JT didn’t accept the refund from the staff at the castle hotel.

Alec understood why they were barreling off the lonely backroad onto the freeway back to Pittsburgh. What had happened a few hours ago couldn’t be classified as normal. More so, despite what JT had told him, Alec couldn’t shake off the eerie feeling they were being followed.

Because there was a big freaking problem: they’d just been shot at.

Alec shuddered at the thought, reliving that moment over and over again. He clasped his hands together in his lap, his palms clammy from nervous perspiration. Catching JT’s eye, the alpha reached out and adjusted the dial of the heater, raised it so the steady hum in the car increased along with the warmth.

He had mistaken Alec’s shudder of fear for a shiver. If only it were the late autumn chill that was affecting him. He would rather have taken that than what he had at the moment, the fear that every passing car on the highway would open fire on them.

The ride back was even longer. It didn’t help that no one had spoken a word yet. That was about to change.

“What happened back there?” Alec eyed JT’s side profile, pressing on despite the alpha’s gloomy scowl. “Why… Why did that happen? Who shot at us?” Once the dam of questions trickled, it broke. He wanted all the answers, and he wanted them now. “JT,” he said firmly, getting his first sharp look from his alpha husband.

“Let it go, Alec. I’m handling it.”

“Handling what?” Alec’s eyes widened, his mouth flopping open and close on the words he couldn’t quite form. The revelation struck him hard. Slapped him upside the head. “You know who shot at us?”

“No,” JT snapped, his hands squeezing the steering. He had it in a death strangle when he spoke next. “If I did, I wouldn’t be here. Believe me. I’d be out there, hunting the bastard down myself.”

“Killing him?” Alec supplied grimly. He shook his head, but JT’s face hadn’t changed. No, that was Alec’s perception of him. Alec realized he might as well be sitting next to a stranger. JT couldn’t be further away from him at this point.

After a lengthy silence, Alec breached it again with a question. “But you have a clue who it is, don’t you?”

JT took a long while to respond. He must have known Alec wouldn’t like his answer. “Yeah,” he grumbled. “I have my suspicions and theories.”

“Care to share them?”

“Alec—”

Alec cut him off with a hand. JT’s censure stopped before it began. “I’m your husband, and I’ve just been shot at. I know we’re playing house right now, but humor me. I could have died. I’d like to know who tried to kill me.”

“Are you implying I don’t care for your well-being?”

Alec snorted. “No, only that you have a funny way of showing it.” At JT’s silence, he added, “Does this have to do with Wren?”

JT’s hand tightened on the wheel, indicating the affirmative to that question.

“Is Wren a danger to me? To us?”

Snapping his head to him, JT barked, “No.”

Shock was quickly replaced by anger. “I know he’s your friend, but what the hell kind of trouble is dogging his heels?” He didn’t add that he didn’t trust any ‘friend’ who brought danger to their doorstep.

“They were warning shots. Trust me.” JT grew quiet, and then he continued, “No one’s going to hurt you, Alec. They don’t want you. They want me.”

Alec threw up his hands in exasperation. “How does that make it any better?” He stiffened then, realization striking like lightning. “You think I don’t care about you?” When JT didn’t counter him, Alec growled. “Well, FYI: I do. And what if they don’t miss next time? What if they kill you?”

“They won’t.”

“But what if they do?” Alec was wild with his worry and his angry frustration had a vice grip over his throat. For a moment, he floundered in his helplessness. He couldn’t stop JT from going out and getting himself killed. He couldn’t force him to cut Wren from his life. And he couldn’t stop him if he walked out of his life for good.

They were nearing home now, and Alec didn’t see how they could talk like this with his mother in the home. Isolde would sniff out trouble and fall over him.

He’d done more than marry this man. He put his heart on the line for JT, and the alpha was dangerously close to stomping all over it.

“What if you die, JT?”

“I won’t.”

Their neighborhood was still. The smattering of snowfall silenced everything it felt like. Alec wished for distraction from the rational fear of losing JT to his stubborn loyalty. If Wren were the problem, why not cut him out of their lives?

Because he cares for him.

But he doesn’t care for me?

Both answers came readily and were obvious.

“I’ll miss you,” Alec said, lowering his watery gaze to his hands. He wouldn’t give JT the satisfaction of his tears on top of the longing and concern he’d shown him.

An eon must have come and gone before JT said, “I’m not going to die, Alec.”

JT parked the truck in front of the entrance of their home. Well, Alec’s home. JT lingered, hands at the ten and two o’clock, his grip only tightening on the steering. The engine rumbled, and Alec was afraid to ask or act. He sat perfectly still for what felt like hours, and in reality had to be an insufferably long minute, when JT said, “Get inside.”

“What?” Alec breathed, his voice croaky, his lips dry. He dragged the tip of his tongue across his bottom lip, working in moisture while he strung together a more comprehensive question inside his head. “Aren’t you coming in, too?”

“No.” JT turned his head slowly, facing him, his features taut, his knuckles bone-white from his squeezing grip on the wheel. A muscle leaped in his tense jaw, his mouth prying open with what appeared to be great difficulty. Whatever he said he left off.

Instead, he moved too quickly for Alec to follow. Unbuckling his seatbelt, he opened his door and slipped out. JT rounded the car, opening Alec’s passenger door.

Alec froze, not moving a muscle, his breathing puffing out as JT’s big body leaned in and he grasped blindly for the buckle that freed Alec from his seat. He hoisted Alec into his arms then, carrying him to the door, and setting him on his feet while he asked Alec for the house keys.

Once he had the door open, his arm around his waist steadying Alec and keeping him off his sprained ankle, JT led him to the living area and he settled him down. “I’ll call your mother,” was all he said as he stalked out of the room.

Alec opened his mouth to call him back, only to snap it close, his mind a mess from trying to puzzle out what was happening. Why was JT so standoffish? It seemed like this was a time they’d be gathering together, soothing one another. Why did it feel like the big alpha was pushing him away?

On the lookout for JT’s return, Alec was sorely disappointed when his mother joined him and announced, “He just left.”

“Oh,” Alec said, heaving back into the sofa.

The weighty disappointment on that one syllable drew his mother closer. She sat beside him, gathering him into her arms, as she used to do when he was very little. It had been those rare moments that Alec treasured so. He’d thought he had lost it, when he’d thought he lost her in the car accident after his father died.

Isolde had been wrapped in the grief of losing Alec’s father, she’d left Alec behind. Or so that’s how he’d interpreted it.

Alec had even entertained attending college while his mother cared for his father. Not that he had a clue of what he’d study once he got there. His interests had taken a back seat to helping his mom care for his father. Then her accident happened shortly after the funeral, and Alec pushed college and his future aside for his mother’s recuperation.

“What?” she wondered when Alec moved back, gawking at her. Really staring at her for the first time it felt like.

Alec reached out and lifted the funereal black netted veil from her face. She didn’t stop him, but she did have an admonishing twist to her thin pink lips. “Alec…” she warned. Then her features softened and she gasped, her hand touching his face, catching a tickling tear he hadn’t noticed until now.

“What happened?” she whispered.

Alec wished he had the answer.

She hugged him again, rocking him while he sobbed silently, the tears staining her shoulder, soaking through her floral-print blouse.

Alec didn’t want to move, but his mother said, “Let me get us some hot chocolate, and you’ll sit here and tell me all about it.”

“I’m fine.” He sniffled, wiping at his face and sitting back. He drew his legs up to his chest, his back resting on the armrest, his mother smiling at him sadly. “Don’t trouble yourself.” She had done enough for him. He was supposed to be taking care of her. God, he was such a mess. A failing mess.

All he had to do was make this marriage work until he got pregnant and had that male heir his father had wanted so damn bad. Fuck. It was all his fault. Alec’s gut churned awfully at cursing his dead father, but the man had been a horrible dad. He had sired Alec and left him. Hell. He didn’t seem exactly too fatherly with his legitimate sons. Why else would Zander and Drew be at each other’s throats as much as they were gunning for Alec, and imploding his plan to inherit the two-hundred million.

“I’m fine,” Alec repeated huskily, coughing to clear his throat and resting his chin on his arms. He’d wrapped them around his knees, tucking himself into a fetal ball. That screamed fine, didn’t it?

I’m a freaking mess.

Isolde stood and left, taking that sympathetic smile with her.

Alec hadn’t thought she would be returning. He slipped into his thoughts, the world bleeding away. He wondered where JT had sped off too. And why he hadn’t stayed? Didn’t he care? Wasn’t he worried about Alec?

Swallowing around the heartache burning his esophagus was hard. He tugged at his jacket, realizing he still had it on. The layers were making him warm. The toastiness wasn’t helping with the anxiety. He shed his jacket, and then his sweater, stripping down to his T-shirt.

That was how his mother found him.

“I’ll turn the thermostat down if you’d like,” she said. She carried a tray toward him, two mugs resting on it. Her face veil back in place, shrouding the scar tissue crawling up the left side of her face.

Steam curled from the top of the mugs, from the milky chocolate drink inside. Alec instantly felt better once he took a whiff of the familiar drink. Cinnamon curled up and tickled his nose, enticing him to take a sip.

“I added a bit of cayenne.”

Alec could taste it. He took a more generous sip, closing his eyes and sighing lightly. The sugary warmth of the drink, with the kick of spices, zipped through his body, blasting away the chill of rejection. Being abandoned by JT had hit him harder than he thought.

After finishing half his drink, his mother sipping from her own mug, he looked up and caught the glint of curiosity over the concern she directed his way. Seeing as she had his attention, Isolde settled her mug back on the tray, and clasped her hands over her lap.

When Alec didn’t jump in with his explanation, she said, “It’ll help. I promise it might not feel like that while you’re telling me, but understand you don’t have to carry the weight of your troubles on your own.”

They sat in silence like that for what could have been forever. Eventually, Alec looked up from staring at the swirling darker chocolate cutting through the milky surface as he neared the end of the mug. “It’s a lot, Mom.”

“I can handle it.” She smiled more naturally then, the sadness sloughed off. He could almost call it a grin, but his mom was too elegant to show too much teeth. “Are you forgetting my illustrious career as a supermodel?”

Once the shock at her joking wore off, Alec smiled. “I haven’t forgotten.”

“Then tell me,” she urged softly. She reached for his leg, giving him another comforting squeeze. It said he wasn’t alone. Whatever he was dealing with, whether he wanted to confront it or not, she’d be there. Alec hadn’t thought he could feel so close to his mother before. But Isolde had changed. Their relationship had gone from passing ships whenever his mother's schedule brought her across his path...to being thick as thieves in a lot of ways.

Alec wasn’t going to fool himself into believing she didn’t miss the fast-paced world of her ex-supermodel, socialite life. Still, they had definitely grown closer after her tragic accident.

So, Alec told her about it. She got the gist of the shooting from JT, she admitted, but she remained silent as Alec told her what happened before and after. He didn’t go into detail about the sex, but soon he’d told her everything—from Alec meeting JT for the first time at the barbecue three years ago, right up to when the alpha agreed to make Alec his fake omega mate. Isolde heard it all.

At the end of it, she nodded. “Hm. Seems to me like it sounds like love.”

Alec jerked up straighter in his seat, glad he’d finished the hot cocoa or else he might be cleaning it up from his lap. Setting the mug on the coffee table, he moved his feet down from the couch, his hands resting on his knees, his gaze avoiding his mother.

“I have to be honest,” Isolde started, with a wrinkle of her nose. “I’m not sure any man who’s willing to harm my baby is good for him. I’d like to give JT a good talking to.”

Alec swallowed hard. This was what he’d feared. The need to defend JT choked him until he spluttered, “It isn’t his fault. He’s just too loyal to his friend.”

“Friend?” his mother echoed.

Alec sighed. The cat was out of the bag; he shared everything else with her, so he told her about Wren Forrester as well. “He’s close to Wren.”

“How close?” his mother asked, arching a brow.

Alec flinched, realizing what she meant. “They’re not lovers.” At least, he didn’t think anymore. No. He knew JT wasn’t cheating on him. That wasn’t it. It was only the alpha’s strong will and steadfast loyalty that took him from Alec.

“I believe you…and I believe that JT does care for you. I also hadn’t meant to scare you, sweetheart.” She cupped his cheek for a moment, lowering her hand and sighing. “It’s only, I know how it is when you place second sometimes.”

Before he curbed his errant tongue, he blurted, “You mean dad.”

Isolde gave him a sharp look. It softened a heartbeat later. “Yes. But not in the way you’re thinking.” She chuckled then. “Your half-brothers, Andrew and Zander’s omega father wasn’t in the picture, if that’s where your thoughts headed.”

She sighed again. “No, your father’s first love had always been his job. It preceded everything else: love, family, and friends.”

That explained why Drew and Zander hadn’t been any closer to their alpha father. The man had been a workaholic, and he hadn’t come around to see Alec until he was on his deathbed. Even in the three years leading to his slow demise, Alec hadn’t felt any closer to the man who fathered him.

“JT doesn’t come off to me like your father.” Isolde smiled wistfully. “He cares for you. I know that. Call it mother’s intuition, if you will. I’m not sure why he’s not here right now, or why we’re not calling the police for that matter—”

“Please don’t.” Alec shook his head, weariness flowering through him. He couldn’t handle law enforcement prowling their place. “JT said he’d handle it.”

“I hope he does, for both your sakes.”

“Alec,” she said.

Forcing his gaze to her, Alec waited, knowing he’d hear it. Wanting to hear it. Perhaps if she said it again, he could accept the truth easier this time.

“You love JT.” Isolde tilted her head, studying him for a moment, adding, “But you already know that, don’t you?”

Alec nodded jerkily, his eyes burning with tears again. Shit. He was really a mess.

She scooted closer, opening her arms and Alec leaned into them willingly. She held him, smoothing her hands over his back, her chin resting on his crown. “Does he know?” she asked.

“No,” Alec mumbled.

“And you want to tell him?” She squeezed him. “Then tell him.”

“What if he doesn’t like—love me back?”

Isolde pushed him back, gripping his shoulders. “At least he’ll know.”

Alec nodded again, falling back on non-verbal communication. He didn’t trust his voice not to break, and he’d cried enough as is.

“Believe me: I might not have cared for your father at first. His money appealed to my young, hungry heart. But I valued his time the more I got to know him.” His mother pressed her lips to his forehead. Rarely did Alec hear her talk about his father, even more so after his death and her subsequent accident. Alec had put two-and-two together, though. Obviously, she cared. Her grief had been quiet but steady after his passing.

That’s how he knew she was struggling with this, too. Getting her own truth off her chest. “I loved your father, dearly. Unlike you, I didn’t have the courage to tell him as much as I would have liked in life—or even as soon as I should have.” Isolde slid her hands down Alec’s arms to his hands. “Learn from me. Don’t wait for anything, Alec. Your happiness won’t find you...unless you start searching for it first.”