THUD THUD THUDTHUDTHUD! 

Rei rushed into the direction where his nose led him to, coming across a door that was slightly open and the smell of burning wood intensified. 

The Omega slammed the door opened, only to find–

That his brother was kneeling on the floor. Face flushed and pheromones flaring like flames; like soots drifting off a forest fire, exactly like how they smelt. Jian Yu’s face was red and his breath labored. He was struggling to breath as if his lungs weren’t pumping fast enough. 

Rei stiffened in shock at the unexpected scene. The loud bang seemed to startle him as the Beta whipped his head so fast and it actually took minutes for the struggling Beta to process who had actually come in. 

“Rei! My dear brother!” 

“W– what happened to you?!” Rei shrieked, he was beside Jian Yu in seconds, holding him steadily as the silverette seemed to sway unevenly. 

The silver-haired man’s knees wobbled, unable to even support his body when he tried to stand. “Just… Just a slight fever…” He paused, licking his lips. “I think…” He finished lamely. 

His body shook, trembling so hard that if you put a drum underneath him, he would make a perfect tremolo. After a few agonizing seconds, he finally spoke again. 

“Can… Can you take care of Z?” Jian Yu gulped down, uttering words was difficult when you have a numb tongue. “I really need to go, like… Right now…” 

His breaths were getting heavier and every word weighed like tons. Jian Yu tried taking deep breaths to calm himself, but none of it was working. 

He was hit with another wave of dizziness that made him squeeze his eyes shut, his face scrunched up as he shivered from the drastic change of temperature clashing against one another inside his body. 

“Z? Who the fuck is Z?” The ash brown-haired Omega frowned, jealousy burned inside him as he recalled the blond Alpha’s words from before. “You have a mate now?!” His grip on Jian Yu’s slender shoulder tightened as he shook the Beta. 

“D– Don’t shake…!” The silverette pushed the Omega with the little strength he had left in him. “Dizzy…” 

“Sorry,” Rei quickly stopped himself. He himself felt like he needed a breather. Now was not the time to let his emotions run over. He needed to think of a solution. 

Jian Yu shouldn’t have his heat. He wasn’t supposed to. The thought of it was enough to make Rei’s heart stop for a second. 

‘Has he…’

‘Is he becoming like me?’ 

Dread filled his entire body and his blood seemed to freeze over. 

‘Wrong. This is so wrong!’ 

Two pairs of rapid footsteps echoed and Rei wanted to close the door before the others could see but Clement had already beaten him to it. 

“What in the world is going on here?” She had her fingers pinching her nose as he let herself in, accompanied by Mika a few steps behind, he too, had covered his nose with his hands. 

Her sharp sapphire eyes landed on Jian Yu and was immediately alerted. “What? What happened to him?” She rushed over, her hands never leaving her nose. “What’s wrong with him?” 

She demanded and Rei despised himself for being submissive when her Alpha pheromones filled the air, especially when he stuttered. “I… I don’t… Know…!” 

Rei tried to compose himself before he repeated himself. “I don’t know, he was like this the moment I came in.” 

“Nghh… It’s cold… Hot…” The suffering Beta continued mumbling incoherently. He seemed to have lost all his strength to even prop himself up. He would have melted into a puddle if Rei let go of his hold on his brother. 

“Holy Heavens, what’s wrong with all of you Omegas today? You all stink.” Mika stumbled inside as well, this time, with a handkerchief held in front of his nose. However, his grumbling stopped short when his eyes landed on Jian Yu. “Wait a minute, I thought he was a beta…?”

Those sentences irked Rei so much that he snapped at the blond Alpha. “He IS a beta…!” 

“W–Whoa– chill out, man.” 

It actually made him wonder if he actually said that to convince the other guy or to convince himself to think so, however he thought it leant more towards the latter. 

His hold on his brother tightened even more when a protective feeling rushed over him. Jian Yu’s body shook under his touch as he whimpered, sweat drenched his body despite the cold weather. 

“Brother?” Rei tried. It made the Omega worry when his brother was suddenly not saying anything. The silverette couldn’t even lift his head up. His head was swaying alongside his body before it landed on Rei’s chest and he kept on whimpering. 

The ash brown-haired Omega gritted his teeth, biting his bottom lip as he contemplated. Should he use it? He had an inhibitor with him right now. Even so, he wasn’t sure if his brother was experiencing an actual heat or not. 

He indeed was showing the symptoms of it, yet the scent he was letting out– 

Was his original scent. 

And the Omega fucking missed this particular one. 

Would this scent return to Jian Yu if he let it be? 

Rei knew, he fully knew he couldn’t actually be thinking about his own selfish desire, but he just couldn’t help himself. 

“Zeke. Where the fuck is Zeke?” Clement growled without notice beside him, baring her fangs and startling the shit out of him, but that was enough to snap him out of his delirious thoughts. 

In just a few steps, she had Mika by his collar. “If I recall, his rut is just in a few days, am I right?” 

“Yes, he does, and what does it have to do with– Don’t tell me–!!” Mika was perturbed, not only from being Clement’s sudden target but also the whole situation. “You can’t be saying he triggered a heat, right? And a Beta? You can’t be serious.” 

Rei couldn’t really comprehend what the two Alpha’s over there were blabbering about, but his mind was working overtime when he heard the word ‘Zeke.’ 

It didn’t take long for him to put the two together. Z sounded like a nickname for the name Zeke, so did Jian Yu ask him to take care of Zeke? If so, for what reason? 

“Z is Zeke, right?” 

He couldn’t help but wanted to make sure.