by Grey, Aspen
“Oh, he’s gonna pay all right,” one of them muttered to the others. “If not, he’s gonna get what’s coming for him.”
“I say we rough him up anyway!” one of the betas replied. “Make sure he knows who’s boss around here.”
“Hey, you don’t need to convince me!” the other alpha laughed.
Fuck, I thought as I looked at them as they made their way up to the apartment door. Don’t answer the door!
But my prayers were not answered. In fact, something much, much worse happened. Elijah opened the door and stepped outside.
“Oh, shit!” one of the betas laughed. “Look who it is, man!”
“What—what are you guys doing here?” Elijah snapped. I winced at his tone.
He’s gonna regret that…
“Did you forget you owe us?” one of the alphas asked, his voice torn with fake bravado. Carefully, without making a sound, I stripped out of my clothes and lay them carefully on the hood of my car. Shit was about to go down.
“G-guys,” Elijah stammered. “Of course I haven’t forgotten! I just need some time—”
“Oh, you can have time,” one of the alphas laughed. “But you can have this too!”
The alpha pulled back to swing, but I was already moving. I shifted, taking panther form and running my tongue across my fangs as they formed like daggers in my mouth. One of the betas turned as I leapt towards them. His face shifted into an expression of shock and horror, but it wasn’t him I was after.
Just as the alpha’s punch was about to connect with Elijah’s face, I slammed into his back with all my speed and power, almost snapping him in half upon impact.
“Ummmfff,” he groaned as he fell over and struck the wall of the apartment building like a bag of wet laundry.
“Son of a bitch!” the other alpha shouted before shifting. His shitty clothes snapped and tore around him, as did the other two betas in his crew.
“Elijah!” I shouted. The poor guy was in shock, but my voice sprang him out of his stupor and he quickly shifted, turning into an impressive coffee-colored panther with more muscle and physique than I’d anticipated.
One of the betas leapt at me, jaws aimed straight at my neck, but he was simply outclassed. I spun and slammed him in the jaw with my hips, deflecting him away like a foul ball. He hit hard and rolled away as the other two sprang at me.
I managed to dodge the beta’s attack, but the alpha’s teeth found my shoulder and clamped down. Flesh tore and blood spilled out as he bit. I howled and twisted away, doing my best to get him off me, but he had a good hold on me and as hard as I tried, I couldn’t break free. Luckily, Elijah had my back.
He swiped at the alpha with his claws, slicing him across the soft belly with an impressive blow. I was actually shocked that it didn’t disembowel the poor sucker right then and there.
And that did it.
My attacker’s jaws sprang open, releasing me as he howled in pain and tried to throw himself back and away from us, but I wasn’t about to let that happen. No, he’d tried to kill me and hurt Elijah, and I wasn’t letting that go.
I dove forward with lightning speed. My jaws found his neck and I clamped down with every bit of strength in my body. Something popped, probably his jugular vein, and blood poured into my mouth. He yelped again, but the wound was mortal and almost instantaneous. I dropped him to the ground and he hit like a lifeless corpse, which was close to what he was. As he lay there bleeding out, I spun around to face the rest of his mangy fucking crew.
I heard the door again and looked up as Max came racing outside. His eyes almost burst from his skull when he saw what was going on.
“Elijah!” he screamed.
No! I wanted to shout. The betas spun and looked at him, but I wasn’t giving them even the slightest chance of getting near him.
I drove my skull into one of them, breaking at least one of his ribs, and heard Elijah tackle the second one. The first alpha, who I’d thrown into the building earlier, was back on his feet, but moving slowly, obviously injured.
I leapt back, snarling, and put myself between them and Max, baring my teeth as Elijah took my side. I wanted them dead—all of them, but protecting Max was priority number one. If we kept fighting there was no telling whether or not I’d be able to keep them off of him, and all it would take was one single bite and he’d be gone.
I snarled again, as the blood from their fallen alpha dripped from my teeth and lips. They were all hurt, and glanced at each other, obviously trying to decide what to do. One of them shook his head slowly, and I nodded back with a deep growl. Slowly, they all began to back away.
I stayed next to Elijah as they retreated, shifted and got back in their car. As they sped off, the alpha jeered at us out the window.
“You watch your backs!” he shouted. I shifted back and threw him the bird.
“Always big talkers after they get their asses kicked,” Elijah smirked as he shifted beside me.
“Would have killed them all if Max hadn’t come outside,” I said quietly. Elijah nodded, and as he looked at me, I felt the tension between us vanish. We’d just shared something together and after seeing him in battle, my attraction for him had risen. No doubt the same had happened to him.
Maybe this could work…I thought as a slight smile formed on his lips. I looked back at Max, still stunned by what had gone on, and felt the bond strengthen between us—between all of us, and allowed myself to hope.
Just maybe…
Chapter Thirteen
Max
It just didn’t feel real, standing there and watching blood drip from Sawyer’s mouth as he and Elijah stood naked at the bottom of the steps. I was riding high on the fact that they’d fought off their attackers, but my mind was spinning with questions.
Who were they? Why were they here? What did they want? What would we do when they came back? I felt stunned, but when I saw the deep cuts and blood spilling from Sawyer’s shoulder, I snapped out of it.
“Oh, God!” I cried out, grabbing him by the other arm and pulled him inside. “Put your hand over it and keep pressure on it!”
“I’m okay,” he replied, but I could hear a weakness invading his strong voice.
“Bullshit you are,” I snarled back as I led him inside and straight into the bathroom. “Elijah, get some of the towels from the kitchen!”
“Got it!”
“Sit down, Sawyer,” I told him, quickly closing the lid to the toilet to form a makeshift chair for him. He sat and I snatched a bottle of hydrogen peroxide from the medicine chest. “This is going to sting.”
I squirted it all over the holes in his arm. He winced, but took the pain better than I’d expected.
Of course he did, I thought, smiling on the inside. He’s a fucking alpha!
Elijah raced into the room with a handful of dishtowels. I grabbed one of them and immediately wrapped it around Sawyer’s arm. Thankfully, the towel was long and I was able to go around it twice and pull it tight.
“Give me another one!” I said quickly. He did, and I wrapped it around his arm too, doubling up. “Shit! What the Hell happened out there?”
“That’s a good question,” Sawyer replied, his eyes on Elijah who had a hand on his head like a migraine was about to rip his brain out.
“Elijah?” I asked angrily as I wet another towel down and placed it on the back of Sawyer’s neck. His body heat was overwhelming. It was like sitting next to a bonfire. His gorgeous chest was rising up and down with his strong, deep breaths, and his entire physique was absolutely glistening with sweat. Despite my absolute terror and confusion, I couldn’t deny that seeing him like that had me turned on all over again.
“I—it’s complicated,” he stammered and I felt my heart sink.
“Oh, no…” I groaned. “What have you done?”
“Don’t shout at me like that!” he snapped, slamming a fist against the wall. I knew he wasn’t angry at me, but it still caught me off guard.
“Tell me!”
I shouted back. I was starting to lose my cool. Maybe it was the blood, or maybe it was just the sheer sight of what I’d stumbled upon out there, but I could feel myself on the verge of a freakout.
But then, I felt Sawyer’s hand on my lower back. He stroked me gently, his fingertips firm but gentle as if to say, “Give him a second.” I looked up and he nodded at me, almost imperceptibly, but it was enough. I took a deep breath and tried to focus. I wasn’t mad at Elijah for whatever it was that he’d done to get himself in trouble. I was scared out of my mind by what had happened, and that was coloring my mood.
All the blood and the look in the eyes of whoever those men were that had attacked him and Sawyer—it had me on edge and I was having a hard time processing.
I could have lost him! I thought. Suddenly our trouble, our rut and our nonsense, all of that felt miles away as the thought of having to go through the rest of my life without him took over. It was incredible how all it took was one traumatic event to put things into perspective.
“Okay…” I said slowly, taking another deep breath. “I’m all right now. But please, Elijah, tell me what that was all about.”
Elijah was leaning against the wall with his head down, as though lost in his own thoughts. I could tell he was nervous about whatever it was he had to say, so I kept quiet and let him gather himself. Finally, he looked up.
“I—things have been a little rough lately,” he said slowly. “I invested some of my money into a couple of tech start-ups and…well, it didn’t do well.”
“Are you telling me we’re broke?” I asked quickly.
“I borrowed some money,” he continued, the words heavy on his tongue. “And…I haven’t been able to pay them back.”
“Elijah!” I blurted out, getting to my feet. But I just stood there looking at him. I really had nothing else to say. It wasn’t what I’d been expecting to hear, and I wasn’t sure how to process it.
A little rough? Bad investments?
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked. Elijah just shook his head in shame.
“You were never supposed to know,” he replied softly. “I figured I’d just grind harder than before, earn the money back and it would be like nothing ever happened!”
“You could have come to me! I could have picked up more hours—!”
“I couldn’t let you do that!” he cried out as tears began to form in his eyes. “I’m supposed to handle stuff like that! I’m supposed to take care of you!”
I didn’t know what to say. There was still blood on my hands. Sawyer was still injured. Adrenaline was still coursing through my veins from what had happened, and I couldn’t stop thinking that whoever those men were, they were going to come back. What would we do then? What if they brought more with them?
“How much do you owe?” Sawyer asked, pulling me back to reality.
I hadn’t even thought of that…
“Don’t worry about it, Sawyer,” Elijah replied. “It’s not your problem.”
“Just answer the question, Elijah.” His voice was firm not but angry. For some reason he cared. Part of me was surprised, but at the same time, I’d felt something between us and wanted to believe that there was more to him than just the stud we’d invited home to spice up our relationship.
“I told you…”
“How much?” Sawyer repeated firmly. Elijah shook his head then muttered.
“Ten thousand.”
Ten thousand! That’s what I wanted to blurt out, but I kept my mouth shut. This situation was already tense, and something was going on between the two of them, and I knew that getting myself involved would just make things worse. Elijah was already embarrassed; I didn’t need to humiliate him further.
“I can cover that,” Sawyer said as though he was casually discussing the weather.
“No,” Elijah shook his head. “I’ll figure something out.”
“To Hell you will!” Sawyer snapped. “I will cover it, and then if you want to pay me back in the future, you can. But you’re not going to go on owing money to fuck sticks like that! Get it?”
Please get it! I thought as I looked at my boyfriend. His eyes moved back and forth with thought, but in the end, he looked at Sawyer and nodded.
“Good,” Sawyer replied. “Now, tell me about them.”
Chapter Fourteen
Sawyer
Typical, I thought after Elijah finished his story. At first, I’d been angry with him, but the more I thought about it, the more my heart went out to him.
He’d fallen for an investment in a tech start-up company that he’d learned about from one of the guys he’d done a job with. They were developing an app that helped coffee shops manage their orders, and had a proven track record as a software engineer, but the app had gone belly up and taken Elijah’s investment dollars with it.
Instead of telling his boyfriend, which he should have, Elijah had decided to handle it himself and had gone to some shady guys for a shady loan, thinking he’d be able to pay it back soon from picking up a few extra jobs. But the jobs just hadn’t come in fast enough, and he’d found himself in hot water. I guess he hadn’t expected the guys to be as tough as they were.
Well, he’ll never make that mistake again, I thought as I sat beside him in my car on the way to the office. ATMs wouldn’t let you take out that kind of cash, and I was pretty sure these “loan sharks” wouldn’t take a check either (not that I’d write them one and risk letting them learn my name). Luckily for Elijah, I kept a good chunk of change in a safe in my office just in case some shit went down. The boys at work thought I was silly, overcautious, but hey—you never know when it’s gonna rain, right?
“You think I’m stupid,” Elijah said sullenly from beside me. “Don’t you?”
“I don’t, Elijah,” I replied, and I meant it. The poor guy had fallen into a trap like many before him had done and many after would do. Hopefully this would be the last time for him though. “But it’s important we get you out of this mess. For you and for Max.”
“You like him, don’t you?” Elijah asked. His question caught me off guard. I wanted to reply, “of course!” but that would have been wrong. We were back in that awkward situation that none of really knew how to navigate yet, and I had to be careful with my words.
“I like both of you, Elijah,” is what I finally settled on. It felt right, but more importantly, it was true.
“Yeah, but you like him more.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” I replied.
“Well, what would you say?” he asked as we got closer to my office.
“You both turn me on unbelievably,” I told him. “But there’s something he can offer me that you can’t.”
“A child,” Elijah said, finishing the thought for me.
I nodded. “Exactly.”
“He wants you to breed him,” Elijah told me. “I know it.”
“And you?”
Elijah shook his head and sighed. “I don’t know what I want,” he admitted. “But he’s never wanted a child from me. Just another thing I can’t do for us…”
“It goes both ways, Elijah,” I told him as I pulled onto the block containing my office building. “I assume you’ve never had the urge to breed him either?”
Elijah looked at me, and I saw something like sadness in his eyes. “I thought I did once. But…”
“These things are complicated, Elijah,” I told him, putting a hand on his thigh. “You can’t blame yourself or Max, and it doesn’t mean that you don’t love each other. You’re just—”
“In a rut.”
“In a rut,” I nodded as we pulled up to the curb. I put the car in park, turned off the engine and looked over at the beta, beautiful but heartbreaking in his vulnerability, and tried to find the right words to speak to him.
“Listen, Elijah,” I started. “I—I don’t really know how to say this, but I understand what you are going through and I feel like—I feel like maybe you, Max and I have a unique situation here.”
&nbs
p; “Unique situation?” he replied. It was a question, but I could hear a hint of understanding underneath it, which gave me more confidence in broaching the subject with him.
“You picked me for a reason, right?” I asked him.
“Right…”
“And you find me attractive?”
To my surprise, the cute beta actually blushed. I squeezed his leg.
“Yes,” he replied finally.
“Well, good,” I smiled. “Because I find you both attractive. And I’ve been thinking—why can’t we all work?”
Elijah frowned slightly. “All work?”
“Yeah,” I continued. “Why can’t we all work out? As a couple, I mean? Well—not a couple—but like a couple, but with three?”
Elijah paused and I watched as he mulled over my proposition. I’d thought I’d be a little more nervous asking him something so unconventional, but it had actually come out a lot easier than I’d expected, which gave me even more confidence as I looked at him.
He opened his mouth to speak, then stopped, then opened it again. I could smell him, and the scent of Max was still on me. It was almost like he was there with us.
“Like…all three of us in one relationship?” Elijah replied. He knew what I was talking about, he was just hesitant. And that was fine. I understood. So I just kept my eyes on him, intense enough to let him know that I wasn’t kidding. “How—how would that work?”
“How does any relationship work?” I shrugged. “We all care for each other and are loyal to each other. We live together, and if you’re okay with it, I put a baby in Max’s belly.”
“A baby…” Elijah mused.
“We both want it,” I told him. “Max and I—”
“I know that,” Elijah interrupted.
“The only question is; do you want it?”
Chapter Fifteen
Max
Ten thousand dollars…I thought for what felt like the hundredth time as I sat on the couch waiting for Max and Elijah to get back. How could this happen, and why didn’t he tell me?