“Uh,” the man said. “Hi again.”
I was jolted back to reality. Right. Talking was a thing.
I forced past the sudden dryness in my mouth. Damnit, it was barely noon and I’d already gone through an exhausting whirlwind of emotions. Now I had to string words together coherently, too?
“Hello,” I said.
The man’s lips curled into a tiny lopsided smile. “Do you, uh… remember me?”
“Yes,” I said immediately. “Nero, right? You’re Nishiki’s twin brother. And Dr. Pine’s son.”
Nero seemed pleased. “Yup. That’s me.”
“Hard to forget a shark shifter.” The words took an immense amount of effort to say. What was wrong with me? This wasn’t the first time I’d met Nero, but I didn’t have nearly so much difficulty talking to him before. Had something changed?
I blamed it on my stupid heat, or the fact that I’d just been through a shitty situation. As soon as I remembered Klimt, I frowned. I subconsciously moved closer to Nero and asked, “Is he gone?”
Nero snapped to attention. He glared over to the opposite side of the water, where the grass was wet and appeared to have been crushed underfoot.
“Shit,” Nero muttered. “He must’ve escaped.”
I nodded absently. Part of my vision was obscured from all the splashing water, but in the midst of the chaos, I saw Klimt’s wolf form climb out of the pool and scurry away.
It still didn’t feel real. “You leapt out of the water like…” I threw my hands in the air. “I don’t know, like something out of a movie.”
Nero’s eyes widened in surprise. “Wait, you know about movies?”
“Um. Yes?”
His surprise turned into excitement. “You have a TV out here?”
When I realized where his confusion stemmed from, I withheld a snort of laughter. “Oh, no. You won’t find a TV out here, sorry.”
Nero’s face fell, like this was a huge tragedy.
“But you think I’m like the others, right?” I asked quietly. “A totally wild shifter?”
Nero blinked. “Aren’t you?” But then he perked up, as if remembering something. “Wait. That old manor in town. That’s yours, right?”
“Er, well, I don’t live there anymore. But yeah, it’s technically mine, I guess.” I rubbed my arm, suddenly feeling self conscious. “I’m different than the other shifters you met.”
Nero didn’t seem to notice the spiral in my mood. “That’s awesome!” he said brightly. “That means I can talk about stuff and you actually understand me. Like if I say, Wi-Fi. Or pizza delivery.”
I stared at him for a moment before a laugh spilled out of me. “Yes? I know what both of those things are. I mean, they don’texistout here, but…”
Nero let out a massive sigh of relief. “Finally! It felt like I was going crazy. I’ve been away from civilization so long that all those things seem like a dream to me now.”
I couldn’t hold back a smirk. Nero’s enthusiasm for human things was refreshing after living with the pack, who preferred to live on the wild side.
“Wait,” Nero said. “Why are you all the way out here? I thought you lived with those other—uh, shifters.”
I glanced away and rubbed my arm. “It’s a long story.”
Nero shrugged. “Not like I have anywhere to be.”
I blinked. Why did he want to hear my sad sack tale? It wasn’t even interesting. Hell, it was pathetic.
“I just needed to get away from my life for a while,” I mumbled, unable to look at Nero. He continued to listen, so I kept talking. “Everyone in my pack seems so happy, like everything’s perfect, but I don’t feel that way. I feel like something’s missing. Like I’m broken.”
