"What did I say, dude? I told you to back off already." Steve wastes no time in pushing the other, older alpha back; his brown eyes are sharper than they typically are, and his jaw is squared and set in place. If he had fur—all metaphorically, of course—then surely his hackles would've been raised with the fur sticking up at the end. He didn't need this today considering how frayed his nerves are already, how all of his emotions leak out of him in waves.

Needless to say this small section of the food court reeks of a mix of citrus, vanilla, and indignation.

It's not like Steve's afraid of confrontation; some would even say he's far from afraid, but never this aggressive or this uptight. Never this... possessive over you nor this protective.

He has to blame it on the rut, on this sudden stupid damn rut that seemed to blindside him before his shift at Scoops Ahoy. Usually, he uses some sort of suppressant in order to dampen the rutting period, perhaps even stop it completely, but that's only when he can plan for it.

He can't plan for this, though!

You probably hate him now. Probably think he's some weird alpha freak, but he's not! He swears it.

Sure, one could say it wouldn't be as weird if he had just bonded with you already. He can't though, not yet. Not until he knows for sure how you feel about him, not until he's sure that you'd be okay with it. It would kill him if you weren't.

So, he'll stick to this weird dynamic for now where he keeps you safe and takes over your shift.

"You okay?" He asks, nuzzling his face into the crook of your neck, arms wrapping around your waist to pull your back into his chest as he ignores the sounds of Robin playfully gagging in the background.