“Fuck!” Carter spat. “Then what is the damn purpose of us being here?”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to figure out,” Aaron confessed. “Why do my dreams and visions keep showing me these puppies.” It was frustrating and starting to piss Aaron off.
Grabbing his wrist, Carter drew Aaron away from the log. “Then why can I touch you?”
“I don’t know,” Aaron answered. “Like I said, I’ve never brought anyone into my dreams before.”
“Come on. We need to get out of here,” Carter said.
The puppies started to whine again.
“I don’t want to leave them all alone,” Aaron grumbled.
“They aren’t here!” Carter told him.
“But they’re somewhere,” Aaron pointed out. “Somewhere I obviously need to be!”
“Let’s backtrack our steps and see if we can figure out where we are,” Carter suggested.
It was a good suggestion. No water ran through the property owned by Axel and the family, which meant they must be inside the state park. Aaron could ask Mason if he knew any areas where the water was shallow enough where it wouldn’t have even covered his ankles.
“Let’s follow the water,” Aaron suggested. That might give him enough clue of where to return. His dreams and visions might be a pain in the ass, but they did mean something. Usually, Aaron just didn’t put everything together until it was basically staring him in the face. Useless damn gift if you asked him.
Carter nodded. “Good idea. I don’t know this area well.”
“Me either,” Aaron confessed. “We’re not on the family’s property though.”
“There are a few spots that Hudson’s friend EJ camps at,” Carter said. “I could ask him.”
And that would not be keeping Carter out of this. Carter might be a cop, but he wouldn’t be able to go up against a pack of hyena shifters. No, it was better that Aaron figured this out on his own. He really had no idea how Carter was even there with him. That had never happened before. “Thanks, but Mason is a park ranger. He spends most of his time mapping out the areas in the state park. We try to keep track of any paranormal that are in the area. He has a charm made by Dean that alerts him to the presence of magic and paranormals.”
Carter stopped walking to slowly turn and look at him. “Magic and paranormals.”
“Yeah.” Aaron rubbed the back of his neck before wincing. He’d forgotten his hands were covered in mud.
Carter chuckled as he stepped close. “You all are really going in on this paranormal stuff.” He gently brushed the dirt from Aaron’s shoulder.
“It’s sort of important as it affects us,” Aaron said. “Or are you going to pretend you didn’t see Bas shift into a cat in front of you?”
“I thought about it,” Carter said with a grin. “When I was trying to drift off to sleep, I had almost convinced myself that it was all some fever dream. That I’d caught a cold or something and in reality Hudson was beside my bed telling me stories to keep me entertained.”
“Would that be better? If you didn’t know?” Aaron hated to ask. It hadn’t been his decision to tell Carter. No, his vision had sort of ruined everything. Which, yeah, that was his life.
Instead of slowly getting to know Carter and introducing him into their world carefully, Aaron had fallen right at Carter’s feet. Or more accurately into Carter’s arms. Bas and Hudson had been planning on telling Carter anyway and that would have been much better. Now Carter had to be aware that Aaron was broken and would in no way make a good mate.
“I don’t think so,” Carter said.
Lost in his own thoughts, Aaron frowned. “What?”
“You asked if I would rather not know,” Carter reminded him. “The answer is no. Especially not with Hudson already involved with Bastian. I’m just trying to come to terms with all this shit actually being real.”
“Sure.” Of course, Carter’s priority would be his brother. Carter had no reason to see Aaron as anything other than the weird guy that could drag him into dreams. It wasn’t like Carter had a reason to even be involved with them other than Hudson. Aaron was totally ignoring the fact they were mates. It was better this way. For Carter.
“What about you?” Carter questioned.
Had he moved closer? It sure seemed like he had. Carter was taller than Aaron. Muscular and built in the opposite way that Aaron was short and pudgy. Not fat but it was apparent that Aaron liked his sweets and disliked the gym. Even their appearances were different from each other. They just wouldn’t ever work. Aaron had to tilt his head to peer up at Carter. “Huh?”
Carter chuckled. “You get lost in your thoughts often, don’t you?”
