Brax
Almost blind fury filled my mind as I faced off with the Council of Oracles and Dr. Fields. I let Nightstalker loose to defend my mate and pups better. It would be over my dead body that anyone would take her or harm them. When my brethren, as I liked to call them, joined the mix, I knew our odds were significantly better.
While the Oracles and the doctor were shifters and supernatural beings like us, we had an advantage. We didn’t sit on our asses all day. We used our skills as Sentinels to hunt and kill. They hadn’t been called on to do so in centuries. Even though some were the same kind of shifters as us, they didn’t have our skills. In addition, our day jobs helped us in other ways.
With Twyla and Cerys safely out of the way, I could let Nightstalker wreak havoc without worrying about her getting hurt.
“Please, stop! There’s no reason to shift. We aren’t here to harm anyone, Abraxas. How could you think that? We’re the Council. You’re our Sentinels of Apollo in the States. We’re not enemies,” Theodore shouted.
He was the head of the Council. He was a vampire and the primary voice of the Council, although there was a second vampire, Lowell, who was also a member. Along with them were Bernard and Warren, who were bears. Otto was a panther, and Jasper was a leopard. The wolves on the Council were Arthur and Oscar. A lone coyote, Thatcher, was standing there scanning the yard. The last three were a hawk, Arden, and Silas, a raptor. The final member was Louis. He was a Cheval Mallet, which was a steed. While they were dangerous, they didn’t stack up against a dragon, phoenix, and gryphon, along with our vamp, bear, leopard, and very pissed-off wolf.
“Then you tell me why the entire Council came here uninvited. What else am I to assume other than you’re here to harm my mate and unborn pups? I warn you, Theodore, I’ll fight to the death to protect them. You're wrong if you think you’ll all walk away from here. There’ll be several, if not all, Council seats needing to be filled,” I threatened.
I watched him. I was stunned when Theodore dropped to his knees and bent his head. The rest of the Council followed. When they were on their knees, I heard them chant…
We, the Council of Oracles, pledge our lives and souls to the Mighty Apollo, god of truth, prophecy, health, and disease. We pledge to always serve for the good of all our kind, no matter what form they take. We will always do what is right and true. We swear to do no harm—memento vivere.
When they finished their oath, I knew we had a choice. We could remain in our current forms or shift back to our human ones and recite our pledges.
It’s up to you. We’re with you no matter what , Royal’s voice entered my mind. The others quickly said the same. We’d worked together so long that we had an advantage when we were all in our other forms. We could communicate like I’d just discovered I could with Cerys. That had been a shock and something to delve into if we survived this. Praying that I wasn’t about to make the worst mistake of my life, I pushed Nightstalker to back off so I could shift back. The others followed suit. When we were all back, we dropped to one knee and recited our pledge.
We, the Sentinels of Apollo, pledge our lives and souls to the Mighty Apollo, god of truth, prophecy, health, and disease. We will serve not only the Council of Oracles to ensure justice is served but will stand for all our people. The protection and continuation of our kind is the sole purpose of the Sentinels. We will serve until our service is no longer needed—memento mori.
As we finished, we all rose to our feet. To humans, it would seem wrong to stand naked before others. To shifters, we didn’t pay attention to nudity. Theodore came forward. He made sure to keep a safe distance between us still.
“Sentinel Christou, we come only to speak to you and your mate. We’re not here to cause harm. That is the last thing we want. You have no idea what your mate means to all of us. Anyone seeking to harm her will have the full force of the Council and all Sentinels against them. Please, bring her out to meet us. We’ll have Dr. Fields explain why he called us and why we came.”
I looked at the guys. They nodded.
“I’ll be back shortly. So that you know, my mate’s grandmother is here. She’ll be joining us, and yes, she knows about us. I’ll explain why. Royal, will you stay until I get back?” I asked. He could do the most damage as a dragon if they were tricking me.
“I can. Go. We’ll be fine,” he said.
I had to enter the code to unlock the door. I changed to a keyless entry a while ago. I grabbed the throw off the back of the couch and wrapped it around my waist. No way would I want to embarrass Twyla by being naked, although knowing her, she wouldn’t care. However, Cerys might not want her grandmother to know what her man looked like naked. When I shifted, it was so fast she didn’t really see anything.
As I did, I sent a mental message to Cerys. I’m coming. It’s safe to unlock the doors. When I got to our bedroom door, I didn’t have to open it. Cerys flung it open and threw herself into my arms. I cradled her to me. Our mouths automatically found each other, and we kissed. We took our time. Our fear made us reluctant to stop, but eventually we did.
“Are you two done? What’s going on? Do I have to kill someone?” Twyla asked from behind Cerys. Smiling, I shook my head.
“No, Twyla, I don’t think you have to kill anyone. But just to be safe, keep your gun. But don’t use it unless I tell you to. I think they only want to talk, but we’ll remain alert.”
I knew the Council could hear me, and I didn’t give a shit. If any of them were in my shoes, they’d do the same.
“If you’ll excuse me, I need to get dressed. Wait for me, then we’ll go out to meet them and hear what they have to say. The guys are getting dressed, too.”
“Well, damn it, and I’m missing it! Shoot,” Twyla muttered, making me laugh.
As Cerys playfully scolded her grandmother, I grabbed clothes and changed in the bathroom. When I was presentable, I came out and escorted both of them to the front door. Before we walked out, I let my senses expand to see if I detected any other presence. I didn’t, but it was always possible they were masking themselves like me and the guys could.
I had both women behind me when we stepped out on the porch. There wasn’t enough room for all of us on the porch, but I did gesture to them as I called out. “Oracle Theodore, Dr. Fields, if you’ll join us. The rest, I’m afraid you’ll have to stand or sit out in the yard.”
No one objected. I was pleased to see the last of my friends rejoin the group. They were strategically placed around the Council. There was only one man I didn’t recognize. He was the driver of the car. I pointed to him.
“Who is he?”
“This is Samuel. He’s our newest bodyguard,” Theodore answered as he slowly made his way to the porch. The doctor was right behind him.
“Speaking of bodyguards, where are the rest? You never go anywhere without them,” Royal said. His observation had me stiffening. He was right. How stupid of me. I backed up, crowding the women behind me and toward the door. My senses were still trying to detect the presence of others, but there was nothing.
“Wait! Please, we swear on Apollo they’re not with us. We came only with Samuel. This was something we wanted to keep secret. Taking all of them with us would be a red flag that we’d left Delphi and raise questions as to why and where we went,” Arthur hastily interjected.
“Why don’t you want anyone to know you left?” Nico asked.
“It’s complicated, and it’ll take some explaining. Bear with us, and we’ll tell you. But first, we need you to hear what Dr. Fields discovered,” Theodore stated.
Since we wanted that, we allowed the two men to join us on the porch and then took seats. I saw Theodore studying Twyla. She gave him an unconcerned look.
“May I ask why you seem so comfortable with us? Most humans aren’t. Your granddaughter seems the same. It’s unusual,” Theodore stated.
“You’re not exactly a surprise to me. I’ve known all my life that you and others like you existed. My people were Ceridwen back in ancient times.”
I thought he’d ask what a Ceridwen meant, but he nodded, and Arthur replied, “Ah, that makes sense. You do give off this light. I haven’t seen it in centuries. You white witches have always been on the side of good.”
“I hate to interrupt, but you can all get to know each other after we find out what you found. How is it possible that Cerys is pregnant when everything indicates she’s human? Were we wrong? Does she have shifter blood, and we couldn’t detect it?” I asked. It was the only explanation I’d come up with.
“Forgive us, yes, let’s talk about that. First, let me say that this discovery is world-altering. We still can’t believe it. Dr. Fields contacted us first because he knew what this would mean to the Council and our entire community. Doctor, if you will,” Theodore said.
“Thank you, Oracle Theodore. Yes, this is something we’d never dared hope for,” Dr. Fields said.
I gave an impatient snort—enough of the dancing around. A low growl came out of me. It was Nightstalker displaying his impatience. Cerys reached out to rub my arm and calm me.
Both of you need to settle. Let them talk.
Turning to her, I replied. They can do more important talking and leave the bullshit for later or never. I want to know how you’re pregnant and what they’re all excited enough about to leave Greece.
“Excuse me, but I have to ask. Are you able to communicate psychically with your mate? And her with you?” Lowell asked from the yard. I heard the awe and excitement in his tone.
“Yes, we can. I know it is probably unusual in a human mate, but surely not in those who are both shifters,” Cerys told him.
“Actually, it’s rare even in shifters. To have it in the two of you is extraordinary,” Lowell exclaimed. Excited chatter broke out between the other Oracles. I ignored them and stared at the doctor. He got back to it.
“Here’s what we’ve found. There is zero indication that Ms. Morgan has any shifter or other supernatural blood. Our kind has extra genetic code written in our chromosome twenty-one that others do not. It’s how we can identify our kind. That’s a secret only known to a select few. It’s not something we usually worry about being discovered on routine blood tests by humans. Ms. Morgan doesn’t have that extra code. However, we discovered she has extra genetic coding on her X chromosome. Somehow, this code has allowed her genes to be receptive to your shifter genes, including your X chromosome. If you recall from school, women have two X chromosomes and men an X and Y.”
Dr. Fields paused after explaining that much. I didn’t know if it was to let it sink in or for us to ask questions.
“So anyone carrying this extra genetic code on their X can have children with a shifter, is what you’re saying?” Cerys asked.
“We think so. We’d have to test others with the gene and see if they can get pregnant or impregnate someone like us, but yes, that’s what we think. Since this hasn’t occurred before, that we know of, we have no idea who might be like you to test our theory. However, if this is the true cause, you have no idea how it changes things for our society. Our different species are slowly dying out. The lack of children, even in shifter pairs, is common. You just may have the secret that’ll help us not die out,” Dr. Fields said excitedly.
“Whoa, wait. I can see why you’d be excited, but why bring the Council here just to tell us this?” I asked.
There were looks exchanged between the Oracles and the doctor. I was about to explode and yell for them to spit it out when Theodore answered.
“Because we’d like to do more testing on Cerys to be sure that we have the right hypothesis. If the additional research shows we’re right, then we’d like to develop a way to find others like her and have them paired with our unmated brothers and sisters.”
“What!? You can’t just go looking for someone like me, and if you find them, put them up like cattle to be claimed by shifters and others! What about free will? Love? You’re talking about forcing them into sexual slavery to become broodmares for your kind!” Cerys yelled. She came to her feet. I stood and held her from flying at Theodore. Her rage was palpable, and I didn’t blame her. It was unthinkable.
“I’m with Brax because we love each other. We discovered that long before I got pregnant. We’re not having these babies for any other reason than we love each other and want a family. I won’t do it. I won’t be the reason poor women and men are forced into something so disgusting,” she shouted louder.
Everyone was on their feet. Theodore was frowning. Suddenly, the other Oracles took steps toward us. My friends and I prepared to shift and kill them. It didn’t happen because a blast of energy struck out of nowhere, knocking the Oracles, Samuel, and Dr. Fields to the ground. It left us and Twyla untouched. Along with the energy, a bright yellowish light encircled those not knocked down. I turned my head and couldn’t believe my eyes. The light was coming from Cerys.
It radiated from her body, which was surrounded by it like a halo. Even her eyes were glowing. Slowly, it faded away. When it did, the others slowly got to their feet. There was awe and wariness written over their faces. As for my friends, they stared at her in awe only. I didn’t know what to think. What had just happened? Cerys sagged. I caught her up in my arms and held her to me.