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Warmth floods Chan’s body and he stumbles, nearly crashing into a nearby wall. He isn’t sure what’s wrong with him. He’d been fine when he woke up that morning, he’d been fine during his workout with Changbin, had been fine until he’d gotten home and he’d seen …
“Channie-hyung?” A hand touches his arm, small and warm and Chan jerks away, eyes widening and breath coming in fast pants when he looks at Felix standing next to him. Felix stares back, eyes wide as his hand hovers in the air between them. “Are you okay?”
Chan wants to say yes, to apologize for his reaction, to wrap his arms around Felix and hold him tight. He sways forward, reaching out only to freeze when the scent fully hits him.
He’s always enjoyed Felix’s scent, like sunshine and sandy beaches with just a hint of sweetness. It’s always been a comfort to him, like coming home.
Yet now the scent hits him like a drug. It coils around him and sinks into his pores and he finds himself reaching for Felix. His hands grab Felix’s shoulders and he pulls him tight against his body, buries his face in the curve of his neck. Felix makes a strangled noise, hands coming up to press against Chan’s chest.
“Chan-hyung.” Felix’s voice is breathless and Chan’s hold tightens when he feels the hands press against his chest as if to push him away.
No, he won’t let him go. He can’t.
“Felix.” His voice doesn’t sound human to his own ears, but he can’t be concerned about it. All he can think about is the way Felix feels pressed against his body, of the scent filling his head.
He wants to taste Felix, wants to feel every inch of him.
Wants to bury his fangs deep into his flesh, leaving a mark that will never fade.
His gums burn and he opens his mouth, tongue darting out for a taste. Felix gasps and his fingers curl into the fabric of Chan’s shirt.
“Chris!”
Someone grabs his shoulders and he’s yanked backwards. He whirls to face them, a growl tearing through his throat as fangs burst from his gums. Changbin stands behind him, his own lips pulled back in a snarl.
“Get control of yourself,” he growls, but Chan can’t hear him over the roaring of his blood in his ears.
Alpha.
He snarls and surges forward, pushing Changbin against the wall and away from Felix. He needs to get Felix away, he needs to make sure Changbin can’t follow, he needs -
“Chris! Stop it!” Felix’s voice is like a whip crack and Chan glances over his shoulder. His head clears for a moment when he sees Felix, eyes wide and face so pale his freckles pop.
He looks scared.
Scared of Chan.
Horror crashes through him and Changbin grabs his wrists in the moment of distraction and spins them, pushing Chan away and putting himself between him and Felix.
Chan doesn’t like that.
The anger is hot and bright, burning away everything else as he snarls and steps forward, ready to rip Changbin’s head from his body, only to stop when someone steps in his way. His fuzzy brain briefly recognizes Hyunjin, before focusing back on Changbin. He sees Felix peering over his shoulder, standing too close.
“Changbin, move away from Felix,” Hyunjin says, not taking his eyes off Chan. Chan doesn’t want to hurt him, Hyunjin isn’t a threat, but when he tries to shift to get around him Hyunjin just mirrors his movements. He snaps his teeth in annoyance but Hyunjin doesn’t even flinch.
“Chan-hyung, look at me.” Chan doesn’t want to, he has to keep his eyes on Changbin. He needs to make sure Felix is safe. Although he does relax just slightly when he sees Changbin put some distance between him and Felix, still too close, but no longer touching.
“Chris.” Felix’s voice is small and Chan’s eyes dart to his face, his heart stuttering at what he sees.
Not fear, nor anger.
There’s concern, colored in the soft warmth of love.
No, not afraid of Chan, but afraid for him.
It’s like a punch to the gut and Chan freezes as his mind whirls, every part of him at war with itself.
“It’s okay,” Felix says, holding out a hand. Chan wants to grab the hand, wants to pull Felix against him. “Let Hyunjin help, yeah?”
He doesn’t want Hyunjin.
He wants Felix.
Yet it’s Hyunjin who steps into his space, Hyunjin who grabs his cheeks and forces their eyes to meet.
“Chan,” Hyunjin says, voice firm even as his fingers gently stroke his face. “We’re going to go somewhere okay?”
“Felix,” he says, or at least he tries to. The sounds that leave his mouth are more grunts and growls than an actual word.
“Felix will be okay. Jisung is on his way.”
Jisung.
No threat.
“I’m going to help you, okay? And then we can find Felix after, how does that sound?”
Chan is having difficulty focusing. He can still smell Felix, still see him hovering behind Hyunjin. He knows Changbin is still in the room and he fights the urge telling him to get rid of the rival alpha. He tries to focus on Hyunjin standing in front of him, but his vision turns fuzzy at the corners.
“Channie.” Hyunjin dips his head and nuzzles his cheek and his scent crashes through Chan like a wave. It cuts through the fog and in that moment of clarity Chan is horrified.
What is he doing?
He can’t fight Changbin.
He can’t claim Felix.
He’s not -
“It’s going to be okay.”
Hyunjin’s voice is low and soothing, his hands so gentle as they move across Chan’s face and down his neck. He feels the pressure of fingers squeezing his nape and he shakes his head, focusing his attention on Hyunjin.
“Help me,” he says, the words sounding more human than before.
“I will, I promise.”
He finds himself moving backwards as Hyunjin starts herding him towards the door. When he tries to look for Felix, Hyunjin just brings his gaze back to his. There’s a part of him that tells him to struggle, to break free and run to Felix.
Felix is his.
That part of him is loud and angry and Chan fights it. He grabs Hyunjin's wrists but doesn’t try to break free, instead he just takes a deep breath, blocks every scent but Hyunjin’s.
Hyunjin smiles and turns him once they get to the door, pushing him down the hall with a hand at the small of his back.
He doesn’t know where they’re going, although if he’d thought for a moment he would have figured it out easily. They’re still in the apartment, there’s only so many places Hyunjin can take him. He shouldn’t be surprised when he ends up in Hyunjin’s room, when he finds himself pushed down onto the edge of a bed.
The air is saturated with Hyunjin’s scent, it clings to everything, but beneath it lies another scent, one Chan recognizes well. It's the crackle and roar of a thunderstorm. The scent isn’t as fresh as Hyujin’s, but it’s soaked into the air all the same. It’s clear Changbin spends a lot of time in this room, and a small part of Chan’s brain wonders if something’s going on there, but it’s quickly drowned out by the roar of anger at the alpha’s scent.
He tries to rise to his feet, tries to get to the door and get away. He’s in another alpha’s territory, he needs to flee, or he needs to find the alpha and take it from them.
He doesn’t notice his fangs elongating again or Hyunjin shoving him back, barely registers the weight of hands on his shoulders. It’s the stinging pain in his cheek that finally cuts through the haze of instincts and he raises a shocked hand to the spot, blinking in surprise at Hyunjin. Hyunjin sighs and brushes the back of his hand over the stinging spot.
“Calm now?”
He’s shocked by the slap, but he supposes that was the point. As the rush of instincts fades he feels embarrassment and something akin to shame settle inside. He can’t believe the way he’s acting, he feels like a stranger to himself.
“Sorry,” he mutters, dropping his gaze.
Hyunjin sighs and shakes his head and Chan starts when he suddenly finds his lap full of the beta.
“I swear, you alphas are all the same.”
Alpha.
Chan wants to deny it. He’s not an alpha, he’s never been an alpha. Yet the instincts still screaming at him to hunt down Felix and claim his as his own prove otherwise.
Betas don’t feel the mating urge like that, or at least so he’s been told.
Betas aren’t possessive and territorial.
Betas don’t let their instincts consume them.
A finger flicks him in the forehead and he jumps, blinking owlishly at Hyunjin who stares back with a small smile.
“You can’t be that surprised,” Hyunjin says, featherlight fingers brushing over Chan’s cheeks, along his jaw. “You’ve always had alpha tendencies.” The fingers trail down Chan’s neck, hands sliding across his shoulders. “Honestly when we first met and you said you were a beta I didn’t fully believe you.”
Chan feels like he’s going to float away and he clings to the warm weight of Hyunjin like an anchor.
None of this feels real.
“Presenting late isn’t unheard of.”
He swallows thickly, runs his tongue along the fangs still filling his mouth. So big, far too big to belong to a beta.
“Hyunjin,” he says, because he doesn’t know what else to say. He feels like his entire world has been tilted on its axis. The truth he’s lived with for his entire life has turned out to be a lie. He almost forced a mating on Felix just because his instincts were screaming at him to do so.
He drops his head, pressing his face against Hyunjin’s chest, the steady beat of his heart a relaxing rhythm in his ears.
Hyunjin breathes a laugh and Chan feels his hands slide back up his neck to cradle his head.
“It’s okay.”
Is it?
Felix isn’t the only omega in their group. What if he reacts the same way to Jisung? What if he can never be in a room with any of the other alphas again? What if his instincts are stronger than he is?
He still feels them thrumming under his skin, telling him to toss Hyunjin away and search out the alpha whose scent he can’t escape, to hunt down Felix and lock him away so no one else can ever touch him.
He doesn’t realize he’s trembling until Hyunjin starts petting him, long slow strokes from his head and down his spine.
“Chan-hyung, it’s okay.”
Hyunjin’s scent grows stronger, wrapping around Chan like a blanket. He’s always liked Hyunjin’s scent, always found it to be so relaxing. It reminds him of walking through a park on a spring day, of the grass beneath his toes and the flowers on the wind.
“What -” He clears his throat when the word get stuck. “What do I do?”
Hyunjin hums, fingernails scraping against his scalp. “Well, first we get through today.” Chan finds his head tugged back gently until he can stare into Hyunjin’s eyes. There’s trust in them, and a soft warmth that makes something inside Chan unclench and melt.
“How?”
Hyunjin presses a soft kiss to Chan’s forehead. “That’s what I’m here for.”
Chan’s mouth drops open in surprise. “Are we …” He doesn’t finish the question but it only takes Hyunjin a second to realize what he’s asking.
“No you idiot!” He huffs and shakes his head, hands sliding down to press softly against Chan’s chest and push him back until he falls to the bed. “We’re just going to sit here until you calm down fully.”
He ducks his head, long hair tickling Chan’s neck as he brushes his nose along Chan’s jaw. It’s only then Chan realizes what he’s doing, what he’s been doing this entire time.
Before today Chan had done this himself, although he’d always felt like he hadn’t been very good at it. Betas were known to be grounding, their pheromones neutralized those of an alpha or omega. They couldn’t stop an omega’s heat, or an alpha’s rut, but they could calm it, make it easier to manage.
Chan let’s himself relax into the bed, his eyes drifting closed.
“Hey Hyunjin,” he says after a few minutes of silence. Hyunjin hums, the sound a vibration against Chan’s neck. “Are you and Changbin dating?”
When Hyunjin starts sputtering but doesn’t deny it Chan just laughs and holds him tighter, his mouth brushing over the top of Hyunjin’s head.
“Thanks for this,” he murmurs. He doesn’t feel entirely back to his old self yet, but he feels better, more balanced. He knows he’ll have to deal with the repercussions of the day, he’ll have to face the new truth of his life, but for now he just let’s himself melt into Hyunjin’s bed, letting the warmth of the body on top of him settle deep into his bones.
He’s on the edge of sleep when he hears Hyunjin’s murmured response.
“Anything for you, hyung.”