"I'm in pain, it hurts?"

🌚

Tyler takes a hand to his neck, running his fingers over the skin. "Oh, I must have been careless when shaving." He laughs, eager to leave the room. 

The other two watch him go, with Mani maintaining his gaze a moment longer before he is distracted by Jojo. "Mani, I don't have any of my belongings." Jojo holds out his hands in despair. 

"Just use my stuff for tonight and we'll figure it out tomorrow when it gets here. I don't think Teddy will want to see either of us right now, do you?" He heads for the drawer, pulling out an extra blanket and dropping it on the bed. "This is my fault so I'll make it right and you can have my bed too. I'll sleep on the floor."

Jojo sighs as he sees Mani trying his best to keep it together, but he could tell he was faltering. "Hey, how are you feeling?" Jojo asks, tilting his head to one side, trying to catch Mani's gaze, but the omega appears too busy to notice as he searches for extra toiletries. 

"I'm fine." He replies, only hurrying his task at hand. He didn't want to think about how he was feeling, that was the last thing he wanted to think about. 

"Hey!" Mani now stops in his tracks as he feels a hand on his arm. "Tell me the truth Mani. How are you feeling?" Jojo asks again. His words speaking with more conviction this time around. 

The action forces Mani to stop. He looks at Jojo, his face says it all. "I'm in pain." He begins. "It hurts." 

"Then why do you do it to yourself? He wants you, you want him…" 

"He's an idiot Jojo." Mani interrupts. "If it weren't for this stupid instinct, we would have nothing to do with eachother. Tell me, what's the difference between this and a one night stand?"

"Because that is superficial, you know this means more." Jojo didn't really understand exactly how Mani felt, but knew what it meant go against your urges.

"Well I've made my decision." Mani says decisively as he looks away from Jojo to carry on with what he was doing. "Plus I have chemistry books to read…" 

"Ok ok!" Jojo raises his hands up in defence. "Whatever you say." 

***

The cries, the never ending cries. It was all he could hear as he tossed and turned on the rug, with the blanket pulled around him tight. It had even invaded his sleep, with Mani seeing the alpha alone, in pain, looking up at the big round moon, so bright in the blackened sky. Why was it so difficult to break free?

He sits up, looking at the two sleeping males either side of him in their beds. He needed air, he needed to run wild to clear his heavy head. He gets up from the floor, careful not to wake the others, he pulls a hoodie over his pyjamas and grabbing his backpack from the side, he begins to empty the contents, college textbooks being taken out and quietly being placed on the floor, as now he pulls on some shoes as the empty bag is pulled onto his shoulder.

Mani looks one last time at the two males at rest, before he ever so quietly leaves the dorm room. He now heads out of the block and out into the night. 

The air is still, the moon in the sky quarter full is bright, guiding his path as he headed once again away from civilisation and into the depths of the westwoods. 

Only when he thinks he is alone does he lower the back pack and begin to rid himself of his clothes. He stuffs his belongings into the bag, with the urge to transform now feeling imminent. 

Now fully naked, he gets down onto his hands and knees and lets the wolf in. The transformation begins. First the painful cracking bones as they expand and twist, reforming and taking on new shapes as now his once hairless body begins to get covered in thick black hair, with a large bushy tail surfacing from his lower back. His eyes sharpen in focus, as a deep ombre, colours the orbs and finally his teeth elongate. 

Mani stretches out his front paws as he now adjusts to his shifted form. His human mind takes a backseat as he raises his head to the blackened sky and howls. "AWOOO!" 

The relief from that singular howl felt instantaneous. A cry fuelled with pain, frustration, anger. Mani hated who he was, he hated feeling this way, he hated what he had done. 

"Awooo." A call in the distance over the still night air could be heard. Mani instantly looks in the direction of the sound. Nostrils flaring as he senses the broken soul of his mate. His human senses were not strong enough to take control, to tell him to back away, to flee from this place as his wolf skin found his feet pad in the direction of the call. 

"AWOOO!" He calls out again and once again hears the distant reply. 

"Awooo." 

Now he is running, dodging trees and jumping over branches in his mission to locate the broken wolf, his mate. Then, visible, framed between the trees, there he was. The white wolf, laying on his side, on a raised flat stone, his head silhouetted by the light of the near full moon as he lets out a guttural whine. "AWOOO!" 

But then he stops. Nostrils flaring as his head turns, he senses the presence of another. The omega who rejected him. He instantly gets onto his four paws as he turns on the solid stone and looks down on the black wolf. A low growl is emitted as Mani's wolf finds himself whimpering and lays down his front paws. 

Then suddenly the white wolf is leaping from the stone, heading straight for Mani…