Loch & Key (Miracle: Salvation Isle #7)

13. CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 13

The entire day had been beyond tedious. Each confession, story or nightmare he’d listened to even as he’d waited for his mate, who had left that morning before Nessim had awakened, were…well, torture.

Even when he’d been on that stupid ship scenting his mate close by hadn’t had him as on edge. Okay, so maybe it had. It still hadn’t made the time he’d awoken to find a note on the bedside table letting him know Aban had left to find his friend any better.

In some ways, it was worse. Sure, at least they’d spent an amazing night together, but what if that was all there was? He’d been around enough to know there was no such thing as a sure thing. Nessim wasn’t even certain there was a ‘maybe’ thing.

Yet, he definitely prayed for it to be true.

For years, he’d wanted nothing more than to find his mate and live ‘Happily ever after.’ Stupid…right? Yet, no matter how often he’d tried to convince himself the fairytale life wasn’t for him, the more Nessim craved it.

What he wasn’t certain of was whether or not he could have believed it would happen. As someone who’d allowed his parents to convince him Santa had been real until he was fifteen, it had been difficult to trust them. Or anyone, for that matter.

“What do you think?” Artemon asked.

Even as Artemon spoke those words, Nessim hadn’t really heard him.

That his high-handed cousin had produced a daughter, whom he seemed to have passed down his traits to, killed Nessim. Artemon looked away from his child and the girl’s mother. “My parents are coming next week to see them.”

The thing was, Nessim wasn’t all that surprised.

His cousin’s mother had mated with a seal, and Artemon had been born a seal instead of one of the infamous Loch Ness Monsters. Yeah, he knew that wasn’t their ‘technical’ name, but it always made him laugh. It was a point of contention, where some hated the term and others—like Nessim—found it equally funny.

That it was nearly impossible for Nessim to shift without having to be in seawater, which made his skin itch, didn’t seem to matter to any of them, especially Artemon. But the fact was, there just weren’t that many freshwater lakes big enough for Nessim to immerse himself in.

“Does this have to do with us being relatives of the original Loch Ness?” Nessim asked as he once more scratched his skin, even though he was fairly certain the answer didn’t matter.

His cousin just smiled at him.

That was not the answer he’d hoped for, but it was still something to go on. At least, he hoped so.

His aunt had come up to him and gently nudged his fingernails from doing more damage to his skin than he’d already done. “I hate to tell you, but yes, it does. Don’t get me wrong, I love who our ancestors are, but the whole saltwater thing, when most of the earth is covered with it, gets a bit…tedious.”

That was something Nessim could understand, and he smiled gratefully at his aunt for seeming to understand what he’d meant. It might seem great to be part of a culture of mythology, but that wasn’t always the case.

He would have loved to have met others whose origins were more myth than fiction. The only other one he could claim to know like that—other than his family—was Draco, a dragon shifter. He hadn’t even known any actually existed.

Then again, Drago hadn’t known there had been a lineage from the Loch Ness Monster, either.

“Do you know if your mate is coming back?” his cousin asked snidely.

Why had he allowed them to come to visit him? For that matter, why had he thought it a good idea to tell any of his family members about Aban?

You weren’t certain anyone could actually love you.

He seriously hated that he even thought that after the night they’d spent together, yet…

No.

Stop.

He refused to entertain any more ideas about Aban not wanting him. Right?

Except…

Nessim let out a sigh of resignation.

His aunt enfolded him into her embrace even as she told her own son, Artemon, to keep quiet. Not that he would ever listen to her. After the years of watching them together, the one thing Nessim had noticed was that Artemon never listened to his mother, especially when she asked him to be kind to others.

It was almost as if it were some sort of sacrilege not to make others feel as inferior as possible.

He hadn’t known Aban for more than a couple of days—mostly on a ship in the Pacific—but he really hoped his mate wasn’t like his uncle or cousin.