“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 seemmuch 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.
