WESLEY POV True to my word, I went to see the ballet every night of Haven’s performance run. Some nights I went alone, other nights I came with one of the guys, or Jack and Shirley, or whoever happened to be interested in attending with me. I leaned against my truck outside of the theater Sunday afternoon waiting for her to come outside, kicking rocks with the toe of my boot while I tried to be patient. All the dancers had to clear out their dressing rooms so everything could be cleaned and readied for the next ballet, and Maya had offered to take all of Haven’s bouquets back to their apartment so I could take her out for a late breakfast. Or “brunch,” as Maya liked to call it. And Haven had a lot of bouquets. Because, one, I had bought her a bouquet of roses for every performance, a different color each night, and two, she had flowers from every single person who knew her and came to see her, as well as some from other admirers of her performance. Was I jealous that people who did

HAVEN POV Once we had everything we needed, Wesley paid for it all — including the swimsuit I had on under my clothes from earlier — and we made our way onto the sand. He had a giant bag filled with all kinds of supplies, including sunscreen and several very large beach towels, and I had my purse and a straw sun hat I had found right as he was paying for everything. I waffled on it, trying it on in front of the mirror it had been hanging near, and when Wes saw me in it, he pointed at me and said, “Also ring me up for her hat.” Between the time he had left me in my fitting room and I’d met him at the register, he’d changed into his own new swimsuit and a pair of flip-flops, which he kicked off of his feet when we reached the sand. I paused at the spot where the cement ended and the sand began, and took a deep breath to prepare myself for this momentous occasion. Wesley paused his steps to turn and look at me, heaving the bag further up onto his shoulder. I kicked off my birks and be

WESLEY POV At some point between the kiss at the pier and us getting ready to settle in to sleep for the night, I realized that spending the night in a tent with Haven was actually a truly terrible idea. Especially once I found out there was only one sleeping bag in my truck. I didn’t know if Seb removed the other one that I could have sworn was in there, or if there was in fact only one in there in the first place, but that didn’t really matter. What mattered was that there was only one, and there were two of us. Well, it actually didn’t matter. I could easily sleep without the bag — the temperature wasn’t cold enough to affect me. But, I had to keep up pretenses, and that meant acting as though I needed a sleeping bag. As I came back into the tent with our bag of extra clothes, the camping pad, and the one sleeping bag and pillow, the second reason it was a bad idea reared its ugly head at me in the form of Haven’s words. “I don’t have anything to wear to sleep in,” she muttere

HAVEN POV I stood on the front porch of Wesley’s house and smoothed my hands over my dress as I waited for him to let me in. His little bungalow house was cute and well taken care of, painted a light green with a swing on one side of the porch. The whole overall look gave off a homey, clean vibe, making me feel comfortable and relaxing my nerves about this date night. I had a strong feeling about why he wanted to make dinner for me tonight. He’d held us off from going all the way at the beach because he said he wanted it to be romantic and special, even though I told him that wasn’t necessary. Then he’d told me he wanted to make me dinner at his house, so I was crossing my fingers that the night would end with us in his bed. No pressure, right? I took in a deep breath and smoothed down the front of my green dress again. I had made sure to actually dress up for this date, since I hadn’t the previous time. He didn’t tell me to, but I wanted to. I wanted to look my fucking best for hi

HAVEN POV Wesley pulled his sweatpants off, and then, with some snapping and cracking of his bones, he changed right before my eyes. Changed from the Wesley I knew into a large, dark gray, humanoid beast. I screamed. Screamed the loudest, most bloodcurdling scream I’d ever made in my life. I turned to run away, to run back into the safety of the house, so I could lock the door and protect myself from the monster in front of me, but I ran straight into Nolan’s chest. His hands grabbed my upper arms, and he glared over my head at the beast standing where Wes had been only moments before. “You couldn’t have waited like two more minutes?” Nolan yelled at it. “Nolan, let me go!” I cried. “I need to get inside, get away, and—” “No, Haven,” he said, turning me around, so I faced the monster again. “If you run, he’ll think it’s an invitation.” “An invitation?” I squeaked. “Yes. To chase you and mate with you.” “Mate?” “Have sex. Claim you as his.” “You mean that — that thing would