Luan watched Finn's back tremble as he bent over the counter, and fought the urge to go to him and offer comfort as Finn had done for him. But if Luan had learned anything in his life, it was that he needed to stay away from angry alphas, even if they were gentle and sweet and smelled so good-- an alpha's mood could sour faster than a summer storm's arrival. 

So Luan stayed where he was, dark brows furrowed, and watched as Finn grappled with himself, and Siobhán sighed before turning towards him. 

"You need to leave," she ordered, but not unkindly, propping her hands on her hips as she put herself between Luan and his shaking alpha, a display that had some whining, miserable part within him protesting vehemently. "Go take your suppressants, Finley. You were due for your next dose," her brown gaze flicked to the clock hanging above Luan's head, barely visible behind the glare of her glasses, "thirty-four minutes ago. So go redose and calm down." 

Finn's blond head whipped in their direction, the bun at the back of his head unraveling, hanging lopsided at his nape, and his slitted golden gaze somehow grew more feral, shining with inhumane light as he snarled Siobhán's way, his sharpened canines bared, flashing in the fluorescent lights in a display that had the burnish heat consuming Luan flare somehow hotter, somehow more addling. It dizzied him, spinning his head and darkening the corners of his vision as the woodsy, warm scent of his mate wafted around him, sharp and acrid with Finn's wrath. 

"I'm not fucking going anywhere," Finn growled, nails scraping against the counter anew as his irritation flared, and addled Luan ever more when his pheromones thickened in response. "As long as my mate is here, heated and in need, I am not leaving."

He spat the last word, as if it sickened him to even consider, and Luan faintly thought that it was so bizarrely at odds with the sweet, gentle alpha who had held him mere minutes earlier. 

And suddenly, the thought of his alpha's embrace, combined with the dizzying heft of the alpha's pissed, possessive pheromones had that heat turning to knives of agony and empty clenching, aching around nothing with such a vengeance that Luan crumpled under its weight. He could barely bind his arms around himself, curling in around the pain, before the cry burst from his lips. He whimpered, not understanding the fiery, aching emptiness that prompted his hips to sway, grinding against his own wrist, disgusting him with the uncontrollable chaos of his own desire. 

Finn froze the moment the cry had left his mate's lips, but the sight of Luan's rolling hips had him shuddering, lashes fluttering as another, possessive growl built. One he choked down as he shoved away from the counter, crossing the room in a few quick strides and shoving past his sister before dropping to his knees before the whimpering omega, a whine of his own rising to his lips as the display. 

One he swallowed down as he tenderly cupped Luan's burning cheek in hand, stroking his thumb across the feverish skin gently as he fit his other palm to his mate's trembling lower back. 

"I'm sorry, baby," Finn crooned softly, back to the sweet, gentle alpha Luan had come to know, though he barely had enough of himself to register the return through the conflagration consuming him, choking him with its burn. "I didn't mean to react that strongly. I'm not mad at you, I promise. It's going to be okay. C'mon, sweetheart. Take a deep breath for me."

Luan could barely part his lips at his alpha's soft command, but the first brush of the gentle, calming pheromones pouring off of Finn, flooding the room with his spicy, teaky warmth, sliced clean through that burnish haze in an instant. It severed easily through the fog that consumed him, and had Luan's fingers closing around the hand that held him, practically snatching the small scent gland held in the alpha's wrist toward his nose. 

The omega took a deep, shuddering breath, unable to stop the soft nip he gave the gland, sending the pheromones flaring stronger and more soothing, fluttering his gaze as his alpha inhaled sharply. 

Yet, it wasn't enough to fully saturate that heated ache, and another throbbing twinge had a whimper rising to Luan's lips. His hazy emerald eyes opened, searching the slit-pupiled, golden-shining gaze of his mate, mere inches away, and had to resist the agonizing urge to close the distance between them, to feel his mate's body against his own. 

So rather, Luan found himself admitting in a scant whisper he wasn't sure Finn could even hear, "I don't want to be here anymore. Take me home." 

Finn's gaze darkened, glimmering golden as he shuddered and a waft of his warm scent dizzied Luan once more. 

"Do you want me to call your family, sweetheart?" he asked gently, unknowing of the dread that infused the omega, terrifying him with the mere thought. But his mate continued before his spiraling could consume him entirely. "I don't think it's safe for me to take you anywhere right now, sweetheart."

Luan couldn't contain the panicked, frustrated noise that escaped him as he shook his head hard enough to rattle his teeth. His thin arms twined about his alpha's neck, tugging him closer as Luan finally fell victim to that heat's insisting urging, pressing their bodies flush from chest to Luan's hips tight against Finn's belly, choking down the whine that threatened with the realization. 

At how small and safe and perfect he felt pressed against his alpha's massive, warm body. 

So, instead, his lips brushed the curve of Finn's ear as he whispered, "Take me home with you." 

Finn's fingers trembled with a wracking shake against the small of Luan's back, the only evidence of the turmoil storming within him.

Yet, outwardly, what he said was, "Baby, I'm not sure-"

But his protest died on his lips, shriveled up and faded to dust upon his tongue, forgotten and unwanted, as Luan pressed somehow closer, his hardened cock trapped between their stomachs as the damp pooling within his trousers wet Finn's lower belly, and revealed to him exactly how far his mate's heat had progressed. The sweet, consuming scent of Luan's slick had the last dregs of Finn's control snapping with an audible, damning crack, severing the threads of his rationality as his arms came around his mate. Nearly unbidden, the alpha tugged his mate down into his lap, pulling his hips flush to the hardened length of his throbbing cock, growling softly as Luan whimpered, unable to control the rolling sway of his hips. 

"Yeah," Finn practically purred into Luan's ear, sharp teeth scraping the sensitive curve with surprising gentleness. "Let's go home, baby." 

And before his mate could respond, Finn was scooping up his fallen lab coat, where it had been forgotten on the cot, and draping it over Luan's head gently once more. He then surged to his feet, clutching Luan easily to his chest with one arm under his hips and the other tenderly cupping the back of his head, pressing his mate softly to the scent gland in the side of his neck, an adoring smile shaping his lips as Luan nuzzled closer and let out a soft, sleepy sort of noise. 

However, before Finn could begin toward the door, a familiar hold closed about his forearm with a bruising grip, nails digging deep into the skin, nearly drawing blood as Siobhán dragged him forcefully to a stop as if he were no more the unruly child she'd raised in their mother's place.

"Wait a moment, Finley," she said urgently, "I don't think this is a good ide-" 

Finn's head snapped down toward her, golden gaze fierce as they shone with violent light, nearly unseeing, as if he did not even recognize his own sister before him, lost to the irrational burn of instinct, the normally gentle, sweet, snarky man Siobhán had known so long buried beneath the weight of fate. And truly, she did not know what it was like to happen across the one divinely intended for her, as she'd found happiness in the utter mundane, but if a fated mate caused this sort of craze, of chaotic possession, perhaps that was for the best. 

"Let. Go," her brother snarled, tucking his mate closer to his chest, as if she were even capable of being a threat to either of them. And all she could do in response was stare up at her younger brother with her blonde brows pinched tight, brown gaze shimmering with concern behind those pointed lenses even as he growled softly at her ongoing presence.

"Okay," she relented gently, releasing his arm and taking a long stride backwards as Finn nuzzled his mate tenderly, as if he were assuring himself of Luan's safety within his embrace. "Okay, Finley. Do what you want. I don't think you can hear me right now anyway. But don't come to me if you regret this, Finley. I mean it. I won't fix this for you. I won't get you out of this one." 

But Finn didn't answer, didn't seem to even register his sister's words, as he strode off, merely offering her a wave over his shoulder before disappearing around the corner.

Leaving Siobhán in the doorway, sighing as she watched where her brother had gone, one hand cupped over her mouth. 

Hoping this wouldn't be a mistake, that her brother wouldn't regret this for the rest of his life. 

That he wouldn't end up destitute and miserable as their mother had been their entire lives.

Finn had never been so glad to see the fourth floor of the parking garage and the gray shine of his car in his life. He shifted Luan to one arm, rubbing his cheek tenderly against the top of his mate's covered head as he fished his keys from his pocket, and unlocked his car with a faint beep. 

"C'mon, baby," he crooned, gently prompting Luan to release his neck as he opened the door, and carefully lowered the whimpering omega into the seat. Luan released a panicked, almost agonized whine as they separated, and scrambled after Finn, as if he thought his mate were going to leave him there alone. 

He reached for Finn with desperate hands, who merely gently caught one hand, and pressed rapid kisses to the pads of Luan's fingers.

"I need you to be patient, baby," Finn murmured into Luan's skin, nuzzling softly to soothe the floundering omega as his pheromones wafted against his mate in a gentle fog that had him slumping almost sleepily into the seat. "We need to get home first, then I'm all yours, I promise. But I'm not gonna fuck you out here. We're gonna go home, where it's safe and private and I don't have to risk anyone seeing or craving what's mine, and then I'll do whatever you want, okay? Can you do that for me, sweetheart, can you be patient a little longer?" 

As he spoke, Finn's teeth scraped gently against the pads of Luan's fingers, where his lips had been mere moments prior, rising a shaking, whimpering moan to the omega's lips. 

Luan tucked his other hand between his thighs, hips rolling, desperately seeking friction to ease the terrible, heated ache within him, as he whispered, "Yes, alpha."

Finn shuddered, eyes threatening to roll back at those breathy words, barely able to choke down the growl that bubbled up his throat in response. So rather, he offered his mate a tense, tight smile and one last tender kiss to his palm.

"Good boy," Finn purred before gently releasing Luan's hand and leaning into the car to clasp the belt around his mate's writhing form. It took everything in him to pull away, shoving the desire, the murmured encouragement of his instinct, down deep as he closed the car door, even as those instincts screamed in protest despite it all. 

Instead, he thumped his forehead against the roof of his car with a muffled groan and palmed the aching bulge of his hardened cock, giving it a harsh squeeze as if it would ease the throbbing. 

As he hissed to himself, to that instinct, "We have to wait too. Home."

And shoved roughly away from the car, circling its hood in a handful of long strides before slipping into the driver's seat and risking a glance at his mate as he fastened his own belt.

A glance that nearly undid it all when he found Luan with both hands tucked between his thighs, half curled in on himself as his hips rolled and a desperate whimper escaped his lips. Finn gripped the steering wheel and swallowed down a growl with gritted teeth, pressing his forehead tight to the leather as a shuddering pang of heat flared, diffusing his body with a warm fog that addled his mind.

He trembled as it passed, forced himself to inhale a deep breath, and started the car with shaking hands before straightening. 

Finn reversed smoothly, followed the signs towards the exit despite the fact he knew the layout of the garage as well as his own home, waiting until a flare of sunlight met them, and the gate was yawning open, before reaching for his mate. 

He gently pried one hand from between Luan's thighs and twined their fingers together despite his mate's muffled protest. 

And, pressing a soft, tender kiss to the back of Luan's hand,  Finn said, with a smile, "Let's go home, sweetheart."