Damon hadn't warned anyone that he would be showing up at Jun's house this late at night, so when he burst in without knocking, Mark nearly punched him, thinking he was an intruder.

Thankfully, Jun was in the room with them, in a relatively calm state, and he grabbed Mark's fist easily before it could connect with Damon's face, pushing the beta away like he was batting away a small kitten. Then Jun was in front of him, not smiling, but clearly vibrating with happiness because Damon was there.

Without saying a word, Jun leaned forward to hug Damon – and abruptly pulled away in shock. He froze. Damon froze. Jun blinked in confusion, and leaned forward again, taking a careful sniff at Damon's head.

Damon didn't know what was going on. He had showered before the party, he remembered that. He couldn't smell that bad, right? Mingling with people he didn't like was a bad time, for sure, but it wouldn't have soured his scent too much.

Jun was sniffing for an absurdly long time, and as he sniffed, a rumbling began in his chest. Damon briefly thought Jun was purring again, but didn't know why he would be.

Then he realized. That wasn't happy rumbling - that was growling.

"...Jun?" he asked hesitantly, suddenly tense all over. This was new territory. Damon had experienced a Jun who was upset enough to growl. He'd never been on the receiving end of it, however. Jun's pleased scent, tinged with spicy-sweet heat pheromones, took a drastic shift, spiking in anger. Damon's spine tensed.

"Who is that?" Jun said, in a way that said Jun really was trying to identify just who it was he was smelling on Damon so he could go beat them black and blue. From just that, Damon knew what had happened, and his heart sank like a stone to his stomach.

His mind flashed back to earlier in the evening. Malachi – pressed against Damon's back, arm around his shoulder, ruffling his hair –

Malachi was all over Damon right now.

Damon was still as a statue, completely blanking on what he should be doing. Something about Jun's anger – directed not quite at Damon himself, but close enough – was shutting off all ability to rationally explain to Jun what was going on.

Jun wasn't angry at Damon. Damon knew that. Jun was busy taking in and cataloguing the scent on Damon, not throttling him or yelling at him, so Damon knew Jun was focusing all of his in-heat alpha attention on who the fuck was all over his omega. The fact that Malachi was another alpha in preheat probably wasn't helping matters.

But somehow Damon felt weirdly guilty anyway. He'd done nothing – but Jun was upset. And Damon was part of the cause.

Done sniffing, Jun pulled away to look down at Damon, something achingly vulnerable behind all his alpha anger that made Damon's heart clench hard. He sucked in air through his teeth – and before he could talk himself out of it, Damon grabbed Jun by the wrist and tugged him past Jun's three, stunned guards to the hallway past the living room. Damon had never been to this part of the apartment before, but he followed Jun's scent to where it was the strongest, accurately finding the bedroom. He pulled Jun in the room and closed the door behind them without any explanation to Mark and the others. He would apologize later. Right now, he had more important things to take care of.

Apparently, Damon pulling them to a more private space all of a sudden had assuaged most of Jun's anger. But when Damon looked at him fully, there was still that hint of upset and vulnerability in the way he looked at Damon. Damon swallowed hard and sat on the end of Jun's bed, leading Jun to sit next to him.

Damon was once again glad for Jun's Jun-ness. Most other alphas wouldn't have taken the thought that their partner was cheating on them so well. But here Jun was, willing to hear him out.

"You don't have to worry about anything," Damon began. "You're smelling my ex-boyfriend – "

Yeah, not the right thing to say. Jun tensed, but this time, Damon was ready for him. He planted his hands on Jun's chest to still him and quickly explained. "It's fine. I hate his guts. He's just been being an asshole to me lately. For some reason, he's been trying to rekindle things, but I shut him down. Promise."

Well, at least Jun didn't look like he was about to go on a manhunt for the owner of the scent on Damon. He didn't look happy either, however. Damon waited, patient, for him to gather his thoughts. Having this conversation while Jun was in heat wasn't the best, but Malachi had unintentionally gotten in the way and made himself more of a problem than he was.

You know what? Screw unintentional. The bitch probably knew exactly what he was doing.

"What does 'rekindle things' mean?" Jun finally asked. Damon sighed.

"He...well, he's been trying to get back together or something. I think his parents want it more than him, honestly. But like I said, he's not a threat," Damon said calmly. He moved one of the hands he had on Jun's chest up to his cheek and smiled slightly. "Is that enough, hmm? My big, scary alpha?"

That successfully broke the tension. Jun's lips twitched and he let out a breath, slumping slightly. He leaned forward, rubbing his cheek all over Damon's hair again, replacing Malachi's scent with his own.

Damon let him, and for the next several minutes, they sat in silence as Jun firmly rid them of the interloper's mark. It was understandable, in this situation, of course. Damon had noticed, however, that ever since the first time Jun had scent marked him in the park, that Jun did it at pretty much every available moment, which technically wasn't super necessary. Scent marking lasts several days at a time.

Before, Damon was baffled over this. But right now...he figured it out.

Jun was a simple man. There wasn't usually a need to do mental gymnastics to figure out why he was doing something. And he was doing this because he was insecure.

He marked Damon all the time in the only way he really could – because he felt like Damon was going to slip through his fingers. Like Damon wouldn't always be his. And because couldn't really promise yet that he would be, it made sense.

Damon's heart hurt.

As Jun continued to scent mark Damon, rubbing his cheeks and wrists over every available inch of Damon, he started unconsciously making tiny noises in the back of his throat. Of course, rational conversations aside, Jun was still in heat. And emotional turmoil would only make it worse, not better.

Jun buried his face in the side of Damon's neck and Damon could feel Jun's breath skimming his skin. Suddenly all Damon wanted was for Jun's lips and teeth to be against his skin. Nibbling, licking, kissing. Biting. Anything. As long as Jun was there, giving him his attention like he always did.

While Jun was still caught up in his task, Damon accidentally glanced down. He shouldn't have. He really shouldn't have. Because Jun was just wearing a t-shirt and some comfy sweatpants. His pajamas, of course.

Unfortunately, sweatpants did nothing to hide an erection. Especially not one that size.

What happened next all boiled down to one thought. Jun was suffering. And the omega in Damon begged Damon to help him. Ease his distress.

So before Damon could think too hard about it, he pushed lightly against Jun's chest to dislodge him. Jun whined at the loss and tried to go back in for some more snuggling – but he never got the chance. Damon wasn't there anymore. He slid right off the end of the bed.

To the floor. Right between Jun's knees.