Rosalie didn't slam the door when she returned to the Cullen house but only because slamming doors wasn't her style.
She moved like always measured, elegant, controlled. But her steps were just a little faster. Her hands curled into fists and released more than once before she reached the stairs.
The others noticed instantly.
Esme glanced up from her reading, setting the book down quietly. Emily, perched on the arm of the couch, tilted her head slightly. Carla and Jasmine exchanged a silent look from across the room. Edith still near the window narrowed her eyes the moment Rosalie stepped in.
Alice was the first to speak.
"You saw him."
It wasn't a question. It was a fact, and Rosalie didn't bother denying it.
She stopped halfway up the staircase and turned, her golden eyes sharp, unsettled.
"He was running in the woods," she said simply.
Alice raised an eyebrow. "And?"
Rosalie didn't answer right away.
Instead, she walked back down slowly and sat on the edge of the long, modern coffee table. Her back was straight, posture perfect but everyone could feel the tension rolling off her like heat waves.
Emily leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees. "You touched him, didn't you?"
Rosalie didn't flinch. "He let me."
Jasmine blinked. "He let you?"
"Not like he was afraid of me. Not like he was toying with me. It was like he already knew exactly how I'd react." Her voice was quiet now. Not shaken just thoughtful. "Like he'd already seen it play out before."
Alice's lips parted slightly, but she said nothing.
Carla stepped forward. "You tried to challenge him, didn't you?"
Rosalie looked up. "He challenged me."
That silenced the room.
Rosalie Hale was never challenged. She was the fire the untouchable beauty, the perfection that couldn't be rattled. But something had shaken her.
Esme spoke carefully. "Rosalie, what happened?"
Rosalie's jaw worked as she tried to find the right words. "He didn't kiss me."
Alice blinked. "What?"
"He didn't kiss me," Rosalie repeated. "I was… close. Closer than I meant to be. I thought I could push him, corner him into showing his true face. Instead, he smiled."
"And walked away?" Carla asked.
Rosalie nodded once.
"He said he was choosing."
Jasmine frowned. "So… we're just options now?"
Rosalie stood again. "No. That's the thing. It didn't feel like he was treating me like an option. It felt like… like he saw right through me. Like I'd already made a choice I hadn't even admitted to myself."
Alice tilted her head. "And have you?"
Rosalie met her eyes. "Would it matter if I had?"
That was when Edith finally moved.
She stepped into the center of the room, her expression calm but intense. "He's not human. We all know that. And he's not like us. He's something else stronger, older maybe, even if he looks young. But none of us can deny it anymore."
Jasmine spoke softly. "He belongs to us."
"No," Alice said, standing. "We belong to him. Or maybe both."
Rosalie didn't like how her heart fluttered at those words. Didn't like how her mind replayed that moment again his voice, his heat, the way he pulled back when he could have claimed her.
She was used to being wanted.
She wasn't used to being resisted.
"I don't like how he makes me feel," she admitted.
"But you want him," Esme said.
"Yes," Rosalie said sharply. "I do. Even though I shouldn't. Even though I don't know what he is. Even though I know he could crush us without trying."
Emily looked thoughtful. "That's why it's maddening, isn't it? Because he doesn't try. He's not showing off. He's holding back and somehow, that's scarier than if he went full force."
Alice nodded slowly. "Because whatever he's hiding… it's bigger than any of us."
Carla sighed. "And yet we can't stay away."
Rosalie looked at them all her family, her sisters and for the first time in years, she didn't have the upper hand.
She was one step behind.
He'd shaken her, not with strength or threats but with control.
And with that damn smile.
"He's playing a long game," she said finally.
"Or maybe he's not playing at all," Edith replied. "Maybe this is just… who he is."
That scared Rosalie more than she wanted to admit.
Because if that was true if the calm, confident, dangerous man in the woods was his real self
Then she might already be his.
Even if she hadn't kissed him.
Yet.