Alec didn’t think anyone could run fast enough, but the big alpha peeled out of there as soon as Wren showed.

“See you later.” Wren grinned, winking.

Alec’s face warmed. He’d been blushing uncontrollably since Wren Forrester arrived on his doorstep, Fate bringing the biker beta back into Alec’s life. Alec had called a reputable security company to install a new home security system, and Wren answered his call. Wren remembered him from the barbecue three years ago.

“Thanks,” Alec mumbled, sure his face was cherry-red now.

Wren’s chuckle carried out the door.

Alec locked up after them, turning his back and leaning on the door. Making sense of his emotions was almost impossible, save for the lust. That particular emotion was all for JT.

Alec couldn’t believe he recalled him, too. He had thought about the alpha here and there for the past three years. The longing never abated, and the regret remained strong. All these years he’d been plagued by a different scenario, one in which he’d gone back for the alpha at the barbecue and stolen that first kiss he still so desperately wanted.

Touching his mouth, Alec stroked his lips and trailed those fingers lower to where JT’s mouth had brushed his throat. His pulse drummed under his digits, frantically, as if his heart wished to leap out of his chest and chase the alpha.

It took a lot of strength to push off the door. Alec wandered back upstairs, his slippers slapping on the polished dark wood staircase, his movements quieter on the plush runner in the hall. Opening the first door on his right, Alec sneaked inside, checking on the figure swaddled in the silk comforter.

“Mom?” he called softly, realizing she’d fallen asleep.

Her eyes were closed, her breathing even, and her face relaxed for once under the black netted veil. The face covering was now a part of her; a perpetual piece that didn’t entirely conceal the puckered, angry pink scar tissue claiming the left side of her face, and extending to mar her earlobe.

Alec stilled the hand reaching to lift the veil off.

Sighing, he moved from the bed, leaving her to peaceful slumber.

There’d be no peace for him yet. The night was young, and his workload staggering. In the room next to his mother, Alec revived his laptop and dived into his research. Finding a rehabilitation center had been both difficult and energy-draining, but he had managed to discover the perfect place.

The Larue & Lime Facial Surgery Centre in St. Gallen, Switzerland had everything.

Alec scrolled the website again, clicking into the history of the surgery facility and biographies of its cosmetic surgeons. There was also detailed explanation of how the environs of the small town of St. Gallen could help with recovery from surgery. That had been most appealing. After all she’d been through, Alec wanted his mother to disconnect from her fast-paced, socialite-eat-socialite world.

This was it.

He noted the international contact number and the time difference in Switzerland from Pittsburgh, strengthened in his resolve to do this, and to help his mother recover her confidence after the accident.

Closing his laptop for now, Alec turned his head to the window.

A noise outside stirred him from his chair, a yawn creeping out as he drew back the curtains and blinked bleary eyes.

The sleep fled him quickly enough once he saw both Wren and JT outside. The alpha and beta had their heads together over the open hood of Wren’s truck. With JT’s ride nowhere in sight, Alec figured he had to have left it outside the gates.

Staring at JT from here, Alec studied the tall, muscled alpha. He towered over Wren Forrester, dwarfing the beta as he leaned over the hood and tinkered in there. Alec’s mouth watered involuntarily, his hand falling over his lengthening cock, his toes curling with need.

Over the last three years, how many times had he woken in a sweat, worked over by an erotic dream starring the alpha below?

Too much, in his opinion, for him to deem it as normal behavior. Forcing his legs from the window, he stalked to his ensuite and raided his bathroom cabinet for heat suppressants, discovering them right behind an old prescription bottle of his antidepressants and an even older bottle of sedatives.

Turning on the tap, Alec downed the heat suppressant with a clumsy handful of water. Wiping the back of his hand over his mouth, he closed the running water and stared at his reflection. His cheeks were still red, flushed from desire and now pinpricks of annoyance. He didn’t want this. He hated his body sometimes, especially as of late. Like he had no control of it either. The one thing he should be in command of was slipping out of reach as well.

Alec slapped the light switch to the ensuite off and stumbled into his bedroom. Glancing at his bed, he realized sleep wouldn’t be coming. Not at least until he acknowledged what was keeping him alert right then.

He made a quick stop into the kitchen, grabbing two chilled sodas from the fridge and carrying them out to the two men still probing the truck’s hood.

“For us?” Wren’s sunny smile lifted some of the wariness Alec shouldered once both men glanced up from their task, taking in his approach—one with twinkling eyes, the other glaring at him openly, his lips thinning into a long, grave line.

“Yeah.” Blushing, Alec held out one of the soda cans to Wren.

The beta brushed his fingers, his grin spreading wider. “How sweet of you, kid.” He snapped the tab of the can open and took a frothy swig, shaking out his hand after and wiping it carelessly down the front of his low-riding black jeans. Tipping the can at Alec, he winked again. “Next time, drinks are on me.”

Alec ducked his head at Wren’s deep chuckle.

“He’s got one for you, too,” Wren said, raising his voice even though JT was close enough.

Alec hazarded a glance up.

JT wasn’t smiling. He had turned away, his glower fixed on the car and his body tensing, hands gripping the edge of the open hood, thick fingers white and bloodless from the pressure he applied.

The soda can iced Alec’s hands to the point of frigid numbness. But it was far from the arctic chill of humiliation overtaking him. Drawing back, he muttered, “That’s okay. Uh, let me know if you need me to call a tow truck or something.”

He walked fast, retreating into the house, hounded by his self-directed frustration.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. He chanted it like a mantra. Why had he gone out there? Why had he even bothered?

Slamming the fridge door after tossing in the rejected soda, Alec swung around and gasped, his back kissing the fridge at the sight of JT behind him. Glancing around him, Alec stared back, his mouth open, his ability of speech failing him.

How had he crept inside so quietly? God, had he been shadowing Alec this whole time.

Mortified, Alec snapped his mouth closed and waited for an explanation as to why the hulking alpha had followed him.

Holding out a hand, his gaze fixed over Alec’s shoulder, JT grumbled, “I’ll take that soda.”

Alec didn’t move until JT closed his fingers and dropped his fist to his side, the dragon tattoo coiling his throat less fearsome than his slashing black brows. So when JT moved in, Alec accepted he’d trapped himself.

The hand he held up to push the alpha away was brushed aside, his wrist ensnared in JT’s grip. Alec’s mouth fell open again, his mind blanking, his body doing the opposite of what it should have been doing—fleeing. Instead, he lingered, luxuriating in the heat lapping his skin from the point of contact with JT.

The alpha’s chest rumbled, a low growl trembling in the air, his nose and cool piercings pressing into Alec’s hot throat again. He sniffed loudly, another dark grumble piercing the otherwise silent kitchen. Alec was surprised he could hear anything over his thumping heart, his pulse careening into a crazed pace. He opened his mouth, a soft whine slipping loose.

What was happening to him? Where was the heat suppressant now? Why wasn’t it protecting him?

The omega heat burning through his blood activated other senses, namely empowering his ability to scent an alpha…and begin the next natural step: luring him in to mate for life. His hips were already rocking forward, bringing his stiff cock against JT’s hard body.

When his erection bumped the alpha’s thigh, Alec’s eyes rolled to the back of his head, his chest rising and falling rapidly, and his other hand grasping onto JT’s muscled forearm, fingers digging in and testing the sinewy power under his palm.

Lifting his head, JT brought his face down on level with Alec.

That kiss… Alec still wanted that first kiss. All he had to do was close the short distance between their lips. Even with all the energy sucked out of him, his body wired from the adrenaline rush, his brain shorted from directing thoughts into action, and he hoped JT leaned in first.

Do it, he urged. Alec almost cried out with his need, but his throat ached from a loss of words. Otherwise he’d tell JT exactly where he wanted him most right now, on his mouth. Not that he believed he could form a coherent sentence right then. He was pretty much useless in that department.

“The soda,” JT ground out the words, his warm, minty breath tickling Alec’s mouth, shooting off all his nerve-endings until Alec was sure he’d melt at the alpha’s feet if he stepped back. So when he pushed off, Alec whimpered.

JT froze mid-action, his brows shooting up, his face clearing of the storm for a second, only to be shuttered of all emotions in a blink. His hands propping up against the fridge, he shoved from Alec and moved until his back touched the island opposite. Gripping the edge of the counter, he said, “Forget it.”

Turning then, he rounded the counter and stalked from the kitchen and Alec.

Soon as he was gone, Alec swiveled on the fridge and grabbed the chilled soda from inside. He cracked the tab open and guzzled half the can. His throat and nose fizzled from the bubbles, his hand swiping across his wet lips, and his tongue no longer stuck to the roof of his mouth.

And yet all he managed was, “Whoa.”