Remington nodded. “It’s almost like the fates wanted me to meet Dr. Pine. Without her, I don’t know if I would’ve ever met the pack. If I hadn’t met the pack, I wouldn’t have met you, Nero. And now I can’t imagine my life without you.”
I felt a surge of affection and kissed him on the forehead.
“Though I still have no idea how she knows so much about shifters, sometimes even more than we know about ourselves,” Remington murmured. “Was she always like this?”
“If by that, you mean kooky, then yes,” I said, grinning. “She was always into werewolves and things I thought were supernatural, though she acted like they were completely normal.”
He smirked. “Well, she wasn’t entirely wrong.”
“No. To my surprise, she wasn’t.” I tilted my head. “Do you really think my dad’s a shifter?”
“That would explain why you and Nishiki are shifters. I’ve never heard of two humans producing a shifter.”
“Still, even if heisa shifter, he’s also a deadbeat,” I mumbled.
Remington shot me a sympathetic glance. “Are you sure you want to find him?”
“Yeah. That’ll solve two things. One, knowing the truth about what he is. And two, I’ll be able to tell him to his face that he’s a total douchebag.”
Remington broke out into a laugh. I could tell he wasn’t trying to stifle his laughter as much around me, which I loved. I wanted him to be his true, authentic self all the time.
“She hinted at the fact that he’s around here in the reserve somewhere,” I said. “Or at least, that’s what Ithinkher cryptic hint meant.”
“We’ll find him, Nero,” Remington promised. His eyes flashed with determination and I couldn’t look away from them. It was the expression of a man who intended to keep his promise.
And, without a doubt, I believed him.
11
Remington
We spentthe next couple days travelling deeper into the reserve, following the river upstream. Before now, it never occurred to me that there was a source to all this water. I’d never given it much thought until I met Nero, whose shifted form was a water-dweller.
My heat never fully settled. I kept waiting for it to subside, but it didn’t. Nero and I were intimate every night, sometimes even during the day, yet it was never enough to abate my heat. I knew deep down it wouldn’t be satisfied without a knot, or whatever Nero’s version of that was.
Still, it amazed me that Nero was able to be around me without jumping on me like an uncontrollable beast. I shuddered to think about the way Klimt stared down at me back at the lake. I didn’t even want to think about what would’ve happened if Nero hadn’t been there to save me.
“What do you know about shark mating?” I asked.
Nero practically choked. “Where’d that come from?”
“I was just thinking about it. I don’t know many other alphas who can justexistaround an omega in heat.”
“Huh. I didn’t know it was that special.” He tapped a finger to his lips in thought. “Now that you mention it, I remember doing a research project on sharks in high school for bio class. I know the male sharks are smaller than females, who aremassive,and that males have two claspers. But the claspers are also dicks? It’s kind of confusing.”
My brows raised. “You havetwo?”
“No,” Nero said, laughing. “Don’t you already know that? You’ve seen my junk.”
I glanced suspiciously at his lower half, like a second cock would manifest out of thin air.
“I just know that alpha’s dicks can change around an omega in heat, especially when they’re mating,” I mumbled.
“Let’s just say that if I magically grow another one, I’ll be extremely surprised. Anyway, about shark sex… I’m pretty sure the female shark has all the say in the matter. Like, if she’s not in the mood, she can very easily tell the guy to fuck off. So it has to be her choice.” He shrugged. “But male omegas aren’t female sharks, so I have no clue if that means anything.”
“Hm… I don’t know either,” I said. “But I’m glad. I’ve never been this comfortable around an alpha when I’m in heat before.”
Nero grinned, looking both smug and jealous, as if he was ready to fight off any other hypothetical alphas. Not that I was interested in anyone except him. I wrapped my arm around his to make that clear.
