Abraxas's Kismet (Sentinels of Apollo Book 1)

Abraxas （Brax）

I sat in the back corner, trying to pay attention to what my friends were saying, but it was hard to do—the reason why was across the bar with her friends. As soon as I walked into Pour Decisions tonight, my senses went on alert, and I sensed her. My other half immediately had me scanning the place to see if we were wrong. My gaze landed on her. Her head turned, then she whipped her head back when she saw me. Seconds later, her friends all swiveled their heads to look at me. Cerys remained facing away.

It was all I could do not to march over there and tug her ass out of her chair, toss her over my shoulder, and then walk out with her. I clenched my fists and teeth. I had to fight not to change. Settle down , I told my inner beast.

Want her. She’s ours , he practically howled.

No, she isn’t.

Mate, he whined.

You’re crazy. She’s not one of us. She’s one of them, a human, I argued back.

He went quiet, but I knew he’d keep bugging me. It had been the same since I’d met her for the first time when I walked into our hospital six months ago. I’d come to follow up on a prisoner brought into the emergency room. The sight and smell of her had caused a craving to erupt inside of me. It was more intense than any I’d ever had for a woman.

I would’ve sworn she was my mate if I hadn’t known she was human. The disappointment it caused to realize she wasn’t almost made me howl. Unfortunately, no matter our kind, supernaturals like me and many others only had mates within our species. We could have sex with humans, but to procreate, we had to be with our kind. It was a cruel joke of the Fates.

Those three who determined our lives must’ve thought to fuck up our lives and make it this way. Then they added the whammy that there were few of us, and we were dwindling by the day. At this rate, the various species would die out in another hundred years, if that.

Some had grown despondent and decided to grab what happiness they could wherever they could, and if that meant taking a human as their pseudo-mate, then they did. They’d never have children, and barring an accident, they’d outlive them by decades, if not more, but they’d enjoy what they got. I wasn’t ready to throw in the towel, but if I were, Cerys Morgan would be the one I’d do it for.

Over these last six months, I had to fight not to stop in at the hospital every time I knew she worked. I followed her without her knowledge. I sat outside her house, which she shared with her grandmother many nights, watched it, and looked for glimpses of her. Was that the behavior of a creeper? Yes. If it was someone else, would I arrest their ass? Yes, but I wasn’t able to resist.

What made it harder was knowing she was sexually attracted to me, even though she said very little and never flirted with me. I smelled the arousal coming off her whenever we met. I remained gruff and unapproachable overall, but it was all an act. If she gave me any encouragement, I was afraid I’d break.

As I snuck peeks at Cerys, I was drinking beer after beer, pretending to listen to what my best friends were talking about. She and her friends had been on the dance floor for about an hour. It was more torturous to watch her shake her body. I was sporting a hard-on under the table.

“Jesus Christ, just go ask her to dance and then take her to bed,” Nico grumbled, pulling me away from my contemplation. He was glaring at me.

I pretended not to understand him. “Who?” I asked casually.

“Who? Are you kidding? The woman you’ve been panting after for six months—the sexy Nurse Cerys. Shit, Brax, you’ve been finding any excuse you can to come to the hospital, and don’t think we don’t know you follow her and sit outside her house,” he said.

Our other friends, Royal, Banner, Keir, Fennick, and Gunnar, nodded and looked at me with knowing eyes.

“I come into the hospital on business. As for following her, we live in a small town. We’re inevitably in the same area at times. And I don’t sit outside her house. I sometimes run in the trees behind where she lives,” I lied. Why I bothered to do it, I don’t know. I saw eye-rolling and heard snorting.

“If you keep it up, someone else will snap her up. Then you’ll have no one to blame but yourself,” Royal added.

“Since when do you guys care about what I do or don’t do?” I asked.

“Since you’ve been moping and haven’t fucked a woman in months,” Banner said.

“Keep your voice down,” I hissed. I didn’t want the whole town to hear about my less-than-stellar sex life.

I hadn’t been to bed with a woman since I saw her. No one else enticed me, not even a little. I had no problem getting hard, just at the thought of Cerys. Yet another woman could be naked in front of me, and nothing. I knew this was so because I’d tried to screw one, and it went nowhere.

“Well, if you’re not going to make a play, then you won’t mind if I do,” Nico said as he smirked. He began to rise. I grabbed his arm and squeezed. I knew it didn’t hurt the bastard, but it got his attention. I stared daggers at him. I let him see my beast in my eyes.

“If you touch her, I’ll tear your head off and see if you can recover from that, motherfucker,” I growled.

He threw back his head and laughed. When he calmed down, he winked at our friends. “I told you. He’s gone on her. You should’ve seen him the other day when that patient slash prisoner grabbed her arm. It was all he could do not to kill him on the spot.”

He wasn’t lying. When Diaz got a hold of her, I’d barely kept from crushing the bones in his arm to dust and then eviscerating him. I found myself desperately needing to touch her and cuddle her against me.

“Will you drop it? You know why I can’t,” I muttered darkly before taking another swallow of my beer.

“I don’t know about you, but I’ve spent enough time waiting and searching for my mate. If she ever existed, I either missed her, she was with someone else, or she was dead. I’m not willing to spend the rest of my life jumping from bed to bed. If I find someone who attracts me like Cerys does you, Brax, I’m going after her,” Nico announced. I saw Royal vigorously nodding his head in agreement. The two of them were the oldest and had lasted without their mates for far longer than we had.

“And what if you do, and then you find your mate? What happens then? Do you stay with the woman you’re with or leave her to claim your mate and have children? How would either woman feel knowing what you’ve done?” I argued.

“I don’t know, but I refuse to continue to wait. We’d all love to have children and bolster our species, but we’re becoming less by the minute. If we’re doomed to become extinct, why not be happy while we go out?” Nico argued.

I got caught up in what the two were saying and took my gaze off the dance floor. I didn’t realize anything was wrong until Gunnar swore.

“Goddamn, he’s an idiot,” he barked as he came to his feet.

I followed his gaze to find Cerys being grabbed and yanked backward on a man’s lap. I was on my feet, almost running over there before my brain caught up with my feet. I knew my buddies were right behind me. When I reached them, she was struggling to get loose. My anger ramped up when I heard what he said to her.

“Oh yeah, that’s it, baby, wiggle that ass all over my cock,” the guy groaned. The smell of his arousal burned my nose.

Cerys froze, and then she pleaded almost. “Please let go of me.” That did it.

“If you don’t want me to tear your arms off and beat you to death with them, let go of her,” I snarled.

Cerys went still as stone. The guy, who I didn’t recognize, nor did I know any of the others at the table, which meant they were tourists, sneered at me. God, what I wouldn’t give not to have to put up with jackass tourists. Some were okay, but the ones, like the guy with his hands on my woman, made me want to run them all out of town.

Kill him. He’s touching our woman.

Let me handle this. Stay out of it, I warned my beast.

“Get lost. This isn’t any of your business. Me and the pretty lady are just getting better acquainted before she takes a ride on my cock,” the man said. His buddies were laughing, and the two women with them appeared disdainful.

My temper snapped when he insinuated he’d be having sex with Cerys. A low growl erupted out of me. Most people wouldn’t hear it over the music, but those like me and my friends would. I vaguely saw heads snapping up and turning toward us. Quicker than he could blink, I had her out of his arms, and I handed her off to Fennick, and then I snagged the fucker by the neck and picked him up. I didn’t bother to disguise my strength. He choked and gagged as his feet kicked, trying to touch the ground. I shook him like he was a rag doll. His face was turning red. The guys with him protested, and the women cried out.

“This is my business. You don’t know who I am, but you’re about to find out. We don’t allow people to come into our town and cause trouble. They sure as hell don’t put their hands on our women and children,” I snarled. My thermal detection had my eyes banding with red and yellow. His heart was beating wildly. I felt my canines were about to lengthen.

“Deputy, what seems to be the problem here?” Cooper asked calmly from the right. I didn’t bother to look his way as I answered him.

“Well, Coop, it seems we have some outsiders causing shit in your bar, and this one put his hands on Cerys and made disgusting remarks. I was merely showing him the error of his ways,” I told him.

“While I don’t like assholes bothering my customers, you can’t kill him in here. Take it outside. I don’t want blood on my floors,” he said nonchalantly.

“Outside it is,” I said.

“Hey, wait. We didn’t mean any harm. He’s drunk. Let go of him, and we’ll leave. None of us want trouble,” one of the other guys with him hurried to say.

“Are you really the law?” another one asked warily.

“He is. He’s a deputy sheriff, in fact,” Keir said. I could hear the amusement in his voice.

“Please, Deputy Christou, let him go. He didn’t hurt me,” Cerys’ voice got my attention.

I shifted so I could see her. Fennick had her standing in front of him with his hands on her shoulders. I let another growl out. He dropped them. I scanned her for signs of injury. Not seeing any and knowing I couldn’t rip this asshole’s spine out in front of so many witnesses, I lowered him to his feet and let go. He fell back, sputtering.

I watched as he regained his senses. The next thing I saw was the whole group standing and then edging toward the door. Before they got far, I issued my warning. “If I hear of you causing trouble in this town or anywhere in the vicinity, I won’t be so understanding next time.”

As they rushed out, I noticed Cerys’ friends were standing there watching me. As I soaked up the sight of her up close, I had a decision to make. I could send her on her way and get back to drinking, or I could take her somewhere more private and make sure she was truly alright. She had her arms wrapped around her body, and I swore I saw her shake. That decided it.

“Ladies, I hate to break up your night, but I need to borrow Cerys. I’ll make sure she gets either back here or home.”

“Yeah, you should do that. We’re going to head out ourselves. She rode with us. Will one of you make sure she gets home?” Denise asked.

“No, there’s no need. I’m fine,” Cerys protested, but I wasn’t taking her word. I couldn’t. My wolf was still agitated and wanted to come out and hunt that cocksucker and his friends down. The only way to calm him and me was to check her over personally.

“Do you have anything you need to get?” I asked her.

“She doesn’t,” Norah answered.

The other four women said their goodbyes to Cerys as they rushed to the door. She tried to follow, but I kept a hand on her arm. I didn’t squeeze or do anything that would hurt her. My friends winked or gave me a thumbs-up as she watched Norah, Denise, Millie, and Julia leave. I gave them all warning looks, which they wisely heeded, and walked away after bidding us good night.

I guided her to the door and then outside. She whipped around to face me when we got out in the warm evening air. She was frowning. I waited to see what she’d say. The thought of her being feisty excited me and made my cock harden even more.

“I appreciate you making that man let go of me, but that doesn’t give you any right to dictate to me. That includes sending my friends home or making me leave. Now, since I seem to have lost my ride, I need to make a call,” she snapped before whirling and walking off. I followed. She heard me, although if I wanted to be silent, I could. I was an expert at stalking prey.

“Leave me alone,” she said over her shoulder.

“Not until I make sure you’re uninjured and see you home where it’s safe.”

“I’m fine and don’t need a babysitter,” was her comeback.

“That’s not what it looked like in there.”

She gasped, twirled around, and stared at me in outrage. Before she could say anything, I was back holding her arm and checking to see if there were any marks on her. The hair on my neck bristled when I saw the dark finger smudges on her right arm. I gently rubbed my thumb across them.

“He didn’t do that. Those are from the other day in the ER. Remember Diaz?”

“I do. He had no right hurting you. Just let me finish examining you,” I told her gruffly.

Sighing, she held out her other arm. I ran my hands up and down them. The feel of her super-soft skin under my work-roughened hands made me want to caress her more. Her skin was pale in contrast to mine and soft as silk. Her tantalizing scent teased my nose. Even in the faint light outside, I could see her as if it was daylight.

Her ivory skin glowed, and faint, golden freckles were scattered across her nose and the top of her cheeks. Along with her skin, her light red hair and pale blue eyes showed that her heritage was definitely different from mine. Besides those things, her diminutive height made her adorable. I’d guess her height was five feet two or three. Her brows were arched, her nose was petite, and her lips were tempting. But what enticed me more was her body. Cerys’ body screamed sensuality to me. She was busty, curvy, and had no shortage of ass or hips. Her shape might turn some men off, but I wasn’t one of them. It lured me in like bees to flowers.

“What’s gotten into you? Are you drunk?” she asked.

As she stared up at me, I knew I had to decide. Either way, it would alter my entire future. The question was, which one would I be able to live with the easiest? As I peered into the blue depths of her incredible eyes, I came to a conclusion. I knew what I had to do.