Hi everyone, just wanted to give a quick warning that there will be a few scenes of abuse and rape in this story that may be triggering for some people.

Flashback - Two Years Earlier

Braxton House

Things had been rough for Kyle, he'd spent the last few months living with his father after getting out of a long abusive relationship. Things weren't much better living with Danny, he was still punched and kicked, even forced to stay locked in the house while Danny was out, but he preferred it to his exes place. And it was all because Danny had other sons that he didn't want finding out about Kyle.

But in the end, he'd gotten fed up, knowing he could be in with a better life away from them both, maybe with these half brothers Danny so was desperate to keep him away from. Then one day, Danny had locked him in the house with enough food and water for a week, then took off. Kyle had planned for this, he'd had a key cut without Danny knowing and used it to escape, going in search of his brothers.

Not long after his escape, he'd seen Danny, so decided to secretly follow him all the way to a small town called Summer Bay. He watched him for a couple days to see who he was visiting, then was sure he had the right place. Danny was being quite friendly to three guys, which Kyle thought was really unlike him. He found his father evil, but these guys obviously didn't.

Then that same day, he'd seen Danny leave with his things, so he took his time to make sure his father wasn't going to come back before making a plan of action. He wanted to go and ask them if Danny was their father as well, to ask for help getting away from them, but he had a brief thought of them being the same. Then without even realising it, he was standing in front of their door, it being answered by the three guys from before that he'd seen with his father.

"Who the hell are you?" One of them barks, leaving Kyle frozen in fear, in fear of them being the same as Danny and his ex-girlfriend.

"Ignore him. Can I help you?"

"Yes." Kyle whispers, having meant to say it out loud but his heart was racing too fast.

"Speak up, what do you need help with?"

"That guy that was here before, is he your dad?" Kyle asks, having some volume to it this time.

"You've been watching our house?" The first guy shouts, causing Kyle to back up into the door behind him.

"Heath, calm down! Why do you want to know that?"

"I haven't been watching your house, I swear! He's my dad, I'm just trying to find my half brothers." Kyle says, thinking he had the wrong house. "I'm sorry for bothering you, I need to go now." He says, quickly taking off to his car a bit further up the street.

"Oi, wait up!"

"I didn't mean to bother you, I'm leaving." Kyle says, unable to find his car keys quick enough.

"You've got the right people, that's us. I'm Brax, Danny's eldest son. What's your name?" Brax asks, seeing the fear in Kyle's eyes.

"I'm Kyle." He replies, trying to hide the fact that his hands were shaking.

"So Danny's really your dad?" Brax asks, never having heard about another brother, Kyle nodding in reply. "And I'm guessing he gave you that black eye?" He asks, having had enough in his lifetime to know that a number of things could have caused it to happen.

"Oh, uh…" Kyle freezes, having thought it wouldn't be as noticeable now and he didn't know whether they'd go running to Danny with this information and for him to get an even worse beating off all of them.

"I know what he can be like. Come on, we'll go and talk some more inside." Brax says, about to walk back to the house when he notices Kyle wasn't following him. "Heath didn't exactly give off the best first impression, he's like that with everyone. You'll get on with him well once you settle in, I'm guessing Casey's about your age, so you'll get on well with him as well."

"Settle in?" Kyle frowns.

"You said you needed our help." Brax says. "Was it to get away from dad?" He asks, Kyle nodding.

"But not just him, my ex as well." Kyle adds, then regrets mentioning her as he still didn't know anything about Brax and whether he'd go running to Danny.

"Your ex?" Brax frowns. "Why would you need to get away from her as well? Was she abusive?"

"Yeah." Kyle lightly nods. "But I got out months ago, she hasn't found me this time."

"Right, well you'll be safe with us. Do you have any belongings with you?" Brax asks.

"Why?"

"You're our brother, I won't leave you out here when you need help getting away from them. There's a spare room you can stay in, it's not huge but it's better than the couch." Brax says.

"But I'm just the half brother, you don't even know me." Kyle frowns, finding all of this weird.

"Then I'll get to know you as a brother, just like you can get to know us. We don't need any of this 'half' shit, you're family. You obviously don't know much if you didn't know who we were. So come on, I'll introduce you to our other two brothers. Our girlfriends are also around, you can meet them as well. I think you'll get on well with them." Brax says as Kyle gets his bag from that backseat of his car. "Is that it?" He frowns, wondering where the rest of it was.

"I don't own much. I had to leave a lot when my ex got too much, although she kept finding me. She didn't find me when I lived with dad but he made up for the abuse I wasn't getting from her. Please don't tell anyone else." Kyle says.

"I won't, but that's now in the past, you'll have a good life with us." Brax says as he walks back to the house with Kyle, walking inside to see his brothers and the girl gathered around the table, going quiet as they walk in. "Guys, this is Kyle, our half brother."

"What's he doing back here?" Heath asks.

"Heath, don't be like that!"

"So that's Heath, he's the moody one of the bunch, and his wife, Bianca." Brax introduces.

"Hi, it's nice to meet you." Bianca smiles.

"I'm Ricky, Brax's girlfriend." She smiles.

"And that's Casey, he can also be moody." Brax says.

"I am not!" Casey lightly glares. "This is my girlfriend, Denny."

"Hi." Denny smiles.

"Kyle's going to be staying in our spare room for a while, be nice or answer to me." Brax firmly says.

"How old are you?" Heath asks.

"I'm 20." Kyle replies, still sceptical about Heath, not sure if they really will get on or not.

"So about a year older than me." Casey says, quite liking the idea of having a brother around that was close to his age.

"Won't your mum be wondering where you are?" Ricky asks.

"She's dead." Kyle mutters, knowing there were a lot things for them to talk about, although he was going to keep the abuse between him and Brax.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Ricky sighs, knowing Brax would make him feel welcome in their family even more if he didn't have anyone else.

"It's okay, it was a very long time ago and she wasn't the best mum." Kyle says.

"I'll show you to your room." Brax says, leading him into the hallway.

And from that point onwards, Kyle felt different, felt safer. Although he didn't know his brothers, he was going to get to know them. He didn't have to worry about whether he had to act a certain way just so he wouldn't be attacked for it, they were a safe family.

Brax had also gone to confront Danny over why they didn't know about Kyle, and things got heated between them. Danny had become violent and tried to make Brax pay for letting Kyle move in with them but then he got wind of an arrest warrant being out in his name, so went on the run.

A few weeks after that, they had found out Danny had been caught by police in the Blue Mountains and was now facing prison for a murder charge. It gave them peace knowing he wouldn't be rocking up on their doorstep anytime soon and causing more trouble just because Kyle was living with them.

And as predicted by Brax the first day they met, Kyle and Heath got on really well, they all did. It was almost as if Kyle had been living with them his whole life. He was now free, able to live his life how he wanted without a fear that he was going to be beaten up for saying the wrong thing, or locked in just so people wouldn't find out about him. It was something he had dreamed of for a long time, and now he was finally living it.

End of Flashback