AT FIRST, I ONLY SAW RED – the colour overwhelmed my senses from the moment I opened the front door – and then I saw his smile. That smile was something beautiful, even more so than the abundance of roses he held to his chest. It demanded my sincerest adoration the way our lungs demanded air to breathe. Something coursed through me, indescribable and yet familiar, this sensation unique to seeing Justin and Justin alone. It had me speechless for who knew how long before he held me in his arms, and his breath warmed the hind of my neck.

He was always so warm, but I guess that was to be expected.

"I'm sorry," he spoke – sometimes, his voice would break in bits, and it was the most attractive sound in the world.

"What for?" Bemused, my eyes found his as we drew apart. Justin held my hands, and with fearful caution, he explained what all this was.

"Merribel said you met today." Oh. "And she asked me what I did that made you not want to see me."

I took in his gaze, finally accepted his flowers, and led him inside. If only I could have convinced him that meeting the Eights had drained me, that I had wanted to come home as soon as possible because I was tired, but what excuse was that? I could not lie to him if I tried. I did not like my options, so I looked at the roses.

"These are beautiful, Justin," I said as I attempted to walk further into the house, but then he caught my bicep and returned me to him.

"Sit."

I sat.

We had this sea-green armchair that was Mom's favourite piece in our mid-twentieth-century style foyer. She entertained the look despite Dad's reminding her that it was, in fact, twenty-eighteen. Justin came to his knees before me like some kind of prince, took the roses and put them aside. When he looked up again, those eyes ceased me.

"I know that the past few months have been... shit, really. And that I may never be able to make up for what I did, but I won't stop trying to. I –" he stopped and breathed like he'd been holding his breath in the entire time. "I need you to trust me. Or, trust that I love you, more than anything in this world, Leslie Rowe. I love you."

Though I spoke in truth when I said I loved him, too, something dark and painful was swelling up inside my chest. It didn't go away, not when Justin caressed my cheek, brushed me with his affection, or smiled. He watched me for a moment too long, and while I hoped that he could not read me, I knew that he could. He took the roses from the floor, to give to me, I'd assumed, before he leaned in and his lips pressed against mine. I did not pull away; I melted into him.

I was reminded in that moment of how much I'd missed him these two months, from the earthiness of his scent to the flavour of his tongue. He'd told me beforehand that each December, his family would leave Raven Hills, only to return for the beginning of school year. I tried not to feel too bad; maybe someday I could go with him. I'd even grown accustomed to his absence, or so I'd thought, but it hadn't been easy. It'd all sounded fine at first, almost thrilling in fact – they had cousins in far places, plenty by the sounds of it, and with this hateful heat, I couldn't blame the Levines for wanting to get out of here for the holidays – until I realised that most of these relatives didn't believe in Wi-Fi or so much as a landline. I'd missed him, that's all. I'd been feeling unsteady, but now that Justin was back, it was like the world was coming to a plateau.

Justin's lips had hardly left mine when he spoke again. "We good?"

"Yeah," I whispered back, my lower lip brushing his, my eyes not yet open. His hand came to my cheek again to wipe away the last of my tears, and I could feel my heart beating out the obscurity I'd felt in my chest before. "I should put these in water," I said, taking the roses, while Justin took my hand.

We headed into the kitchen to fill a vase with water and the flower food that had accompanied the bouquet. I was doing this when Justin asked where Ronan was and I told him that he was probably in his room playing video games.

"Is that code for he's hiding from me?" asked Justin. My little brother was someone who could get along with anyone he met, but Justin, for some reason, just rubbed him the wrong way.

"No."

Honestly, even I wasn't convinced. Justin frowned at me like he knew I was lying, but was going to accept it anyway and waited for me to finish with the roses, tapping a finger considerately on the countertop. A moment later, I presented the bouquet on the dining table with a "Ta-da!" and Justin stepped closer to me with a smile.

"They're almost as beautiful as you, babe." He hugged me from behind, and my body tingled with vitality. I didn't want him to move.

"Thank you, for the roses and for stopping by."

"Hey, I'm not leaving just yet." Justin kissed my cheek. "I was thinking we could spend the rest of the day together, just you and me, before school and life starts again."

My eyebrows elevated at the gesture, and I considered our options. A part of me wanted to ask him why he'd waited to do all this on the last day, but the rest of me was convinced that it didn't matter, because he was here now. I wasn't going to waste this day; I knew how strict his parents could be when it came to spending time out with me or his friends, which was exactly why I would insist on going to his place instead, but we know how that always turns out. They don't allow anyone to come over either. Honestly, he made his parents sound like executioners or something. Surely, they weren't that bad.

"Well, I was going to do research..."

"Mm, too bad I can't help you with that."

"You could," I whined and grabbed his hand, swinging his arm about like I was five. "Come on."

"Leslie," he sighed, looking down at me because he was tall and because he wanted to make sure I could see his expression – his you know I can't face.

"You don't even have to say anything; you can just point out the stuff that's completely untrue, like if it says you're patient creatures with good tempers," I continued with my head cocked to one side, innocent and yet anything but. "It would make my day. Please, lupus meum."

Justin's gaze pierced into mine by instinct, and his eyes did that thing they always do when I called him by that name. It was like a password, one that almost always worked, and it set his eyes alight. I don't know what he could have been thinking when he'd asked me to be his girlfriend; I chased after the truths of the supernatural world, and he lived in it. Maybe he just enjoyed the chase. He was a werewolf after all.

"No." He spoke that syllable with such resolve; it cut me as it slipped off his tongue so effortless and debonair, and he put his hands on my waist in the same way.

"No?" I asked in disbelief, looking up into those gold irises before he reminded me of the substantial meaning behind my request.

"You're asking me to break a law."

"You make it sound so criminal," I cooed. I hardly had it in me to take no for an answer, although deep down I knew I had to. The single most frustrating thing about dating Justin Connor Levine was to know his secret and simultaneously know nothing at all. We'd been together for eleven months and I was no closer to knowing the truth about werewolf-kind. Justin was not a fairy tale, he was the real thing. I wanted to know the real thing.

"If it wasn't," he began smoothly, as he raised one hand to tuck my loose hairs behind my ear, "I would have told you everything already."

There was this vibrancy to him, an excitement, and I wondered what I possibly could have done to excite him. He was easing near, his nose brushed against mine – that cute thing he did – and his grip tightened on my waist. It was all so very distracting.

"Stop it."

"Stop what?" he mouthed slowly, gently, his voice ebbing like tranquil waters. I felt myself swaying along with it, as he evoked this sense of equanimity in me – something like floating on a lake beneath a sea of stars – and by then it was impossible to be upset with him.

Actually, I could have kissed him. But he just gave me this haughty grin and stepped away, while I tried to forget the amorous thoughts he had left me. It had to have been intentional, a tease; a way of making me forget why I was mad or if I ever was in the first place. Justin took my hand and led me to my room. Honestly, I wouldn't mind forgetting, if it meant we could always be like this.

We filled our together time with watching the newest Star Trip movie and The Wolf of Howl Street, which I found ironic even if it had nothing to do with actual wolves. It would have been ten times cooler with actual wolves, though. We were in the middle of one mildly inappropriate scene when I heard a sound coming from outside. I turned down the volume on the TV, listening.

"It's Peter, I think," Justin said softly.

I turned a glance at my alarm clock. It was seven-thirty, which meant it was already dark out and that Dad would be coming home. Where'd the time gone? I almost freaked out at how late it was, until I stepped into the passage and realised that even though Justin and I had been sitting in the dark, Ronan had made sure to turn on all the other lights. The kitchen door creaked, and I could see Dad under the frame of the archway shared between the living room and the kitchen. Justin and I inched out of our shadow.

"Hey, old man," I said with a fond smile and reached for the laptop bag in his hand.

Peter's eyes went wide from the mild shock I seemed to give him with my sudden appearance. He took a breath of relief when he realised it was just me, and then gave me a hug. Justin was rubbing the back of his neck, patiently waiting his turn. Dad grinned and threw him a hand before one of those manly handshake-to-hug things transpired.

"Justin."

"Good to see you again, Sir."

I lugged the laptop bag to one of the dining chairs as Dad revised how long it had been since Justin last visited us.

"Just over a month, Sir."

Dad gave Justin this weird look. "Enough with the Sir nonsense, I told you to call me Peter," he insisted, fetching himself a glass of water, while Justin gave me this guiltless shrug, which translated to: 'Peter' it is then. "How was it up in..?"

"Oh, well, we were all over. We mostly hiked nearly half the Cape Fold Belt."

I left to take Dad's laptop to his room – first room on the right through the passage. I knew what Justin was going to say in any case, except he would make it sound like more of a vacation, taking care not to mention that some of his family didn't just hike in the mountains, but lived there, too. Neither of my parents had met Justin's family either. This was something he only really got away with because my parents were chronic introverts and perfectly content if they could limit any human interaction beyond the walls of our house – I guess I had to have gotten it from somewhere. Of course, the Levines weren't human, but details, details. That said, on the anomalous occasion that Mom and Dad did wish to meet them, a simple "they're sick, maybe next time" or "they're working late tonight" was enough to dissuade them.

When I got back to the dining room, Dad and Justin were carrying grocery bags in from the car.

"Need any help?" I offered.

Dad shook his head, "I think we got the lot of it."

Justin gave me a smile in agreement and set the last bag on the kitchen counter with the others. I just stared between them – Justin's smile, Dad's smile, the groceries – I knew what it all added up to.

"So, Justin," said Dad. "Would you like to stay for dinner?"

And so he did.

The better thing about being a werewolf and not a vampire, as far as I could tell, was that you could blend into humanity so easily. You didn't need sunglasses to hide your eyes, nor an umbrella or enchanted amulet to shield you from the sun's vindictive flames. You could eat garlic and wear cross-embellished jewellery – at least, if it wasn't silver. You could eat with humans and not want to eat the humans. But then again, what did I know?