Jaxon first discovered his love of reading when he was a child. Despite being an alpha, he was a rather sick boy who spent the first several years of his childhood staying home until his immune system was strong enough to protect him. At first his parents were very affectionate, reading to him every night and making sure he ate and drank enough. While Jaxon hated being bound to his home, he did enjoy the love of his parents and the time they spent with him. They cherished Jaxon, but were only able to step away from their work for so long. When Jaxon turned three they decided to hire a live-in nanny - a middle aged beta. Melissa was many things: efficient, organized, and a good chef, but she was not affectionate or talkative. Being so young, Jaxon was unaware that many families hugged and told each other how much they were loved and often talked about their days or little things of interest. Not knowing this and often only having Melissa home, Jaxon grew up learning that unless something is of vital importance it doesn’t need to be spoken and that unless absolutely necessary physical contact is something to avoid.
He never resented Melissa for growing up with these different expectations, he simply understood that some families act differently. By the age of six Jaxon was healthy enough to begin interacting with children his own age, however, understandably, he had a rather hard time connecting with them. While other children were out playing in the fields or reading comics, Jaxon had been inside listening to Melissa read classic novels like Things Fall Apart, Jane Eyre, and the Catcher in the Rye. Jaxon learned to read at a young age and was soon engrossed with the written word. He would read novels, newspapers, journals, and anything else he could get his hands on. Those stories were his way of escaping; they were his way of exploring the world beyond his four walls. One of his absolute favorite’s was Walden by Henry Thoreau. The simplicity of nature and the desire to know himself innately spoke volumes to Jaxon who felt often as though he was expected to fit inside a box. Even as a child, his family spoke about him attending college and becoming a prominent leader in the community. They encouraged him to continue reading so that he would become more educated, but Jaxon never missed their looks of disappointment when he read something that was considered “non-academic.” Jaxon was a natural intellectual and aced all of his exams skipping from seventh to ninth grade one summer. Since he was not particularly close with any of his peers he didn’t mind the change in personalities around him. One of the few acquaintances that seemed to pop up throughout his childhood and teenage years was an omega named Allison. Despite his lack of social prowess, Jaxon could still obviously see she was pinning after him and did his best to avoid her entirely. It’s not that she wasn’t pretty, she was a beautiful young lady, but Jaxon knew she wasn’t for him. He had no notion of true love or soulmates, but he did have a pretty good idea of what kind of life partner he wanted and the number one requirement on that list was they had to love literature. In the seven years of knowing Allison he had only seen her pick up a book once and that was to throw it at her friend. If Jaxon was to fall in love with someone one day, he would have to conduct a litmus test as to whether or not they could have an intellectually stimulating conversation about the works of Poe versus Griswold.
Set to graduate early at the age of 17, Jaxon was just starting to get a taste of what true freedom would be like. He had looked at some colleges, and had spent half of his senior year taking college level courses to get ahead on his degree. While he hadn’t declared a major yet, he knew his parents were pushing for him to join business administration or marketing. They were even okay with him studying politics, but Jaxon knew if he told them about his plans to study literature they would balk at the idea and threaten to stop tuition payments until he changed his mind. His desire to get out from under the thumbs of his parents and to see and experience the world for himself came shockingly when Allison entered his house that fateful night. When he was first accused of attempted assault, Jaxon wanted to scream that he would never do something so loathsome - he never so much as held another person’s hand before so why would he try to take advantage of someone? While he was being yelled at by the neighbor and led out, the notion that this was his chance took root. Yes, he was completely innocent, and yes this could ban him from town forever, but what true loss would that be? His parents barely acknowledged his existence outside of what they could gain from him, his peers spoke poorly of him saying that he was such a waste of an alpha, and Melissa had passed two years ago from a rapidly progressing lymphatic cancer. Rather than defend his honor, Jaxon chose to remain silent while Allison and the rest of the town folks he once thought to be democratic and partial crucified him and determined him worthy of banishment. He did truly say goodbye to his parents then, but walking away from the community that had housed him for the past 17 years of his life, Jaxon felt no sadness. He was about to be free for the first time in his life and he was finally looking forward to the chance of having a home.
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