Finn barely noticed the chaos in the room as he passed, nor the handful of nurses attending to the bloodied lump in the corner that had once been the foolish alpha he'd faced. 

But what did register as he approached the door, what paused him in his path with its presence, was the once-more boisterous bellow of his cousin's voice that sliced through the aching fog of instinct, if for only a mere moment. 

"When I was guessing what made you late this morning I literally would have never guessed it was crossing paths with your fated mate. Good fucking job, cousin. Go have fuuuuuun." 

And though Finn couldn't help the huff of humor that escaped him in response to his cousin's postering, all that truly mattered to him in that moment was the omega in his embrace, and returning him to safety as soon as possible.

So, he slipped from the room silently, not bothering to offer his cousin a response, or even a waving farewell, and began the long trek back to the ED, content with the weight of the omega in his arms. Satisfied completely with the way his presence soothed a hand over the bristling back of that snarling instinct, and set it to rest within his company. 

His mate, however, seemed displeased with his own arrangement, as the next thing Finn felt was the long, wet draw of a tongue along the scent gland at the juncture of his neck and shoulder that had that instinct yawning awake once more. A wracking shudder shook Finn as he froze mid-step, the slitted pupils of his golden gaze shrinking further, the gleaming shading darkening in time with the flaring presence of that growling voice. And though jostled by it all, his mate did not seem discouraged, repeating the action a second time and drawing a strained groan from deep within Finn's chest that rattled against his aching ribs. 

And, despite the suppressants muffling his senses with a metallic tang, Finn felt himself harden, stiffening in his scrub pants but blessedly pressing against his own arm, rather than his mate's rounded, tempting ass. Though he ached to tuck against the alluring muscles, for his cock to press and grind and throb, he kept his distance, pressed down against the pulsing hardness as if it would subdue it. 

He didn't want to make his mate uncomfortable, or scare him again, after all.

"Baby," he rasped, as the brush against his aching cock dizzied him, bracing the arm not supporting his omega's weight to the wall beside them. Hoping to somehow keep them upright, to silence that throbbing need, as his knees weakened at the third swipe of that wet, warm tongue against his skin. At the soft scrape of teeth that followed, somehow hardening him even further with a vertiginous flood. "I need you to stop."

"But your scent gets stronger when I do it," his mate protested with a whine, nibbling gently at Finn's heated skin as if he were unable to fight the urging of his instincts any better than Finn himself. 

"I know, baby," Finn groaned, cursing internally and forcing himself to push upright, shoving away from the wall only to thread his fingers through the messy spill of his omega's dark waves. As if the weight of his mate's skull filling his palm would somehow soothe that aching want. "I know. But this isn't the place, okay? When we're alone you can lick and bite all you want, I promise. But we can't do that in the middle of a public hallway, especially not one where I work, yeah?" 

His mate was quiet for a bit before letting out a grumble that Finn took as agreement, and instead nuzzling closer to the damp flesh once more. Finn took a deep, shuddering breath that did little to ease his aching, before adjusting himself with a harsh tug and continuing down the hall with his arm wrapped around his mate's back, ignoring the throbbing ache of his hardened cock with every step. 

Thankfully, blessedly, the door to his room was still open, and Finn only needed to shoulder it open a fraction wider before he could slip in and, with a few quick strides, gently detangle his whining mate from his embrace to deposit him carefully onto the waiting cot. 

The omega protested noisily, reaching for him with desperate hands as Finn tenderly cupped his cheek with one heated palm, the motion simultaneously somehow comforting and damning all at once. 

"It's okay, sweetheart," he crooned through that haze, letting his mate grasp at his scrubs if it would soothe him. "I'm not going anywh-"

"Kindly step away from my patient, Finley Byrne," a gratingly familiar voice cut him off with a snarled demand, and Finn's head snapped to the side quick enough to blur his vision and throb a dizzying ache in his temples. Only to find his older sister leaning against the doorway with her arms crossed and blonde brows arched. 

Instinct flared, cutting through rationality with a nearly audible severing and, despite being his sister, a warning growl rumbled in his chest at the sight of her. At the fact she not only intended to come between him and his mate, especially so soon after he had been threatened, so soon after that danger had been eliminated, but at the knowledge that his sister was just as much an alpha as he was. 

However, Siobhán merely met his growl with one of her own, canines flashing with a warning to match as she hissed, "I'm his doctor, jackass. Get out of my way so I can check his stitches and make sure he wasn't injured somewhere else during all of this bullshit. You know good and goddamn well you can't treat your own mate. Be glad I was already his doctor because, like it or not, you, once again, know good and goddamn well I am not a threat. So back off and let me do my job." 

And despite the fact that, logically somewhere buried deep inside him, Finn knew his sister was right, it didn't stop the body-wracking snarl that shook him in response as his instincts continued to steer him closer and closer to the damning cliff of irrationality.

"Fine," he spat after a beat, choosing to ignore his sister's honeyed eyes circling in exasperation behind her cat-eye spectacles, lest it shove him a fraction further. Rather, he knelt down before his mate, who had watched the sibling's exchange stiffly with his dark brows bent, and cupped the omega's cheeks in both hands. Tugging gently to draw those beautiful emerald eyes back his way, settled by the collision of their embrace. "I'll be just a few steps away, okay? If you need me, you tell me, alright? I'm not going anywhere, I promise. I'll be right here if you need me."

His mate bit his full lower lip, dark brows furrowing further and crumbling the planes of that beautiful face in a somehow adorably endearing display of hesitation. Finn had to bury the pang of desire that rose with the action, the all-consuming urge to close the scant inches separating them, and press his lips to his mate's, down deep in order to not fall victim to its coaxing. To be the one to take that plush lower lip between his teeth, to tug and nip and lick. To taste those lips, to see them-

He was abruptly, blessedly, pulled from his spiraling, achingly arousing thoughts when his mate offered a small nod against his palms and a softly murmured, "Okay."

And a breath of relief, of muffled, buried adoration, escaped him in response. 

"Good boy," Finn purred with a soft, curling smile, forcing himself to ignore the flush that burnt along the curve of his mate's cheeks, how alluring and tempting the shading was. Shoving down deep how much he ached to trace the coloration with the tips of his fingers, and feel the heat that burnt there smolder against the pads of his touch. 

Forced himself to pull away from his mate, even as it felt like flaying his own skin clean away from muscle and sinew and bone, and stand, tossing his sister a warning look that silently told her not to fuck this up. Ignored the petulant way she stuck her tongue out at him in response, and the snarling resistance of his growling instinct. 

But it was as Finn began to cross the room that it hit him, that first dizzying pang of warmth caressing along his belly like a burnish embrace. He staggered, heart stuttering with a throbbing ba-dump that had static shattering across the corners of his vision as a second pang followed, and he braced his hands to the counter along the wall, panting, as the realization bloomed. 

His suppressants were beginning to fade. 

"Is this your first heat?" Siobhán asked gently, her bedside manner far more tender than the one she offered her younger brother, unless he was sick himself, that was. 

A gap in personality Finn had always found exhaustingly amusing, even as it had ached within his chest as he had aged, wondering why the sister who had raised him only had affection and gentle words to offer in times of turmoil. 

Why she never turned to him with a tender touch unless fever or injury or illness had passed across his skin before her. 

A concern Finn distractedly convinced himself he had grown out of, as that growling urging rose once more. 

Finn couldn't help but chance glance towards the duo just in time to find his mate shifting awkwardly, hesitantly, before he shot Finn a quick, furtive glance, cheeks heating further. 

As he whispered so faintly the alpha wasn't entirely sure he had heard him, "Yes, ma'am." 

And Finn couldn't quite help the snarl that shook his chest in response to the words, the possessive, warning sound that echoed in the small room, at the knowledge that his mate was not only in heat, but in his first heat with another alpha nearby. It didn't matter in that moment that the alpha was his sister, that she was mated and claimed and so far from a threat some buried, more logically him part of himself found belatedly amusing, for logic had no place in the chaos of instinct. 

His nails scraped noisily against the countertop, echoing the sound of that instinct clanking within his chest, as his fists clenched and he panted through gritted teeth. Trying his goddamn hardest to ignore the urging whispering along his very bones.

Get her away. 

Protect him. 

Take him away. 

Claim him.

His instincts snarled, yanking at the leash that bound them, slamming against the confines of their cage, overwhelming him with a deluge of alpha instinct that flickered the slitted gold of his gaze, flaring it brighter as another, devastating growl began to build.