Three years earlier

On this beautiful day, Alec Edwards contemplated killing himself.

Dressed in head-to-toe black, he fried under the afternoon sun, his boots crushing the emerald grass below, his fingernails digging into his arms when he folded them over his chest. The line to the hot dogs and burgers had barely moved since he joined the hungry masses. And as things were looking, he’d probably die of starvation.

Beside him, his half-brother, Andrew, leaned in and whispered, “Stop looking so murderous. Remember, these people are my neighbors. Don’t embarrass me.”

“Sorry, Drew,” Alec grumbled.

“And smile,” Drew gritted past a fake smile.

Alec didn’t point out no one was paying them any heed. Drew wasn’t the star here—the yummy-smelling food was. Most of the people hanging around chatted cheerfully with their friends and family. It wasn’t lost on Alec that a lot of the men were bearded and donning leather. Some of the women also wore leather jackets.

Squinting at the patches on one of the leather vests, Alec murmured, “The Strix MC.” So, they were amidst bikers…

Drew noticed, too. Alec was a bit pleased he’d caught on first; amused when Drew hissed, “They’re bikers.” He might as well have cried out “criminals!” His tone was a mixture of astonishment, fear and disgust. He had a talent for that, lowering everyone else to the level of cockroaches.

“Come on, move,” Drew said, gripping his arm and tugging him along. The line had moved up, and Alec’s half-brother was sweating bullets. “The sooner we grab our food and drink, the quicker we leave,” he whispered, his eyes darting about as if worried one of the bikers would pull a shank on him.

Now who was embarrassing whom?

But Alec allowed Drew’s flagrant ignorance to go unchecked. He didn’t have the energy to argue with him. The hot sun, the noise and energy in the park drained Alec. Must be the side effect of having spent seventeen years on his lonesome, an only child cooped up in luxurious temporary homes all over the world with a former supermodel mother.

Pulling out his phone, Alec glanced up and regretted it. The sun’s white rays were relentless. He had to angle for shade before browsing through his social media apps.

“Alec,” Drew called, sharp censure in his tone. The line had caught up to them and they were nearly at the front.

“Hot dogs?” the guy at the first grill smiled, a slow, sultry curl of his full lips as his eyes dragged over Alec, intensifying his appreciative gaze. He all but ignored Drew, handing over a vegetarian hot dog when Alec’s half-brother asked for it. “And you? Veggie as well?”

“Um, no.” Alec blamed the heat from the grill, but he had to be blushing like crazy, his face on fire from the attention.

“You sure you don’t want anything?” The guy winked, his long, golden brown braid swinging back as he flipped the hot dogs. “I’ve got plenty here.”

“I’m sure,” Alec squeaked, shying from the flirting. Were they even talking about the hot dogs anymore? He stepped out of the line into the other one for burgers, stumbling in before a bearded, leather-clad biker who had been patiently waiting his turn for the hamburgers on the grill over.

This grill was being monitored by an aproned, dark-skinned, hulking giant of a man. Muscled arms inked with intricate sleeves of ghastly black dragons and at least one topless girl, he had his back facing Alec, but he turned when the biker Alec had cut off in line barked, “Hey!”

With his dark hair shaved short, his doubly pierced nostrils and bright blue eyes as startling as the snaking dragon curled around his veiny, thick neck, he froze Alec with a narrowed stare.

“Back of the line,” the biker behind him snarled, spittle flying onto the side of Alec’s face. He grabbed at Alec, squeezing his arm in his bone-crushing, meaty grip, and tugged at him until he lost his balance.

Squawking, white-hot pain stabbed Alex’s ankle as he landed on the grass. Jeering laughter rose up in waves around him. Honestly, he had no clue which hurt more: his ankle or the humiliation of the tumble. In the end, he decided it was the pain. It lanced up from his ankle, seizing his leg muscles and forcing him to grit his teeth. Crying out wasn’t an option. It would only fuel the fire of this bully of a biker.

Alec crabbed back, far from the reach of the bullying biker’s shitkickers. The boots looked ready to stomp on his face…until a powerful arm scooped him up off the floor.

The silent giant leveled Alec on his feet.

Alec yelped, hobbling to the side, all his weight falling onto his left foot. His right ankle throbbed and his whole leg tensed from the discomfort. Clinging to the support offered, Alec peered up at the man keeping him off the floor, his neck stretching, his head falling back to close the height difference.

He had to be six-foot-six. A verifiable giant of an alpha—because there was no doubt in Alec’s mind, or his very responsive body, that this man was all alpha. There was no reason for him to be helping Alec. No reason at all.

But when Alec tried to stand on his own, the alpha clutched him closer, his big, warm palm splayed over the small of his back, his large body holding Alec still by his side. Though he hadn’t spoken, his actions were loud enough: he wasn’t letting Alec go.

Confused, and horny as hell, Alec’s gaze shifted to the alpha’s mouth. Compressed into a thin line, it contradicted the hand pushing Alec closer still, holding him fast against the giant alpha. Alec licked his lips, curious as to how this tall, stoic man kissed. Not that he would know anything about quality, being as it would be his first kiss.

Alec gulped, wanting it very desperately. Seventeen and never been kissed hadn’t bothered him before. And he couldn’t very well ask him, could he? Alec surely would need help reaching his mouth. Maybe if he asked super nicely…

“Alec!” Drew’s piercing voice dispersed the fantasy and killed whatever spellbinding chemistry trapped Alec to the nameless alpha’s side. “Alec,” Drew gasped, eyes and mouth popping wide as he took in Alec’s position. The picture of perfect drama, his alpha older half-brother touched a hand to his chest, his horrified gaze taking in the audience of leather-clad bikers.

Alec curbed the urge to roll his eyes.

“What are you doing?” Drew flicked his gaze to the aproned alpha. Simpering then, he said, “I’m so sorry.” And then he grabbed at Alec’s wrist, or he tried to.

The alpha sucked in a sharp, whistling inhale, his nostrils fanning, the silver rings in his nose flashing, and his black glower froze Drew mid-action. Apparently he had that effect on everyone.

“What are you doing?” Drew hissed, dropping his hand from Alec and chuckling nervously for their audience.

“It’s my ankle.” Alec pointed at his right foot. “I sprained it, I think.”

Drew frowned. “How could you be so clumsy?”

Alec flinched. He would have let Drew get away with the snide reprimand, but the alpha growled. He rumbled, the aggressive warning directed at Drew. And Drew paled, the hand not holding his hot dog raised to ward off the giant beast of a man.

“What’s going on here?”

Saved by the cutie from the hot dog grill, Drew stammered, “H-He’s my little brother. And his ankle is twisted, we think. I’m Andrew Edwards, by the way.” And then he held out his hand, the cute beta shaking it briskly, his attention on the alpha.

Drew prattled on with his address, and a lengthy explanation about how they came upon the barbecue, but he stopped short when the beta moved closer to Alec and the alpha who refused to release him.

“JT, what’s up?” the beta asked.

Alec had his name now, gawking up at the alpha. JT wasn’t what he’d guess, but he could see it fitting this man. After all, what could it stand for?

As enigmatic as his name, the alpha squeezed him tighter, his large hand slipping to grasp Alec’s hipbone, his fingers squeezing possessively.

“I’ll take it from here,” Drew said primly, eyeing JT warily. “He really needs to be off that foot if he sprained it.”

“Yeah,” the cute beta mumbled. But he, too, looked at a loss as to what to do when the alpha kept his hold on Alec. Like a big kid who refused to let go of his new, shiny toy.

Alec flushed as he glimpsed the open, curious stares at them. Not too many happy, hungry people waiting their turn for the food that was now burning apparently.

JT jerked when the beta moved past him, cursing loudly. The burgers on the grill were charred, and inedible.

Tossing them, he turned and glared at JT. “Let the kid go.”

Alec burned hot all over, lust warring with mortification. He wasn’t a kid, he wanted to cry out. These men, all of them, were treating him like a child. It all bubbled up to the fore, tumbling out of his mouth.

“Let me go,” he said, pushing the alpha away.

JT released him with little resistance now.

Hobbling from the group as fast as he could, Alec reached the park’s exit slowly and surely when he risked a look back. No one was following him. Disappointment clashed with relief.

He startled from his conflicting emotions when his phone vibrated from his pocket. The distinct vibration told him the call was from his mother. Letting it go through to voicemail, Alec listened to her message almost immediately.

“Alec, honey,” she started, her voice higher than usual, high in pitch and panicky. “It’s your father. He’s…oh, sweetie, he’s dying.”