Alaric was born and raised in Texas. His dad died when he was young, and it made him a very angry teenager. He made friends with all the wrong people and got into fights all the time. It got to the point that his mom threatened military school more than once to straighten him out. He tried to be better in high school, for her sake, but it wasn't until he met a girl in college that he actually wanted to get his act together. Isobel. He would've done anything for her. 

They got married young, and had always planned on having kids when they were both done with school, more established in their careers. When Isobel became obsessed with werewolves and vampires, he'd thought it was just a quirky little hobby; he wouldn't know the truth until he saw her murdered by a vampire (he thought). After losing her, Ric became consumed with anger and revenge, and dedicated himself to learning everything he could about hunting and killing vampires. 

He went to Mystic Falls with the goal of finding and killing the vampire that killed his wife, but he never expected to become friends with them.