Damian & Jun, Episodes 13-16 (The Residency Boys #9)

Episode 13

Damian

“ T hat was him. That was the man at the resort with the pale hair. The one who got me out.” Jun’s words rang over and over in Damian’s head. He locked eyes with his wolfling.

Collin sat up, clumsily, looking to Richard. Jun steadied him and Richard nodded, giving him permission to speak. “So how does he know Ellisandre?” Collin asked softly. “The accent’s Russian.”

Damian sorted through the strands of what knowledge was at his disposal. The Russian part made sense. He’d already suspected Jun’s rescuer had been Russian. The motive had been suspect; the subsequent contact during Damian’s hijacked lunch had cleared up nothing.

émeric and Richard both frowned, exchanging looks.

“Ellisandre has a… history,” Richard said slowly, eyes on émeric.

“If Ellisandre is bringing that history here, then they’re breaking their silence,” émeric countered, voice level.

Collin pushed himself up on his knees. “Mikhail was afraid of Ellisandre. He was angry when he found out they here. I never asked why.”

Richard grimaced, looking at émeric again.

émeric shook his head and shrugged. “Mikhail isn’t the only one who has been afraid of Ellisandre over the years.”

“Ellisandre protects Linda,” Richard said quietly. “I’ve never asked for details, and they never offer them. I suspect they were something else before they became Linda’s shadow.”

Jun wrapped his arms around Collin, who leaned into him.

“I trust Ellisandre,” Richard said. “If they’ve chosen to bring someone here, then the reason is good.

” He extended his hand to Collin. Jun released him and Collin went to his Master immediately.

“Breathe, brave boy.” He held Collin against his chest. “No matter what is coming, Ellisandre would tell us if there was something we needed to do before tomorrow morning.” He kissed the top of Collin’s head.

“We still have most of today and tonight. Do you need to talk about this, pet?”

Collin paused with the unfocused look in his eye that came when he was thinking hard. Richard pulled that look out of him more than anyone else. Damian waited.

With a long breath out, Collin shook his head. “Thinking won’t change what’s coming. And I trust Ellisandre, too. But I need a moment.”

Richard praised him with a kiss on his temple. “émeric?”

émeric shook his head. “We should all take a moment. I had plans for tomorrow night. I think I’ll move them up to tonight. We don’t know anything new.”

Richard raised an eyebrow and looked down at Collin.

émeric nodded.

Richard inclined his head in agreement. He turned his eyes to Damian.

Damian clenched his jaw and released it.

It wasn’t just himself that he had to think of now.

The urge to think and consider and research, to throw himself into a frenzy of work until the tension went away, was there.

But he wasn’t on his own anymore. He needed whatever time he had with Jun. Needed it like air.

He turned to Jun. His wolfling was still sitting in the open cave with the blanket half wrapped around his naked hips.

“I’ll take a few minutes with Jun,” Damian heard himself saying, as if he were someone else. He ran a hand over his head and looked to Richard. How did one just say, “We might lose each other, so we should have each other while we still can?”

Richard understood, though, without Damian needing to speak. He gave Damian a nod. “Let’s all take a moment.”

émeric reached out, taking Collin from Richard. “Reset time,” he said, lifting off Collin’s kitten ears. “Then we’ll get back to where we were.” He gestured with Collin’s kitten ears. “I’ll give these back, boy, when I know we’ve gotten you back into headspace. You can talk freely until then.”

Collin smiled, grateful, but said nothing. He looked lost. Coming out of a period of deep submission in the face of an outside threat was never easy.

émeric checked in with Richard and Damian with a glance, then looked directly at Jun. “Do you need anything, little crime?”

Jun blinked, startled, then half smiled and shook his head. “Just thinking about doing big crimes.”

émeric smiled back. He turned to Collin and led him from the room.

Richard raised his phone, catching Damian’s eye. Damian nodded. He’d text when he and Jun had reset.

As soon as Richard had shut the door, Damian stripped off his pants and crawled into the cave beside Jun. “Talk, wolfling?”

Jun stayed sitting up, cross-legged. He twisted himself around so that they were facing each other and rested his shoulder on the side of the den. “I keep thinking Collin might get to meet his dad.”

Unexpected. Damian blinked, slowly. “You’re not concerned?”

“I am.” Jun balled the blanket up in his fist and picked at it with his thumbnail. “I knew he was out there, the guy with the pale hair. You told me he visited you. I think…” he took a deep breath, held it, and released it by degrees, “I think I knew I would see him again.”

“Are you afraid of him ?”

Jun laughed, looking away. “Yes. No. Why should I be? People are afraid of murderers, right? But I was the one doing the murdering that night. He just set the fire. If anything, we’re the same.”

“You’re not a murderer.”

Jun looked up, eyes dark and full of everything under the surface. “He was afraid—the entire time he was getting me out of that place—the drive. He shouldn’t have saved me. It’s hard to be afraid of someone who shouldn’t have saved you and did anyway.”

Silence hung between them.

Jun stared into space, fingers twisting the fibers of the blanket back and forth. “He’s not safe. And I trust that . Something drives him and it’s more than greed.”

Damian let the silence return, giving Jun’s thoughts room to live.

Eventually, they needed to move past this moment, but neither of them were going to be able to do that, not truly, until the moment had run its course.

Jun was tense, alert, aware of threats. He wasn’t giving any signals that comfort or touch were acceptable.

For now, he had to respect the fighter-mindset inside his love and admire it, not seek to smother it.

When it came time to fight, he could give this man his back and know he would fight just as hard as Damian himself.

Jun closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the side of the cave. “This feels like the time right before a big concert when there’s nothing left for you to do, everything remaining is for someone else, and you just have to wait.” He opened his eyes. “Are you worried?”

Damian nodded, then shrugged. “Something that was going to break loose, has. It was always coming. Nothing was stable, only grid-locked.”

Jun nodded.

“And it changes nothing.” Damian said. “Richard and I are still ready to hold them accountable. Painfully, if they choose to ignore the truth.”

Jun laughed and shook his head. “You shouldn’t.”

“Yes, we should.” Damian dared to take a few shuffles forward on his butt, sitting facing Jun so their knees almost touched.

“Because it’s right. Even if it wasn’t because you’re a piece of my heart, we should do it because of the moral imperative.

No one should get to ruin lives and steal for greed beyond their needs.

No citizenship in any nation is safer than the most fragile of their members.

You and I know this. We’re not just fighting for ourselves.

We’re fighting for Su-jin. We’re fighting for Mr. Su’s grandchildren.

For Mi Hi. For every other idol and trainee out there.

For every child unacknowledged. A justice system, a police system that would condemn you for their own benefit—they are all guilty of partaking of your sacrifice, of your plunder.

They don’t get to pretend they are not party to a crime just because they didn’t touch you with their own hands. ”

Tears pooled on Jun’s lash line. He lifted his hand and cupped his palm against Damian’s cheek. “How did you stay good?”

Damian laughed, a tear of his own running down his cheek. When had he started to cry? “I can’t forget what I am, wolfling. They’re the ones who pretend that if they don’t look, they’re safe.”

“They aren’t.” Jun’s eyes hardened. “And we’ll make them remember.”

Jun extended his arms, letting Damian take him down into the blankets that still smelled like both of them and Collin.

For a long time they lay in silence, skin to skin, hands wandering over each other, memorizing the shape of each other’s body.

Damian breathed Jun in, making him part of his soul.

Jun settled his chest against Damian’s. Then they lay still, their hearts and their breaths moving together.

“Let me have you?” Damian whispered a long time later.

Jun blinked slowly. He looked close to sleep. “You already do.”

Damian circled Jun’s wrists with his fingers, holding them together between their chests.

Jun’s mouth opened in a silent ‘oh’ of understand. He fluttered his eyes up towards Damian. Then smiled softly. “You did catch me.”

“ And tagged you.” Damian pulled lightly on the tag in Jun’s ear. Beautiful and blue .

Jun whimpered, his hips moving against Damian. “Alpha.”

Damian slid his hand around to Jun’s throat, careful of his arteries and windpipe, and pressed him down into the cushioned floor, kissing him. Jun’s body fell lax and open under him.

The things that did to him. Damian’s cock thickened. He thrust against Jun’s thigh, making his wolfling feel what his submission did to him.

Jun bucked up against Damian’s length. Damian dragged his hand down Jun’s body, keeping Jun’s head in place with a grip on his hair. He wrapped his hand around Jun’s cock and fingered his balls. Jun groaned, tossing his head back as much as Damian allowed, showing his throat.

Damian leaned in, biting and sucking at the vulnerable arch of Jun’s neck and squeezed his balls in his palm.

Jun’s legs stiffened and spread. He hissed into the pain, lying open, his arms loose.

“Mine. My prey. My wolfling.”

“Yours.” Jun whispered, his voice tight.

Jun