Let's Scrooge

by R. L. Caulder

  “You drive a hard bargain,” Cassian all but groans.

  “Obviously, fiancé.” I’m laying it on a little thick with the title, but as I expect, his eyes turn molten, and he looks seconds away from grabbing my waist, throwing me against the wall, and fucking me until I’m screaming his name.

  Instead of answering—read as, instead of giving in—he grabs my hand and presses a tender kiss to the ring glinting on my finger.

  “Soon, it’s going to be husband, not fiancé,” Cassian says with some of his familiar cockiness.

  “And soon, we’re going to be late if we don’t get a move on,” Mariabella all but shouts, grabbing my arm once more. She waves at Cassian dismissively before dragging me down the hall towards our classroom. My giant lover remains where he is, his eyes burning a hole into me as if I’m the only one he sees. Like I’m the only girl in this fucking world.

  “So,” Mariabella begins as we slide into our seats near the back of the lecture hall, “you think he’s gonna tell on you?”

  “And risk sexy time?” I snort, grabbing my notebook and pen out of my backpack. “No way in hell.”

  Chapter 2

  Elias

  I wipe my hands on the already dirty rag before turning towards Malcolm, the owner of the garage. He sits in his office, his bald head bent over a stack of papers.

  “I’m heading out for the night,” I say, knocking my knuckles on the door frame. He glances up, engine grease smeared across his forehead, before immediately turning back towards his paperwork, dismissing me.

  He’s a weird fucker—doesn’t really talk much—but he’s a damn good mechanic and teacher. I count my blessings every damn day I got this internship.

  And a beautiful fiancée to come home to.

  As I move to leave the garage, I feel a hand on my arm, and my entire body goes taut.

  “Elias,” Meghan, our secretary, coos, “are you leaving right now?”

  “Yes.” My voice is cruel, curt, but I honestly can’t take another damn minute of this girl. She doesn’t care that I’m engaged to the love of my existence. Every time we’re in the same room together, she flirts with me. Propositions. Touches me. And every time Peony comes to the garage to have lunch with me, Meghan says numerous innuendos that imply that I’m sleeping with her or some other shit.

  Fortunately, my relationship with Peony is strong enough to weather any storm, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t damn irritating and heartbreaking when a flicker of insecurity and unease flashes in my girl’s beautiful amber gaze.

  “I’m leaving too,” Meghan says now, still tugging on my arm. There’s no denying that she’s a pretty girl, with raven-black hair and a heart-shaped face, but she doesn’t hold a candle to my girl. And over time, she has become uglier and uglier with every degrading remark she makes about my poly relationship with Peony.

  Ignoring her, I continue out of the garage and into the parking lot. The wind batters at my skin, but my leather jacket does a surprisingly wonderful job at keeping away the cold. With the weather this bad, I’m unable to ride my motorcycle, so I slide into my favorite Jeep and turn the heat all of the way up.

  I’m just about to pull out of the parking lot, when Meghan knocks on my window. Because of fucking course.

  I briefly debate driving away without responding, but I’m not that big of a dick that I’ll leave a lady in the middle of a snow storm—even one as annoying as Meghan.

  “Yeah?” I ask gruffly when I roll down the window halfway.

  Her lower lip trembles. “Can you give me a ride? I had a friend drive me here this morning, but she’s not here yet…” She trails off, blinking her eyes at me rapidly.

  I just barely contain my groan.

  Drive away, I think to myself. Just drive away.

  But again, I’m not Lucas. I can be an asshole to almost everyone, but I can’t not help someone in need.

  “Fine,” I rumble out, and her eyes sparkle with pleasure. “But I’m picking my fiancée up from her school on the way home.”

  As I hoped, that pleasure is replaced by thinly veiled disgust. I hear what the Meghans of the world say about Peony. Slut. Whore. Gold-digger. And every damn time, I’m filled with an almost incandescent fury.

  Can’t they see she’s the most perfect, beautiful creature who has ever walked the planet? That she’s too pure and good for the likes of us?

  But instead, society sees what they want to see—namely, a woman in a committed relationship with four successful men—and they begin hurling insults her way. We try to protect her as much as we can, but it isn’t always feasible. We can’t be with her twenty-four-seven.

  Meghan slides into the passenger seat, despite me literally just telling her I’m planning to pick up my girl, and offers me what she probably thinks is a sultry smile.

  “It’s snowing really hard out there,” she states, placing her hands against my vents. I grunt out a nonsensical reply as she attempts to engage me in conversation. Not happening. I don’t talk more than I have to, finding words unnecessary to express myself. There’s only one person I ever truly desire to converse with, and she’s still a five-minute drive away.

  Meghan chatters about mundane things as I pull onto the road. I ignore her completely, focusing instead on the upcoming holidays. Christmas. Our second Christmas with Peony—and our first as an engaged…couple? Fivesome?

  I tap my fingers against the steering wheel as nerves dance through me.

  What do I get the girl who has given me everything I never knew I wanted?

  Cassian will no doubt write her a romantic song, while Lucas will purchase her an island or some shit. Karsyn will take her on some romantic getaway…

  I pull into the school’s parking lot, just as movement in my peripheral vision captures my attention.

  Meghan is…stripping? What the fuck?!

  She slides out of her wet coat and then grabs her sweater, dragging it over her head. Underneath, she wears nothing but a thin cami that clearly displays her nipples.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” I demand, wanting nothing more than to open the passenger door and throw her ass into the snow. Did she really think she could…what? Seduce me? Even knowing I’m engaged and picking up my girlfriend? Fucking bitch.

  “I just wanted to get out of my wet clothes.” Her voice is a purr as she unbuckles herself and leans across the middle console, her hand reaching my thigh. I scramble back as far as I can, anything to escape her evil clutches, but she’s fucking relentless. She leans forward low enough that one of her boobs slips out of her tank top.

  I look away so fast, I almost get whiplash.

  It’s not as if I feel any sexual attraction to Meghan, even with her tits on display, but I will never, ever disrespect Peony like that.

  When she continues to lean closer, I reach for the door handle and all but collapse into the snow.

  “Elias?” Peony. I’d recognize her sweet voice anywhere. “What are you doing?”

  “Peony!” Horror fills me as I spin towards my girl, only to find her gaze fixed on Meghan still leaning over my seat.

  Her hair disheveled.

  Her tits hanging out.

  Her eyes hooded with lust.

  “Peony!” I scramble to my feet, stumbling on a particularly slippery chunk of ice, and attempt to reach for her.

  Betrayal flashes in her gorgeous golden gaze as her eyes fill with tears. And then, without a word, she takes into a run.

  And with every step farther away she gets, my heart shatters into more and more pieces, until the organ is no longer functional. Until I’m just a husk of a man, desperate to make the girl that he loves understand.

  Chapter 3

  Peony

  The wind bites at my cheeks and arms as I trudge through the snow. It’s the type of cold that permeates the air and embeds itself into your very soul. I can feel it sluicing my blood around like those slushies you get at a gas station. Tiny icicles stab at my heart, causing the organ to weep red
.

  I’m bleeding, and I don’t know how to get it to stop.

  I wander aimlessly, feeling lost and confused. The logical part of my brain tries to tell me that I misunderstood, that the scene wasn’t what it looked like, that Elias would never in a million years cheat on or hurt me. But the other part…

  The other part continues to picture that girl’s bare breasts hanging out of her shirt and the wicked gleam in her eyes. The way she stared at Elias as if she owned him, as if she got exactly what she wanted, as if she was caught with her hand in the cookie jar, only instead of a reprimand, she got a reward.

  My tears begin to fall faster, freezing on my cheeks before they can even hit my lips and then being carried away in the wind. It’s so cold that the temperature is borderline blistering. Pain erupts in my hands, and I wish desperately that I’d remembered to wear my gloves. Where did I put them? My backpack? Did I even bring them to school with me today?

  I’m dimly aware of Elias screaming my name, calling me back, attempting to run after me, but I lose him in the snow storm. It’s fucking relentless, battering at my face and stomach until I feel as if I might topple over.

  I just need to…

  To what? Run away?

  I nearly scoff at that.

  Isn’t that what I always do when things get tough? Run? It’s what I did many years ago, when the bullying from my Devils got too intense for me to handle.

  My body begins to shake erratically as I make an abrupt right turn, trekking through knee-high snow while I trail my gloveless hand over the brick siding of the building. Wispy flakes catch in my hair and the corner of my lips. I wipe them away in irritation, moving in the direction of the football field and the athletic building, which houses the three gymnasiums, five weight rooms, and all of the exercise equipment.

  Somehow, my subconscious mind knew where I needed to go before my thoughts could catch up.

  The athletic building, where Karsyn will be finishing up practice in the weight room.

  Football season ended a few short weeks ago, but the team is already preparing for the upcoming bowl game. I’m unsure if Karsyn intends to play—there’s a chance he could become injured, which will fuck up his chances of going pro—but I also know my fiancé well enough to know that he’ll never let his team down.

  And I also know that he’ll never let me down.

  I need him more than I ever needed anyone. I need him to comfort me, to tell me that everything will be all right, that I misunderstood what I saw.

  As I walk, that idea solidifies.

  Yes, I misunderstood. Elias loves me. He wouldn’t hurt me.

  Why would he show up at my school to pick me up, if he planned to screw some other girl? It’s completely insane. And when I felt his emotions through the bond before he noticed me, there was no lust. No love. No affection. Just disgust and horror.

  Obviously, I misunderstood.

  I ran.

  Like I always do.

  Oh god.

  The more I rationalize it, the more I realize that I overreacted. Nothing about what I saw makes sense, which leads me to believe that I misunderstood the scene.

  I need to go back to Elias.

  He’s probably worried sick about me. I know that I would be if the situations were reversed.

  With that thought, I conjure a tiny ball of fire in my hand with the intention of warming myself up. But before the flame can grow, a particularly nasty gust of wind sends me stumbling backwards. My head careens off the side of the brick building, pain exploding behind my eyelids, before I slump to the ground.

  No. Please, no.

  But the plea falls on deaf ears as unconsciousness consumes me.

  Karsyn

  “Bye, guys,” I say to my teammates as I exit the front of the building, immediately becoming assaulted by frigid winter air.

  “You sure you don’t want to join us?” Brett, our tight end, waggles his eyebrows suggestively, and I roll my eyes at him.

  Instead of answering, I simply hold up my hand with my engagement ring proudly displayed. It glints in the evening sun, barely visible through the turbulent gray storm clouds promising even worse weather.

  Brett makes a face, not understanding why I would want to shackle myself to one girl when there are a “million fish in the sea.” His words. But there’s only one Peony, and I plan to cherish and worship my princess for the rest of her life.

  “Have fun!” I tell them, giving them a two-fingered salute. Technically, I could join them at the club, where they plan to pick up chicks and dance for hours. Peony wouldn’t care, and she trusts me to stay faithful. But I would much rather go home to my brothers and Peony.

  Most of my teammates and coaches know about the relationship I have with Peony, and over time, they have come to accept it. Sure, I still get a few smart-ass remarks, but those have gradually died down when I acquaint them with my fist. So if people have a problem with our unconventional relationship, they no longer speak their grievances out loud. I taught them what happens if they do.

  Still, my coach has made it clear to me that the public can’t be aware of the polyamorous nature of our relationship. He’s afraid that it’ll impact ticket sales if they know that their star quarterback is sharing his fiancée with his three best friends. Obviously, I told my coach to go fuck himself, since I have nothing to be ashamed of and nothing to hide. Going into this relationship, I told the guys that I refused to have Peony be our dirty little secret. Fucking refused. She’s worth more than that. Always has been and always will be. She’s worth…everything. I don’t know if I still have a soul, but if I do, it belongs solely to her.

  Coach and I settled on a compromise.

  I won’t air the truth of our relationship, but at the same time, I won’t hide it. The tabloids can guess all they fucking want, but we remain tight-lipped. Over time, the stories have faded away, and most people believe that Peony is just a good friend of mine.

  Yeah.

  A good friend of mine that I see naked every damn day.

  My lips curl into a smirk as I move towards the car. Cassian is already seated in the passenger seat, his headphones in his ears and his head nodding along to whatever song he’s listening to.

  I tiptoe on silent feet, my wet hair turning to ice in the snow, and creep to his window. When his head lowers to his phone, I pound my fist against his glass, breaking into raucous laughter when he squeals like a fucking girl and drops his phone. Immediately, the ground beneath me begins to shake as he loses control of his power—power Peony gifted us when she bound her soul to ours.

  “Fucking wimp,” I tease as I move around the front of the car and slide into the driver’s seat. Immediately, I sigh in relief at the warm wash of air that cocoons me. “Fuck, it’s cold.”

  “Who’s the wimp now?” Cassian shoots me a wink as he removes his headphones and unplugs them from his phone.

  “Still you, asshole.” I start to back out of my parking space when Cassian’s phone begins to ring. He swipes the green button to answer the call and reclines back in his seat, closing his eyes.

  “Hello?” he asks, only half-listening. Abruptly, he sits upright, his face turning ashen. I immediately slam on the brakes, anxiety percolating in my gut at his expression. Cassian’s the most carefree member of our group, so to see him so upset…

  “What happened?” I demand, ignoring the blare of a horn behind me when I stop in the middle of the road. I flip the person off, not bothering to even glance in his or her direction, before pulling the car back into my parking spot.

  Cassian puts the phone on speaker.

  “…can’t find her.” I recognize Elias’s raspy voice, his tone laced with fear and anxiety.

  “Can’t find whom?” I ask darkly, though I already know.

  “Peony.” He sounds agonized, and if I wasn’t so consumed by worry, I would ask if he was okay. “We got into a…fight,” he stumbles over that word but continues on before either of us can call him out on it, �
��and now I can’t find her.”

  “She’s alone? In this snow storm?” I try to keep my temper in check, but my anger is a living entity, burning white-hot inside of me and desperate to set the world aflame. That thought is only reaffirmed when in front of us, a street light bursts, scattering sparks across the snowy asphalt.

  “Fuck, I screwed up.” I imagine Elias would be raking his fingers through his brown hair right about now. His purple streak has long since grown out, but he still fiddles with that particular strand, as if the thought of it brings him comfort.

  “You’re fucking right you did!” Cassian bellows. He’s usually always calm and carefree, but when he gets angry…he fucking explodes. Detonates. It’s what makes him immensely dangerous. All of that power inside of him, and the slightest provocation can send it into a tailspin. Peony once joked that he’s a ticking time bomb, and I’m beginning to think that she was right.

  “We can’t argue amongst ourselves,” I interrupt, knowing that this fight could, and probably will, come to blows. I can feel an encroaching headache coming on, and my worry for Peony is beginning to make me feel light-headed. I tell myself that she’s all right, that she’s safe, that she's with Mariabella, bitching about whatever went down with Elias.

  But my heart…

  It knows the truth.

  I search for my bond with Peony, a tug in the center of my chest that always leads me to her. Unfortunately, it’s stronger on her side than on ours, but I can still sense her. The sensation is vague but there. And when I focus, I can tell that she’s…

  Unconscious? No, I must be reading it wrong. Perhaps she’s sleeping? Did she go home?

  What the fuck?

  “Has anyone talked to Lucas?” I ask curtly, my hands drumming against the steering wheel as fear shoots through my veins. Unlike the rest of us, Lucas trains daily to master his powers. If anyone could find Peony using our connection, it’s him.