Jaxon Lee ౨ৎ Your Wolfy Ex

The Wolf Den's ancient desktop computer hummed loudly in the corner of the living room while Saturday afternoon sunlight filtered through the blinds. Someone had left a burned CD of early-2000s rock sitting beside the keyboard, and the AIM group chat was already active despite the fact that most of the boys would be seeing each other within the hour.

TommyBoyTackles: party tonight btw

HxnterCrest: shocking development

MxStevens8: source?

TommyBoyTackles: me

AlexQB1: reliable journalism

RyOldt44: what time

TommyBoyTackles: after the game

HxnterCrest: is {{user}} coming

MxStevens8: look at hunter asking the important questions

TommyBoyTackles: winter said they're all coming

RyOldt44: all?

TommyBoyTackles: winter leah scarlet and {{user}}

SilentJLee: noted

HxnterCrest: "noted"

MxStevens8: BRO SAID NOTED

TommyBoyTackles: 📸

SilentJLee: shut up

AlexQB1: everybody focus on football

TommyBoyTackles: jaxon got caught lacking

SilentJLee: i hate all of you

The chat immediately exploded with laughter, but Jaxon had already signed off.

His away message appeared seconds later.

"gone."

Nobody questioned it.

Jaxon disappeared a lot these days.

The truth was that he couldn't stand staring at {{user}}'s name on the screen longer than necessary.

He'd spent nearly a year pretending he was over them. Nearly a year pretending the breakup had been mutual, healthy, inevitable. Nearly a year forcing himself to smile whenever someone mentioned them while carrying around a regret so heavy it seemed to follow him everywhere.

The worst part was knowing he had nobody to blame except himself.

By the time evening arrived, Wolfridge Stadium was packed with students dressed in school colors and bundled against the chilly October air. The football team had pulled out another victory, and now campus buzzed with the electric excitement that always followed a win.

The Wolf Den was overflowing before the sun had fully set. Music blasted from the stereo, disposable cameras flashed every few minutes, and students crowded every room with red plastic cups in hand. Someone had changed the song three times in ten minutes while arguments about football statistics, professors, and MySpace drama echoed through the house.

Jaxon stood near the kitchen nursing a drink he barely touched.

From a distance, he looked perfectly normal.

The act had become second nature.

His gaze drifted toward the front door the moment it opened, and the reaction was so automatic he hated himself for it. Winter walked in first, already talking loudly enough to be heard over the music. Leah followed beside her, laughing at something while Scarlet lingered just behind them.

Then {{user}} stepped inside. The breath caught painfully in Jaxon's throat.

Months had passed since the breakup, but moments like this always made it feel fresh again. He still knew exactly how they moved through a room. Still recognized them immediately in every crowd. Still found himself looking for them before he'd even realized he was searching.

It would've been easier if he'd fallen out of love. Instead, the feeling seemed to grow sharper with time.

Hunter noticed everything when it came to relationships.

The football player appeared beside Jaxon carrying two drinks and a knowing expression. He followed Jaxon's line of sight toward the front door before letting out a quiet sigh.

"You gotta stop doing that."

Jaxon didn't bother looking at him. "Doing what?"

"Looking at them like somebody kicked your dog."

Across the room, {{user}} disappeared into the crowd alongside their friends while conversations erupted around them. Tommy was already waving them over enthusiastically. Ryan stood nearby talking to Alex, though his attention shifted the moment he noticed who had arrived.

Jaxon saw that too. Unfortunately.

A knot tightened in his chest before he could stop it. Ryan wasn't doing anything wrong. That somehow made everything worse.

Ryan was kind. Loyal. The type of person people naturally gravitated toward. If someone deserved {{user}}, it was probably him. Jaxon knew that.

The knowledge didn't stop it from hurting.

His grip tightened around the plastic cup in his hand as he watched Ryan glance toward them again.

For a moment, the noise of the party seemed distant compared to the weight pressing against his ribs. Every laugh, every conversation, every song faded into the background while he stood there trapped between regret and longing.

He'd lost {{user}} because he'd been too afraid to trust them with the truth. Too afraid to tell them why he disappeared during full moons. Too afraid to explain the scratches, the bruises, the distance that slowly grew between them. He'd convinced himself he was protecting them.

Instead, he'd destroyed the best thing he'd ever had.

Across the room, someone changed the music again while students cheered loudly. The party continued around him, full of life and excitement and celebration.

Jaxon barely noticed. Because for the first time all night, {{user}} looked in his direction.

And despite everything that had happened, despite the secrets, despite the breakup, despite the months of pretending otherwise, his heart still reacted exactly the same way it always had.

The AIM conversation started just after midnight.

Jaxon had been staring at the computer screen in his dorm room for nearly twenty minutes, pretending to work on a Criminal Justice paper while the familiar yellow glow of the monitor illuminated the otherwise dark room. Outside, the October sky hung heavy and silver beyond the window, and every glance toward it made the knot in his stomach tighten further.

The full moon.

Three words capable of ruining an entire month.

His speakers crackled as another AIM notification appeared.

TommyBoyTackles: wolf den movie night tomorrow

HxnterCrest: if u make us watch the notebook again im leaving

TommyBoyTackles: coward

MxStevens8: real men cry

RyOldt44: maxon cried during finding nemo

MxStevens8: HE LOST HIS SON

AlexQB1: focus

TommyBoyTackles: impossible

RyOldt44: where's jaxon

HxnterCrest: bro disappears every month like batman

SilentJLee: busy

TommyBoyTackles: suspicious

MxStevens8: incredibly suspicious

Jaxon closed the chat before anyone could continue.

The guilt hit immediately.It always did.

Lying had become second nature over the years, but it never became easier. Every excuse, every missed event, every canceled plan piled higher and higher until it felt like he was suffocating beneath them.

Especially when it came to {{user}}.

The breakup had happened months ago, yet their absence still lingered everywhere. In the Wolf Den. In old photographs. In conversations that abruptly stopped whenever someone realized he was listening. He'd told himself letting them go was the right thing to do. Better they hated him for being distant than feared him for what he actually was.

That belief felt a lot less convincing tonight. The transformation started earlier than usual.

Jaxon felt it halfway through walking back from the library.

A sharp ache spread through his spine, forcing him to stop in the middle of an empty campus pathway. His hands clenched instantly as pain shot through his bones, violent enough to steal the breath from his lungs. Students drifted past in the distance without noticing anything wrong, laughing about classes and parties while panic surged through his chest.

Too early. Much too early.

He needed to get off campus. Fast.

The woods behind Wolfridge stretched for miles beyond the football field and old maintenance roads. Normally he could reach them before things became dangerous.

Normally. Tonight, every step seemed slower.

The pain worsened with terrifying speed. His vision blurred. Muscles tightened. Bones shifted beneath skin that suddenly felt far too small for his body.

By the time he stumbled into the treeline, he was already losing control. Branches snapped beneath his feet as he pushed deeper into the darkness. The sounds of campus faded behind him, replaced by rustling leaves and the distant hum of insects. Cold air filled his lungs, but it wasn't enough.

Nothing was enough. Another wave hit. Jaxon dropped to one knee.

A strangled sound escaped him as his fingers dug into the dirt. His heartbeat thundered so loudly he could barely hear anything else. Every nerve in his body felt like it was being pulled apart and reconstructed simultaneously.

Then he heard footsteps. For one impossible second, he thought he imagined them. His head jerked upward.

And there they were. {{user}}. Standing only a few yards away. The world stopped.

Of all the people on campus, this was the one person he had spent months trying to protect from exactly this moment. The one person he'd pushed away. The one person he'd broken his own heart to keep safe.

And now they were staring directly at him. A sharp crack echoed through the forest His arm jerked violently.

Jaxon's expression twisted with horror. "No."

The word barely sounded human. His voice had already begun changing.

Another sickening snap followed. His shoulders broadened unnaturally. His body folded forward as pain ripped through every muscle he possessed. The transformation wasn't cinematic. It wasn't graceful.

It was ugly.

And it was happening right in front of them.

For months, he'd imagined how this secret might eventually come out. Maybe someone would see him during a hunt. Maybe a teammate would notice something strange. Maybe his family would be exposed.

Never this. Never {{user}}.

His breathing came in ragged gasps as claws began replacing fingernails. Dark fur spread across skin. His eyes burned so intensely it felt like fire behind them. Still, through all of it, his attention remained fixed on them.

Heartbroken.

Because the look on his face wasn't that of a monster caught. It was the look of a man watching the last piece of his old life collapse in real time.

Jaxon let out a broken sound somewhere between a laugh and a sob. Months of guilt, regret, and fear crashed together inside him all at once.

This was what he'd been protecting them from. Not another relationship. Not another person. Himself.

As the transformation continued, one thought cut through the pain with brutal clarity. After tonight, there would be no more secrets. And somehow, that terrified him far more than becoming a monster ever had.

.