Other courting couples might not find it too intimate to undress together to go running, but for Damon, it was pretty unthinkable. Not only was it already intimate just to be in wolf form with someone outside your immediate family, to run and play with them like litter mates, but Damon had only ever been fully naked in front of Malachi, and he'd rather not think about that. Though Jun had definitely seen more of him than most people, he still hadn't seen everything. And though Damon had promised to go running with Jun, he had never promised to get to the ultimate intimacy level and actually show Jun his shift. Jun offering to bring a chaperone along had basically given Damon an out to avoid just this situation. And yet, Damon didn't tell Jun to turn around, nor did he hide to change.

Damon's heart was racing as the last pieces of his clothing fell to the ground. He could feel himself blushing down to his collar bones, forcing himself not to turn and see if Jun was looking at him. He knew he was. Jun hadn't been told not to look, and so of course, he would. Before the burning under Damon's skin got any worse, he started shifting, if only to keep Jun from looking any more thoroughly than he had.

Shifting was a painful experience. Having your bones and muscles breaking and reshaping was obviously not going to be a painless process. Thankfully, it got easier and faster with age. Damon's shift only took about a minute before he was on all fours. The first time he shifted, it took ten minutes and Damon had screamed so loud it drew the neighbors over to see if his parents were committing child abuse.

Damon was a bit of a wuss when it came to pain. He would admit it.

Now a wolf, Damon felt a bit more comfortable and trotted closer to Jun, who hadn't moved from his spot, waiting for Damon to approach on his own. Damon was aware that as far as wolves go, he wasn't the most dazzling. Omegas with pure white or pure black fur, for example, were a classic example of beauty in the werewolf community. Damon had a mottled brown coat with reddish highlights. Not the most eye catching, but then again, Damon thought eye catching wolves would be poor hunters. How are you going to catch anything if the prey can spot you miles away?

Damon sat down a few feet away from Jun and tilted his head at him. What was Jun doing just standing there and not moving?

He was answered when Jun, instead of removing his clothes and shifting as well, crouched down in front of Damon to look at him better and reached his hand out, hesitating before petting Damon until Damon inclined his head, giving him permission. And then Jun's hands were in Damon's fur, scratching all the right places. The best thing about being a werewolf? Your pack members knew the best places for scratching because they were wolves themselves and could use their gloriously human hands to reach those places.

Damon had all but melted into a puddle when Jun slowly came to a stop and simply rested his hands in Damon's fur. Damon blinked slowly and wasn't quite sure he'd heard right when Jun mumbled something under his breath, staring at Damon like he was the only other person on earth.

Before Damon could wonder what Jun had said, Jun stood up and took his shirt off. Then Damon had other things on his mind. Like, for example, remembering how to breathe. Jun may have seen quite a bit more of Damon's body than many, but Damon had never received the favor in return. He knew Jun must be fairly muscular. He'd hugged Jun and laid against his chest several times. Resting against Jun was basically the same as resting against a just-firm-enough mattress, but warm and with a rumbling feature.

And based on his chest, that checked out. Damon looked off slightly to the right, too embarrassed to look directly at it. One would think he was the one on the verge of heat with how warm his entire body suddenly felt. Unlike Damon, however, Jun lacked all embarrassment and shame. Rather than whipping his clothes off in a frenzy, Jun simply took his clothes off like he was used to being naked.

Now that Damon had nearly had an apoplectic fit just seeing Jun's naked chest, he knew he wouldn't be able to handle anything else, so he conscientiously focused on a tree in the distance.

Except, now that he was in wolf form, he wasn't quite as disciplined as before. The wolf part of him was screaming to take a peek – and right now it was stronger, so of course, once Jun's pants were off, Damon's eyes wandered.

Woah - !

Look away, look away. Thank god Damon didn't have human cheeks right now. He would be red as fresh blood. Feeling simultaneously guilty and exhilarated, Damon huffed and turned, facing towards the bulk of the woods, as if waiting for Jun to hurry up so they could go.

He pretended he didn't hear Jun stifling a laugh.

Thankfully, a moment later, a black wolf with brownish highlights came up next to Damon. He was much bigger – which was to be expected, but Damon was still a little irked to have to look up to meet Jun's eyes even in this form. Though he could see Jun getting ready to start sniffing all over Damon with his heightened wolf senses, Damon shook his fur out, stood up, and took off running into the woods.

The message was pretty clear.

Jun followed after, waiting to see where Damon would take them. Damon had missed this – running, bounding through the trees. Smelling the fresh air and feeling the cool earth beneath his paws. It had been too long since he'd taken the time to do this. During college, he'd had to come back home for a weekend every six months or so just to let the ache in his muscles relax. Though his college had been suitably far away enough to escape Malachi – even if Malachi actually didn't give a shit about finding him – it was woefully far from any pack territories. Neighboring packs, as long as they were on reasonably friendly terms with your pack, often let displaced college wolves use their pack lands to run. You just had to have a permit. Damon, unfortunately, didn't have that, so he often went much longer than he should have before shifting.

This run was long overdue. However, after they'd been running for a few minutes, Jun huffed behind him to let him know that he would like to stop and sniff Damon now, please. Damon rolled his eyes as best he could in wolf form and trotted into a relatively clear area, plopping down in a patch of sunshine to let Jun do what he wanted.

You'd think Jun would have had enough of sniffing and scent marking after their little park date, but apparently not. Damon kind of wished he'd had the guts to do this with Jun before his preheat started. They'd probably both enjoy it a lot more.

Jun began without any fussing, running his nose over every inch of Damon he could find. Unfortunately, Damon was much more prone to boredom in wolf form. He quickly lost interest in scenting and stood back up, turning to Jun with a determined glint in his eye. Then, holding eye contact, Damon lowered the front half of his body into a crouch, wiggling his tail happily.

Play!

Jun apparently hadn't expected that from Damon, because he let out a half bark of joy and mirrored Damon's pose, also crouching despite being intimidatingly bigger. Well, what else was Damon going to do? Not tackle Jun? That wasn't any fun.

Unfortunately, even the most innocent of intentions can go awry, given the exact wrong circumstances. Damon knew this was going to happen.

So Damon pounced on Jun and they rolled about in the grass like a couple of pups, playfully biting to get the upper hand. Jun was having a great time as well, though in hindsight, Damon probably should have recognized the warning signs. Several times Damon felt Jun's teeth just barely avoiding the scruff of Damon's neck where that bundle of calming nerves was located. You know, the ones that basically turn Damon into a puddle of goo. Damon barely even noticed.

He had to give props to Jun, though. He stopped himself many times.

Finally, Damon had to stop playing. He was out of breath already – more evidence that he needed to start shifting more regularly. He lay back down in the cool grass and panted, ignoring Jun for the moment. No clear victor had been decided. The rational, human part of Damon's brain knew that Jun had been going very easy on him, but that wouldn't stop him from trying to beat Jun up in a rematch later.

While Damon was purposefully ignoring Jun until such a time as he could properly obliterate him in another play fight, Jun had started sniffing him again. Damon ignored that too.

Until that cold nose started getting a little too close to Damon's derriere. Weirdly, to Damon, that was somehow more okay in human form than in wolf form and he shifted his lower body away. Yeah, he thought, we're technically dogs, but cool it, buddy.

Maybe the wolf part of Damon had subconsciously sensed that Jun was starting to lose his grip on things. He stood up to move a couple paces away, only to suddenly find himself eating dirt as he was tackled from behind by a much larger force.

Before Damon could even think oh, shit, Jun already had his teeth in Damon's scruff, and then Damon couldn't think at all. He went limp, barely registering that Jun was very much getting into position to mount him. Damon used his last but of willpower to growl threateningly, hoping that Mark will see what's going on before Damon ends up pregnant with oodles of wolf cubs.

Damon could only profess his absolute gratitude to the institution of chaperones for courtships. Otherwise things would have gone south fast. Well, faster.

Thankfully, the pressure lifted off Damon's back a few seconds later, ferocious growling arising as Mark tussled with Jun to the side, wrestling him away from Damon. For a moment, while Damon was still fuzzy from having his scruff grabbed, he wondered what had happened.

That's when he smelled it. It was Jun's spicy-sweet, rich scent, but magnified by ten.

It was the scent of an alpha in heat.