Jun and Ian returned after about twenty minutes. Both had calm expressions and it didn't look, outwardly, like anything had happened. Except, when Jun came up next to Damon on the couch, he refused to sit in the empty seat to Damon's left even when Damon patted it invitingly, so obviously his ass had been caved in.

The first thing Jun noticed, however, was the addition of Mark to their little gathering. He looked at Damon with slightly raised eyebrows, which was Jun's version of shock. Damon quickly explained the situation. Meanwhile, Ian went over to Jun's father and the two began quietly talking, which, admittedly, made Damon a little nervous.

The whole point of this visit had been to get Damon inducted into the pack – and also for Jun's parents to meet Damon and decide if he was worthy enough for them to break Jun's engagement with Elizabeth. If they decided to say no – on either front, inducting him or breaking the engagement – Damon was essentially screwed, so he kept glancing at them from the corner of his eye.

"Anyway, Mark says he has some information about what's been happening since we left Ganymede pack," Damon said quietly. To the side, Mark nodded and scratched at the dried mud on his cheek. Jun glanced at him. Ever since Damon said that Jay was the one who found and retrieved Mark, Jun had started to look very concerned – but Damon couldn't tell if it was concern for his brother, who had possibly been annoyed to the point of murderous rage, or concern for Mark, who may become the object of that murderous rage.

"So, who was that Jay guy?" Mark asked. "Does he work here or something?"

"That was Jun's little brother," Damon said. He'd apparently forgotten to mention that detail. Mark's eyebrows immediately furrowed.

"Brother? Since when did you have a brother?" Mark now looked a bit panicked, maybe because he was only now realizing that he had just mud wrestled an Alpha's son.

"Since I was three," Jun said, deadpan. Damon watched as he tried to covertly rub his likely very sore ass. Poor boy.

Mark still didn't seem to believe this. "Weren't you an only child?"

"Only until I was three."

For some reason this conversation was making Mark look like he was on death row - pale, sweaty, and possibly nauseous. He was perched on the very edge of the couch to avoid getting mud on it, and Damon was starting to become concerned that Mark, in his distress, might just slip off and crack his head open on the coffee table. He'd escaped grievous injury many times over the past hour so fate might just try again and be successful this time.

"But...how?"

A beat. "My parents had sex again," Jun said, completely serious. He paused in thought and added, "And then again."

From across the room, Ian looked up from his conversation with Silas, silently grabbed a throw pillow, and lobbed it at his son's head. Jun dodged it without looking at him, so Damon could imagine he'd had practice dodging flying cushions. Meanwhile, Silas, hearing what Jun said, simply nodded very seriously in agreement. Like father, like son.

Jun...just how often did you have to be smacked as a child? Damon wondered.

"Anyway," Damon interjected, "you can stay with me and Jun for the time being."

Mark didn't seem to hear him, lost in whatever nightmare scenario he was conjuring in his head, but Jun frowned.

"No."

Damon looked up at him. His initial thought was that maybe Jun didn't want to share his space with an extra person – and honestly, it was well within his right to refuse to house Mark. It was his apartment after all. Jun also liked his privacy, so regardless of Mark being Damon's friend, he might say no on those grounds alone.

However, Jun then kindly clarified. "Your heat," he said simply. Of course – Damon should have thought of that. His lucid days were limited. Not only would Jun be more aggressive with another person in the house while his boyfriend was in heat, but Mark would also be extremely uncomfortable. It was a small apartment, and it was not soundproof.

Even while still lucid, the heat never entirely left you, so Damon might still want to be pounded into Jun's mattress. Although, oddly, Damon didn't really feel that low, preheat-like simmer that most alphas and omegas alike claimed to feel while in their lucid periods. He felt pretty much normal.

But that was beside the point. Where was Mark going to stay? Perhaps the first question to ask was whether he wanted to stay in Venus pack at all.

Damon was going to ask Mark, but Ian stood up and went over to them before he could.

"Alright, Damon. We've got everything started to make you a member of Venus pack. Your friend here can stay as a visitor for as long as he likes. We can set up a room for him here for now, at least while you're still in heat, if that's okay."

Mark slowly looked up at this. "Does...does Jay live here?"

Ian raised an eyebrow. "Yes. Why?"

"...I'm dead," Mark said to himself in the tiniest, defeated voice. He suddenly sat up straight and grabbed Damon by the shoulders, looking possessed. "It was nice knowing you. You'll always be my best friend in the whole world. I love you, dude. Maybe we'll meet again in the next life."

Jun, to the side, scrunched up his mouth and batted Mark's hands away from Damon like a pissy housecat.

Ian looked between the three of them like he was already regretting his decision and continued talking like none of... that had just happened. "About the engagement – " Both Jun and Damon's attention snapped to Ian at those words, " – clearly you're both serious about your relationship. Silas and I approve, but due to extenuating circumstances, the engagement is still intact for the time being. We're working on it."

Working on it. That was better than no. Way better than never in a million years. Damon didn't know what the extenuating circumstances were, but if Ian wasn't going to say what they were outright, then Damon wasn't going to pry.

It was almost too good to be true. After everything Elizabeth had said, Damon thought the Hart's were going to be a lot more difficult to convince. He'd been expecting a polite dismissal of his and Jun's feelings on the matter, not approval and a promise to work on dissolving the engagement.

Damon knew they were sincere about that, too. He wasn't always the best at reading people, but he could tell that Ian was genuine, and that he cared about their happiness.

But Damon still felt uneasy, for some reason. And as much as he wanted to disregard the 'extenuating circumstances' he had a weird feeling that whatever they were... they wouldn't be as easy to solve as Ian made it seem.