Entirely unsure whether the thought of calm was his own or someone else's, it still helped to actually work its meaning on him, even among the threat he was met with. His lip lowered, the animal sound extinguished. He blinked.

"Oh," he said, letting his thoughts catch up, "oh, god. I'm so sorry Stefan, I can't -"

Calm down. That was his thought this time.

"It's hard to concentrate. I haven't been able to hear so many minds at once for so long," and he was babbling in explanation, just because his sense of danger had slithered into a sense of mortification. Ever since last night, he was just sliding downhill, back into the uncontrollably aggressive newborn he used to be. Self-control. He could do that. He could concentrate now. Even if he could hear the babble of a hundred minds, Stefan's took priority through familiarity and sheer proximity.

Without conscious thought, he put a hand on Stefan's chest like he meant to push him off. Predators didn't like being pinned down naturally, but he wasn't thinking like a predator anymore. Or at least he was doing his best to ignore that part of his mind. He meant to, actually, just so that part of him went away, but he was immediately distracted by the beat in his ears, the pulse underneath his hand.

"You have a heartbeat." He said it like an accusation. "I thought I'd heard it before, but I didn't really think you had an actual, beating heart."