1. Bruiser
Author's note:
Hey everyone ❤️
Thank you so much for being here! I hope you'll enjoy this story! ❤️
Before you start reading, I would just like to mention that this is the second story in the Broken Halos MC series. If you think you might want to read the first one too, I suggest you do that first, as there will be a lot of spoilers for first story here. You can find the first story "Broken Halos MC" complete on my page. However, you can also just read this story as a stand-alone, you don't have to read the first one if that's not your speed.
If you want to stay up to date with the series or my other work, remember to follow - I post regularly what I'm working on, changes in publishing schedule and more ❤️
Hugs!
- Bee
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I grew up in the roar of engines and the smell of stale beer and asphalt. It’s the only lullaby I ever knew.
Broken Halos wasn’t just a club; it was my inheritance. My old man sat in the VP chair while Stone’s dad held the gavel as Prez. We were kids when we started shadowing them, learning that the patch on your back meant more than blood. When the time came for the old guard to step down and Stone was voted in as President, it wasn’t a shock to anyone when I took the seat beside him. We’re the sons of the old guard—Prez and VP blood. This is the only language we speak fluently.
I remember leaning against my bike outside the clubhouse, the night air cooling the sweat on my neck. I was nursing a cigarette with Stone and Riot when she first appeared.
Alexandra.
She didn’t just walk up to us; she stumbled out of the dark like a ghost being chased by a demon. I remember the way she looked—shaking, her green eyes wide and wet with a terror so thick you could almost taste it. She was a mess of chestnut hair and ragged breaths, curling into the steel of our bikes like they could offer her some kind of sanctuary.
Back then, I didn’t think she’d last a week. The second I heard the words “exchange student,” I figured she was as good as gone. I expected her to bolt the moment the adrenaline wore off, heading back to the safety of Denmark or Romania or whatever world she came from that was a hell of a lot softer than ours. I knew the world she came from, and I knew how it usually reacted when it touched ours.
But Lex surprised me.
She didn’t run. She flourished. Seeing her now, she’s unrecognizable from that girl who collapsed on our doorstep. She thrives with Stone, and he’s damn lucky to have found her—his woman, his anchor. She’s become the little sister I never had, the kind of person who makes this chaotic, violent life feel like it actually has a center.
Which is why the guilt still tastes like lead in the back of my throat.
When Whitmore took her, it felt like my own failure carved into my skin. I was the one who let her walk that day. I was the one who thought instead of knowing. As VP, when Stone is gone, the club is mine—every decision, every consequence. And that includes her. Especially her. Watching Stone almost lose his mind while she was gone… that’s a debt I don’t think I’ll ever fully pay off.
I’ve always been a man who deals in facts and logic, but seeing them makes me wonder. Maybe there’s someone out there for me, too. Someone obviously made for me the way Lex was made for Stone.
My old man used to say bikers are built different—we don’t ease into things. When it hits, it hits all at once. I haven’t felt that hit yet. I haven’t found the person who makes the noise in my head stop.
The heavy thrum of conversation inside the clubhouse pulled me back to the present. I shifted my weight, my beer bottle cold against my palm, as I tuned back into the table. Lex was leaning into Stone’s side, her expression more serious than it had been all night.
“So,” she said, glancing around the table, “I’m going to need a favor.”
That got everyone’s attention. The room went quiet, the usual rowdy banter dying down.
Stone looked down at her, his hand resting protectively on her hip. “That usually means trouble.”
“Only logistical trouble,” Lex said lightly. “You know my best friend’s flying in for the wedding.”
“Best friend,” Ink repeated, leaning forward. “As in singular?”
“Very singular,” Lex confirmed.
I watched Stone smile softly at her. We knew what this girl meant to her—Adelina. Lex had told us bits and pieces: how she’d been her lifeline back in Romania, the one constant in a childhood that wasn’t always kind. Neighbor, escape, sister. That bond ran deep, and I respected that. In this club, loyalty was the only currency that mattered.
“She lands in three weeks,” Lex continued, “and someone’s going to have to pick her up.”
Stone hummed. “I can do it.”
“I know you can,” Lex said, smiling up at him. “But you’re not allowed. You’ll scare her.”
He scoffed. “I’m charming.”
“You threatened a man with a spoon last week.”
“He deserved it.”
I couldn’t help it; I snorted into my beer. The image of Stone—the man who could dismantle a rival gang without blinking—using kitchen utensils as a weapon was peak President behavior.
“She Romanian too?” I asked, finally speaking up.
“Yes,” Lex said, turning toward me. “And she’s… kind of unreal.”
That earned a few looks from around the table.
“How so?” Riot asked.
“She works two full-time jobs,” Lex explained. “One as an admin worker at a non-profit, the kind that runs on grants and burnout. The other on her family’s farm. Early mornings. Mud. No days off.”
Neon whistled low. “That’s a choice.”
“More like a necessity,” Lex said. “And on top of that, she’s writing her PhD.”
I couldn’t help it. “In what?”
“Bioengineering.”
Silence followed. It wasn’t the kind of background we usually heard about in this room.
“Okay,” Engine said finally. “That’s… not what I was expecting.”
“She’s terrifying,” Lex said fondly. “Runs on coffee, stubbornness, and the belief that quitting is a personal failure.”
Stone exhaled through his nose. “Careful, baby,” he said mildly. “You’re starting to sound very American. Glorifying exhaustion.”
Lex grinned. “See? You’re rubbing off on me already.”
“I don’t like it,” he muttered, but there was humor under it.
I hadn’t looked away from Lex. Farm work and bioengineering. Dirt under the fingernails and high-level science in the brain. It was a weird combo—a puzzle that didn’t quite fit together.
“She grew up fixing things,” Lex replied to my unspoken thought. “Animals. Equipment. Systems. She just scaled up.”
Something sharpened in my chest. Interest, quiet and focused. I liked people who knew how to fix things. In my world, everything was always breaking.
“She tough?” I asked.
“Yes,” Lex said without hesitation. “But not loud about it. She just carries it. Like she’s used to the weight.”
I nodded once. I knew that kind of tough. It was the kind of tough that didn’t break until it was far too late.
“I’ll pick her up,” I said. The words were out before I’d fully processed them. I leaned back, the condensation from my beer bottle slick against my palm. I wasn’t sure what the hell had just come over me. I usually avoided airport runs like the plague—too much traffic, too much idling, too much time for my mind to wander to places it didn’t need to go.
Stone lifted his head, eyes searching mine. “You sure?”
“Yeah,” I replied, shrugging like it was nothing. “I’ll be around. And she doesn’t sound like someone who scares easy.”
Lex glanced between us, a small, knowing spark in her eyes. “You don’t mind?”
My mouth quirked. “Nah. Anyone who can survive farm work and a doctorate can handle an airport and my face.”
Lex laughed, leaning back into Stone. “Adelina’s going to like you.”
“We’ll see,” I muttered.
Beside me, Stone’s eyes narrowed. He’s known me since we were kids; he can read my silence better than most people can read a book. He didn’t say anything, but the slight tilt of his head told me he’d noted the shift. I wasn’t just volunteering for a favor; I was curious. And curiosity was a dangerous thing in this life.
I looked back at Lex. She looked so happy, so settled. She’d found her home in the middle of our chaos. I wondered if this Adelina was made of the same resilient silk and iron.
“Three weeks?” I asked, keeping my voice level.
“Three weeks,” Lex confirmed. “I’ll send you the flight details.”
