Fighting For His Own (Guardians Of The Pack #2)

Chapter One

Fighting For His Own

Guardians of the Pack 2

AJA FOXX

Copyright ? 2025

~ Ajag ~

The need to go outside and run under the moonlight was like a persistent itch under my skin. One that constantly ached, but I couldn't scratch. It was irritating to say the least.

The four walls of my self-imposed prison might be closing in on me, but going outside just wasn't possible. No matter how much I wanted to, it couldn't happen. When I left this room, I wouldn't be coming back.

It would happen at some point. I had no other choice.

A howl outside the window of my attic room caught my attention. I shot my baby brother a quick look to make sure he was occupied and then made my way to the window and pulled back the edge of the curtain.

I watched with a sense of relief as the members of the Southern Pacific Pack ran off into the woods. I knew now was the time for Sy and I to make our escape, while everyone was gone. I had been waiting for this moment for the last two weeks, anticipating it.

Escape was our only option.

I didn't care that they said Carlton Brass had been dealt with. Well, I cared. The man was a sadistic ass and needed to be taken out before he reproduced and tainted the world with more of his bloodline.

But he was only part of my nightmare.

Running was still our only option. Staying in one place for more than a few days put a huge target on our backs and endangered the lives of anyone around us, and we'd already been here too long.

I glanced over toward the bed where my little brother was watching cartoons on a tablet someone had given him. Sy was so young, just three years old. Being on the run with a toddler was hard, but leaving him behind was impossible.

It was just me and him and had been for quite awhile now. Sy had barely been out of diapers when our mother was killed. If I hadn't been home from college for a visit and taken Sy to the park, I have no doubt he would have been kidnapped or killed right along with her.

I couldn't allow that to happen, which was why I knew we needed to keep running. I just hated leaving this place. It was the first time in months that I'd been able to take a breath.

I was well enough for us to leave now, and that was one of the things I had been waiting for. After shifting several times over the last couple of weeks, my injuries had completely healed, even the old ones. I had also put on a little weight and built my muscles back up due to everyone feeding me and making sure I had plenty of rest.

Still didn't mean I trusted any of them.

People—human and shifter alike—were self-serving assholes. They acted nice and polite because they had an agenda, not because they were kind. I just hadn't figured out what the agenda was here. There was no explainable reason for this pack to take me and my brother in, feed us and protect us, and then offer us a home.

People didn't do that.

At one time in my life, I had believed in sunshine and rainbows. I took people at face value and trusted way too easily. I had tried to be kind and caring to my fellow man.

I had learned what bullshit that was rather quickly. I had only one person I could count on. Me. And I only had two people I needed to protect and care about. Me and my brother.

Everyone else could go soak their heads in a bucket as far as I was concerned.

Well, maybe not the people here. They could stay around. That didn't mean I trusted them or anything, because I didn't. But they had been nicer than most.

I glanced around the attic room we had been given. We had nothing to take with us because we hadn't brought anything with us. I had a bag of stuff buried in a hole off in the woods, but I could get it on our way off this ranch.

It wouldn't hurt to sneak into the kitchen and grab some food to take with us. I had no idea when I'd be able to get a temporary job to earn some money, which meant no way to buy food.

At this point, I couldn't even afford a match to light a fire if I was able to catch a rabbit in the wild. There would be no roasted meat over an open fire, or even a fire to keep us warm.

I rubbed my hands over my face as the weight of my responsibilities pushed down on me. I felt as if I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I didn't trust these people enough to stay, but leaving didn't seem like a good idea either.

That didn't give me a whole lot of options.

Sy had to be my priority. His safety came before everything else, even my own. There was no one left to fight for him except me. My father was dead, Sy's father was never in the picture to begin with, and our mother had been killed by the very same people chasing us.

They wanted to kill us, too.

Well, they wanted to kill me. I was pretty sure they didn't care about me other than seeing me as a nuisance they needed to get rid of. I didn't know how they figured out that Sy was going to be a dire wolf when he transitioned, but they wanted that power under their control or they wanted him dead.

I wasn't going to let that happen.

I wasn't even sure if they were right. It was basically just something I heard in passing when we'd been held captive by Brass. Two of his guards had been talking about it.

Of course, at the time, I had been hanging from a hook in the ceiling and they had assumed I was unconscious after Brass had worked me over with his fists. I doubt they knew I had heard every word they said.

On the other hand, they may not have cared. I was an omega wolf. I was supposed to be submissive, but that trait seemed to have missed me. I would rather tell someone to go fuck themselves than bare my throat to anyone.

Yet another reason staying here was not a good idea. I wasn't sure I had it in me to give my allegiance to an alpha, not after the things I had seen over the years. I had yet to meet an alpha that truly cared for his pack and not himself.

Alpha Ze'ev came close.

Still, giving my allegiance and loyalty to anyone just wasn't something I was comfortable with. It meant being under someone else's control and allowing them to make decisions for me and that just wasn't going to happen. It might have been possible before Brass decided he wanted to toy with me, but not anymore.

Been there, done that, and burned the fucking T-shirt.

And that meant Sy and I had to leave. I seriously doubted they'd let us stay if I didn't give Alpha Ze'ev my oath of allegiance. They'd be smart if they didn't. Having a wolf here that wasn't loyal to the clan was just stupid.

These people didn't strike me as being stupid.

Another wolf howl caught my attention and I searched the shadows of the trees until my sight landed on a lone wolf standing just inside the pool of moonlight.

This was another reason why I had no choice but to leave.

I didn't understand this pull I had toward the beta of the Southern Pacific Pack. Radalf had been at my side almost from the moment I had arrived, and I didn't know why. That made him dangerous. The perplexing—and persistent—desire I had for him to stay at my side made him lethal.

I was very familiar with obsession, and it was never good. It was what had led me to where I was. Brass had become obsessed with me after our first meeting when he had simply been a customer at the bar where I worked. It had ended with me dangling from a hook in the ceiling as he tried to beat me into submission.

I would never allow another to have that kind of control over me again, no matter how much my wolf whined for Rad's gentle touch.

Stupid wolf.

The golden eyes of the black wolf peered up at me with an intensity that unnerved me as nothing else had in quite a while, and that was saying something considering my time held captive by Brass.

It felt almost as if he was trying to peer into my soul.

I dropped the curtain back into place as if it burned my fingertips. I could still see the wolf standing at the edge of the tree line, but I prayed he couldn't see me.

The wolf made a chirping noise that sounded almost like a plea. I dug my fingernails into the palms of my hands to keep from reaching for the curtain again. Nothing good could ever come from the overwhelming desire I had to give in to that plea.

I blew out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding when the wolf finally turned and ran off into the woods. Honestly, I wasn't sure how long I could keep ignoring whatever this thing was between me and Rad, and I had to ignore it.

He wanted more than I could give.

I turned away from the window and started moving about the room, grabbing the shoes they had given me along with Sy's. "Sy, grab your jacket. It's time to go."

"Go?"

"Yes." I hated the sliver of fear I heard in his little voice, but there was no help for it. We had to leave. "Come on, get moving."

"Don't want to go."

Oh, I had no doubt. This was the first time in a long time that he'd had food every day, a warm place to sleep at night, and no one terrorizing him.

I didn't want to leave either.

"I know, but we have to." We needed to leave before the others came back. I didn't think they would try to stop us, but I couldn't depend on that. Escape was our only option.

I sat down on the side of the bed and pulled my shoes on before reaching for the jacket I had been given. It was the middle of summer and I probably didn't need it in this heat, but I would eventually. Better to take it now than to need it later.

When I turned to help Sy with his jacket, I froze at the tears streaming down his cheeks. I stared at the heart wrenching misery on his face for a moment before going down to my knees in front of him.

"Hey." I reached over and brushed the hair back from his sweet little face. "I know you don't want to leave and I don't either, but—"

"We stay?"

"No." I shook my head. "We can't stay. You know that. If we stay, they might find us."

This had been our life since Sy was in diapers and I didn't expect to stop anytime soon, if ever. I wished I could say the people chasing us would give up, but that was a foolish thought. They wouldn't stop until we were dead. Or more specifically, until Sy was in their clutches or dead, and I wasn't going to let that happen, which was why we had to leave.

"We can't stay, Sy. It puts us in danger and it puts our friends here in danger." It was cruel of me to put that kind of guilt on a three year old child, but his world had been one of danger longer than he could remember. He understood what I was saying.

Sy sniffled before swiping his arm across his nose. "Okay."

My heart ached at the resignation in his voice. He was a small child who had known nothing but danger in his very short life.

He should be out playing with other little wolves and getting in trouble for stealing cookies. He shouldn't be sneaking out in the middle of the night because of the danger staying created.

"Come on, bro." I stood and then held out my hand. "It'll be okay."

"I like here."

"I know." I liked it here, too, but staying just wasn't possible. "Maybe we can come back and visit one of these days."

Assuming we weren't captured or dead.

Sy took my hand and then scooted off the bed. He stared at the tablet in his hand for the longest moment before turning it off and setting it on his pillow. His shoulders were slumped in defeat as he walked over to grab his jacket and pull it on.

"I ready," he whispered.

For a moment, I considered staying, even if for just a few more days. We had been safe while we were here, or at least, we hadn't been looking over our shoulders quite as much. I wasn't sure any place was truly safe.

And mostly, the main reason that I wavered in my decision, was that Sy had been happy here. That was something he hadn't felt in longer than I could remember.

But I knew the danger would come. It always did. I didn't understand how they kept finding us, but staying in one place longer than a few days put us in too much danger. Getting comfortable anywhere was just plain stupid.

I held my hand out to my brother again. "Come on. Time to go."

I doubted I had ever uttered more heartbreaking words.