Somehow, Jaxon managed to survive the duration of the training, Leon had been content with just cuddling and had encouraged him to try and sleep some more.
Like as if that was even possible, it had to be by some stroke of luck that he had managed to stay calm while his face was tucked against Leon, his cheek pressed up against his bare and tattooed chest.
And that had been the least of his problems.
The training was over soon though, hopefully, Darian hadn't rushed things but with how fast he made his way over after he had dismissed the Warriors, Jaxon wouldn't put it past him, he didn't think he had ever seen Darian hurry so much.
Yeah, insisting on coming for their training might have not been the best idea.
Because here he was sandwiched between the both of them, while they vied for his attention, all in plain sight of all the Warriors from Midnight Pack.
He was definitely not coming for the next training session.
It was endearing how they bickered endlessly and couldn't seem to agree on anything when it came to him. Naturally, they had a quick argument on who would carry him back to the Pack House.
Jaxon wasn't worried, they always came to an agreement of sorts, he was just content to sit on Leon while hugging Darian.
And he wasn't wrong because mere moments later, Leon won the argument.
It was only fair because Darian had been the one to bring him there, it didn't mean that Darian was pleased with the outcome.
Jaxon insisted on Leon piggybacking him and Leon agreed without objection, making sure he was comfortable.
They were all eventually going to have to discuss the elephant they had been carrying on a leash this entire time.
Jaxon obviously had no dissatisfaction with the matching bite marks on either sides of his neck but they couldn't do something like that and just gloss over it.
They could ignore it for the moment though, there was no need to dampen the moment with worries.
Most of the Warriors gave them a wide berth which was just perfect, they preferred their own company anyway.
They quickly made their way back to their apartment, they didn't need Joe's help this time, already accustomed to the path, it really wasn't so hard.
The next training wasn't till the next day, since it was their first day, Theo didn't want them stressed out.
"Theo says we'll have a brief meeting with Alpha Noah later today." Darian spoke up when they were back in the Pack House, as they made their way down the hallways.
"Can't we just do it over text? If it's going to be brief anyway."
Jaxon had already started to doze off only to be startled awake by Leon's words, just when he had started to think he could finally treat this as a vacation.
He was just about to go back to dozing when a strangely familiar voice spoke up, catching his attention.
"Here you guys are!" A soothing voice spoke up, a man stopping in front of them, blocking their path.
"I apologise for not being here to welcome you, if you'll pardon my absence, I-"
Jaxon wasn't listening to what the newcomer was saying, more like he wasn't understanding a word of it because he was too busy trying to place the familiar voice.
Then it hit…
"E-Ethan?" He blurted out without thinking, his look of confusion morphing into one of pure excitement at the reaction he got out of the tall man.
"Yeah?" He replied with a small smile, mussing up his black hair. "I didn't think you would remember me." He said a tad sheepishly.
Leon was stunned speechless, there was no way that the person in front of him could be Ethan, it just wasn't possible, the math didn't add up.
More of that hair tousling, then... "Actually, I was expecting Leo to remember me instead of you, Jax."
Darian eyes glanced in Ethan's direction at his very informal way of referring to them, who was this guy?
He eyed him up and down, trying to get a read on him.
He didn't seem like someone to worry about but somehow the ones who didn't give off odd vibes were the ones that posed the most dangerous threats.
He had silky black hair, that his hands always seemed to be in and grey eyes that looked like they were always on the verge of shifting to silver.
He was obviously in Jaxon's past and if possible, an old friend, Darian already didn't like him.
"I still don't believe it's you." Leon said bluntly, trying to wrap his head around a lot of things.
"Sorta expected you to say something like that." He muttered looking sheepish.
Jaxon had already put two and two together. "Wait! Don't tell me… you're the Head Beta of this Pack?" He exclaimed, scurrying down Leon's back.
Ethan's eyes widened at this, somehow he wasn't surprised that his old friend figured it out so fast, Jax had always been a smart one.
"Yeah." He admitted, a little embarrassed.
Jaxon threw himself at him at this, happy that an old friend had something similar to him.
"That's great! Me too!"
"Wait what?" Ethan stiffened in his hug for varying reasons, one clearly being the mind-blowing fact that he was currently the Head Beta of his original Pack and the other...
The other was that - were those two mating marks on his neck? They looked tender too, which meant that they were either quite recent or maybe freshly bitten again and they had come from Leo and the other shirtless man standing motionless beside him.
He tried to remain in the present.
"Really?" He tried to say in an affected tone, unable to tear his eyes away from the mating bites.
"That's cool." He said weakly, trying to ignore the heavy gaze of the quiet werewolf, it was a difficult task.
Jaxon stepped away first and he could feel a dull ache at the base of his heart, he glanced at Leo who was still trying to come to terms with what Ethan looked like now.
"Not even going to give a handshake?" He teased halfheartedly, "I thought we were old friends."
Leon scoffed at this, finally breaking free from his initial surprise, Darian just wrapped a possessive arm around Jaxon, tucking him close.
"Who would have thought you'd actually grow? Not to talk about getting taller than me." He shook his head in disbelief, pulling Ethan into a hug.
Ethan faked being upset. "You absolutely had no reason to bring that up." He complained good naturedly, a longing gaze drifting over Jaxon's neck again.
"Even Jaxie was a whole ass feet taller than you." Leon refused to let up on his teasing, stepping back to look Ethan over with exaggerated disbelief.
"Come on, dude, we were just fifteen…"
Leon clapped a firm hand over his shoulder. "Anyway, it's nice to see you again, we should catch up sometime."
"Yeah." Ethan muttered, distracted, he had to fight the urge to not look at Jaxon again, when did his hair get so long?
"We should but I see that I caught you at a bad time, I need to get to work too so we'll have to continue this some other time." He said quickly, looking ready to bolt.
"I'm sorry I excluded you from this conversation." He tagged on politely, referring to Darian who just watched him with cold midnight blue eyes, his expression calm.
"I'm Ethan and you are?"
"Darian." He answered simply.
"Well, nice to meet you, I need to get going now, see you guys later." He waved them, hurrying off.
"Is Ethan okay?" Leon mumbled in slight confusion, his old friend almost seemed like he was panicking right before he bolted.
Darian just watched Ethan hurry out of sight, he better be, for his own sake.
Jaxon as usual was clueless about everything, already babbling about how nice it was to bump into Ethan again and how relieved he was to have company while they went on their Head Warrior duties-
This was a disaster in the making.