Once Damon had managed to pull himself together, he sandwiched Jun's face in his hands and sternly questioned him about how weirdly flawless Damon's escape had been – but as it turned out, Jun had nothing to do with it.

"...Really?" Damon asked, skeptical.

Jun shrugged, also at a loss. "I had a feeling Elizabeth might have been in Ganymede pack, but she never approached me, so I didn't try to find her either."

"You two weren't communicating in any way to get me out of the pack?"

Jun shook his head, rubbing the sides of Damon's waist with his thumbs. It was meant to be soothing, for both of them, but Damon only found it intensely distracting. He was done nesting, so he shouldn't be this hypersensitive. Weird. He forced himself to ignore it.

"No. But she knows me really well. We grew up together. If she's been observing everything from the sidelines this whole time, then she probably guessed that I'd be here waiting for you or trying to find my way back in to get you."

Damon was silent for a moment, processing, with Jun's face still in his hands. Partially it was just for the comfort of touching him. It was also partially to keep the man from trying to suck Damon's tongue out of his mouth. Jun, for his part, had been staring at Damon without blinking for some time now. He might have even broken his previous record of unbroken staring for one full minute. They had to be going on a minute and thirty seconds by this point.

Damon knew Jun was telling the truth. He wouldn't have said anything if any of that had been untrue. Still, Damon felt like there was something missing. "Alright. I guess it doesn't really matter. But what do we do now?"

Jun tilted his head. "Up to you. I have everything I need right here," he said, and squeezed Damon's waist to punctuate his point.

Damon was going to pinch his cheek and scold him for being cheesy, but couldn't bring himself to do it, stopped cold in any attempts to lightheartedly brush it off.

Because Jun meant it. Sure, there was a light curve to his lips and humor in his eyes, but he was serious.

And that's when it struck Damon – he'd been making plans this whole time to go to Venus pack once they were kicked out of Ganymede, because he thought Jun would definitely want to go back to his family.

But Jun...didn't care. Ganymede pack, Venus pack – it didn't matter to him. Damon wasn't sure why he thought it would. The man left his family, his pack, to join Damon's pack. Why would it be any different now that both of them were packless?

Maybe it was the way Jun held him like he was something precious. Maybe it was the way he wouldn't take his gaze off Damon for even a second – the way he hadn't looked away once, since they met. But Damon suddenly realized, with perfect clarity, that he could tell Jun he wanted to buy a mediocre apartment in the nearest human city, get a boring job as a financial advisor, and live as a human for the rest of his life, and Jun would say 'Cool. North or south facing apartment?' and he would make it happen, because it's what Damon wanted. As long as Damon was there, Jun didn't care where they were.

Damon's heart melted into a puddle of goo. He leaned forward and softly pressed his lips to Jun's, sans tongue, much to Jun's chagrin. Jun also kept his eyes completely open while they kissed, watching Damon from inches away, which was pretty creepy, but it was Jun, so Damon just thought it was cute, and kissed him harder.

"Do you think Venus pack would take you back?" Damon asked after pulling back.

Jun blinked slowly and nodded, hesitantly. Damon raised an eyebrow and Jun sighed.

"Yes, they would. But I might have to be punished when I show up."

"Punished? How?" Damon didn't like the sound of that one bit. He knew why, theoretically – Jun had betrayed his pack by deciding to go to Ganymede. It was unlikely that Venus pack would accept him back with no hard feelings whatsoever. And with Jun being the Alpha's son, they would have to be extra strict with him to set an example.

Jun shrugged. "Probably solitary confinement for a few days at the worst. Menial labor at best."

Oh. Well, that wasn't so bad. It would be an inconvenience, but Damon couldn't imagine Jun's family torturing him excessively. Then again, Damon hadn't met Jun's family, so who knows.

The biggest problem Damon could see with it was that they would probably separate Damon and Jun once they arrived, leaving Damon at the mercy of the pack. And Damon didn't think Jun would lie about what their relationship was, so if Elizabeth was right about the Harts being determined to marry Jun off with her, certain tensions might arise.

Damon halfheartedly considered seriously moving into the human city and forgetting about all of this. But when he thought about it, there was too much Damon had to do. He had to find Mark, which would be exponentially easier with the support of a new pack. And he had promised Elizabeth he would do whatever he could to get Jun's family to accept Damon as his mate instead. Plus, though Damon had the weird feeling Malachi's actions had little to do with him personally, he still didn't want Malachi to succeed with whatever it was. And he thought Jun was probably at the center of it, so if they were going to be together, Damon was going to get pulled in anyway. Might as well let it happen from a pack rather than somewhere more vulnerable.

Damon nodded. "If you're alright with it, then I think Venus is the closest pack. But if we're going to get there, it'll be a long journey. I don't have any money on me so we'll have to hoof it. It might take a day or two."

Jun pursed his lips. "No we won't."

Damon raised his eyebrows. Okay, ominous. What did that mean?

Almost two hours later, Damon figured it out. After Jun stepped away for a few minutes to make a phone call, a black car slowly rolled up to them. Don't ask Damon how they managed to find this exact location - and found their way into the field without crushing any of the soybeans or, somehow, getting a speck of dirt on the finish.

Damon was officially nervous - because whoever was in there was either one of Jun's friends from Venus pack - or a member of his family, and Damon wasn't mentally ready for that meeting. He didnt take his eyes off the car - but he did scrabble blindly behind him to grab Jun's hand tight. Jun squeezed back and Damon detected a hint of comforting pheromones coming from him.

The car came to a stop in front of them, and the window rolled down. The person inside appeared to be in their teens or early twenties, wearing a blue button down and gold rimmed glasses. He smiled.

"Long time no see big bro."