Cool Nights, Hot Dreams: Wolves of Aurora 1

by Athena Blaez

  Sean glanced at his watch. “As much as I hate to say it, probably for the best. My mother is at home and I need to make sure she has eaten and taken her meds.”

  “I understand.” Ryder put the truck in gear. “Home it is.”

  “It’s not necessary. You can drop me off at the shop and I’ll walk from there.”

  Ryder laughed. “We’re in the truck, we’re heading in that direction. I can give you curbside service, unless you’re reluctant for me to know where you live.”

  “I don’t want to be any trouble.”

  “The only trouble I can foresee is thinking I’m coming on too strong. Am I?”

  Sean was quiet for a bit, speaking up. “I’m not a good judge of that. If I say yes, it’s because you clearly won’t take no for an answer. But the answer is probably closer to no because you’d have to hit me with a truck to get me to pick up on subtle cues.”

  “I can’t help it, Sean.” Ryder pulled up in front of the small house Sean indicated was his home. “You interest me. I am drawn to that.”

  “You’re interested because of the dream.”

  Ryder pulled back in surprise. “I wouldn’t say…I mean, it’s not the only reason.”

  Sean’s eyes widened. He rested his hand on Ryder’s arm. “Wow, that sounded like a total dick thing for me to say. Sorry. I just…trust issues,” he said with a shrug.

  He rested his hand on Sean’s. “It’s okay. I realize how it all appears and how crazy all of this sounds to anyone who doesn’t understand.”

  “Understand?” Sean’s head tilted to the side. “How does anyone understand this? This whole thing is so surreal. How easily you believe me. How easily I believe you. It’s something out of a bad romance novel or something.”

  “Would that be so bad?” Ryder picked up Sean’s hand to hold it. “We obviously have a connection, right? You said yourself that you can’t control your ability to walk into someone’s dreams all the time.”

  Sean tilted his head back and laughed. “This does sound a little like a romance, Ryder. I’m not ready for romance. I have to take care of my mom and I have the shop. There’s no time.”

  Sean pulled his hand from Ryder’s grip. Ryder was loathe to let go and did so reluctantly. “I’m not proposing marriage.”

  “Good, because that I’d say no to.”

  “How about dinner again?”

  Sean ducked his head to examine the backs of his fingers before he tilted to dig out the keys to his house. “Let me think on it.”

  Ryder held up his hands. “Fair enough.”

  Sean pulled the door handle and slid out of the truck. Ryder climbed out as well and walked Sean up to his front door. “This isn’t necessary, Ryder.”

  “I know,” Ryder said. “But it’s the right thing to do. Walk you to your door. Say goodnight.”

  “Old-fashioned values. Does your entire pack…that’s what you have, right? You’re a pack?”

  Ryder nodded. “Pack, and to answer your unfinished question, maybe? I don’t know but I know what’s right.”

  They stepped up on the porch and Ryder scanned the area around them as Sean unlocked the front door. He lifted his nose to the wind and picked up a familiar scent. Familiar as in…he had smelled it before. But it wasn’t one that was known to him.

  “Look,” Sean turned to face Ryder. “Thanks for dinner. You’re a really nice guy and I appreciate that. It’s a lost art these days.”

  “Yay! I did something right.”

  Sean sputtered out a laugh. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  They stood there in the awkward silence, Sean’s face tilted up so enticingly. It was so easy to close the distance. Ryder stopped just short of their lips making a connection, allowing for Sean to pull away if it wasn’t what he wanted.

  Sean tipped up on his toes and their mouths met.

  Warmth spread over Ryder, starting with his face and smoothing down over his entire body as if he had been immersed in oil. Their hands collided as they searched for a way to hold each other close and deepen the kiss. When Sean opened his mouth and their tongues danced, Ryder’s entire body came alive. This feeling of such utter contentment was something he didn’t think he’d ever experience.

  He had heard all the talk with his friends, with his pack, when they found the one. It seemed too good to be true. Yet here he was, in the presence of a man he was confident one hundred percent was meant for him.

  When they parted, Sean passed a shaking hand over his lips. “Wow. That was…that never happened before.”

  Ryder was panting lightly. He was dizzy and light-headed. “I guess the song’s true.”

  “Song?”

  “I feel the earth move under my feet,” Ryder sang softly.

  Sean punched him in the chest. “No serenading. I don’t want to deal with you standing under my window at all hours singing to me.”

  Ryder chuckled. “I’ll save it for my proposal.”

  Sean rolled his eyes. Whatever he was going to say was interrupted when a woman’s voice from inside the house called out. “Sean, honey, is that you?”

  “Yeah, Mom, I just got back. I’m on my way up.” Sean tilted his head towards the door. “I should get inside.”

  Jamming his hands in his pocket, Ryder took a step back. “Yeah, I should let you go. Thanks for having dinner with me tonight.”

  Sean stepped into the house, then paused. “Thanks for inviting me. I had a good time. I guess…I’ll see you later?”

  Ryder nodded and backed up towards his truck. “Yeah, you will. Good night, Sean.”

  “Night.”

  Ryder climbed in his truck and started it. He put it in gear and waited until the porch light went out before he drove off.

  That went much better than he could have hoped. Ryder definitely wanted to see Sean again.

  He made the corner that would take him out of the subdivision. In the light of his brakes, he thought he saw a figure dash across the road, away from Sean’s street. He put his truck in park and stepped out of the cab, lifting his nose to the wind. It was that same scent.

  Who was that and were they following him?

  Chapter 7

  The dinner with Ryder went remarkably well, considering how it could have gone so awkwardly wrong. There were all kinds of warning signs to stay away from Ryder Cole. They were as far apart from compatible as possible. Not to mention he just met the man. They knew nothing about each other. Yet the man’s warmth and humor held Sean’s attention, even when he knew he needed to keep his distance from Ryder.

  At first, Sean wanted to write off the slip into Ryder’s dream as coincidence. It was just a freak thing. After all, his control over it was tenuous at best.

  It didn’t matter how well the dinner went, though. The moment the door shut and he watched Ryder’s truck drive off, Sean knew their connection went much deeper than he cared to admit. It was just a feeling, but Sean was certain he’d be in Ryder’s dreams again soon.

  He rushed to get his mother settled so he could drop into sleep before Ryder. To cut down on the chance he’d slip into Ryder’s dream again.

  She was having none of it.

  “How did it go, honey?” she asked as he helped her into bed.

  He fluffed the pillows up behind her so she could sit up. “It went well, Mom.”

  “Well that’s a nonanswer if I ever heard one. Is that an ‘it went well mom’ because you don’t want to talk about it or is it an ‘it went well mom’ because you’re reserving judgment until a few more dates or is it the ‘it went well mom’ in that sense that if you never see him again, you’ll be just as happy?”

  God, she knew him so well.

  Sean sat on the edge. She gathered his hands in hers. They were so small and frail now. It didn’t matter how much they fought the cancer, she was losing this battle. Sean felt it in his bones.

  “A little of all of them? Mostly, the first two. He’s nice,” Sean said with a sigh.

  “That sounds less like
a bonus and more like a death sentence.”

  “I’m not sure which it is right now. I mean…he’s really easy to be around. And every time I would try to throw up a wall to keep him from peering too deeply, he found a way around or over it.”

  “I keep praying that you’ll find someone to spend your time with so you won’t be so alone when I’m gone.”

  Sean shook his head vehemently. “You’re not going anywhere. You’ll beat this.”

  “Of course,” she said. Her voice was patient but the underlying sense of her words were just as he feared. Placating him. They both knew the end was inevitable this time. “But it would be nice if you had someone to go out with more often. Just to get out of the house so you’re not waiting on me all the time.”

  Sean fidgeted with her covers to make sure they laid flat over her legs. “I go out.”

  “Going out to the Dairy Spot for coleslaw dogs with Jeremy doesn’t count, Sean.” She pulled him in for a hug and he fell into it as if he were twelve and not twenty-six. “Promise me that if you like him, you’ll go out again. Give it a chance, baby. Regardless of the cancer, I won’t be around forever. Don’t be alone when I’m gone. Promise me that.”

  He buried his face in her hair. “I promise, Mom.”

  The most disconcerting thing about dreamwalking was that Sean was aware of it almost immediately as he entered someone else’s dreams. There was a moment of disorientation, being in that state between deep slumber and something he called a twilight slip. There was no other way to explain it.

  He would close his eyes to fall asleep and it was as if he simply slipped sideways, like rolling off his bed.

  Except he was aware of his surroundings in the bedroom and in the dreamworld itself.

  Sean tried to control his ability to walk into someone else’s dreams. It had gotten him into more trouble than he would ever admit.

  Most of the time, he could pass it off. Joke with the person he’d just witnessed their dreams to deflect closer scrutiny. It usually worked. The other person would shake it off, swearing it seemed so real and yet how could it be real?

  That was the question that Sean was never able to answer. The only certainty he had was that he could do it.

  The woods were the same woods he remembered from his dream with Ryder. There was no one around this time. The silence was noticeable. It was hard to tell it if were dusk or dawn, only that the light level was low but it wasn’t night.

  Behind him, he heard a moan. It was almost lost on the breeze that wafted through the clearing in front of him, rustling the trees. And it wasn’t a fun-time moan.

  Sean had occasionally wandered into sex dreams that didn’t involve him. To say it was embarrassing was an understatement. This wasn’t that kind of moan. It sounded like someone was in pain.

  The hair on his arms rose as if a source of static electricity were close. He cautiously stepped into the clearing, trying to find the person making the sounds. His instincts were screaming to wake up. He could do that most of the time, force himself back out of someone else’s dream before they noticed.

  He knew he should, but curiosity drove him forward. On the other side of the clearing, he could see red partially buried beneath the leaves. A jacket? Clothing of some sort? It rustled as the wearer of the red moved. Sean froze. This wasn’t right.

  Something wasn’t right.

  Behind him, he heard footfalls, heavy and rapid. Whoever it was, they weren’t trying to disguise their approach. Before Sean could turn, he felt the solid blow to his head, sending him to the ground. A second hit and Sean jolted awake in bed.

  Drenched in sweat, Sean shivered. The room was like an icebox. He wiped irritatingly at the trickle on his shoulder. In the half-light of his bedroom, his fingers came away dark. With a frown, he turned on the side lamp.

  Blood?

  He touched at where his head throbbed painfully and felt the slick of blood on his scalp.

  That wasn’t a good sign.

  “You really should get stitches.” Jeremy tossed through the first aid kit. He found some gauze and drenched it in hydrogen peroxide before pressing it to the cut on Sean’s scalp.

  Sean jerked his head back and hissed in pain. “Jesus, Jeremy. Go easy.”

  “Sorry.” Jeremy cupped Sean’s chin and tried again, this time more gently.

  It still stung a bit but Sean rode through the pain.

  “So what happened and don’t give me some ‘trip and fell’ bullshit. Did Ryder do this?”

  “What?” Startled by the accusation, Sean looked hard at his friend. “Do you know something I don’t?”

  “What what?” Jeremy’s face was a mask of concentration as he pushed through Sean’s hair to get a better look at the cut. “No. Do you?”

  This was one of those times that Sean wished his abilities were more in line with Jeremy’s. Having the ability to empathically connect with someone would be useful in trying to figure out what was going through Jeremy’s head. “What made you say that? Just now?”

  “Nothing,” Jeremy said after a long pause. “I’m just…getting some weird vibes here. I can’t tell if they’re yours or someone close.”

  “I was dreamwalking again. I was attacked in the dream.”

  Jeremy pulled back. His hand fell away from Sean’s head. “You’re fucking with me.”

  “I wish I were.”

  “The last time that happened—”

  Sean cut him off. “I know. How does it look?”

  “You’ll live. Scalp cuts bleed like a fucker but they’re usually harmless.” Jeremy went back to work. “If you’re insisting on not going to the ER, we’ll hopefully get the bleeding stopped. How’s your head, otherwise? Headache? Blurred vision? Roll your tongue for me.”

  “I am not rolling my tongue for you, and other than a mild headache, I’m fine.” Sean blinked several times and focused across his bedroom at his dresser and the picture of him and his mother at Disney World. “Vision seems okay, too.”

  “I really think you need a doctor to look at this.” Jeremy got a new gauze and more peroxide. “But I think the bleeding has mostly stopped. No washing your hair this morning, champ. You go into work with bloody bedhead.”

  Sean made a face and combed his hair with his fingers. “We’ll see.”

  The jangle of his cell phone ringing startled him. Jeremy gave a little jump as he was putting away the first aid kit. “Jesus, that scared me. Who’s calling at 4 a.m.?”

  Sean shrugged. He frowned when it was a number he didn’t recognize. His thumb was poised over the ignore when Jeremy grabbed his wrist. “Answer it.”

  The look in Jeremy’s eyes was one that Sean instantly recognized as don’t ignore me on this. Sean respected Jeremy’s gift and he could tell this was something that set Jeremy on edge.

  “Hello?”

  “Mr. Hastings? This is Sheriff Bradley. We need you to come down to your shop.”

  Sean was instantly on his feet. “Is everything alright?”

  “We need you down here.”

  “Right. I’ll be there in five.” Sean killed the call. Giving it a toss on his bed, he immediately started digging for clothing.

  “Who was that?” Jeremy was on his feet, following Sean around the room.

  “The sheriff. He needs me down at the shop.”

  “I’ll drive you.” Jeremy grabbed one of Sean’s sweatshirts and tossed it at him. “I’ll meet you downstairs.”

  Sean dragged his tennis shoes over and jammed his bare feet into them. “I’m right behind you.”

  When they drove up, it looked like every one of the cities squad cars were there, lights flashing and bouncing off the surrounding buildings.

  Sheriff Bradley broke from a group of uniforms and approached them. “Looks like a break-in.”

  “How is that even possible? I have security grates on all the doors. No one should be able to get past them.” Sean felt like he needed to sit down.

  “They’ve been pulled from their
anchors. Do you have security cameras?”

  “Yeah…yeah, I do.” Sean really wished he’d gone to the ER now. His head was pounding like a bass drum.

  “Do they actually record or are they there for show?”

  Sean gave the sheriff a frown. “Of course they actually record.”

  Sheriff Bradley waved his hand. “Not everyone who has them does. They claim it’s a deterrent, but if someone wants to rob a place, nothing much will stop them. We’re almost done here. Can we get a copy of the video feed and a list of anything missing?”

  Sean ducked under the crime scene tape and stared through the ruined door opening. Not only had the security grate been literally ripped from its anchor embedded in the brick of the building, but the glass had been busted out. He glanced around. The place wasn’t too badly trashed. He and Katrina would have to do an inventory check. Picking through the mess, he held his breath. The entire jewelry case had been smashed and many of the items had been grabbed. He scrubbed at his face. The chances of getting them back would be next to nothing.

  Oddly enough, they left the guns alone. A visual check assured him of that. All guns were where they should be.

  “Everything okay, Mr. Hastings?” The sheriff’s deep voice jerked him back to the moment.

  “Sean. Mr. Hastings is my father. There’s a lot of stuff missing. Mostly jewelry. It’ll take a while to get that list to you. And my cash register is gone.”

  The sheriff nodded and made careful notes in his notebook. “Did you keep any money in it?”

  “No. I put the money in the safe.” The safe. Sean’s heart seized in his chest. Surely they weren’t able to make off with that, right?

  He darted to his office at the back of the shop, the sheriff on his heels. Flinging open the door, Sean’s heart beating fast and hard in his chest, he sighed with relief when he saw the safe still secure.