I’m the beta in our ABO trio. Everyone says our group will eventually turn into a couple plus a dog. They’re the couple, and I’m the dog. To avoid being the dog between them, I carry a small tube of inhibitor with me every day. Whoever loses control first gets stabbed.
But one day, after accidentally drinking milk laced with medication, both of them suddenly started biting my neck at the same time.
I was stunned.
I had only been guarding against them biting each other behind my back, forgetting they might both bite me together. So when they both bit my neck at the same time, who was I supposed to stab first?
I’m just an ordinary beta, but I’m best friends with a perfectly matched, top-tier alpha–omega pair.
Since childhood, people have said I’d definitely become the third wheel between Marcus Thompson and Oliver Hay.
Marcus is handsome. Oliver is beautiful. One alpha, one omega. With compatibility that high, they’re destined to be together.
Meanwhile, I’m just a plain-looking beta, bland as water, destined to become the single friend who disrupts the cute couple’s time together.
On the surface, I act cool about it, claiming I’d never be the type to interfere with my friends’ romance. But secretly, I’m grinding my teeth while ordering dozens of expensive AO suppressants overnight.
For years, I’ve carried two vials with me every day, watching them constantly. Anyone who dares flirt in front of me gets a shot.
But after they fully matured, things became uncontrollable.
They constantly entered heat or rut cycles in front of me, clinging to me desperately. At my young age, I felt like an exhausted father figure. I suspected they were doing it on purpose, but I had no proof.
Their compatibility was so high that their cycles constantly triggered each other. Before one heat ended, the other’s rut would start early.
I lived in constant fear that they’d mark each other in front of me, turning our pure trio into the classic couple-plus-dog situation.
So I tracked their cycles in a little notebook, separating them and hiding myself whenever their time approached.
But despite all my precautions, I still couldn’t prevent it.
That Monday, Oliver entered heat early, right in front of me.
His eyes were misty as he looked at me, cheeks flushed, softly calling, “Big brother… I feel so uncomfortable.”
My heart jumped. I looked around—there was no sign of Marcus.
So I relaxed.
When Oliver instinctively leaned toward my neck, I quickly gave him a suppressant shot, instantly clearing the daze from his eyes.
While the medicine was still working and Marcus wasn’t around, I hurriedly helped him back to his off-campus apartment.
I practically ran, supporting Oliver as if ghosts were chasing us.
But just before we left campus, I heard Marcus’s voice behind us.
“Where are you two going?”
I stopped helplessly.
“Oliver’s in heat. I’m taking him to his apartment.”
His dark eyes fixed on my arm supporting Oliver. He seemed to grind his teeth.
“You shouldn’t go alone. I’ll come with you.”
Seeing several alphas on the street eyeing us hungrily like vultures, I agreed.
Once inside Oliver’s apartment, he completely collapsed, whimpering like a small animal as he fainted in my arms, clutching the hem of my shirt tightly.
The air filled with intense omega pheromones.
I couldn’t smell them, but Marcus’s pained expression told me everything.
I planned to settle Oliver quickly and then leave with Marcus immediately.
But even unconscious, Oliver kept gripping my hand. Every time I tried to pull away, he furrowed his brow in pain.
Seeing that Oliver couldn’t bear to be separated from me, I looked at Marcus helplessly.
“He won’t let me go. Maybe you should head back first.”
His face darkened.
Then he smiled carelessly.
“No problem. Omegas are just fragile. They need company during heat. Why would I mind?”
Ten minutes later, he texted me.
Is he still clinging to you?
When are you coming back?
Should I pick you up?
I’m at the door.
Just as I reached for my phone, Oliver started struggling as if he were having a nightmare.
His loose clothes shifted, revealing a large patch of pale skin at his waist.
I glanced once, then jerked my eyes away like I’d been burned, stiffly pulling his shirt back down.
But he suddenly threw himself into my arms, as if someone were chasing him in his dreams. His eyes were tightly shut as he cried out.
After a while, his brow relaxed, and he hugged me tightly without letting go.
Afraid to disturb him, I let him lean softly against me to make him more comfortable.
I lay down with him, gently pressing his head to my chest.
Like someone dreaming of food, he smacked his lips and lightly bit down with his canine teeth.
My eyes widened instantly.
I pushed him away and nearly jumped up.
Oliver’s head hit the headboard with a clear thud.
I quickly repositioned his head on my stomach, awkwardly touching my chest where faint tooth marks remained.
It didn’t really hurt, but it felt strange.
I decided right then that I’d avoid Oliver during future heats.
By the time he finally calmed down completely, half an hour had passed.
When I picked up my phone, my chat with Marcus showed 99 messages.
You’ve been in there so long, still not coming out.
Taking care of him is your choice, but a beta and an omega alone during heat isn’t fair to this single dog.
Why won’t you let me in?
I can help take care of him too.
My rut is almost over.
Please don’t make me leave.
Are you trying to kill me?
The last message had been sent five minutes ago.
Nothing after that.
My scalp tingled as I remembered that Marcus’s rut wasn’t over yet.
This was when he’d be most emotionally unstable and possessive of omegas. That explained the barrage of messages.
Did he see me as a rival?
Our friendship felt like it was hanging by a thread.
I rushed outside and, sure enough, Marcus was still standing at the door.
The moment I opened it, the motion sensor light flashed on, illuminating his dark, hurt face.
When he saw me, his black eyes lit up like a big dog that had been locked outside.
But suddenly his expression turned stormy. He pointed at my disheveled collar.
“What happened here? Why is it swollen?”
His gaze was sharp enough to carve into that patch of skin.
Alright, I take back my earlier comparison.
He had just been promoted from dog to wolf.
I could feel his terrible mood. His eyes were fierce, like he might bite my neck at any second.
“I just bumped into something,” I said, instinctively pulling my collar closed, not mentioning that Oliver had bitten me.
Hearing my excuse made his face grow even darker.
I pulled open my collar and looked.
Yeah, there were clear tooth marks.
How could that possibly look like a bump?
Just as I was about to explain that it wasn’t what he thought, he let out a mocking laugh and walked away without looking back.
Marcus was angry.
But he still stayed in our ABO trio as if nothing had happened.
Following Oliver and me around, he barely spoke to me for two weeks.
My heart ached.
Could teenage friendship really lose to intense love?
I didn’t let Oliver bite me on purpose. How could Marcus be so possessive of Oliver?
I felt bitter.
Was our ABO trio really doomed to the classic couple-plus-dog fate?
But what happened next left me no time for sadness.
Marcus suddenly started sticking to Oliver so closely he was practically trying to shove him into a ditch.
The smile on Oliver’s face froze for a second. He tilted away, then peeked past Marcus’s shoulder and waved at me.
By instinct, I touched the inside of my jacket, where I still had one last suppressant vial hidden up my sleeve. The only one I’d managed to save.
Oliver looked concerned. “Sam, did the advisor call you in again?”
I rubbed my temple. “I’ve been stabbing the two of you with suppressants so often I got too used to it and almost injected the wrong person. Anyway, I’ve got one left. Either of you need it? Works great.”
The second I pulled it out, both of them visibly stiffened.
Of course they knew what it was. The infamous “stomach medicine” from the campus forum. The same mystery shot that had been ruining college couples’ love lives for over a month. People were so frustrated they’d banded together to check security footage and hunt down the culprit.
Marcus was still in the middle of a cold war with me, so he refused first. “I’m nowhere near my cycle. Give it to Oliver.”
I turned to Oliver. His thick lashes trembled. “I still have a lot at home. You should keep it for yourself.”
I sighed and tucked it away again. What a waste. I’d been hoping to clear out old stock. I’d even heard a new upgraded batch had just come out with a buy-fifty-get-fifty deal.
Since we’d run into each other anyway, the three of us headed back to the dorms together. Our university had a special mixed ABO housing building. Alphas on the first floor, betas in the middle floors, omegas at the top. By some cursed coincidence, all three of us lived there.
When I got back to my room on the fifth floor, my only roommate was packing to move out again. I said hi without much surprise. Our room had always housed weird betas. I was the campus suppressant demon. He liked rescuing stray cats and dogs and getting them fixed with his own two hands because, according to him, it relieved stress.
Every month he disappeared for a few days to do exactly that.
He had his backpack on and was halfway out the door when he hesitated, stepped back, and muttered, “…Try not to overdo it.”
I stared at him. “I’m single. Overdo what?”
He paused, then left in silence.
A few minutes after the door closed, someone knocked.
I was in the middle of changing and thought my roommate had forgotten something, so I hurriedly threw on a jacket and opened the door.
“Sam? You…”
Oliver’s voice stopped for half a beat. His throat bobbed.
He had that classic omega build—slender frame, narrow waist, delicate shoulders—but he was still only a little shorter than Marcus, and a full half head taller than me. When he lowered his eyes to look at me, it felt like he wasn’t looking at anything and had somehow already seen everything.
My mind went blank. Then I remembered I had absolutely nothing on under the jacket, and it was only barely long enough to cover me.
I slammed the door shut so fast it practically shook the frame and scrambled to put on pants.
This was humiliating. I just hoped he hadn’t seen anything.
When I opened the door again, Oliver didn’t glance down even once. He smiled like nothing had happened. “Sam, can I come in?”
I coughed softly and let him in.
He was wearing loose black silk pajamas, casual and expensive-looking, the neckline falling low enough to show his collarbones and a striking line of pale skin. When he crossed one leg over the other and sat on my tiny couch, his shirt slipped open just enough to reveal more of that cool white skin against the dark fabric.
My throat suddenly felt dry.
People on campus called Oliver the siren of the omega class. Plenty of alphas had fallen for him, including Marcus. I never thought that was strange. If anything, I thought he deserved every bit of the attention.
He’d been beautiful since we were kids. Back then, whenever he saw me, he’d call out in that soft little voice, “Big brother,” and instantly become more likable than my own arrogant alpha sibling back home. So I’d always been more patient with him than I ever was with Marcus.
I softened my tone. “What’s wrong? Did you need something?”
His toes curled slightly, like he was upset. “Sam… do you think Marcus has been looking at me differently lately?”
I blinked. “How could that be? Aren’t you two ridiculously close? I saw him practically glued to your side on the walk back.”
Oliver looked like he’d been choked on his own words. “No. I don’t feel that way.”
His lashes lowered. He still looked unsatisfied. “Could it be because last time I was in heat and felt awful, I couldn’t really… respond to him the way he wanted? Maybe he’s upset with me.”
I laughed. “No chance. He’d cut me off before he’d ever get mad at you. He likes you the most.”
That wasn’t baseless. I’d suspected Marcus liked Oliver ever since we finished high school.
After graduation, during the adulthood ceremony everyone romanticized online, Marcus’s mother discovered that her husband—an alpha—had been having a long-term affair. That night, everything in his family shattered. What followed was ugly and tragic, the kind of thing people whispered about for years. In the end, she turned herself in, and before she was gone, she left Marcus with a final sentence that haunted him: she wished he had never been born into any of it.
After arranging everything for her, Marcus locked himself in his room for a week without eating. We took turns trying to get him to open the door, but in the end, Oliver was the only one he let in.
That was when I knew Oliver’s place in Marcus’s heart wasn’t ordinary.
Even later, when Marcus finally came back out and I spent half a year sleeping beside him just because I was worried he couldn’t sleep alone, he still depended on Oliver more than he depended on me.
Then the alpha his father had been involved with showed up, talking about adoption, compensation, a new life, a new city, a future Marcus didn’t want. Marcus threw him out and spiraled all over again.
He curled up in the corner of his room, a tall alpha folded in on himself, pale and shaking, sweat soaking his forehead. I crouched down and held him, talking and talking and talking.
“Marcus, this isn’t your fault. You’re not your father. What he did has nothing to do with you. I know you’ll never become like that. And your mom… she loved you. She was just in pain. If she didn’t love you, she wouldn’t have left everything to you.”
He didn’t answer for a long time, but eventually I felt my shirt grow damp against my chest.
I kept rambling until the door creaked open and Oliver stepped inside. He gave me a reassuring look, like he was telling me to leave it to him. He didn’t say much. He just touched Marcus’s hair and released a little calming pheromone.
Marcus jerked like he’d been shocked, then practically leaped out of my arms, wiped his face, and stopped crying.
I felt wronged. “I spent all this time comforting you for nothing, and Oliver shows up and you’re magically cured?”
“I’m not,” Marcus muttered, not daring to look at me.
But that hadn’t happened just once or twice. Every time Marcus fell apart, I talked until my throat went dry and got nowhere. Oliver only had to appear and Marcus instantly improved. I thought that was just how trios worked.
Until college, when my roommate saw the dynamic and pointed out, with brutal clarity, that I wasn’t witnessing a sweet three-person friendship at all. I was being used as the emotional support animal in a flirtation game.
That realization came far too late. By then, I was already one of the props in their love story.
“Sam? Sam?”
A pale hand waved in front of my eyes.
I came back to myself and found Oliver leaning in close enough to steal my soul. A tiny tear mole at the corner of his eye made his already pretty face even more unfair. His light-colored eyes reflected me so clearly it almost felt intimate. I quietly leaned back to widen the distance.
He kept talking, but I stopped hearing the details. I suddenly understood a cruel truth. He looked like he was confiding his worries in me, but he was really showing off.
I’d been single so long I’d failed to see through them. I thought they had misunderstandings. In reality, they’d been spinning me around like a toy while flirting over my head.
I couldn’t keep doing this.
I had to get away from both of them.
After I walked Oliver back, I immediately submitted an application for an overseas exchange program. Thanks to my glorious reputation as the campus suppressant devil, the department approved it so quickly it felt like they wanted me gone that same night.
Once my friends found out, they insisted on throwing me a farewell party. After hesitating for a long time, I invited Marcus and Oliver too. There were too many mutual friends. They would have found out sooner or later anyway.
We booked a private room that weekend and ordered way too much food. Since I’m allergic to alcohol, I raised a glass of milk while everyone else drank.
Halfway through it, something felt wrong.
This milk tasted off. Like someone had added something to it.
Marcus and Oliver both changed expression the second they noticed my face.
“What’s wrong?”
“Are you not feeling well?”
I shook my head, already dizzy. My voice came out unsteady. “Someone put something in this. I feel really hot.”
Then the room spun, and I hit the floor.
The last thing I heard before blacking out was someone shouting, “There’s something in the milk!”
“What? An aphrodisiac?”
“What? Someone drugged the drinks? Don’t drink anything else!”
My fingers twitched weakly. I wanted to correct them. It wasn’t that kind of drug. It was alcohol. I was having a reaction. Somebody save me.
I couldn’t move, but I was still faintly conscious. I could feel Marcus and Oliver, both panicked, carrying me into a rest room. They’d clearly misunderstood too. They thought I’d actually been dosed with something else, and I could hear both of their breathing growing heavier.
I gasped unconsciously and tugged at my collar. The cool air hit the skin of my neck.
Their breathing got even rougher.
Then, for some reason, they started arguing.
“I’m an alpha. I can help him.”
“I’m an omega. I should be the one to comfort him.”
“Oliver, if you want to fight me over him, fine, but he’s drugged right now. There’s no time.”
“You still don’t get it? Sam is closer to me. He likes me more. I should do it.”
“You’re an omega. You don’t even know how to mark properly. Right now, I’m the only one who can help him.”
“It’s not like only an alpha can soothe this. An omega can calm him down too.”
My whole body felt miserable. My eyes wouldn’t open, but I heard every word.
They both wanted to sleep with me.
What?
Something exploded in my head. One memory after another flashed through my mind.
Had I misunderstood everything? Were those arguments in front of me never a couple flirting, but two rivals fighting? Were they never possessive of each other… but possessive of me?
Then what exactly had all my money on suppressants been for? Self-defense?
By instinct, I tried to reach into my pocket for my last vial, but my fingers wouldn’t move. The voices by my ear rose and fell. Somehow, they reached an agreement.
“I’ll try first. If it doesn’t work, then you.”
“Fine.”
I was lifted into Marcus’s arms, stripped of my jacket, and placed in the middle of a bed. My poor half-degenerated beta gland at the back of my neck was rubbed over and over by an impatient hand. My body was already burning from the alcohol reaction, and now it felt even hotter.
I rolled toward the jacket beside me because it was cooler, but they tossed it to the floor.
My final suppressant vial fell from the pocket with a small clack, rolled under the bed, and disappeared.
Then I felt a tongue brush the back of my neck. Marcus pulled back, confused. “That’s not his gland?”
Oliver sneered from beside the bed. “Aren’t alphas supposed to know how to mark by instinct? And you can’t even find the right place?”
Marcus’s eyes darkened. The next second, pain flared sharply at the back of my neck. After that came a strange pressure, almost like a syringe pushing something hot into me.
Once he was done, Marcus carefully wiped my neck with a wet tissue. They waited. But I was still flushed from the alcohol, still feverish, still miserable.
Marcus sounded disappointed. “Your turn.”
Oliver leaned down near my neck, then wrinkled his nose. “Your pheromones are so strong they’re giving me a headache.”
Marcus’s face darkened. “Then either do it or don’t. Sam doesn’t need you to mark him anyway.”
Oliver gave a huffy little laugh. “Of course I’m helping him.”
Then came that same injected sensation again. The pheromones of two top-tier AO types crashed inside me, colliding violently. My heart pounded faster and faster until everything finally went black.
When I woke up, the nausea from the alcohol reaction hadn’t even hit yet before the pain at the back of my neck did. It felt like somebody had gnawed on my poor useless beta gland twice.
I reached up and hissed through my teeth.
Marcus licked one canine like he suddenly didn’t know where to put his eyes. “Don’t touch it. It’s a little swollen.”
Oliver, ever considerate, leaned over and put a bandage on it for me.
I sat up. The blanket slid down, revealing bruised marks all over my body. And on my chest, especially, there was still a shameless bite mark from where Oliver had once nipped me before. Thinking about the absolute battlefield of the night before, I fell silent for a long moment.
Then I asked, very calmly, “Why is my neck swollen?”
The two of them looked at each other, then guiltily turned away. Nobody spoke. I touched the back of my neck again and, sure enough, found two clear bite marks.
I took a breath. “Which one of you bit me?”
Without missing a beat, they both pointed at each other. “He did.”
I smiled sweetly. “Well then, thank you so much to whichever one bit me. I feel fantastic now.”
Marcus lowered his gaze. “Actually, I was helping you last night. You drank the wrong thing and went into a false heat.”
Oliver immediately shot that down. “Nonsense. I stayed by Sam’s bedside all night, took care of him, helped him through it, cleaned him up—”
I laughed from pure anger. “What false heat? That milk had alcohol in it. Alcohol. Not an aphrodisiac. I was drunk. Drunk, you idiots. Do you understand that?”
The moment I exploded, both of them fell silent. After a while, Marcus pointed at Oliver. “Well… he bit you too.”
Oliver sold him out even faster. “He bit you first.”
The two of them stared each other down like they were fighting a quiet war.
Marcus said, “And you didn’t bite him?”
Oliver shot back, “I did, but not as hard as you. His chest was still bleeding a little this morning.”
I covered my face helplessly. “So what exactly are the three of us now?”
Marcus answered with terrifying calm. “You’ve been injecting us with suppressants all this time because you were afraid the two of us getting together would ruin the relationship between the three of us. So why don’t you just stay with me instead? Then there’s nothing between me and Oliver that could affect that.”
Oliver lost every trace of his usual refined sweetness and let out a mocking laugh. “Sam should be with me. We were together first. You’re the one who came later.”
My thoughts stalled.
That part was true. Oliver and I had known each other before Marcus ever joined us. Our families were neighbors. When we were little, all the other kids crowded around my alpha brother, but Oliver was the only omega who played with me. When Marcus showed up, I’d even thought he was trying to steal my only omega friend away.
Then both of them locked their eyes on me.
“Which one of us are you choosing?”
Marcus clearly knew he was at a disadvantage. He pressed his lips together and stepped back. “How about this? Two weeks with me, two weeks with him. The rest of the time is up to you.”
I went completely numb. A vein throbbed on my forehead. “How about no? Has it ever occurred to either of you that I never agreed to be with either of you?”
Oliver bit his lip lightly, eyes instantly turning wet. “Sam… don’t you want us to stay together forever?”
“No,” I said without thinking, too angry to soften it.
His pale eyes immediately filled with tears. Big hot drops landed on the back of my hand and made me shiver. Marcus stood beside us with his mouth set in a hard line, radiating such a low-pressure aura it felt like if I didn’t agree, he’d just stand there until the earth ended.
In the end, my head hurt too much, so I gave a delayed answer. “Let me think about it. We’ll talk after I come back from the exchange program.”
College gossip moves fast. A few months later, the campus forum had completely forgotten about a bland beta like me. Marcus and Oliver, on the other hand, were appearing in post after post. The underclassmen had started shipping them again.
Who gets me? Marcus and Oliver are literally heaven’s perfect match. One hot alpha, one gorgeous omega.
I heard Marcus keeps his distance from everyone except Oliver.
Oliver is the only one who can handle him lol.
Wasn’t there a beta guy always with them before? I used to ship him with Oliver.
That beta is old news. Marcus and Oliver are the real thing. I saw them at the store buying condoms yesterday. Photos attached.
My scrolling finger froze. I clicked the images.
It was definitely them. Just their backs, but unmistakable. Standing in front of a shelf, choosing condoms.
So while I’d been overseas… had they already progressed that far?
I opened our three-person group chat. The last conversation had been from the week before. I’d casually complained that the food here was terrible and said I missed snacks from home. They’d both replied with a perfunctory Got it, and then nothing else.
A strange feeling rose inside me. Like a tiny stone that had been hanging in the air for ages had finally dropped, sending ripples through my chest.
I became almost obsessive, digging through that post and others like it. And I found even more traces. The two of them grocery shopping together. Taking cooking classes together. Requesting leave to go on trips together.
I slowly let out a breath. So they really were together. That made sense. Alpha and omega belonged together. Even if they’d once been distracted by a beta childhood friend like me, eventually they’d return to the right track.
What I needed to do was simple. Don’t get in the way. Step back slowly. Wish them happiness.
I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the ugly feelings rising for no reason. Even if our trio became a couple plus a dog, so what? We were still friends. I would just become the longest-running passerby in their lives.
Maybe one day, when their kid got sick in the middle of the night, they’d remember they had a very close beta friend who’d become a doctor and call me to take a look.
At that point, I finally understood why every overbearing-alpha romance had that one beta doctor friend who showed up the second he was called. It wasn’t unrealistic at all. It was simply beta destiny.
After accepting the fate of our trio, I also started opening myself up to new relationships abroad. I met another beta I got along with really well. He wanted to take things further. And honestly, I thought we were a good match.
With him, I didn’t have to worry about alpha-omega differences. I didn’t have to cater to rut cycles or heat cycles. I didn’t have to spend every day anxious that I’d eventually be abandoned so they could choose each other.
The life was quiet, flat, uneventful. But it was peaceful. And slowly I came to a profound realization. Maybe alpha and omega were naturally drawn to each other. But beta and beta? That was true love.
He gave me some local snacks from his country, so I invited him over for dinner in return. I’m not an amazing cook, but Chinese people have an instinctive cooking buff in their blood. Anything I made still tasted better than the local food. Besides, after I moved here, Oliver had sent me a huge box of seasonings. Add a little of those, and everything turned out good.
The elevator doors opened. My beta friend and I stepped out talking and laughing—then both stopped cold.
Marcus and Oliver were standing shoulder to shoulder in front of my apartment. The hallway was narrow to begin with, and they’d piled so many shopping bags around themselves that there was barely room to stand. Some of the bags were balanced on top of their own feet.
The moment they saw me smiling beside another beta, both of them narrowed their eyes.
“Sam, who is he?” Marcus asked, his alpha voice openly hostile.
“Sam,” Oliver said, and his beautiful eyes filled with tears instantly, “don’t you want me anymore?”
I rushed forward and fumbled to take the bags from them. The dinner with my beta friend was obviously over. I apologized and told him I’d treat him another time.
The moment he saw Marcus and Oliver, his expression darkened. Before leaving, he still asked me unwillingly, “Sam… are these two just normal friends?”
Marcus and Oliver each took one of my arms, smiled politely, and answered in perfect unison, “No. I’m his boyfriend.”
My beta friend looked at me with a mix of suspicion and horror, then walked away in a daze.
Once he left, I hurried to unlock the door. I genuinely could not imagine how those two tall idiots had endured waiting in that tiny hallway for so long.
But the second the door opened, before I could even turn around, I was shoved against the wall by the entryway.
A tall body pressed over me, and Marcus’s voice came furious and wounded into my ear. “Sam, do you know how long we prepared to come surprise you? And you secretly started dating behind our backs? What’s so good about a beta?”
His grip on my shoulders actually hurt. My initial guilt evaporated instantly under that unreasonable accusation. I looked straight at him and laughed coldly.
“You have the nerve to say that to me? Weren’t you two secretly dating behind my back too? Those photos of you buying condoms have been all over the campus forum for ages. At this rate, by the time I get back next semester, maybe your baby will already be born.”
I shoved him away and looked at both of them in disappointment. “What’s wrong with beta? At least a beta doesn’t make me live in constant fear of being left behind the way the two of you do.”
Silence dropped into the room.
“We bought the condoms because…” Marcus started, then stopped.
Oliver, on the other hand, seemed to understand something immediately. His lips curved higher and higher. He pulled a small box from one of the bags, slipped it into my hand, and said in a soft, coaxing voice, “Then do you want to know which brand we bought, Sam? Take a look. See if there’s one you like. Of course, if you want kids, we don’t have to use them. But if that happens… you’d have to have the baby for me.”
“…That would violate beta physiology and probably several federal laws.”
I shoved the box back into his hands and refused to say another word.
Once the misunderstanding was cleared up, the two of them made themselves at home with shocking ease. They unpacked everything and put it away like they lived there. Then they tied on the ridiculous pink Hello Kitty aprons the supermarket had given them for free and marched into my kitchen.
They worked together smoothly and in no time made four dishes and a soup. Looking at the table, I realized it matched the photos from those cooking classes I’d seen on the forum.
That was when I understood why they’d been taking those classes together.
I looked down at the mountain of bags still on the floor. Most of them were snacks I’d casually said I missed in posts or in the group chat. A wave of guilt hit me so hard it almost drowned me.
Maybe I really had misunderstood them. Maybe the two of them had actually been trying all along, in their own insane way, to make our relationship work.
After dinner, a new problem appeared. Sleeping arrangements. My apartment only had one bedroom. I went in to think and realized I didn’t even have an extra blanket.
I was just about to go out and tell them to get a hotel when I walked straight into a firm chest. Oliver lowered his chin onto the top of my head and rubbed against me like a cat.
“It’s okay,” he murmured. “We can sleep together like when we were little. Didn’t you say you feel unsafe? If we stay close to you, you’ll feel better right away.”
Marcus silently stepped closer too.
One on each side, they wrapped their arms around me. The moment all three of us fell onto the bed together, the wooden frame let out a dry, alarming creak.
Then that little box from earlier got opened after all. They each chose their favorite type with the utmost seriousness.
That was when I realized something was terribly wrong. I tried to escape from one set of arms into the other, but it was already too late. They took turns pinning me down and demanding I answer the question again. Which one did I choose?
If I didn’t choose, they bit my neck.
If I did choose, they still bit my neck.
That night, I genuinely thought my neck was going to get chewed off. And for the first time in my life, I learned that it wasn’t only alphas who knew how to pin someone down. Omegas were very capable too.
From that point on, the two of them started flying out to visit me every week on rotation, claiming they were helping me feel safe and conveniently showing off their advantages so I could choose carefully.
But somehow, every single time they visited, they also somehow failed to book a hotel and had no choice but to stay at my place.
It didn’t take me long to realize they were doing it on purpose. Because every time one of them came, I woke up the next morning with a fresh bite mark on the back of my neck and my body reeking of either alpha or omega pheromones.
I had to practically bathe in scent neutralizer before leaving the house or the surrounding AO crowd would look at me strangely, just like my old classmates used to.
And then one day, I got careless and grabbed a jacket from my bedroom without deodorizing it first. A foreign alpha classmate I got along with sniffed once and then asked me in clumsy Chinese, “Sam… you have two boyfriends? One alpha, one omega?”
When I froze, he apparently imagined something entirely different, because he immediately gave me a huge thumbs up. “You are very talented at part-time job.”
Then he ran off excitedly to tell his friend, “Baby, I thought I was only looking for a Chinese tutor, but I found true love philosophy. Love is sharing, not possessing.”
I wanted to stop him and explain, but he was already gone and halfway into another topic. So I could only stand there in silence, feeling my soul leave my body.
I spent months seriously thinking about the relationship between the three of us and eventually realized I couldn’t choose one and cut off the other. I just couldn’t do it.
So after I returned home, I called Marcus and Oliver over and asked, awkwardly, whether the three of us could just… stay like this.
Marcus and Oliver looked at each other, and from the way they answered immediately, I could tell they had already anticipated this outcome.
They agreed on the spot.
I finally let out a long breath of relief. Good. The best thing for our trio was for it not to get tangled up in romance at all. That was ideal.
After that conversation, I started gathering up the suppressants I had left and lining them up neatly. Then I glanced at Marcus and Oliver, opened the deepest drawer in my desk, and shoved them all inside. I wasn’t planning to take them out again.
Thinking back on all the ridiculous things I’d done because I was obsessed with injecting those two, I smiled a little.
So an ABO trio didn’t have to end as a couple plus a dog after all.
No. Wait.
Why were they carrying out this so-called “keeping things the same” agreement in a way that looked nothing like keeping things the same?
I regretted putting the suppressants away.
No. Forget putting them away.
I should have stabbed both of those beasts dead with them from the start.