LOGINThanks for reading book 1 in the Direwolves series, tomorrow I'll start book 2, Max's story!
Jamie nearly collided with someone in the hallway. He muttered an apology he didn’t mean, shoved through the first bathroom door he saw, and locked it with shaking fingers.Music thudded faintly through the walls. The light overhead was too bright. The mirror showed a version of him he barely recognized—flushed, eyes blown wide, lips swollen and pink like he’d done something reckless.The heat that had been simmering since the terrace spiked fast and sharp, low in his stomach. He fumbled with his jeans, barely getting himself situated over the toilet in time, breath coming in shallow pulls. It wasn’t deliberate. It wasn’t planned.It just… happened.Cum streaked the back of the toilet seat, hitting the bowl in hot, messy pulses.Quick. Mortifying. Over before he could process it.Jamie braced a hand against the wall, staring at the tile while the last tremor worked its way through him.“Oh—god.”He’d nearly cum in his pants, in the middle of a hockey party... because of a kiss.A kiss
Jamie was going to pass out.There was no other explanation for the way the world tilted slightly, sound swelling and distorting around him. The terrace lights felt too bright. The laughter too sharp.The bottle pointed at Max like it had done it on purpose.Again.The girls squealed louder this time.“Oh my god.”“No way!”“Okay, that’s fate.”Jamie stared at the green glass neck like it might roll somewhere else out of sheer pity.It didn’t.He reached out to try again.Connor leaned forward, eyes gleaming. “Ah, ah,” he said, pointing. “You had your second spin. Bottle’s decided. Now you kiss.”Jamie’s stomach dropped.He couldn’t kiss Max.He was barely keeping his pathetic crush under control as it was. Sitting this close was already torture. Max’s thigh was warm against his through denim, broad shoulder brushing his arm every time someone shifted.And now he was supposed to just… lean in?In front of an audience?Jamie had never kissed anyone.Not at all.He should’ve run. Should
Max took longer than usual getting ready.It wasn’t about the party. He’d been to thousands of these. Same music, same beer, same rotating cast of girls and teammates and noise. That part was easy.But another part wasn’t easy and had been happening for a while.For a couple of years now, if he was being honest.It had started as a quiet question he never said out loud. A what if that showed up late at night and disappeared by morning. What if attraction wasn’t as simple as everyone around him made it look? What if he just… hadn’t met the right person yet?What if he had, but they'd disappeared before all the pieces could fall into place?He’d looked. Objectively. Teammates in locker rooms. Guys at the gym. Friends of friends.Nothing.Girls were easy. Familiar. Automatic. He liked them. Wanted them. That part had never been confusing.So he’d figured the question meant nothing.Then he’d run into Jamie in that coffee shop.And something had shifted.It had been a boring summer before
Jamie stood in front of his mirror convinced he was looking at someone else.He exhaled slowly and adjusted the collar of his shirt.He’d agonized over the outfit longer than he wanted to admit. He finally settled on dark jeans that actually fit him properly, a soft T‑shirt that skimmed his shoulders without clinging, and a lightweight jacket he could keep on if he panicked and needed something to hide behind.The result was… actually decent.His hair behaved for once, falling into that effortless mess that wasn’t effortless at all. He looked like himself, just sharpened around the edges. The kind of version that might get a second glance. Or at least not get eaten alive.Jamie grabbed his phone, checked the time, then checked it again.Zach: wolf den tonight. don’t bail.Jamie winced.The Wolf Den.Zach had explained it casually, like it wasn’t the setup of Jamie’s personal nightmare. Most of the team lived together in a former frat house just off campus, Sigma something. Now it was j
Jamie woke up late, by his standards.He and Ava didn’t have class until later, one of those rare shared late-start mornings that usually felt like a gift. But the jolt of it hit him hard: no sunlit calm, no lazy stretch, just the awareness that time had moved on without him.His phone was vibrating itself off the bedside table.He groaned, fumbled for it, and squinted at the screen.Ava: JAMIEAva: i need details!! Jamie rolled onto his back and stared at the ceiling.He’d stayed up far too late.Long after he’d uploaded the footage. Long after he’d told himself, firmly, that he was done for the night.There was one clip he hadn’t been able to stop replaying.Max leaning back in the chair, all easy confidence, the fabric of his shirt pulling slightly across his shoulders when he moved. He smiled as he talked, slow and unguarded, hands gesturing as if he couldn’t help explaining things with his whole body. His eyes stayed warm and intent on the camera, bright with focus, he was devas
“Got time for one more?”Jamie hesitated.“Uh—yeah,” he said, far too quickly. Then, panicking, he added, “I just—bathroom. One second.”Max laughed softly. “Sure. Take your time.”Jamie didn’t wait to hear anything else. He slipped past Max and down the hall, heart racing, shoes squeaking faintly against the floor as he ducked into the bathroom and locked the door behind him.He braced his hands on the sink and leaned forward, breathing hard.Okay.Okay.He turned the tap on and splashed cold water over his wrists, then his face, staring at his reflection like it might give him instructions.Max didn’t know.He couldn’t know.Even if Jamie sounded like JPEG. Even if his voice did that stupid thing when he was nervous. Lots of people sounded alike. That meant nothing.Max didn’t know he was gay.Max didn’t know he couldn’t stop thinking about him.Max didn’t know that standing that close, smelling him, feeling his hand on his shoulder had nearly short-circuited his brain.This is not







