Guarded By His Alpha Wolf (Babies For Broken Dads #4)

Chapter 1

FOUR MONTHS AGO

Chaos filled the human trafficking facility. Creatures roared; gunshots rattled. Something huge crashed into the building, shaking it to its foundations.

Killian held onto the three babies in his arms, shielding them with his own body. They were all crying.

He wanted to cry, too.

Concrete dust rained down from the ceiling and got into his eyes. He squinted through his sudden tears and hurried down the dim hallways, his heart pounding.

We’re all going to die. His instincts screamed at him to flee.

“Keep it up! Keep on going! You’re doing great!” At the exit, an alpha waved them through, pointing away from the building. “We’ve cleared the back. Wait there for backup.”

Killian followed his friends to the back of the compound, where there was less shouting and fewer explosions. His sensitive ears hurt.

Walren, Nat, and Ivo were all there with more babies than just their own, all of them covered in dust.

“You alright?” Ivo asked, looking Killian over with his good eye.

Killian shrugged shakily. “Still alive.”

“Alive is good,” Nat said grimly. He scrubbed his face with his hand that was missing two fingers.

They huddled together and watched as the rescuers beat down their kidnappers.

Killian couldn’t relax, though. No matter how hard he made himself hold still, his hands kept shaking.

For the past few weeks, they had been living off stale bread and bottles of water, stuck in a concrete cell with too many babies. It reminded him of... Before.

Even though it had been years, Killian liked to pretend that those terrible times did not exist.

“I hope we’ll get to have good food after this,” Walren whispered next to him.

“You mean flowers,” Killian said tonelessly.

Walren peered at him in concern, but Killian looked away.

He couldn’t pretend to be okay right now. Not when everything was so close to the surface, memories of terror stinging the back of his throat.

Killian remembered the prickle of an alpha’s attention, the chilling dread of a sniper’s scope locking onto him.

All for ‘practice’. To make him ‘stronger’.

That’s not real, he told himself. No one’s coming after me. They’re all dead.

They had to be. He had made sure they were dead.

He lost time anyway.

When he blinked again, he was seated on the ground, only Naddie left in his arms. Someone had taken away the babies he had helped to rescue. Ivo and Nat were nowhere to be found.

Something moved in the corner of his vision. To Killian’s surprise, he realized it was Walren hobbling toward a large black dragon, climbing onto the dragon’s hind leg.

The dragon lowered his head, peering at Walren with blazing red eyes. Walren stared back.

For a long moment, neither of them moved. They were lost in a bubble of their own—alpha and omega, a matched pair.

Killian’s unmarked scent gland itched at the base of his neck. He ignored it. He was too messed up from... before, for an alpha to want him. He had too many nightmares, too many scars.

Hell, he was afraid of accidentally hurting an alpha.

“Does anyone else need assistance?” one of the alpha rescuers shouted.

Killian startled at the sudden noise, his heart pounding rabbit-quick.

Me, he thought. I need to get out of here.

Then he could’ve smacked himself. Obviously the rescuers hadn’t come prepared with buses to truck them out; they had been focused on taking down the threat.

And now everyone was waiting for transport out of here.

But even though the kidnappers had been defeated, Killian didn’t feel safe. He wanted to huddle under a blanket and pretend his life wasn’t crap. He wanted a full belly, and something that could promise him safety.

He pressed his nose to Naddie’s hair, trying to anchor himself with her scent. His hands were shaking.

Low, heavy footsteps thudded nearby. Killian froze—prey instinct.

When he finally managed to turn his head, he found a huge gray wolf padding toward him.

Their gazes met, the wolf’s bright golden eyes locking onto his plain brown ones. Fur was missing from one side of the wolf’s snout, the bare skin covered in pale mottled scars. He looked fierce. Surely the wolf wasn’t about to attack him. Or eat him.

Killian sat so still, he didn’t even breathe. Don’t speak. I don’t want to say something weird!

To his horror, his mouth moved. “I’m not tasty. No matter how often the folk tales mention rabbit stew, it’s all lies. You can’t believe them. I will get stuck in your teeth and choke you. It will be the most pathetic alpha death in history.”

The wolf paused. And huffed.

Like he was laughing.

Killian wanted to dig a warren to the center of the Earth, and never show his face again.

With a slow wag of his fluffy tail, the wolf lay down next to him, not touching. The alpha kept his gaze fixed straight ahead, looking around at the rescued omegas and babies.

Killian watched him for a long time. It felt as though the wolf had forgotten about him, so he took the chance to study the alpha. Blood matted the fur around the wolf’s muzzle. It was in his scent too, layered over forest and wild animal.

He smelled dangerous. But also, somehow, comforting.

Killian couldn’t help noticing the foot of space between them, the pure strength coiled beneath that thick, soft-looking fur. What would it feel like to run his fingers through it?

Then the wolf turned his head, one golden eye landing on Killian’s face.

Killian froze, his heart tripping.

The wolf opened his mouth. Was that a smile? Without waiting for a response, the wolf turned back to the babies, his tail wagging lazily.

Maybe he’s waiting for me to let my guard down, Killian told himself. Then he’ll pounce and make rabbit stew.

Even so, his body began to relax. Maybe his brain was overloaded with all the stress from today, and it had given up.

It wasn’t until much later, that Killian realized he had completely forgotten to mope about his past.