“Um. Okay.” The golden-haired man did as I instructed and twisted his face into what I assumed was his interpretation of a scowl. It clearly wasn’t an expression he made often. It looked unnatural on him.
“Well?” Remington asked.
I shook my head. Even with the mild resemblance, he clearly wasn’t the same person. The lead had gone nowhere.
“You can stop scowling, by the way,” I said, when he’d forced himself to keep up the expression.
He immediately sighed and relaxed. “Is there a reason you wanted me to do that? You, er, looked kind of upset at me?”
“I’m sorry. I thought you resembled someone I knew, but I was mistaken.”
He perked up slightly at that comment. “Oh! Maybe it’s my twin you know?”
Definitely not. “I don’t think—”
“Sorry, Nero’s my fraternal twin,” the man corrected. “Everyone always gets hung up on that part… We just look like brothers. We’re not identical.”
Something clicked in my head. I was filled with confused anger for which I had no outlet. Was it possible that the man that tried to hurt Sage wasn’t this golden koi shifter, but his fraternal twin instead? But this man gave off no harmful vibes at all. How could they have been related? Then again, I recalled my own parents. I didn’t act like them, so I knew I shouldn’t jump to conclusions about this man’s character either.
“What’s your name?” Remington asked.
“Nishiki.”
Remington looked at me with a mild shrug as if to say,What should we do?
In any other situation, I would’ve been vehemently opposed to bringing home a stranger to the pack when I’d just had a baby and my mate was vulnerable. But this man seemed, to be frank, utterly clueless. What kind of adult shifter didn’t even know he could shift? And how did he get trapped in koi form in the first place? It was all around bizarre.
I chewed the inside of my cheek. Part of me wanted to mind my own business, to leave him here to fend for himself. But I had the sense that he wasn’t used to this environment. Was he lost? He was soaking wet and pathetic looking. Hell, he couldn’t evenscowlproperly.
But what if it was an act? If he was working together with his twin, the man that almost harmed Sage, and I unwittingly led him straight to my mate…
The idea terrified me.
As if reading my mind, Remington said under his breath, “We have a whole pack ready to defend Sage and Star. One man isn’t a threat, especially not if he turns into a fish.”
Remington was right. Nishiki had no weapons, not as a human and not as a koi. The only ability he had was to breathe underwater and that was obviously not a direct threat to my family.
“Does the pack always do this?” I muttered back to Remington. “Take in strays?”
He smirked. “You and I were both strays once, weren’t we?”
“Um, you guys aren’t going to eat me or anything, are you?” Nishiki asked.
“No,” Remington and I said at once.
“Okay. Just checking.” Nishiki rubbed the back of his neck. “Er, by the way, do you know how to get out of here? I kind of have no idea where I am or how I got here.”
So hewaslost.
I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Follow us…”
