Keir’s Destiny (Sentinels of Apollo #3)

Chapter 1

How the hell can a man’s life change in an instant? I shouldn’t be shocked. After all, I saw how my friends Abraxas and Fennick fell for their mates. Abraxas took a year to claim his mate, though he knew on a deeper, instinctive level that Cerys was his.

In Abraxas’s case, it took him so long to admit his feelings for Cerys because she was human.

He was worried that if he claimed her, he’d give up his chance to have pups.

However, to all of our astonishment, Cerys was a special kind of human that none of us knew existed.

Those like her were capable of having children with shifters or other supernaturals.

The proof was in the twins she currently carried.

According to their doctor, she was carrying a boy and a girl.

Brax was over the moon, and so was Cerys. We were all so thrilled for them.

I doubted it would be long before Fen and Akiva settled down and then added to the baby fest. For shifters and supernatural beings, we were dying out.

We needed to have children to continue our species, yet it was more than that.

Most of us wanted young. The years of thinking we could only reproduce with another of our kind had drastically reduced the number of offspring we had.

I should’ve known that the one meant to be my fated mate would come out of an unlikely place.

And she did. It was when we got a message on the Sentinels of Apollo tip line that we’d recently set up.

It was established due to the treachery of the Council of Oracles, our guiding elders.

They kept knowledge of the existence of humans like Cerys, called Precious Ones, from the Sentinels—the police force of the shifter and supernatural world.

In addition, the Council hid that a mortal enemy of our creator—the god Apollo and his chosen children, shifters and supernaturals—was back from Tartarus and out to wipe us out of existence.

The enemies were Pytho and his Knights. We had yet to meet any of them, but they were out there, building their followers to take us on.

Due to dereliction of their duty, the Council of Oracles had been all but disbanded, and the Sentinels of Apollo phalanxes around the world were exploring new ways to connect with our people.

Until recently, regular supernaturals and shifters had no idea who the members of the Sentinel were. That was changing.

The tip line had received a message a few days ago about an issue in Phoenix, Arizona. The tipster was vague on precisely what was wrong, only that shifters were being targeted. My six fellow Sentinels and I, tasked with policing the United States, decided to check it out.

I had no idea, as we pulled up to the small house in a rundown Phoenix neighborhood, that my mate was near.

One thing was immediately apparent as we parked.

Whoever lived here took pride in their home.

Unlike the surrounding houses, which were in disrepair and had junk scattered everywhere on their lawns, the house we wanted had a neat yard.

There were flowerbeds filled with flowers even though it was winter.

The paint on the home might have faded, but it wasn’t chipped.

And the porch wasn’t in danger of falling in like its neighbors.

Taking up a post outside the house, as Abraxas and Fennick knocked, my body tingled.

I looked for danger and hostiles, but saw or scented none.

The elderly man who opened the door finally let my two friends in after some back-and-forth to convince him they were Sentinels, not men there to rob him.

Most of us stayed outside until Abraxas gave the all-clear to enter minutes later.

As soon as I entered the house, I was hit with the scent of leopards.

It had been decades since I’d met other leopards like me.

It was cause for excitement. We were introduced to Galen Katz and his great-grandson, Galen the Third.

Or, as they liked to be called, Old Galen and Gal.

However, there was more to my eagerness than the two of them.

I caught the scent of a female leopard, causing my leopard, Rogue, to come alive inside me.

Find her. Bring her to us, he demanded.

I can’t just go prowling through this man’s house without an invitation. Be calm. I’ll find her soon, I said, chastising him. I wasn’t sure why I bothered. He wouldn’t listen to me in this case. He was too focused on the fact that a female was near.

However, it became evident quickly that the woman wasn’t home.

According to her great-granddad, she was at work.

As they described the issue that led Gal to message the Sentinels, the hairs on my neck stood up.

I wanted to march straight to where his granddaughter, whom I discovered was named Fiona, was and bring her home.

She wouldn’t be safe unless she were where I could keep an eye on her.

Old Galen assured us she was safe at her work. I wasn’t sure of that.

Thankfully, after more talk, which I impatiently endured, it was decided to leave two of us behind to watch over the Katz family for a bit.

At least until we had a chance to investigate what was behind the letter they received, it could be a hoax.

The so-called disappearances and reports of shifters leaving Phoenix and Arizona due to threats from an unknown group would need to be substantiated.

If it were, then the Sentinels would take care of whoever was behind it.

Thankfully, I was one of the two left. I doubted I would’ve been able to leave.

Gunnar and I said goodbye to our friends and fellow Sentinels a couple of hours after we arrived at the Katz household. Once they were gone, we returned to speaking to Gal and Old Galen.

“What time does your granddaughter need to be picked up from work?” I asked.

“She typically gets done at six p.m., unless she has to work overtime. We wait for her text to confirm. Sometimes, it can go well into the night,” he replied.

“What kind of work does she do?” Gunnar asked before I had a chance to. I was wondering too, and not happy that she would be anywhere after dark.

“She works for the Phoenix Police Department as a forensic analyst. She analyzes items gathered at crime scenes. Sometimes, she helps to gather it herself if there’s a need,” Old Galen explained.

“She deals in dead bodies?” I blurted out.

“Yes, but not every time. She deals with the evidence, and sometimes it might be a body. Other times, it might be a robbery or something like that. She’s very good at her job.

If they get calls to work a case, she has to stay over.

Her eight hours can become twelve or more,” Gal replied.

Pride was evident in his tone and on the faces of both him and his granddad.

I didn’t like the idea of her out there gathering evidence or having to touch God-knows-what in the lab. What made her do it?

“Why would she do that kind of job?” I asked.

“My sister has always loved those forensic science and detective shows. She said when she grew up, she wanted to do that,” Gal answered.

“My granddaughter is an extremely smart, driven, and focused young lady. She set her sights on her career by the time she started high school. She pushed herself to excel, and she did. She took dual-credit classes and made it through high school in three years. Then she double-majored in college. Fiona carried a course load that the professors said she couldn’t handle, but she did.

When she graduated two years ago, she earned a Bachelor of Science in biology and a Bachelor of Science in chemistry.

One of her professors had worked for the Phoenix PD and recommended her for a job there.

They snatched her up,” Old Galen told us with pride.

The more they said, the more I was driven to meet her. Of course, I was interested from the standpoint that she was a female leopard. The more I learned, the intrigue grew beyond that reason. Suddenly, I was struck by a thought. One that had Rogue growling inside.

“Does she have a mate? Or a boyfriend?” I asked.

I caught the glance Gunnar gave me, but he kept his mouth shut. He couldn’t fault me for asking, when Fiona might be the only female of my species I’d meet for another hundred years.

Gal snorted. “Yeah, right, as if she has time. And even if she did, men don’t understand her.

They try to boss her around, and that doesn’t work with my sister.

She’s her own boss. Plus, human males tend to be intimidated by her.

As for leopards, well, there aren’t many of us in the Phoenix area.

The few who are have all tried to get her to date them and be their mate, but she turned them all down. ”

Rogue’s temper eased, and mine with it. Hell, I hadn’t even met her.

She and I would probably dislike each other on sight.

I reminded myself of this as Gunnar began asking them about their safety measures.

As he did, I thought about the almost impossible goal of shifters finding their true mate and being able to settle down with them and have offspring.

Most shifters I've met didn’t care if there was compatibility or even like between them and a mate of their species. If they found an unmated male or female of their own kind, they went after them to make them their mate. All they cared about was continuing their genetic lines.