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What did Axel want?
I broke off mid-sentence with a nervous laugh and jabbed at a few ice cubes in my glass with my straw.
“Wow, I’m totally talking your ear off. I’m so sorry.”
Axel shrugged.
“I don’t mind. That’s what I’m here for, right?”
I studied him for a moment then propped my elbow on the table, fixing him with a long, searching look.
“Why are you doing this, Axel? Why are you helping me? I’m putting you through so much trouble and you’re just like…” I trailed off, shaking my head. “You’re acting like this is normal. It’s not normal.”
Then a thought occurred to me.
“Oh my God, I haven’t even offered to pay you or anything!”
Axel held up a hand.
“Even if you did offer me money, I wouldn’t take it.”
“But—”
“I’m helping you because I choose to.”
When I waited for him to elaborate, Axel sighed and swallowed the last of his coffee.
“Look. My parents…they didn’t really want me. They had a certain lifestyle they enjoyed and that didn’t involve a boisterous, overactive kid like me.”
I tried to picture Axel as a boy with his wavy hair wild and untouched by product, his face flushed from the sun and exercise. Probably a gap-toothed grin when he was growing into his teeth, too.
“I was shuttled from one boarding school to another,” he went on. “My parents always told me that I didn’t need to bother coming home for the holidays. I got a postcard at Christmas when they went on vacation. That was the only time I heard from them.”
“That’s terrible,” I whispered.
Axel shook his head.
“After a while, I didn’t know them. They were strangers to me. On the last day of school, they showed up, crowing to everyone within hearing range about how proud they were of me.”
Anger burned in my chest on his behalf.
“What did you say?”
“Nothing. I walked away and never looked back. Haven’t spoken to them since and that was about ten years ago. Then I crossed paths with my motorcycle club and for the first time in my life, I knew what it felt like to have a family who was there for me, no matter what.”
“Is that what the patch on your back is for?” I asked.
Axel half-turned in his seat, letting me get a good look at the howling wolf. I saw the pride evident in his face. His club meant the world to him. His parents had abandoned him but his club had welcomed him with open arms.
“Tell me more about them,” I said, touching the patch on his back. The leather was warm from his skin and worn to softness.
“It was nothing like boarding school,” Axel replied. “No matter how poorly I misbehaved, my parents threw money around and wiped my record clean again. I acted out, desperate for attention, to be heard, to be seen, but it didn’t matter. With the Alpha Riders, I had to prove myself worthy. I had to earn my place through respect and hard work. Money, connections, influence…none of that mattered with them.”
“You had a purpose,” I said.
“I had people whocared. I wasn’t left to rot. My club brothers stood with me, side by side. For the first time in my life, I could depend on someone. It made a world of difference because I wanted to be a better man for them. They listened. They took me in. And I don’t know where I’d be without them.”
“That doesn’t explain why you chose to help me,” I pointed out.
