The first tremor didn't come from the ground. It came from the base of Lu Rin's spine: a slow, liquid heat that felt entirely foreign to his frozen heart.
Lu Rin sat in the back of the campus library's restricted section, surrounded by ancient texts on pheromone synthesis. He felt a bead of sweat roll down the nape of his neck, disappearing beneath the silver lotus clasp of his collar.
Impossible.
He had been on the same high-potency, triple-dose suppressant regimen for five years. His body was a fortress of Antarctic ice. He had successfully ignored his biology since the night he lost his first child.
But as he reached for a leather-bound volume on extraction methods, his fingers began to tremble. The scent of the library (old paper, dust, and ozone) suddenly felt suffocating. Beneath it all, he smelled the faint, terrifyingly sweet aroma of his own blue lotus blooming too early.
The ice was melting.
"Rin-rin?"
The voice was low, vibrating with an Alpha's instinctive alertness.
Gu Xun was three rows away, dutifully alphabetising the oversized folios that no one had touched in a decade. He was wearing the requested blue T-shirt: I AM THE REASON THIS FABRIC IS CLEAN.
He didn't move toward Lu Rin, but his head snapped up. His nostrils flared. The sweet resin of his scent suddenly spiked with an undertone of molten iron: the dominant Alpha scent he usually kept buried.
"Your scent," Gu Xun whispered, his voice thick. "It's... shifting."
Lu Rin gripped the edge of the mahogany table, his knuckles white. "Stay where you are, Freshman. Continue your work."
"Rin-rin, you're radiating heat," Gu Xun said, his eyes darkening to a predatory gold. He dropped the folio he was holding, the heavy thud echoing through the silent stacks. "The suppressants. Your body is rejecting the dosage. You've been on them too long."
"I am fine," Lu Rin hissed, though a sudden wave of dizziness forced him to close his eyes.
In his mind's eye, he saw the silver scar on his abdomen. It felt like it was burning. The suppressants were designed to keep an Omega's system in a state of artificial winter, but five years of constant suppression had turned his body into a pressure cooker. The S-class fertility he had used to create the twins was now fighting back, demanding its cycle.
Gu Xun took a step forward. Then another. He moved with the predatory grace of a wolf that had scented a wounded mate.
"I said stay," Lu Rin commanded, but his voice lacked the freezing edge of the Ice Lotus. It sounded breathy. Soft.
Gu Xun stopped two meters away. He was trembling, his fists clenched at his sides as he fought his own biology. His golden eyes were fixed on the pulse point at Lu Rin's throat.
"You're in early-stage pre-heat," Gu Xun groaned, the sound raw and pained. "The air in here is becoming toxic for a marked Alpha. If you don't take a neutraliser now, the entire library will be flooded."
"I have my emergency vials in the lab," Lu Rin panted, struggling to stand. His legs felt like lead.
Gu Xun moved before Lu Rin could protest. He didn't touch him (not yet), but he moved into Lu Rin's space, using his massive frame to shield the Omega from the view of any stray students in the aisles.
"I'll carry you," Gu Xun said, his voice a low, vibrating command that made Lu Rin's core shudder.
"Don't you dare," Lu Rin gasped, his pride the only thing keeping him upright. "If you touch me... I'll have you expelled. I'll have you banned from the country."
"Expel me later," Gu Xun growled. "Right now, you're going to faint, and I'm not letting you hit the floor. Not again. Never again."
Gu Xun reached out, his hand hovering inches from Lu Rin's waist. He was waiting for the final, cold rejection, but it didn't come. Instead, Lu Rin's eyes rolled back slightly, his knees buckling.
The Ice Lotus had finally cracked.
Gu Xun caught him, his large arms wrapping around Lu Rin with a strength that was both terrifying and incredibly steady. As he lifted the Omega, the scent of blue lotus and melting ice hit him full-force, a concentrated blast of S-class pheromones that nearly brought the Alpha to his knees.
Gu Xun buried his face in the crook of Lu Rin's neck for a single, desperate second, inhaling the scent of his world.
"I have you," Gu Xun whispered against the cool skin. "I'm the dog, Rin-rin. And the dog is taking you to safety."
He turned and strode toward the back exit, his stride long and purposeful, his heart hammering a rhythm of pure, obsessive protection.
The campus was quiet, but the air around them was beginning to hum with the electricity of an S-class heat.
Gu Xun carries a semi-conscious Lu Rin out of the library, the pre-heat pheromones already beginning to saturate the air. The long-suppressed biology of the Ice Lotus is finally exploding.
The "Library Heat Collapse" begins in earnest as they reach the rooftop greenhouse: the university's only dead zone.