Wren had been through a lot in his life. He’d hurt countless wolves. Countless. He’d been stuck in the same routine of fighting and fear for so long that he’d forgotten what the fresh fear of a brand new situation felt like. The market hadn’t even scared him. He knew what was going to happen. He’d be purchased by a different owner who would run him in the fights again.
It hadn’t happened. He never thought it would be scarier to go to someone who wasn’t actively hurting him.
He had no control over the whine that left his throat. The first touch, the bending of his fur, he was prepared for pain. Jackson hadn’t hurt him so far. He hadn’t given a single indication of getting enjoyment out of other’s pain. Wren tried to remember that. Jackson’s touch wasn’t forced. Jackson’s touch wasn’t a precursor to pain.
So far.
Wren held out as long as he could. Every absence of the hand,
Wren whined without realizing he was doing it. His mind was completely caught on the word free. No more collar. No more fear of paralyzing heat, of the inability to move, to escape.Jackson’s hand was gentle on fur. He whined with each stroke. He forced his brain to slow down, his breathing to slow down, to match the pace of Jackson’s strokes.What would Wren do if he was actually free to do as he pleased? A couple days ago and he would have sworn up and down that he’d be happy to hear this news, and part of him was, but… what would he do? He didn’t know how to do anything except fight. He couldn’t… What would he do?“You’re ok.” Jackson spoke from above him and Wren realized his whining was getting louder. “It’s ok if you want to stop. If you don’t like this then we don’t need to do it.”Jackson’s hand was hovering over Wren’s head, n
The car was packed and ready to go. Jackson’s dad was nowhere to be found, but that was expected. Kia was crying and Margaret gave a couple sniffs as she clutched the picnic basket tighter in her hands.Jackson gave them a fond smile. “We’ll be back soon you know. It’s not like we’re leaving forever.” Yet.Margaret sniffed again. Jackson shot Wren an exasperated look and took the basket from her. He handed it to Wren. “I love you, Margaret and I’ll see you soon.” He wrapped her up in a tight hug and held back any laughter as she very deliberately rubbed her cheek against his shoulder. He leaned his head down against hers and gave her as long as she needed.“I love you, too. Stay safe and if you need anything then don’t forget to call. I’ll get your dad to take care of it if I have to kill and impersonate him myself.”Jackson laughed and Margaret gave him a smile before turning t
Night time was chilly in the mountains. Inside of a hotel room, Jackson shouldn’t have noticed the temperature dropping. He should have been nice and warm under the shitty hotel blanket. Instead he was shivering and considering going to get his quilt out of the car.Wren was still in front of the open balcony door. Night had fallen long ago. There was too much cloud cover to see any stars and the wind had only increased. Jackson shivered again and pulled the blanket even tighter.The room was dark, almost all of the light from the moon was smothered under the clouds. Jackson could barely distinguish Wren from the shadows in the room. Another breeze brushed over the exposed skin of Jackson’s face and he tugged the blanket over his head. There was a shuffling sound outside the blanket, but Jackson didn’t want to expose himself to the chill again just yet.
The entire building was saturated with the scent of wolves, hormones, artificial cleaners, and perfumes. It burned his nose. His ears hurt from the multitude of voices screaming and laughing and crying. Jackson’s heartbeat was something to focus on, but it couldn’t drown out the sounds completely. Jackson’s scent was smothered out completely when they passed by a room that was actively spraying air freshener.Wren forced himself not to gag. His head started aching at the onslaught of scents.The stairwell was a bit better. The sounds were muffled, but still loud enough to bother him. Jackson’s heartbeat ticked up as they climbed the steps. Wren found it amusing, which was a newer emotion he was still learning to handle.The top floor wasn’t as bad as the first. Less than half of the rooms had people in them and no one was spraying any fake scents in the air. Quiet mutters were being exchanged in the rooms, but Wren tuned them out to
He stepped back. The instant onslaught of cleaners hit him again and he closed his eyes against the smell, against seeing any anger on Jackson’s face. He couldn’t believe he did that. Pushing into his space, forcing Jackson into letting him -“What’s going on?”“The smell.” He forced himself to talk, but kept his eyes shut. He wouldn’t make Jackson wait for an answer this time. Jackson had been so good to him, so far, but Jackson’s heart was still pounding. He was angry. He had to be so angry. “The cleaners used-” His words cut off as a scraping sound filled the room and a gust of wind diluted the scent.Wren opened his eyes. Jackson was leaning against the window sill. He smiled and shook his head. “Wren, you have got to start talking to me. Tell me when things are wrong or hard. Let me know.”Wren stared. He couldn’t figure out what was happening. Jackson… wasn&rs
The trip to and from the store went fairly quickly. Wren stuck close to him. So close that several times Wren bumped into him when Jackson stopped suddenly to scan the shelves. Wren didn’t relax until they were back in their dorm room with the door shut.Jackson liked that he could see the difference now in when Wren was tense and uncomfortable. Wren was standing by the window, breathing in the fresh air. He looked calm and as relaxed as he ever got, then Jackson said, “We need to talk about your beard.” Wren tensed up worse than he had in days.Jackson stared at the tight shoulders, at Wren’s unnatural stillness.“I know hair length is important to wolves, trust me, Kia’s lectured me plenty on it. I was under the impression facial hair didn’t play a role in how your fur feels. Am I wrong?”“You’re not wrong.” There was a large stretch of silence that Jackson didn’t try to interrupt.
Jackson woke up to the sound of the shower running in the bathroom. It took him a minute to realize why that was wrong, then he jolted out of bed only to slam to a stop outside the bathroom door. He couldn’t just walk in on Wren in the shower. It wasn’t Kia in there.Jackson crawled back onto his bed with his laptop. There were a lot of orientation things going on throughout the day. Jackson was going to skip most of them. He had no interest in whatever motivational things the bigwigs in charge of the school had to say. Lunch on the quad would be interesting though, at least if Wren was interested in going.He pulled open his list of names to keep an eye out for. Most of his peers that he wanted Wren to be able to eavesdrop on were a bit older than him so they wouldn’t share many, if any, classes. Again, he cursed the fact that his dad had him moved out of the best dorm on campus.The shower shut off. Several minutes passed and the door clicked
“Um, how’d you make it so we can’t hear in your room?” Zain’s voice was quieter than it had been when he was hidden in Liam’s room and he wasn’t quite making eye contact with Jackson, but Jackson leaped at the chance to explain.He pointed at the box sitting on the top part of the desk. “I made the first version of that my freshman year of high school. It’s wireless and connects via… “ Jackson let his voice trail off. “The specifics don’t matter. It’s customizable to fit any sized room. I hold the patent, but due to a minor disagreement with my dad, I’m unable to currently create and market them as I’d like.”Liam’s brow rose. “Youmade that?”Irritation again prickled under his skin at Liam’s tone of disbelief. “Yeah. I did. I got into this school just the same as you and you don’t see me doubting your intellig