Remington and I exchanged another glance. I shrugged but there was a knowing glint in my mate’s eyes, like he’d caught on to something before me.
“What is it?” I asked.
“There’s something about him,” Remington murmured, his gaze upon the dragon-man-fish. “He kind of reminds me of…”
“Of what?” I urged.
“Nero.”
I flinched and whipped back towards the floating figure. Even though he had a dragon’s head, I somehow ascertained that he was smiling at me.
“My name is Nautilus,” he said, that smooth voice like a flowing stream. “I am the spirit of water bound to this area, this ‘wildlife reserve,’ as the locals call it.”
“Okay,” I said, blinking.
“I possess great, ancient powers related to all things aquatic.”
“Okay.”
Nautilus paused, staring at me with intense dragon eyes, like he was waiting for me to understand something.
I shrugged. “Um… Nice to meet you?”
Beside me, Remington slapped his forehead. “Nero…” he mumbled, like he wasalsowaiting for me to understand something.
“What?” I blurted out. “Am I the only one who doesn’t know what’s going on?”
Nautilus shook his head while chuckling, in that sort of holier-than-thou way that reminded me deeply of my brother.
And as soon as I made that connection, my jaw dropped.
“Wait a fucking second,” I muttered. “Youcan’tbe…”
“I am,” Nautilus said, smiling wider to reveal jagged dragon teeth. “It seems that you have finally figured it out, my son.”
13
Remington
“You’re mydad?”Nero exclaimed.
“Yes, that is correct,” Nautilus said calmly.
“But—you’re not a human! You’re not even a shifter! You’re a—dragon-thing!”
The water spirit took offense to that, scoffing. Now that I knew who he was, I realized that a lot of his mannerisms reminded me of Nishiki.
“I am very much a shifter,” Nautilus said. Before Nero could argue, Nautilus took on the form of a shark—the same kind as his son—and disappeared into the water before leaping up and shifting back again. “Does that allay your concerns?”
Nero was still caught up in a haze of disbelief, waving his hands around. “But you’re not some deadbeat asshole—I mean, you still kind of are, but you’re this mystical thing and not just a human or a shifter—”
I put my hand on Nero’s arm to calm and reassure him. “Hey, this is a good thing. You found what you were looking for, right?”
Nero’s panicked energy deflated as I touched him. He let out a big sigh. “Yeah. You’re right. I guess this is just… so not what I expected.”
I couldn’t blame him. In the back of my mind, I expected his father to be some kind of regular shifter, like me. His father being aspirit of waterhit me like a truck.
But as I rubbed Nero’s arm comfortingly, his expression changed. He gave his father a hesitant smile. “So. You’re the one who got my mom pregnant, huh?”
