by Aspen Grey
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.”
“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?
I guess I sort of understood the idea of him being a beta and not wanting to upset me as his omega, worry me with things like money, but at the same time, we both worked and if he needed me to pick up more shifts or find some more houses to clean, I would have done it for him.
But he wouldn’t want you to…
I couldn’t help but feel bad, but I was still running on the adrenaline rush I’d had after the attack. Seeing them both standing there naked…the blood…the sweat…the danger…
My heart was still racing and didn’t seem like it had any intent on slowing down. It felt like my calm, peaceful life had just been invaded by a tornado with fireworks spraying out of it and music blaring so loud my ears were ready to explode. To be honest, it seemed crazy to me that only a few hours ago we’d been worried about the rut we’d been in. That was nothing compared to the stakes they’d just been facing.
You’re still in a rut, though, Max, I told myself as I went back into the bathroom to scrub my hands again. I’d already done it about five times, but the blood just didn’t seem to want to come off, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t all Sawyer’s either, so I wanted it gone.
“Sons of bitches,” I growled as I scrubbed. “And now Sawyer’s involved…paying off our debts.”
The red suds and foam slid from my fingers and I watched as they circled the drain and eventually vanished down the pipe. I couldn’t help but wonder what we were going to do now and how we would ever repay Sawyer.
Ten thousand dollars…
I couldn’t get the thought out of my mind, but I knew why. It was to distract myself from the real issue: why did I want him to breed me so badly?
It had been undeniable. The desire was there, and it was stronger than anything I’d ever anticipated feeling. When I’d looked into his eyes, felt him inside of me, smelled his scent and felt the heat from his body and his sweat dripping onto my body, I just knew what I wanted—what I needed.
“But it’s impossible, Max,” I said to myself as I washed the remaining suds from my hands. They were finally clean. “You have a boyfriend, and just because you are mad at him right now, just because you are in a rut, doesn’t mean you can just leave him for some alpha!”
Even saying it out loud felt wrong, and I suddenly started to worry if Elijah and Sawyer had made their way home already and had somehow heard me.
Don’t be stupid…
Was it really that much of a long shot? There were “couples” out there that did that sort of thing, right? Threesomes, or swingers, or open relationships? I’d always thought an open relationship was just another way of saying one person allowed the other one to cheat on them, or they weren’t really in a relationship together at all. But maybe those were just bad examples? Maybe there was actually a real possibility that something unconventional could work?
“But I can’t ask him about it,” I said to myself, quieter this time. “That wouldn’t be right. No—he has to bring it up.”
I slumped down on the couch, my head reeling, and focused on my breathing. As I closed my eyes, I tried to will my heartbeat down, but it didn’t seem to want to listen. There was simply too much on my mind, and Sawyer’s scent was still everywhere inside the apartment.
It seemed to hang in the air like a set of arms constantly embracing me with a power and weight to them that I wasn’t used to. Sawyer’s alphaness was undeniable, and as
I took a deep breath, I really started to wonder if a three-way relationship could work.
“Well, I guess there’s an alpha, an omega and a beta,” I mused quietly, my eyes still closed as Sawyer’s scent waltzed around my nostrils. “Seems kind of perfect, right?”
We’d never even tried getting pregnant—Elijah and me. But the desire just came out when Sawyer was inside of me. His control, determination and lust. He was also obviously successful, smart and capable. There was no denying the spark between us, but I just wasn’t sure how something like that would work, and definitely didn’t know how to bring something like that up to Elijah.
As I sat there, I felt something happening inside of me that I hadn’t even thought about being possible in years. A small orb of something warm and beautiful was beginning to form, to grow and swell within me, pushing its heat and light out through my limbs like a furnace roaring hot against the winter’s chill.
And it was then I knew that even if I didn’t know how to bring it up to my boyfriend, I had to. I no longer had a choice. But then again, did I ever?
Chapter Sixteen
Elijah
As we drove, I actually wasn’t thinking of the ten thousand dollars in my hand, courtesy of Sawyer Reynolds; I was thinking of what I’d just told him and how I thought it might work.
Do you want it?
That’s the question he’d asked me, and at first, I hadn’t really known what to say. But I thought about it, looked into his eyes and came to a conclusion.
“I do,” I told him. It felt strange to say, but I knew if I didn’t say it I would regret it. Like it or not, Max and I were in a rut, and I didn’t see one wild threesome getting us out of it. We needed something more. Our relationship lacked balance, and unlike most scales that leveled out with equal weight on both side, we needed something in the middle—an anchor or a compass to keep us straight, to light our fire, stoke our engines and keep us moving. Without that, we’d sink, and I couldn’t let that happen. Not with Max.
