Chapter Five #2
“Well, hello there, cutie.” Stryker winked at Aspen before plopping down in the chair across from Aaron and Aspen. He opened his laptop. “I’m Stryker, mate to the amazing and hot as fuck Gavin, Leo’s brother, and wizard behind a keyboard.”
“You’re a wizard!” Aspen started to bounce in his seat. “I’ve never met a wizard before.”
Stryker’s fingers froze on the laptop keyboard as he slowly lifted his head. “You are absolutely precious. Would you like to be adopted?”
“Adopted?” Aspen asked with obvious confusion. “Do wizards usually adopt people?”
“He’s an adult,” Leo growled out. “You can’t go around adopting people.”
“I didn’t mean for me.” Stryker smacked his own chest. “Just think about it though. Bryce would go crazy for that sweet face. And as alpha mate, he would totally take Aspen under his wing and dote on him.”
“He’s not a wizard,” Bas said. “He’s an annoying human.”
“Whatever!” Stryker called cheerfully. “You know that you love me!”
“That’s…” Leo shook his head. “That’s not what I brought you in for. Focus, Stryker.”
“I’m the ultimate multitasker,” Stryker retorted. “And River brought home Hudson’s friend EJ. I want to bring someone home too!”
Bas sighed. “I knew River and EJ becoming friends was going to be…something.”
“EJ’s great!” Stryker told them. His fingers never stopped moving as he spoke.
How Stryker did that Aaron had no clue. There was no way that Aaron could hold a conversation about something utterly nonrelated to what he was working on. Aaron knew that Stryker was a genius when it came to computers, but he had never seen the younger man in action before.
“We’re putting together a camping trip to go with him,” Stryker continued. “He’s totally into the outdoorsy stuff.”
“You need to put that trip off until we find the hyena pack,” Leo said.
“What?” Stryker jerked his hands from his laptop.
“Didn’t Axel talk to you this morning?” Leo questioned. “About not going out alone.”
“That’s why Shawn and River dropped me off here. Gavin wouldn’t let me ride my bike.”
“That’s good. That also means no camping,” Bas stated.
“But—” Stryker frowned. “We promised. And we were really looking forward to this. We even bought new tents and sleeping bags.”
“It’s not safe,” Bas said. “Until the hyena pack is caught, no one should go out into the woods off property.”
Stryker’s chair went flying back as he stood suddenly. “But EJ is out there!”
“Damn it!” Bas was already pulling out his cell phone. “I’ll send the guys out there to find him.”
“I haven’t met this EJ,” Leo said. “Why is he out there?”
“I told you he loves the outdoorsy stuff,” Stryker replied.
Leo glanced at Aaron. “Could he be involved with the hyena pack?”
“He’s human!” Stryker shouted.
“That doesn’t mean—” Leo started.
“EJ is a sweetheart,” Stryker argued.
Damn, this was a mess. “No,” Aaron said. “EJ is fully human, a firefighter, Hudson’s best friend, and a good person. There is no way that he’s involved.”
“How can you be sure?” Leo demanded.
“I think I would know,” Aaron said. “The dreams aren’t always clear, but I think I would know if EJ was involved or not.” At least he hoped.
Bas strolled back into the conference room with the phone to his ear. “Trevor and Shawn are going to track EJ down and bring him back to town. Hudson has a few ideas where EJ likes to camp out.”
Stryker relaxed. “He’s a good guy.”
“I agree,” Bas said. “Nothing will happen to EJ. You have my word.”
“This isn’t where our concern should be,” Leo said again.
Bas shrugged. “He’s Hudson’s best friend. I can’t let anything happen to him.”
“He’s my new buddy.” Stryker sat back down.
“Great,” Leo said. “Wonderful. Can we get back to tracking down the hyena pack?”
“Sure. Mason has game cameras set out all around the state park,” Stryker said. “I don’t even have to hack the account since he gave me the password.”
“I could have done that,” Aaron complained. He needed to do something. Anything to keep his mind busy so he didn’t think about Carter and the fact that he was going to have to explain things to Carter.
“A word?” Leo motioned with his head toward the hall.
Aaron sighed but followed his friend out of the conference room. Leo strolled toward the break room in the back. “We’re going to have to repair that hole in the wall Bas made with his fist.”
“Just hang a picture over it,” Leo suggested.
“We are literally friends with the owner of a construction company,” Aaron pointed out.
“Good point,” Leo said, sending a wink over his shoulder. “I just think it would be fun to remind Bas of this later. When he’s lecturing us on something.”
Huh, that might be a good idea. “Maybe we’ll just frame it.”
“I like the way you think,” Leo replied. He entered the break room, going to the fridge.
“I’m sure you didn’t pull me away to talk about the hole,” Aaron said as he leaned against the counter.
Leo pulled out two bottles of water then turned to offer one to Aaron.
Aaron accepted the bottle and twisted the lid off.
“You’re thinking about not telling Carter,” Leo said.
It wasn’t a question.
“After everything that we’ve been through. This is really the route that you want to take?” Leo continued.
“I don’t want to talk about it.” Aaron wasn’t going to explain himself when Leo was already fully aware of Aaron’s feelings.
“You’ll be making a mistake,” Leo said. “Talk to Dean. He tried this shit tool.”
Aaron crushed the bottle in his hand, spilling water onto the floor. He’d heard all about Dean putting off his mating to Logan and how the lion had been injured as a result. “That’s different. Logan is a shifter. Carter is human.”
“He still feels the mate pull,” Leo said.
“Can we not do this?” Aaron requested.
“Fine. Just don’t say that I didn’t warn you,” Leo replied.
“We need to get to work,” Aaron said.
“That we do,” Leo agreed. He obviously did not want to let this go.
Aaron’s cell ringing cut off whatever else Leo was going to say. Aaron pulled out his phone and smiled. Carter was calling.
“I’ll head back to the conference room and get an update from Stryker. I’ll be surprised if that little genius hasn’t found something. Why don’t you answer that and make plans with your mate for later?”
Aaron scowled until Leo walked out of the break room, but answered the call. “Hey, Carter.”
* * * * *
Carter
Driving back into town, Carter glanced over at the passenger seat where his pups were asleep in the carrier that he’d bought earlier.
The vet that he’d taken them to had given the three little ones an extensive checkup and luckily a clean bill of health.
They might be underweight, but a few good meals would fix that.
A couple of hundred dollars well spent, knowing that his newest family members were going to be okay.
The vet had given shots and made a follow-up appointment for the next round. Carter was now the official owner of Aragon, Legolas, and Arwen on paperwork, which made everything seem much more…real. He’d really gone into the state park with Aaron, following a dream, and saved three precious pups.
He tightened his fingers on the steering wheel, thinking about what could have happened to his newest members of the family.
If Carter and Aaron hadn’t found them— No, Carter didn’t want to think about that.
It was bad enough to realize that there were things out there that attacked for no reason.
Or maybe they thought they had one. Like taking over Carter’s town.
Not going to happen.
Carter wasn’t going to let anything happen to the people that he’d sworn to protect.
Or to Aaron.
The paranormal world might be something that Carter was new to, but he was a cop, a damn good cop, and it didn’t matter if he was human against someone who was not.
He knew how to work a case. And if someone from the police department was already working with the paranormals in town, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out who and get in on it. That was better than being left out of things.
It didn’t appear to Carter that anyone was looking out for Aaron properly, although Aaron might not agree. Aaron mentioned his friend Leo quite often. Like Aaron thought Leo could solve all the problems of the world or some bullshit like that.
Just that morning, Carter had been in the middle of making breakfast for Aaron, Hudson, and Bastian when Leo had called a meeting. Aaron had rushed out of the house, dragging a protesting Bastian behind him.
Carter might have been a little peeved as he and Hudson had sat down to eat the food that Carter had provided.
Hudson for his part had smirked at Carter from across the table before launching into stories about mates and how they have recently been found in the paranormal world.
And Carter was not a stupid man.
All the talking around the subject and hints thrown around by his brother led Carter to one conclusion.
Carter was Aaron’s mate. Why Aaron hadn’t said anything was anyone’s guess.
But as shy as Aaron often was, Carter wasn’t really surprised.
Aaron’s haunted eyes told Carter more than words ever could.
Aaron was afraid of something. Carter didn’t think it had anything to do with him particularly. That just meant that Carter was going to have to give the man a little push into explaining what this meant for them.
Not that Carter was ready to go all into mating when he hadn’t even kissed Aaron, although he had tried, but dating sounded like a viable option. Hopefully anyway. Carter was interested in Aaron before Carter even knew about the paranormal stuff.
Aaron was super cute, cared about others, and was everything that Carter would want in a partner. That wasn’t enough to commit to a lifetime with another man he barely knew. However, it was a start.