Chapter 20 #2
“We’ll keep an eye on you, troublemaker. How are you doing, Akiva?” Colter asked.
There was a note of hesitancy in Colter’s voice.
When Akiva first arrived, since she was a bear and so were they, and females were so rare, they wanted her to consider them potential mates.
Then they discovered her past and felt terrible that they might’ve caused her worry or fear, even for a moment. They tried to be extra careful now.
Her smile was pure friendliness. “I’m doing wonderful. And I hope you guys are, too. We came in to celebrate tonight.”
“We’re fantastic. Would this lovely lady sitting next to Keir have anything to do with why you’re celebrating?” Cooper asked. Their eyes were on Fiona.
“It would. Let me make introductions. This is Fiona Katz. She’s my mate. Fiona, these are the Bhaers I told you about. This one is Cooper, he owns the bar, and that’s his younger brother, Colter. On the other side of Colter are their cousins Calvin and Chance. They all help out here,” I explained.
Fiona smiled. “It’s lovely to meet you. Keir said I had to come here if I wanted to meet more people in Needles. We want to make friends here.”
“I knew I hadn’t seen you before. Where are you from? And what do you mean by we?” Chance asked.
“My younger brother and my great-granddad moved here last weekend. We came from Arizona.”
“Is she the reason you all had to go there a couple of times?” Cooper asked.
“She is. Thank the gods we did, or I wouldn’t have found her.
“And is that all resolved?” Calvin asked.
“We hope so, at least as it pertains to Fiona and her family. But we have a problem. We were thinking of holding a meeting at the usual spot to discuss it. Next Sunday, to be specific, so it gives everyone time to be notified and arrange to be there if they can be,” Brax stated.
“That’s more than enough notice, I think. Just let us know the time, and we’ll help make sure everyone knows,” Cooper offered.
After thanking him, we talked to them for about ten minutes, then the music began, and they excused themselves to get back to work.
The night wore on with us talking to and introducing Fiona to a lot of locals, though most weren’t shifters.
Whenever the ones who lived here full-time saw a new face among us, it was news.
The night passed in a fun blur. I got up and slow danced with my mate a few times.
It was equal parts bliss and torture to hold her close and not be able to do more than hold her.
However, as foreplay, it played hell on our libido so that when we got home that night, we almost didn’t make it to our bedroom.
If her brother and granddad weren’t in the house, I would’ve taken her against the wall by the entrance.
?
It was late afternoon. The meeting spot in the center of the Sentinels’ land wasn’t barren.
It was filled with the shifters that resided in and around Needles.
Since meeting Akiva and her group of fellow travelers, our numbers had swelled more than double to thirty-three of us when you included Fiona and her family.
Brax, the unofficial leader of our phalanx, addressed the attendees.
You could see they were eager for news, but also apprehensive.
We hadn’t brought a lot of good news in the past eight months.
Yes, we added more shifters to our mix, but lots of upheaval for us all when it came to the Council of Oracles and the Knights of Pytho.
Before giving updates on what we found in Phoenix, we introduced Fiona, Galen, and Gal to everyone, then went through the others’ names. We knew it would take time for them to remember everyone’s names, but as always, our neighbors and friends were eager to meet more of us.
Besides the Bhaers, the other original residents of our little town were Roan, who was a Cheval Mallet, a horse shifter. After him were Daiki and Kasumi, who were kitsune foxes. The three panthers in our community were Jonah, his mate Lilith, and their daughter Ivory.
The newest additions Akiva traveled with for a short while were a large group.
Asa, Adir, Leah, Simon, and Shiloh were coyotes.
Asa was the patriarch. The raptors were Trevor and his sister, Thea.
Mates, Isaac and Mia were mated panthers.
Bruce was another vampire. And the last three, Orion, Camila, and Juliette, were cousin wolves.
For the newest residents, we were talking about buying an old hotel that sat at the end of town.
We planned to renovate it as housing for shifters.
It would serve as interim housing. We’d chop it into mainly two-bedroom apartments, with a few three-bedroom ones.
Besides sprucing it up, all we had to do was add small efficiency kitchens.
The idea was to house them until they could find jobs and homes.
We knew that as we brought more here to form a defensible group of us, we’d need somewhere to put them.
I noted how stunned the Katzes were after meeting so many. It made me proud of what we were creating here. More shifters need to form these kinds of clusters to protect and preserve our way of life.
Once the introductions were over, Brax launched into a condensed recounting of why we were in Phoenix and what we had discovered.
It caused the tension to rise. When he finished outlining what happened, Brax opened it up to questions and comments.
There were the expected questions about whether we thought the Knights would target Needles.
How many more did we think were out there?
Weren’t we concerned about humans being recruited, and more?
It dragged on for a good hour before we had to bring it to a close.
“I know that you want more answers, and so do we. But at this time, we don’t have any other way to know.
We took out the group of Liberators sent to acquire Fiona and her family.
The Knights not only have computer people, but also the ones they call Watchers.
We’ll continue to push to find answers and to eliminate them as we find them,” Brax said.
“We hate that we have to be reactive, but without knowing where they come from or how many, there’s no way to be proactive and take the fight directly to them.
We brought the Katz family here before the Knights could have more Watchers and Liberators assigned to them again.
We’ve been watching to make sure none followed us.
There’s been no indication, but we should all be on our guard and report anything suspicious or that triggers your alarms, no matter how minor it is.
We’d rather check it out and be wrong than ignore it and get hit with something terrible,” Banner added.
“We know and appreciate what you’re all doing. Over time, more supernaturals and shifters will likely make Needles or the surrounding area their home. It’s smart,” Jonah told the gathering.
“I think we should consider forming a more formal collective. Now, don’t cringe at the term.
It isn’t always used negatively, even if that’s the only connotation most think of these days.
I feel we should form a militia and have all adults who are physically capable trained as soldiers.
I’m not saying we have to be Marine Corps level, but we need to know how to shoot, to defend ourselves, and basic survival skills.
I know that’s asking a lot with everything else you guys do.
Maybe we can find someone who can do it, who’s former military and like us.
Or a human with that background, and we don’t tell them what we are,” Roan chimed in.
My fellow Sentinels and I exchanged glances. We hadn’t meant to mention it today, but Roan had given us the perfect segue. Brax nodded to me.
“We know that the Knights are recruiting humans to help them fight this war. And make no mistake, it is a war. With their numbers, we can never hope to win. However, if we were to do the same, we could bolster our numbers and recruit those like you mentioned, Roan.
“I know it’s scary to think of telling humans about us, but you have two right here who know.
And I have no doubt there are many more around the country.
Not everyone lives in secret. We have to be selective, not just blurt it out to anyone.
But I bet you can think of at least one human you know that you’ve been tempted to tell what you are.
You believe they can be trusted with the knowledge.
If we want to survive this, we have to think outside of the box,” I said.
My announcement caused a big stir, with lots of murmuring and restless movement. We stayed quiet and let it sink in.
After ten minutes, Royal spoke up. “We’ve given you a lot to think about.
I say we hold off on making any kind of decision.
Your suggestion has merit, Roan, and we’ve been toying with that same thought.
However, before we make any move, we need to do more research and want all of you to think it through.
Ultimately, as Sentinels, we have the right to institute changes we see fit.
We don’t want to make edicts that you have no say in, but all aspects have to be considered.
Why don’t we meet again in two weeks? At the same time, right here.
You can bring questions, concerns, and suggestions.
I believe we have to give it serious consideration.
“Until then, you know to watch yourselves, report anything that doesn’t feel right, and think about who you might feel it’s safe to reveal yourselves to, but no one does it.
I can’t stress that enough. Don’t breathe a word to anyone.
Now, I know you’re all busy, so you’re free to go.
If you want to speak to us, we’ll hang here for a while.
” Brax concluded the meeting in his usual direct manner.
It was over an hour before everyone finished asking us questions and voicing their concerns about bringing in humans.
We understood their hesitancy, but my friends and I saw no other way to survive.
The Knights of Pytho were out to purge the world of all our kind.
If we didn’t fight back and find allies to help, we wouldn’t survive.
Nico had insisted on being at the meeting.
He said the others needed to see a united front.
However, the session lasted too long. He grew progressively weaker and gray-looking.
I didn’t know if many of the civilians noticed, but his friends did.
At one point, after the group was officially dismissed, I noticed Bruce went over to Nico.
They began a whispered conversation. I couldn’t hear what was said. They were shielding themselves.
Bruce frowned, but so did Nico. There were headshakes, hand gestures, and tension. I didn’t need to feel it to know it was there. Eventually, Bruce put his hands up, as if he surrendered, then walked off.
After everyone dispersed and left our land, we went over to Nico. He rested in a lawn chair we brought for this purpose.
“Sorry it took so long. We’ll get you home,” Fennick told Nico.
“I’m fine,” Nico protested.
“Like hell you are. Don’t lie to us, Nico. We can tell you’re on your last leg,” Brax said sternly.
“It’s not weak to lean on your friends and let us help you,” Royal added.
After hearing the same thing from the rest of us, he sighed.
“Fine. We can go. I need to lie down,” Nico confessed.
“Sure thing. Oh, by the way, what were you and Bruce talking about? It seemed to be somewhat intense.” I stated.
Nico’s expression became shuttered. “It wasn’t intense. He was expressing his concerns about using humans like the rest of them. That’s all. Come on. I need some food.”
He rose shakily from the chair. A glance told me my other fellow Sentinels weren’t buying it. Great. It seemed we’d have to keep an eye on Nico. Not only was he floundering, but he was hiding something from us.
Due to his injury, Nico wasn’t capable of flying himself out of there or teleporting, which would’ve taken no time at all.
He’d been brought there in Gunnar’s sandrail.
Their drive back was slow so as not to jar Nico too much.
Galen insisted on following them, in case Nico needed medical attention.
Gal went with him, while the rest of us headed home. We had a lot to think about.