“Hm. How about this way?” Nero said, choosing the northern fork. I trotted on the grass beside him. We may have looked like an unusual pair, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Nero suddenly stopped. His silver body went completely still.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“There’s something in the water,” Nero growled, his voice gravelly in his shark form. “It smells like death.”
My ears flattened against my head in fear. “What?” I looked ahead but I couldn’t see what Nero was talking about. Even when I scented the air, my senses didn’t catch what he did. “Is it safe? Should you get out of the water?”
Nero let out a proud, one-note laugh. “I’m a shark, Remmy.I’mthe most dangerous thing in the water.” His next words were serious. “But whatever it is, I don’t like it. I need to check it out.”
“Okay,” I said, unsure.
Nero turned a black, intelligent eye on me. “Don’t worry. I won’t let anything happen to you or our baby. But if you’re really worried, you can go on home to the grove. It’s not far from here.”
The fur on my neck raised in irritation. I wasnotgoing to let Nero play the strong-alpha-saving-omega-in-distress card.
“Nope. I’m not going anywhere,” I stated.
“I know.” He let out a low chuckle. “By the way, I wasn’t expecting you to take that offer. I know you better than that.”
I swished my tail in defiance. “Then you also know I won’t let you deal with shit all by yourself. We’re mates. Whatever we face, we face it together.”
“Well said. C’mon, the stink is just up the river.”
I tried to keep pace with Nero, but even a wolf’s trot can’t keep up with a shark in the water, so he slowed down for my sake. I followed him upriver until the smell finally hit me, too. It must’ve been more potent in the water but now it was thick enough to stain the air.
“Ugh,” I said, grinding my paws to a halt. “You’re right. That’s awful.”
Nero made a sound that reminded me of a growl, but rougher and deeper in his throat. “There’s debris in the water. Pieces of meat and bone. I don’t like this, Remington.”
I knew Nero was serious when he used my full name. The rank scent of death filled my nose. I shuffled uncomfortably on my paws.
“I see something ahead,” I told him. “Almost like… a dam.”
Time had passed since we took the fork, and in the dim evening light, neither of us could see very well, but there was a definite lump in the distance.
“Wait a second. I know where we are,” I said, my heart sinking with dread. “Up ahead is the waterfall where we met.”
Where Nero saved me from Klimt,I thought.
Nero’s tail sliced the water impatiently. I knew my mate. He wanted to rush in and deal with this head on. But becoming my mate had tempered his impulsiveness. He wasn’t just living for himself anymore—he had me and the baby to worry about. He had to think his actions through.
“Let’s go together,” Nero growled. “As a team.”
“Deal.”
We dashed forward, shark and wolf. When we reached the crashing waterfall, I skidded to a halt. Horror filled me. All the hairs on my pelt stood on end.
“What the hell?” Nero cried angrily, his rough voice booming.
The whole area smelled like death, just like Nero said, and I immediately saw why.
Disgusted fury prickled my skin. Half of the waterfall was blocked, dammed up by what looked to be dozens of half-eaten, wasted corpses of prey.
And standing at the top of the cliff, lording over this domain of decay, was Klimt.
18
