Well. This was a pickle.

Jun's grip on Damon was like iron chains around his body. Damon certainly wasn't strong enough to break free. And poor, loyal Mark, could only circle around them and look for an opening that wouldn't lead to Jun biting his hand off. The moment he got even an inch closer, Jun's growl would go from a constant warning to an active threat as he snapped at Mark with his teeth and nails, despite them being dull and useless in human form. Damon knew that in any type of physical altercation, Jun would still come out on top, even if he wasn't really invested in winning.

And Damon, crushed between the forest floor and the weight of Jun's body, could only wheeze and hope Jun would get tired eventually. He didn't know what to do other than that. Maybe it was better when Jun was distracted trying to breed Damon. At least then Mark might have had a chance to sneak up on him.

The worst part of this was that they couldn't call for backup. They had all left their phones with their clothes, and though Mark was free to leave, he couldn't. If he left, Damon would be on his own to defend against Jun, and Jun's brain was firmly lodged in his cock right now, so that wasn't an option either.

Mark seemed to realize this as well. Damon watched him drag his hands over his face from the corner of his eye and took a mental note to get Mark a present or something for doing this. Damon was endlessly grateful that he hadn't just left to avoid the problem. Many betas might have considered it a lost cause by now. Later, when Damon was out of this little predicament, he would remember to be embarrassed that his best friend had almost seen him get mounted in the middle of the forest.

Mark suddenly lifted his head out of his hands – something like hesitance and annoyance at himself in his expression.

"Damon – can you distract him for five – eight minutes? I brought a tranquilizer but its back with my stuff. It's the only thing I can do Damon," Mark said urgently, helplessly. Damon balked slightly. Distract him?! The only way to distract him is to let him in my ass! He thought. He nodded in agreement anyway. What other choice did they have? Jun's growling was reverberating through his chest and into Damon's back, setting every one of his nerves on fire with the instinct to look for a danger that was, much like in the park with Maria, not directed at him and yet very much terrifying.

Even in Jun's darkest moments, however, he knew Damon was stressed as all hell – Jun's big hand was comfortingly stroking up and down Damon's right side to settle him. Damon's chest felt a bit tight from the action. Leave it to Jun to be the gentlest alpha around even with every cell of his body telling him to be mean. Telling him to rip up the competition, telling him to bully Damon until he cried, to mate Damon until he was round with his children.

Damon shook himself. Right. Back to the situation at hand. Mark retreated, disappearing somewhere Damon couldn't see, which Damon took as his cue to begin the distraction.

Maybe Damon should have thought about how to distract Jun without getting fucked instead of fixating on what Jun's hands were doing.

Or – maybe that's all Damon should be thinking about. Jun really didn't waste any time. The minute Mark was out of the picture, Jun's hand slid from Damon's flank to the inside of his thigh, pushing his leg out and up, trying to get access to his entrance.

Damon hissed slightly at the sudden stretch and wiggled away, of course only getting himself more tangled up in Jun's hold as a result. This wasn't working. What was he supposed to do?? Let Jun get a few thrusts in and then brutally take his pleasure away when Mark came back? That would be way too cruel for an alpha newly in heat. It might just make him insane, actually.

There was no reasoning with an alpha when they were like this, but Damon needed to try. He was facing the ground, too tired to struggle, and unable to get enough leverage to get his ass out of the danger zone, so all he could do was hope Jun wasn't too far gone to ignore anything he said completely.

"Jun," Damon called, deliberately making his voice a bit sweeter. Surprisingly, Jun perked up a bit, pausing in his attempts to bend Damon in impossible ways. Damon felt awkward not seeing Jun's face. He turned his head as much as possible, only getting a few glimpses.

Thankfully, Jun seemed to know what he wanted, and before Damon could take a breath and keep talking, Jun had already flipped him like a pancake, and then they were face to face, pressed up against each other, torso to torso. Jun of course hadn't forgotten to open Damon's legs in the process, so he was now slotted perfectly in the cradle of Damon's hips. Damon quickly pushed his hips down against the grass, to keep Jun from having too easy a time getting inside him. Jun noticed, if his grumble was anything to go by.

But now Damon had an opening. "Jun," he called again, and once again, Jun's attention snapped from Damon's lower body to his face, intent. Waiting. "This is your sixth heat, isn't it? Seventh? I know you're pursuing me now, but what about before? Can you tell me what you did to get through heats before?"

Truthfully, Damon was just trying to make conversation – to make Jun talk to him, if he was even capable of forming words right now. If Jun was talking, he wasn't fucking. Hopefully.

Jun stared at him, not moving, but not talking either. Damon would count it as a win. "I know – I know a lot of alphas without partners kind of shred things up for stress relief. I bet you destroyed lots of furniture." Damon kept his tone soothing, with a hint of humor. It seemed to be working. Maybe. Jun was still just looking at him, frozen, chest heaving slightly against Damon's own. Damon could also feel Jun's hips twitching with the need to be buried inside something warm, but Damon made sure to keep absolutely still. One wrong move and this could go south fast.

"Or maybe you had a partner," Damon continued. "That's okay. Tell me what you did to make the heat go away, Jun. Just talk to me."

"...No," Jun slurred, voice low and wrecked, a moment later. "No partner."

That was good. If he was able to talk it was a good sign. Damon hoped Jun wouldn't remember this later and think Damon was being jealous or something – he really wasn't. Having a heat partner wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility for Jun. Being in heat was torture for alphas. Damon would never blame him for doing something to lessen it.

Jun seemed tired of the conversation. Or maybe he really couldn't think through the fog in his brain. His head dropped to Damon's chest, breaths hot as he tried to restrain himself. Which, that was kind of the amazing thing. Damon had never known an alpha in heat to actually have this much control over themselves. That fact that Jun wasn't at least humping Damon's leg was already a miracle.

"Okay, okay," Damon soothed, rubbing Jun's shoulder blades like he was a skittish horse. "No partner. What did you do when the heat got bad, Jun? Did you try to sleep? Take cold baths? Just talk me through it, okay?"

Jun's breathing became more strained, to the point there was a hint of a whine behind it. His hands randomly clenched and unclenched on various fleshy parts of Damon's body. Damon was trying hard to ignore it, for both their sakes.

When Jun was still silent, Damon could only repeat himself. "Jun, what did you do – "

"Thought-" Jun suddenly started, and immediately stopped himself, his head still buried in Damon's chest, his hair tickling Damon's chin. Damon could hear when Jun physically bit his own tongue to keep quiet and finally realized – it wasn't that Jun was trying hard to speak. He was trying hard not to speak. Damon would unpackage the implications of that later.

"...Thought about what, Jun?" Damon said, voice whisper soft. Jun was trying. He was focusing on something other than what his body was screaming at him to do. Damon could only encourage it. Hurry up, Mark, he thought, swallowing hard.

Jun was full body shaking. Damon rubbed his shoulders harder, not nearly as concerned with whatever fantasy Jun used to get himself through his heats as he was with listening for Mark approaching through the trees. Nothing yet.

"Thought about," Jun repeated, making a low distressed noise. With one last, hard shudder, Jun helplessly croaked, "you."