After Dawn, What Came Next

He thought the Brat Pack could divert the boy and they had done as he expected. The Brat Pack knew nothing of suffering or of war. They trained, of course. But, they had never seen a battlefield stained red. They understood the theory behind war, but not the reality of it. The Brat Pack was as tame as a deer that had never seen a hunter. The hunter wasn’t exactly sure of what prey he hunted. It all worked in Carter’s favor. At least, it had until Cat’s unexpected encounter with the boy. What spin that one kiss would put on things not even he could anticipate. Would he kill? If he had to, he supposed. To protect Cat and the others, it wasn’t much of a stretch for him to assume the cost one life for the salvation of the many was such a small price to pay.

Carter heard the soft sighs of sleep from behind closed doors. Finally, worn out from the adventures of the day the young had settled in and bedded down. The quiet suited him. There would be questions, demands for answers, and naturally, for food. The wolves were voracious eaters. And what of Cat’s physical needs? She would need blood to sustain herself. Who he wondered would she turn to when her innermost nature called to be sustained? Him? The boy? One of the pack?

He had not offered his wrist in twenty-five years and he had only done so then to rectify a case of mistaken identity. Could he feed Cat from his body? Would she allow it? His blood was powerful, but it was also the blood of the damned and filled with secrets. What would she discover from nothing more than the smallest drop? It was assumed by most a vampire as ancient as he could not and did not cry, that he was emotionless and distant, unaffected after such a very long life. Would Cat discover that he not only could cry but that he did? For that was his greatest and most protected secret the tears he shed for a past he could not change.





































Chapter 34

Daniel shook off the remnants of his wolf and eyed the duffel bag at his feet. The long run in the woods had done little to clear the muddied thoughts in his head. Go? Stay? Well, after last night what choice did he have but to go? The memory of Fallon’s touch, the feel of her glorious sweat slicked skin against his body, and the heady sound of her sighs of fulfillment still echoed deeply within him. He was a dumb ass. Once again that dangly bit between his legs had gone and gotten hip deep into places he would rather not go. She had been…well damn she had simply been perfect. If he was being honest, she was too perfect for the likes of him. He didn’t deserve anyone’s best, not even their second or third best, especially not Fallon’s. Last night he had played the fool and played her for one as well. And that was a mistake he could best rectify by getting the hell out of dodge before the error of his ways caught up with him.

When was he ever going to learn? He should have stayed in Texas where he belonged. But, wasn’t that the crux of his current predicament? He didn’t truly belong anywhere. The solitude of Texas was a myth he had chosen to believe in for the last twenty-five years. It seemed the ghosts of his past weren’t choosy in their choice of locations. They haunted him plenty no matter where he went. Fallon…God, how could he have done that to her? Torr would probably pummel his ass when he found out about it. And Daniel deserved every bit of her father’s wrath.

He shouldn’t have come back. Evan had sounded so sincere on the phone. He had known exactly the right words to say to send him packing and hauling ass back here. Daniel thought Evan had seen something in one of his visions. Daniel thought it might be his only chance to say goodbye. Evan had played him, but to what ends? Maybe, Evan had indeed had one of his mystical visions. But, Daniel guessed it wasn’t exactly of him in Fallon’s bed even though that was exactly where he had ended up.

Daniel kicked himself as another realization hit him. He had slunk out of Fallon’s room before dawn and much to his history and his character, ran. Last night in the heat of it, wrapped up in the sweet softness of her body and lost to the warmth of her. He hadn’t thought. He hadn’t thought of anything but himself. He could have done the unthinkable and gotten her pregnant. Fallon was smarter than that even if he wasn’t. She would have realized long ago he wasn’t exactly going to win any father of the year awards. She would have taken precautions. Wouldn’t she have?

It wasn’t like he was going to march in that house and demand answers. He had already caused her enough grief as it was. What was she doing now? Probably thinking of a million different ways to castrate him, if he had to guess. By now she had come to her senses. Right now she was probably regretting last night. She had given him something precious and what had he done? He had taken, and taken, and taken. That was just the kind of selfish son of a bitch he was. He took and left nothing but destruction in his path. The thought of her sparing him so much as one single tear was enough to get his feet moving.

Daniel avoided the big house and headed straight for the garage. Last night he hadn’t promised her a thing. How could he when he had nothing of value to offer her? It would be better for them both if he left. He dropped the duffel bag on his shoulder at his feet and gaped open mouthed at the mess littering the floor of the garage. “What did you do to my car?”

Tristen glanced around the hood and wiped his hands on a rag. It seemed automotive repair had turned into quite the family affair. His dad had joined in sometime in between flushing the radiator and changing out the hoses. The two of them were in a heated debate over exactly where they were going to come up with a new water pump when his brother showed up. “Your car?” he asked pinning Daniel with a look.

Hunter was careful with his sons. Daniel and Tristen were volatile at the best of times and from the looks of Daniel, now was not a good time. He thought Daniel might have come to his senses. How stupid of him was that? Daniel stood with the duffel bag between his feet, shaking with rage. Tristen held his back straight, his shoulders erect, and his fingers curled into fists. This was not going to go well. Hunter set down the wrench he had been fondling in contemplation and stepped around the car.

He had patched his two sons up more than once after a knock down drag out. Daniel had an old scar up high on his brow, near the hairline as a result of one of the worst fights Hunter had ever seen between two brothers. Tristen was larger and broader through the shoulders than his brother, but he lacked Daniel’s fiery temper. Daniel was wicked fast with his fists and Tristen brutal with his brawn behind a punch. Daniel was a brawler. Relentless once he perceived an offense. Tristen had a sense of rightness that he felt the need to justify to no one. The two of them together were like oil and water no matter how much they loved each other.

Marianne was already on her feet, moving on a course to intercept her two brothers. She was enjoying a late morning hanging out with her dad and Tristen and then Daniel had shown up. To say Daniel was less than pleased with Tristen’s careful attention to the car was the understatement of the year. She was leader of this pack. She was the one who had held this family together for the last twenty-five years. When Daniel had left the last time she hadn’t been able to do a thing about it. When her two brothers fought she hadn’t been able to stop them. This time, she could. “Danny.”

“Don’t you dare ‘Danny’ me, Mouse,” Daniel bellowed. It would take him weeks to reassemble the car, assuming he could find parts to replace the ones Tristen had thrown in the scrap heap. He had been carefully patching this car together for decades only to have Tristen and his father dismantle it in less than twenty-four hours. He had planned to replace the thermostat. A simple job, wouldn’t have taken him over an hour to finish. He thought Tristen and he would enjoy some bonding time while they made the necessary repair. Maybe, his dad would join in and his visit could have ended on a good note. “Why?”

Tristen flexed his fingers. Daniel was about to erupt like a volcano. The tips of his ears had turned a violent crimson the way they did when he was truly pissed. How could he tell his brother the truth? Honesty, he could do, but the truth? He had never admitted that he needed his brother for anything. That he loved him, yes, but needed him? Never. The house had had an empty spot and so had the depths of his heart for twenty-five years and now there was Fallon to think about. How could he ever explain that to someone as short sided and headstrong as his brother? Daniel didn’t think he mattered to anybody. What magic words could Tristen say to convince his brother that he did? “Take the truck, if you’re so hell bent on going. Just run, like you always do, Daniel. Don’t let us stop you!”

“Tristen,” Marianne hissed. She took a deep breath and massaged her temples. Thank God she was good at diplomacy. Tristen always had been one to mean exactly what he said. Naturally, she was thinking it too, but she would have never said it. Over the years she had watched her two brothers go at one another time and time again. The both of them were volatile, aggressive, and too unwilling to admit how much one meant to the other. “What Tristen means is…”

“I know exactly what he means, Mouse,” Daniel snapped. His eyes focused on his brother. His vision narrowed down to a tunnel. Tristen hadn’t necessarily been trying to help. Tristen had always, ever since they were kids, been thinking of ways to control him. Daniel had one father and didn’t have need of another. The car was just an excuse. Tristen wasn’t interested in fixing the car, only in getting him to stay. Tristen was absolutely right. He had been about to run and Tristen had taken the car apart to stop him. “You think I’m a coward, Tristen? You think I run?”

“I know you do, Danny. You ran and the rest of us stayed behind to pick up the pieces. It is just how you are. Maybe, you can’t help it. Fuck, I don’t know. Dad risked his life for you and you repaid him by running. This time, you don’t get to barge into our lives and exit when the going gets a little too hard or things get a little too personal. This time, you don’t get to run.”

Daniel picked his duffel bag up off the garage floor. “I’m not running. I think I’ll walk, if it’s all the same to you.” Nobody had the right to tell him what to do or how to live his life. Nobody needed him. Tristen didn’t get to judge him, not this time.

Marianne dodged into the path of her brother. “Daniel, wait. We need you.”

“For what?”

Daniel was never going to get it. Without him, no matter how full and complete their lives were, a piece was missing. They were a family and Daniel was part of it. He didn’t know she set his place at the table day after day and had for the last twenty-five years. It didn’t matter if pack was standing as they shoveled food into their mouths because there wasn’t an empty seat to be had. Nobody sat in Daniel’s place. He didn’t know their dad had spent years, night after night pacing the floor, wondering what he could have done to convince Daniel to stay. He didn’t know Gina lit a candle and put it in the window and had done so every night since he left. Daniel didn’t have to answer the questions the kids asked when they looked through photo albums and scrapbooks. When they asked, “Who is that, mom?”

Tristen had taken Daniel’s prolonged absence harder than anyone. He had played the role of father when their own father couldn’t handle the strain. Daniel had resented Tristen for it. At the age of ten when it first began, Tristen had felt he had no other choice. Marianne didn’t blame her father, not the way Daniel did. She couldn’t imagine living one second without Evan and understood how easily a person could fall from grace. She understood Daniel too, better than what he thought she did. He wasn’t a coward and he didn’t want to run. He felt he had to. He was afraid to love and to lose. Not exactly terrified of life, but of opening himself up to living it.

Tristen blamed himself for everything that had happened to Daniel. He suffered a thousand times worse than Daniel had. He bore the guilt Daniel hadn’t been able to bear. He stayed behind and he was right, Daniel had gotten to run and to forget while he was reminded of it day after day. Marianne turned to her brother and shot him an imploring glare. “Tristen, please tell him.”

Tristen gritted his teeth and withered under his sister’s pleading stare. They had never spoken of their innermost feelings regarding Daniel, but she knew. This might be his one and only chance to finally get it all out there. Admitting his deepest thoughts regarding Daniel wouldn’t make him less of a man, but it would take no small amount of courage to say them aloud. “Danny, I love you. I miss you. You are my only brother and for twenty-five years things haven’t been the same without you. Please, at least give it until the car is fixed before you go.”

Something Daniel had been holding back broke free. Tristen had never been so honest with him before. If anyone had asked him, he would have said his brother merely tolerated him. He would have never guessed that his brother actually loved him. Sure, Tristen had said that he loved him. But, there was quite a bit of difference between saying something and actually meaning it. He couldn’t confess that he loved his brother, not yet anyway. The best he could manage was a choked, gasping, “Ok.” Daniel dropped the duffel bag, not caring where it landed and before he could exhale the timid breath of agreement he had been holding Tristen’s arms came around him in a tight hug.

Daniel squeezed his eyes tightly closed to trap the tears dampening his lashes. Men did not cry. Tears were for pussies. Nonetheless, they were falling and there was nothing he could do to stop them. He inhaled the scent of his brother. Tristen always smelled of woods and pine. With the thick, sweet scent of motor oil and exhaust filling the garage, Daniel knew he was home. “I think the transmission needs rebuilt.”

Hunter gathered his sons and his daughter into a tight group hug. He hadn’t done this since Daniel had been rescued and the top of Mouse’s head had reached his chest. He let the tears fall and didn’t give a damn if anyone saw him bawling like a female or not. These were good tears. Salty tears of happiness and of joy, not like the ones he had shed silently to himself, ones of regret and loss, on the day Daniel left. Daniel’s timid ‘ok’ was all the hope he needed. His family was together again after far too many years apart. Gina had wandered into the garage. She placed a gentle hand at his back in support.

It was strange, he didn’t often think of Marianne, his first wife. She had died so many years ago, bringing Mouse into the world. For so long Hunter had thought his life was over. That he would never find his way again. He thought of her now and could feel her looking down on them. Blessing them, her family, with her love. “Welcome home, son.”

Gina soaked in the love. Her little family was almost complete. She regretted Hunter and her decision to send Claire into the city. Claire should be here, getting to know her brother. Sometimes, she worried about Claire. Not as much as she had worried about Daniel, but enough that it kept her up at night. Claire was pack, her father’s daughter, but she was also her daughter as well. Gina had named her after Claire. After all, Claire had been the one to bring Hunter and she together in the first place. When she had wanted to give up, Claire had been there, offering kind words and her support.

Her daughter was a restless spirit, like Daniel in so many ways. Sometimes, Gina worried she would follow in her half-brother’s footsteps and one day disappear. But now with Daniel home where he belonged, Gina took the first breath of relief she had taken since Claire came into the world. If Daniel could find his way home, so could Claire.

Marianne eyed the car. Taking it apart had been easy. Putting it back together again might prove a bit more difficult. “You guys really believe you can get that car running again?” She was a hesitant believer in Daniel’s word. For the time being she would trust. Evan had been right about everything so far. He had called Daniel and asked him to come home and Daniel had. What else had Evan seen that he hadn’t told her about yet? She had to wonder.

Daniel scoffed and eyed the male members of the family. Could they get the car running? He broke free of the group hug and ran his hand along the curve of her fender. His poor old girl, Tristen had really done a number on her. Could they get her running? Of course. Was he necessarily in a hurry to do it? Not anymore. “Eh, eventually. You know the old saying. What comes apart can be put back together.”

Marianne laughed. “I do, Danny. I do and I believe it.”













































Chapter 35

Megan finished packing the last of her mother’s meager belongings. The house was nothing but a shell of what it had been years ago. Back, when she had been smaller the place had simply seemed so big. There were outlines of pictures and shelves and all of her mom’s countless pretties on the painted walls. The flowery wallpaper her mom had been so proud of hung loosely at the edges in the corners of the dining room. Cobwebs dangled from the blades of the ceiling fan she had been forced to clean religiously every week since the time she had been old enough to climb on a ladder to reach it.

Her mom wandered from room to room lost in a haze of confusion. Packing up the house hadn’t only been stressful to Megan. At least, she had managed to coax her mother into eating something more than a few bites of toast this morning. Megan had dipped into her bank account and paid all the overdue bills. She had popped by the doctor’s office and gotten her mother a clean bill of health and refills on the myriad bottles of pills lining the kitchen window sill. Now, with her mom’s medications and finances straightened out and the doctor’s reassurances that everything was as good as it was going to get, she was ready to move forward…somewhere.

Her mom plucked at an imaginary piece of fuzz on her sweater and gave her a smile. She simply didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. This morning her poor mom was trapped in the nineties, babbling about a TV show that hadn’t aired in over thirty years. She had to fix supper for Megan’s father, but couldn’t quite piece together that dad been dead for well over a decade. At least, her mom was clean, wearing freshly laundered clothes, and her hair was somewhat tamed from its usual gray tangle into something resembling a style.

This was killing her. Killing her. She really didn’t have a plan other than that she had to do something with her mom. Megan couldn’t allow her mom to live alone anymore, but what was she going to do with her? She refused to believe that her mom’s life no longer had any value. The doctor and she had talked at length. The bastard hadn’t batted an eye when he suggested euthanasia as a possible solution to the problem. He spoke as if he believed every lie tumbling out of his mouth. He believed her mom would be better off. That she was suffering. No, she wasn’t. She was confused, a bit harried with Megan’s invasion of her space and because of the move, but she wasn’t suffering.

Tomorrow morning she was going to have to figure something out. The painters were coming and so was a realtor. A woman almost as old as her mom herself, Dena Samuelson was sharp as a tack and shrewd about the real estate market. She was in the know, as far as the paranormal world went. Her daughter Claire was married to one of the pack. Megan wouldn’t have to worry about hiding things or Dena’s ability to keep a secret and if anyone could unload this house onto some unsuspecting buyer, it was Dena. Megan had Claire’s word on it.