Azaki had never taken drugs in his life, but when he was in college he’d taken a psychology class where he had to write a paper on the effects of psychedelics on the brain. During his research, he’d listened to hours upon hours of testimony from people who had taken the various substances and most of that they’d described sounded to him like nonsense.

Now, finally, he understood what those people were desperately trying to explain.

It was as if another dimension had layered itself onto his current one. The world he now perceived was different, more complex. It had become a wonderland of new scents, all representing different things that he struggled to understand. He could smell emotions and the varying ways that they layered onto each other to create moods.

Though he could barely understand the sensory input on any real level, yet.

Within those emotions was something else, a lingering and unique stamp upon the smell that could barely be picked out. Azaki could sense that this was the smell of the owner of each said emotion and could distinguish between the reactions of both his doctor's faint beta pheromones and this strange alpha in the room.

Alpha.

Azaki could feel his soul shifting into coordination with that Alpha’s from the moment his eyes opened. His Alpha. Golden eyes had pierced into Azaki and seemed to rewrite his perception of the universe. His world had become something that was no longer centered around himself, but the two of them. A synchronization of souls that created a resounding chorus of wholeness in himself. His mind was starting to feel hazy and overwhelmed with the intensity of what he was experiencing.

All of his confusion and rapidfire emotions were compounded with his new bonds' comparable confusion. Azaki could feel the man desperately trying to wrap his head around everything that was happening to them both. The two of them were completely submerged in intense pheromones, struggling to surface from all the changes that their bodies were going through but unable to surface for air.

Luckily, Doctor Maynard Oulwitz was a beta. The pheromones that were released from Azaki and Malakai’s bonding were intense enough to bring the doctor to his knees, which likely meant that his dormant little Azaki was a Prime Omega on top of everything else. He would have to run a few tests once all of this was over, but it was looking like Azaki may have been more special than Maynard had ever noticed before.

Once the bond completed, Malakai was the only one who could sense the waves of pressure that followed. The intense explosion of pheromones from when before the bond was fully formed was starting to dissipate, which was a godsend because even the beta was getting dizzy from the pressure they were putting on him.

Malakai’s two Alpha guards were unconscious in the hallway. The Doctor couldn’t be sure if it was the intensity of the Azakai’s pheromones or them submitting to the powerful Malakai’s bonding scent, but they were down for the count. Maynard wouldn’t be surprised if every Alpha in the hospital that was not in one of the scentless wards was laid out like those two. This was going to be a mess to clean up and if he didn’t act quickly things would only get worse.

Azaki was going into heat and it was about to be overwhelming for Kai.

Malakai was still frozen in his chair, completely incapacitated by the potency of the bonding that was taking place. Maynard found himself again lucky with this turn of events, as it meant the alpha was too distracted to realize that Maynard had pulled out tranquilizers.

He would have to take out the Alpha first.

If worse came to worse, Maynard knew he’d be able to hold Azaki down long enough to tranq him. Once the boy was unconscious, he’d be able to arrange for some of the strongest suppressants he could find or at least get him moved into a scentless room and away from his newly bonded mate.

Azaki was going to have a rough couple of days.

There was no way that Maynard was going to let these two spend this heat together under these circumstances. There were many reasons for this, but most importantly, because there was no way that either of them were in a position to consent. The fact that Malakai wasn’t already in a full rut was a testament to his character and self control which made Maynard swell with pride at his cousin. Few Alphas wouldn’t have pounced on and marked their new bond by now.

'Malakai really is a good guy,' Maynard thought as he readied his needle by confirming that the tranquilizer inside was good to go. He’d gone with the extra strong ones else he’d likely never be able to keep the Alpha down for long. He looked the two over once more with a panicked calculation.

Did either of them even know what they were doing right now? Azaki was probably dealing with some kind of existential crisis. He’d read studies about dormants finally getting their ability to sense pheromones. Not only did it completely wreck their sense of perception for as long as weeks, they tended to dissociate regularly and focus too hard on the new sensation which caused issues until they were able to properly adjust.

He felt a wave of relief that this happened at a hospital under the watch of a beta doctor. This whole situation could’ve gone much differently if these two had ever met up randomly in public. He shuddered to think what would have happened if Azaki had gone to his awards dinner and met face to face with Kai in a room full of other Alphas. He wouldn’t want a lifetime bonded together to start with something unpleasant like that.

Even if he was a kid and a brat, Maynard didn’t doubt that the Alpha would be able to keep Azaki safe. They just needed to have a chance to properly like each other, and that wouldn’t happen if Kai put his hands on Azaki right now. He was pretty sure that even in this state, Kai knew as much himself.

With tranquilizer in hand, Maynard slowly and cautiously approached Kai. He was stone still in his seat staring at Azaki with absolute focus and squeezing his knees with his hands so tightly that that doctor was genuinely concerned. It looked as though the tips of Malakai's fingers were turning blue, Maynard wondered about the state of the Alpha’s leg once he let go.

‘Good boy, Kai,’ Maynard thought to himself with pride. He was physically holding himself back from jumping the omega even in a situation like this. Kai was showing amazing restraint, likely because he could understand that regardless of the look on his face, Azaki couldn’t possibly be very happy about all this.

Maynard never had the chance to stick Kai with the tranquilizer, because the Alpha dropped like a sack of bricks with no warning as he was closing in. The Beta just stood on the spot, dumbfounded for a moment with a needle in hand before rushing to knock Azaki out instead.

Finally the situation was kind of under control. Not that he wasn't going to still put 50ccs of fall asleep right into that Alpha’s arm.

Azaki was thrashing wildly on the bed, eyes hazed over, pupils dilated to the point that the doctor couldn’t even see his usual purple tint. He was completely and fully out of his mind right now. Not yet in a full heat but clearly overwhelmed by experiencing such intense pheromones and slowly inching toward it.

Azaki kicked and whined against his sheets and let out a wave of distressed pheromones that Maynard had to pray didn’t wake the Alpha. Luckily, the tranq kicked in right on time, the Alpha stayed asleep, and Azaki fell into slumber. Once everything was back under his control the doctor let out a huge sigh of relief.

Now the real challenge began.

This hospital was going to have to keep a Prime Omega who was having his first heat away from his true mate. And better yet, that mate was a Prime Alpha pack leader who happened to be one of the strongest Primes in the country. Pretty much, this was a disaster waiting to happen. Maynard frantically reached into Kai’s pocket and used his limp finger to unlock his phone before frantically flipping through his contacts.

When he stopped on Vic’s number, Maynard nodded his head softly. This was the best option. He just had to hope and pray that Vic was someone that Malakai trusted implicitly, because Malakai was about to be in a very delicate state for the next few days. The ringing stopped as Vic picked up the line on the other side. His voice was sickeningly sweet and playful, just like when he was a kid. Maynard grinned and hoped he could honestly trust the boy.

“Kaiiiii~ Don’t you think that ‘a no eye contact’ clause is a little vague? And what kind of contract am I to be drafting for some random dormant? I need more details than this you fucking idiot, why did I even bother tying myself to you? I must be a masochist.”

“Victor, its Maynard.”

“Oh! Hey Doc, how’s the boss? Did you finally snap and kill him?”

“If only,” The Doctor tried to chuckle at the joke but couldn’t find the heart to do so in such a serious situation.

“What’s wrong?” Vic’s jovial attitude dropped in a second and sharpened to a point.

“Kai just met his true mate.”

“The Dormant?” Vic took a breath.

“Yep. Kid’s going into a heat right now.”

“RIP Omega.” Vic shrugged, “He’ll be fine once Kai is done with him.”

“I tranqued them both.”

“Shit Doc!” Vic laughed through the line. “Why not just let nature take its course?”

“It was obvious that neither of them wanted to do anything rash. It’s my job as a doctor to protect them from making bad decisions.”

“Uh-huh.” Vic continued. “So now you need me to come help keep Kai out of a rut.”

“Pretty much.”

“Because you’re smart enough to know that if he truly wants to claim his omega today, you’re not going to be able to stop him.”

“Yep.”

“So why even bother?”

“I want them to have a chance to be properly happy.” Maynard half whispered into the phone, which shocked the hell out of Vic.

“Why wouldn’t they be happy? No Omega isn’t going to be happy about bagging a catch like Kai.”

“Azaki wouldn’t." Maynard was practically whining at Vic now. He didn’t really have time to explain the situation and hoped that Vic would just trust him. The line was quiet for a few seconds before Vic spoke again.

“Well, we can’t have his mate hate him.” Vic seemed stressed and defeated suddenly, “I’ll gather a few of our best to round him up. Gonna be a rough couple of days.”

“Yep.” The doctor agreed.