench that appeared near us. I automatically followed him and sat next to him, leaving a reasonable gap between us.  

And again, there was silence between us, the same as it was at the beginning.

My wolf was enjoying his mate's presence, not complaining as he was closer to him than I ever thought he would be, but as a human, I knew silence was not best. I wasn't the most talkative person outside of my pack, and even though I lived among humans, finding something to say quickly wasn't something I was good at. And Tobias probably felt the same way.

“I guess I should have taken the peas.” Tobias broke the silence, and I was more than confused, which my expression definitely showed.

"For the ducks," he specified as he looked at me and this time it was me who couldn't control the colour in my face under his piercing gaze.

"Ducks eat peas?" I was seriously confused. Don't ducks eat bread? Or have I just been watching too many movies?

"Yeah?" He obviously knew more than I did, but he was trying not to sound presumptuous. Also, we finally had a full-fledged conversation, but for some reason, it was about ducks.

"I thought they eat bread," I admitted, and judging by his expression, it was a pretty bad judgement. But to his credit, at least he tried to mask his expression so I couldn't see it.

"I don't know how to tell you this..." he began but then stopped. He looked like he was seriously considering whether or not to tell me what he was thinking. Of course, I wanted to hear it anyway. It looked like it was something important to him.

"Ducks die when you feed them bread," he finally said, looking at me with a serious expression. I felt the corners of my mouth twitch despite his statement, and I had no idea how long I could look at him and not laugh. I was officially broken.

"Do you really want to laugh?" Of course, Tobias saw through me after a second and I was caught staring at him. Our eyes met and those hickory ones played all shades of brown revealing his true feelings.

We burst out laughing.

"I think we seriously need therapy," Tobias stated between laughs, and I couldn't help but nod. Our shoulders met, and I allowed myself to comfortably lean against him. It didn't take long, and our knees also met in a gentle touch and the gap that was between us at the beginning suddenly disappeared completely.

"I feel like this is exactly the moment our sisters would bully us," I said after my laughter had died down, but I still had a smile on my face and so did he. Neither of us rushed to get out of the position we got into, so we were both leaning our elbows on our thighs with our faces leaning closer to the other.

"Mine definitely would," he confirmed with a nod of his head and gave me an expression that his sister would definitely not appreciate.

"How old is she anyway?" His question surprised me, and I was suddenly faced with the decision of whether or not to reveal the details of my personal life to him, as it would complicate everything too much. On the other hand, he was my mate, my other half, he was also supposed to be a part of my life.

“Cora is 16,” I answered truthfully. If he wanted to know anything about me, he had to ask. It was the only thing I could think of to calm myself down. Plus, he didn't know what my siblings looked like or where to find them, so I wasn't really putting them in danger.

"There's quite a big age difference between you. I think," he responded with a grimace, and I only now realized that even I had no idea how old he was. I knew he wasn't underage, but that was all.

"Oh, I'm 23," I answered promptly, and Tobias nodded thoughtfully.

"I guess we also have an age difference. I'm 24," he admitted. Until now I thought he was the same age as me or maybe younger, but his appearance just clearly didn't match his age.

"How old is Annie?" I asked out of curiosity.

"She's 27, although she'd probably tell you 22. She likes to pretend she's younger, which would mean she gave birth to Lily while still in high school." He rolled his eyes and laughed. He was obviously used to his sister's mannerisms.

"My sister is the exact opposite. She likes to pretend she's older than me and Cobe," I chuckled, not realizing exactly what I said until I saw Tobias' surprised expression.

"Oh," I blurted out, showing no hesitation as I continued, "Cobe is my brother. He's 19."

"Are you close with your brother?" Tobias's question caught me by surprise. I don't know what I expected, but this wasn't it.

"Yeah, as children we were inseparable. Even now we still are, but he studies abroad," I made up a lie on the spot. "Every time he comes home, our parents tell us to be extra nice to him because they're afraid he'll decide not to come back next time." I chuckled at that sentence. Cobe adored us too much to do that. And obviously, it worked the other way too.

"Your family sounds great," Tobias said, his voice suddenly sounding different than before. I didn't know what caused the change, but judging by his tone, I must have broached a sensitive topic.

"I'm sorry if I said something I shouldn't have," I immediately tried to save it, even though I didn't know what it was.  

"No, no, no." Tobias quickly straightened up, threw his hands out in front of him, then ran them nervously through his hair.

I still didn't know what was going on, so I didn't know what to do. I could have offered support, but I had no idea if it was appropriate. And so I waited for Tobias' next move.

Sighing, he rubbed his forehead and closed his eyes for a second. When he opened them again, his irises were a bit darker and as before, reflecting all his emotions. However, these were not positive.