After Dawn, What Came Next

This was not the time for a challenge of his masculine authority over her weaker feminine nature. Had she been full wolf, he would have already won, not a place in her heart, but in her bed. Her human side allowed her to keep her head and her wits about her. Simple reason had her packing up her empty plate and glass and frog marching into the kitchen as if his presence, that masculine aura of his leaking all over her, didn’t affect her at all. Damned if it didn’t. Her hands trembled as she rinsed her plate. She had such a tight hold on the glass. She had almost shattered in her grip.

Maybe, it was the effects of Catcher’s aura that had her looking at him in a different light. Somehow, he seemed approachable, almost cuddly. Safe. There was no doubt of the wolfen golden glimmer in his brown eyes, steadfastly staring her down as if he could bend her to his will. The truth of it was that if she didn’t put some distance between them, he might do just that. His chest widened as he inhaled and caught the unmistakable essence of desire in her scent and the flicker of masculine possessiveness burned hotter in his eyes, melting her into a senseless puddle of feminine desire.

Daniel dropped the wrench clutched in his grip and glared in the general direction of the house. What the hell? The calm he thought he had found within him had suddenly dissipated and flared into heated male aggression as quickly as if someone had tossed gasoline into an open flame. He could smell it from the garage. His nose twitched, his chest expanded and contracted as he inhaled the sweet smell of feminine desire and recognized the source. Fallon. He was out the door and bounding up the deck stairs, bristling with the need to protect and defend his territory. And Fallon was definitely his.

Eloise knew there would be trouble with Catcher. Out of the two twins, he was the most uncivilized. She had never quite been able to tame him into complacency. There was not a gentle or reasonable bone in his body. Catcher saw something he wanted and did whatever it took to get it. He had an edge to him that Tracker never had. The scent of male pheromones was thick in the air. The rawness of it caused a trickle down effect, spreading from male to male and female to female. There wouldn’t be a stone left standing in the house if he didn’t reel it in. His wolf wanted to fight or to fuck and didn’t much care which. “Christ!” she muttered, running for the door.

Daniel threw open the backdoor and bolted through the mudroom paying no attention to anything or anyone around him except for the male invading his turf. The growl rose in his throat, warning the male off his property. Catcher chuckled and egged him on. They were friends. Friends in all things except for love and quite possibly war. And this, his interest in Fallon, was out and out no holds barred war.

Fallon snapped back into awareness. She had been about to. Well, never mind what she had been about to do. Daniel stood at the entrance to the dining room bristling with hostility and Catcher stood there chuckling under his breath egging him on. Lust had been replaced with simple male aggression. They were going to fight over her. In some primitive part of her mind, her inner wolf did a happy dance. To the victor went the spoils. But, she was not a spoil of war and whoever won the fight would most assuredly not necessarily win her heart. Right now, she couldn’t stomach the sight of either one of them. Determined to let the boys duke it out, she stormed past Catcher and Daniel and marched up the stairs.

Slamming the door to her bedroom, Fallon flung herself on the bed and pulled the pillow tightly over her head. What had she done? Last night, everything had seemed so clear and today, everything was so damned confusing. She wished. She wished her wish hadn’t come true and she hadn’t…she hadn’t let Daniel into her bed. Catcher had caused a storm of emotions to come bubbling to the surface. How could she be attracted to him when her heart had belonged to Daniel for so very long? What in the hell did Daniel think he was doing anyway? Bursting in there to defend her virtue when he was the one who had taken it in the first place?

Oh, fuck that! He hadn’t taken anything she hadn’t freely given. She was not some damned stupid ass love struck teenager and this was not some mushy romance novel where everything turned out perfect in the end. Things were not going to have a happy ending. She had gone into it knowing that. She had been greedy and selfish. Thinking of today and not of tomorrow and what might come afterwards. She had wanted what she wanted and she had gotten it. And now, she wanted nothing more but to unleash her alpha female and put the smack down on both of the men in her life.

Last night had not been a mistake. Fallon refused to believe otherwise. Last night had been perfect, if temporary. Daniel wasn’t hers and she wasn’t his and if Catcher could actually behave like a man with a bit of sense and lay off the alpha male. He might be possibly decent dating material. He certainly had it in the looks department, if she could get past how much he resembled his twin. She simply didn’t know. Maybe, she should look elsewhere outside of the pack for a boyfriend. A nice, predictable human guy might be preferable, but she had never held much interest in predictability.

Erica gave her daughter time to cool off before tapping on her bedroom door. Fallon had been having such a hard time lately. But, Erica had given her daughter enough space and it was time to talk things through. Daniel’s return seemed like a mother’s answer to her prayers. Fallon had shunned other boys for so long, always waiting for him and now with him here, she was determined to keep him out in the cold. Well, not entirely in the cold. A mother knew such things about her daughter that sometimes she wished she didn’t.

At first the change in Fallon had given her hope. Spotting her dressed up in her best, complete with makeup, her hair styled, and so carefully coiffed, Erica had thought Fallon had finally made it around the bend in the road. She had thought beyond the medical degree and being born to be who she was Fallon finally had the one thing she had wanted since the age of thirteen. Daniel’s love. Loving a wolf was a double edged sword, a fine line she wasn’t certain her daughter could walk.

Pack males were possessive of their females and it was no small trick to control the beast. She had spent the better part of her lifetime learning to perfect the art of being a good wife and still maintaining some measure of the woman she had been before she met Torr. Of course, being married to a wolf had its advantages too. After twenty-seven years of marriage the man was still insatiable. Erica didn’t think of her life beyond living it and loving her husband and little girl. The truth was there, staring her in the face every time she looked in the mirror, but with so much love to give and receive it was easy to overlook the small things such as her age.

Fallon would face similar challenges, if she chose a human as her mate. She would appear young and filled with vitality as he faded and eventually crumbled to the effects of time. Erica would spare Fallon that pain and hoped that Daniel would be the one to do the sparing. If Fallon married within the pack, both she and her husband would have a very long and hopefully very happy life together. Last night, doing a little covert mother snooping she had thought it was finally going to happen for her little girl. It had happened. And wasn’t that something a mom wished she didn’t ever know about her daughter. That tender moment when the little girl vanished and became a woman.

“Fallon, its mom,” she said. Not one to be deterred, Erica kept up with the knocking until she heard both the bedsprings and her daughter moan in protest. At thirty-seven, Fallon hardly needed a mother’s intervention. But, a little bit of woman to woman advice never hurt anybody. Better from her than her father, Torr had not the slightest ounce of subtlety and he would spell it out for her in no uncertain terms. As a mom, she had learned to sweeten the truth with a teeny tiny sprinkle of sugar. The truth was Fallon needed to give up on the notion of Daniel. Was Erica team Catcher? Hell no. She was team Fallon one hundred percent and it was damn time her daughter started living for herself.

“Mom, I’m really not in the mood,” Fallon shouted through the closed door. God, it had been so long since her mom had busted in on her she had forgotten the oldest mom trick in the book for unlocking a locked bedroom door. She heard the clank of the butter knife against the doorknob and with a ping the door opened.

Erica slipped the butter knife into her hip pocked and flopped on the bed as if she and her daughter were teenagers at a slumber party. “Too bad, kid. Now then, let’s talk boys.”

Torr grabbed Daniel by the scruff and manhandled him out the backdoor. Now would probably not be the best time to discuss what went on between his daughter and the cur, but would there ever be a good time to approach such a topic? He was a pissed off daddy wolf about to put the smack down on a sniveling snot nosed pup. He had watched his little girl suffer because of this ingrate for two decades and at long last when he thought she would get her chance at a happily ever after he had walked into the kitchen and caught the two males sizing one another up for one hell of a fight. His daughter was not property to be won. Fallon was her own woman and this f’idiot had better get his shit together and realize it.

He shook Daniel by the shirt collar as if that would rattle some sense into him. “What do you think you’re doing?”

Daniel hadn’t expected to be shaken like a maraca on Cinco de Mayo. His breath left his body on a sharp huff as Torr shoved him against the wall. What did he think he was doing? Wasn’t that a rhetorical question? It was perfectly obvious what he was doing. He was protecting Fallon from his one time friend. Torr’s outrage was written all over his features. Daniel had thought Fallon and he were pretty discreet last night, but gauging from the expression on her father’s face. They hadn’t been discreet enough. “I’m protecting her,” Daniel sputtered on a gasp of air.

“Protecting her?”

“From Catcher.”

Torr grunted at this. Daniel thought he was protecting Fallon? Fallon was a big girl and could protect herself and if she couldn’t she had dear old dad and the pack to do it for her. Daniel had been gone for twenty-five years and now he was back. For how long, who the hell knew? Daniel was turbid water rushing over rocks, reaping destruction on anything unfortunate enough to be in his path. Fallon had flung herself into the current and Daniel was carrying her far down stream. Perhaps, to a place where there was no way she would be able to find her way back from. Torr wouldn’t have it. Catcher was a man of honesty and duty, bred to safeguard life. Fallon hardly needed protection from him. Catcher would die to protect her. What Torr wondered, and the words were said before he could think to close his mouth. “Who is going to protect her from you?”

Catcher bristled as Eloise shoved him into his twin and was subsequently dragged by his shirt collar by the both of them out the front door. A man had not bullied Eloise into submission in a very long time and Catcher was not man enough to bully her now. She stood toe to toe with him, admiring Janine’s handiwork, but shaking her head that the woman hadn’t been able to makeover the inside of him as easily as she had the outside. Tracker wrestled with his brother to keep him from going after Daniel. Her rule stood solid as ever and as long as she was lady of this house it would always stand. No violence inside the house. Ever. “Catcher, what are we going to do with you?”

Catcher grunted against his efforts to free himself from Tracker’s relentless grip. An army of twins wouldn’t be enough to keep him from getting something he wanted. Fortunately for Tracker, he didn’t want to get his hands on Daniel badly enough to kick his ass to do it. Eloise patted his cheek sympathetically and nodded for Tracker to release him. Luckily for Daniel, he wasn’t one to hold grudges and as quickly as his anger had flared to a hot flame had it died to embers. “Do with me?”

Tracker snickered at Catcher’s incredulity. He had no idea of how to be around a female. What to do and the finesse involved with catching the heart of the fairer sex was completely lost on his brother. Catcher had practically bowled Fallon over with the raw sexuality of his wolf and sure, she had responded, but so had every other female in the pack. Had he laid a finger on one of the mated females there would have been trouble abound. A mated male knew nothing of pack loyalty. The only loyalty a mated male knew was to his mate. And had Catcher bagged one of the unmated female in his widespread sexual broadcast, it might not have gone any better for him. There was nothing worse than being mated to the wrong woman.

Fallon might do nicely for his brother. She was certainly strong enough to handle him. Stubborn as they came, fierce as any female of his species, and determined as she was with the same goal in mind as Catcher, they were likely candidates for each other. But, Fallon was also human, or at least half human and that side of her deserved more than a heated rutting to scratch an itch. And that was something Tracker was certain her father would agree with too. He patted Tracker on the center of his chest and agreed with Eloise. What were they going to do with his brother?

Then there was the truth of it. When there had been nobody else to turn to. Catcher and Daniel had turned to each other. They were best friends, brothers in their own right. Fighting one another over Fallon would only serve to sever the bond between them. And leaving her with no choice in the matter would force her to choose neither of them. Only one male could and would win Fallon’s heart. Tracker’s bet was on Catcher, assuming his brother could learn to tone it down a notch or two. Daniel was flighty and unpredictable. Catcher was a solid player. Fallon had her feet firmly rooted on terra firma and once she came to see Catcher for the man he was. She would choose him. But, it had to be her choice, not nature doing the choosing for her.

Fallon’s father could be counted on to help nudge the matter of Fallon’s heart in the right direction. He would approve of Catcher more than he would of Daniel. Catcher was a man of strong morality and a fierce sense of duty. Daniel’s past was sketchy and it spoke volumes to his character. Torr had watched his daughter sitting beside that window night after night waiting for Daniel’s return. For years Fallon had waited and Torr had been helpless to do anything about it.

Daniel had led the pack into a war with the rogues. He had risked the lives of everyone for the sake of something he thought was love. Pack had died. Brothers had died. They had all risked the chance of discovery for him and he hadn’t even stuck around long enough to prove he had been worth the risks they had taken. Tracker didn’t hold grudges. Nobody held a grudge. But, he hadn’t exactly forgotten about it either and neither had anybody else.

Catcher had left for Texas shortly after their release from Eloise’s service. He hadn’t known what else to do with himself. Catcher was one that had to have things set to right and the ruins of the pack’s former home and the ashes left of his own life had to be put back together again. Catcher was as together as he was going to get. He was lonely. A pack animal like a wolf could not be alone forever and he had come to the only place he could to find his other half. Maybe, it was Fallon he had been waiting for, maybe not.

Tracker didn’t pretend to guess at affairs of the heart. He had been lucky to find Shayla and he had gone through hell to win her heart. And even now, though he had come to accept it. He hadn’t won all of her, but only the pieces she could give him. A part of her would always belong to Carter.

Some would call him a fool and maybe, he was. He would have a better outcome for his brother’s love life. Fallon wouldn’t give portions of herself. She would give some lucky bastard her all or nothing at all. Who was capable of taming his brother, of teaching him the finer points of winning a woman’s affections? Certainly not any of the males in the pack he could think of. The females might be able to impart some wisdom on the subject. But, opinions were as varied as the colors of the rainbow. Janine had remodeled Catcher’s outside, but inside he was only going to be the man he was meant to be, nothing more, nothing less and the moment he ceased to be anything other than that man he would cease to be himself all together.

Catcher decided right then and there that Fallon was going to be his mate. She was perhaps the only female capable of handling a man like him. Now the trick was to make her see how perfect she was for him. He would wear the right clothes and somehow maybe manage to say the right things. She had responded to him physically, so beautifully and so completely. Her body was as primed and ready for a mating as his. He didn’t worry about his heart. A man’s heart and his cock were connected on some primitive level and where one went the other followed.

Women, it seemed, weren’t quite wired the same way. He would have to get to her from the inside out and win her heart before he won her body. But, how? Janine said it was all about the girl and he was just now beginning to realize that. “Brother, tell me how to win a woman’s heart.”

Tracker groaned. He was the last person to give his brother relationship advise. Ultimately the only piece of wisdom he had worth imparting was simple and uncomplicated. “Be yourself, only tone it down a bit. Ok?”

Eloise had a bit more to say on the subject. She babbled on and on about her first real date with Nash. Flowers? Candlelight? Eloise hardly seemed to be the type of woman such things would have any effect on, but apparently they had. Perhaps, a dozen roses might have a similar effect on Fallon? Tone it down. That was his brother’s sage advice. He had no intention of ‘toning it down’ he was going to turn up the flame and watch Fallon squirm from the heat.













Chapter 45

Christian sat with his chin propped up on his knees as the vampires decided his fate. Cat was probably pissed at him for standing her up tonight. Not like he had a choice in that though. He was stuck until they reached an agreement about what to do with him. Obviously, they didn’t trust him. A human’s promise didn’t mean shit to a vampire and considering he had been snapping pictures of them and unearthing their carefully guarded secrets for years, Christian couldn’t blame them for that. Now that he knew the truth about vampires and was itching to tell somebody, he couldn’t. Not if he wanted to live and he most decidedly did.

David was fucking scary, much scarier and not quite as subtle as Cole had been. David had no problem promising to put the hurt on him if he so much as breathed a word of the truth to anybody. That was, if they decided to let him go and not drag him straight into the heart of vampire central instead. The verdict was still out on that particular question. The two vampires were in a heated debate, discussing him as if he were a lost puppy they had happened across on the street. Cole was for complete revelation of the truth and David, was not. There was one thing they agreed upon and thank God for it. They couldn’t kill him. But, David assured him in no uncertain terms and with a flash of sharp, pointy canine teeth. There were worse things than death that they could easily do to him instead.