After Dawn, What Came Next

He gritted his teeth as Fallon’s nails dug into the muscles of his butt in hopes of spurring him along. She was an impatient little thing. Decisive and certain about what she wanted, but too shy to say it with words. Not that he’d given her a choice to say anything. He’d kissed the words right out of her mouth, but their unspoken meaning was crystal clear. She scooted and wiggled her way to the point where their hips were touching and his hard cock was hovering outside the barrier to her sweet entrance. One push and he’d take possession of her. The both of them would enter a new world where there was nothing and everything to be found in each other.

He was careful and slow, gently easing his way inside to fuse them together. At first the sensation was uncomfortable, maybe even a little painful. Fallon bit back a groan that was anything but pleasure and slowly exhaled. Catcher’s body was motionless above her, gauging the expressions on her face and waiting for her permission to continue. As uncomfortable as his invasion felt, her body stretching to accommodate him. There was a sense of freedom and joy that accompanied it. She gave herself up to the heat of him and to the hard strength of his body. Cupping his face in her palms, she kissed him firmly on the lips. Once she could form the words and before he could steal them away from her, she whispered, “I’m ok… we’re ok.”

Catcher inhaled Fallon’s shuddering exhale and her words of affirmation. They were ok. The both of them were ok together wrapped up in a tangle of limbs and joined body to body. They were ok. He took it slow and easy while Fallon’s body adjusted to his size. The pleasure of feeling her walls, tight, wet, and slick gripping him was almost unbearable. He had endured so many things in his life, but never the pain of such endless and abounding joy. Her grip on his shoulders was firm, the nails scraping over his skin. Reaching between their bodies, he massaged her clit with the pad of his index finger coaxing her along. He felt the muscles of her core spasm around him. Easing her into it, he increased the pace of his thrusts and the motion of his fingertip against her clit.

Fallon exhaled a startled “Oh” of shivering delight as the orgasm snuck up on her and carried her away. She bucked against Catcher, driving him deeper and giving her permission for him to fully invade her. Her body rippled from the wild waves of pleasure surging through her system. She reached up to wipe away a bead of sweat and ease the furrow of concentration from Catcher’s brow. She wanted him to enjoy himself and not worry so damn much about her. She was fine…finer than fine actually and reeling from the after affects of the orgasm he had given her.

Catcher fisted the sheets and buried his face in the warm depths of Fallon’s hair. Her face was engulfed in a halo of red-orange fire. Ripples of pleasure ran up and down his spine. Her little heels dug into the backs of his thighs urging him deeper and faster. Her body bucked in time to his thrusts driving him farther and harder. He wanted to be careful with her. Show her that he could be gentle and take his time and be the male of worth she deserved. Fallon wasn’t having any of it though. Her body wanted everything he could give it. The more he gave the more her body demanded until it became a losing fight of tangled limbs, mingled, urgent breaths, and desperate flesh.

His body was there…close, so close. His skin could not contain him. His will was no longer his own, but belonged to her. The brush of Fallon’s nipples, ripe and firm, against his chest set him on fire. Her limbs, her long legs wrapped so tightly around his hips to trap their bodies together as one was fuel to an already burning inferno.

His fire dancer danced and he danced with her. She was there… already lost over the edge. She was his to mold and his to claim…his…his to hold and his to sacrifice for. Catcher could hold out. He knew far too well the art of denial, but until now he hadn’t learned the beauty and the joy of sacrifice and the purity of will it took to loose himself in another person.

On a shout and a roar, he gave up the fight. Fallon was wet and tight, molded around him. Her core quivered in a series of spasms from the aftershocks of the release he had given her. Her head was tossed back and lost in the flaming pillow of her fiery hair. Her eyes were closed in complete abandon. Her throat exposed and her chest heaving in time with the rhythm of his pistoning hips. Catcher was lost to her. Buried to the hilt, he let go, spiraling out of control on the dizzying, heady waves of pleasure.

Catcher went limp in her arms, shuddering uncontrollably as he shot his release inside of her. Fallon knew what a complete act of trust it was for him to let go of his past and spiral headlong into the future. He was soft, but not completely out of the game and quick to rise for another round. She encouraged him with the buck of her hips and the pressure of her lips on his. Catcher’s eyes were open, searching hers as he filled her with the full length of his cock. Gathering up the dark curtain of his silky hair in her palm to keep it out of his face, she smiled up at him in both reassurance and confirmation. She was just as lost to him as he was to her.

Catcher wanted to hold Fallon, to trap her in his embrace and never let her go. They were male and female and they fit together, two halves of the same whole. Scooping her up, he cradled her to his chest. Locked together, she worked her hips and sent their joined bodies spiraling out of control. Her grip on his shoulders was firm and tight. He grasped her by the waist, guiding her thrusts into the rhythm of their bodies’ needful demands and sometimes simply helping to support her weight as she set the tempo.

Fallon clung to Catcher for all she was worth. She liked this position better than being pinned on her back. On his lap, she could guide the pace and the motions of his thrusts. Alternatively, she could relax and let him take his turn behind the wheel when his body needed it. They were eye to eye, chest to chest, and hip to hip and there was no better place for the both of them to be than here in one another’s arms. She understood what trust meant to Catcher and how much he had placed in her. She wanted to place an equal measure of trust in him, not only with her body but with the whole of her very being. Cupping his head, she offered him her throat and was not surprised when he accepted, clamping down on the fragile tissues with his teeth, marking her.

The bruising sting of Catcher’s bite sent her body on a collision course with a joy she had never experienced before. She came for him and because of him. Lax and unable to force her muscles under her command, she relied on him to keep her from toppling over into a boneless heap. But, she realized it didn’t matter if she toppled over or not, she had already fallen and she had fallen hard.

Catcher willingly shouldered all of Fallon’s weight with his body. He was giddy and bursting with pride. Riding hard on the breaking crest of another release, he gave himself over to it. Nothing…absolutely nothing was as awe inspiringly joyous and soul cleansing as an orgasm. Not just an orgasm, such as the ones he had given himself with his hand, but filling a woman with his seed. The feeling of the rush heat as his release shot into her. Fallon wasn’t just any woman. She was his woman, his solace and his shelter and no other woman would ever do.

Catcher had never been sated before. He could easily define full satiation now. Relaxed and toes curled, he cradled Fallon’s head against his chest. She was likewise reluctant to move from her perch in the warmth of his embrace. His belly grumbled hungrily and he supposed after the hours they had spent loving, learning, and simply enjoying one another a man should be hungry, and a woman too, for that matter. He pecked her on the forehead with his lips and moved to dislodge her from his shoulder. She mumbled something intelligible and with a huff of annoyance lifted her head. “Room service?”

Fallon nodded. Stashing food in your room was not allowed and usually Nash rarely made exceptions to the rule that if you didn’t go down and get it you weren’t eating. Tonight, Nash could suck her big toe. If Catcher wanted to be noble and make a food run and bring it back upstairs for the two of them to enjoy. So be it. She wasn’t going to complain. Her stomach had gone on strike an hour ago out of protest from being ignored so long.

She was achy and sore in all the right places. Catcher was damn spry, cheerful with a crooked dopey looking grin on his handsome face. Better he go out and deal with any potential backlash from what went on behind closed doors than she. Fallon doubted though that anyone had given the two of them a second thought. Private business was private. A new policy the council had instated that she readily agreed with. “Sounds good.”

Catcher pulled on his jeans and gave Fallon a last lingering stare. She was beautiful, her cheeks rosy and positively glowing with an inner feminine light. He chuckled under his breath as she lazily pried one eye open and made a dismissive motion with her fingertips to get him moving. His woman needed fed and it was his honor to do so. A man on a mission he flung open the bedroom door and stiffened, bristling with male aggression as he met Daniel’s hostile, outraged glare from the opposite end of the hall.

Fallon shivered from the sudden change in the room. Catcher was throwing off particles of preternatural energy and sending the atmosphere ablaze with the power of it. Her wolf bristled at the challenge to what she considered her mate. She was out of the bed, bare assed naked, and grappling to hold her she-wolf at bay. “Catcher, what is it?”

“Nothing, Fallon. Climb back into bed and let me handle it.”

“Let you handle what?”

Catcher cast a glance over his shoulder, freezing Fallon where she stood and pinning her there with a meaningful look. “Daniel.”









































Chapter 60

Fallon was on her feet and out the door before Catcher could stop her. She grabbed Daniel by the sleeve and hauled him to the first empty room she found. Handling Daniel wasn’t Catcher’s job and she would be damned if she were going to hide behind a man and let him take care of her dirty work for her. She slammed the door tight and flicked the lock closed. Not that a locked door would keep out a determined wolf, but if Catcher tried…he’d have to deal with her and she was anything if not determined to settle this between Daniel and her right now. Wrapped in a sheet reeking of sex and another man was probably not the best way to talk any kind of sense into Daniel, but given the alternative, Daniel and Catcher trying to kill one another and bringing the entire house down around them in the process. It was the only option she had.

Gathering up the ends of the sheet, Fallon formed a crude, makeshift toga and tied them tightly around her waist. At least, nothing vital was showing. Nervous footfalls pounded up and down the hall on the other side of the closed door. She could hear male voices speaking softly and cautiously to Catcher in an attempt to do the same thing as she was with Daniel. Talk him down.

God, what was she going to say? She hadn’t thought about that one when she gathered up the sheet and rushed out of the bedroom. In retrospect, it might have been better to let Catcher and Daniel have a go at each other rather than face him alone. Catcher would have done it. He would have seen defending her honor as his duty. Standing naked in nothing but a sheet with Catcher’s orgasm slicking the insides of her thighs, his bite bruising her throat, and facing the man she’d made love to the night before. She didn’t have much in the way of dignity left.

Fallon scooped up the shattered pieces of her pride and lifted her chin, refusing to avert her eyes from Daniel’s heated stare. She had done nothing to be ashamed of. She didn’t need to hide behind Catcher or anybody else. She didn’t have to explain a damn thing to Daniel. After all, what needed an explanation? Everything should be crystal clear. She should turn on her heel and leave Daniel to figure it out for himself. He was a bright enough man to put two and two together. But, she wasn’t afraid to face him and she didn’t need Catcher to take care of her. She had been doing a good job of it for herself for the last thirty-seven years and needed no intervention now.

Daniel’s glare flicked between Fallon and the closed door behind her. He could hear the rumble of male voices, speaking soft and meaningful in the hallway. The air was prickling with unleashed preternatural energy and threat. By now the whole house knew what was going on. That was laughable. Everyone already knew what was going on before the scuffle in the hallway had ever taken place.

Fallon’s cheeks were on fire, burning brilliant crimson with embarrassment. She should be embarrassed. If she had possessed even the slightest intention of keeping her private business private, she should have gone someplace private to do it. Stupid, stupid woman…standing there so indignantly, her jaw thrust in defiance and shoulders squared in determination. Disheveled and wrapped in a sheet, reeking of sex and man, her hair tangled and lips swollen from Catcher’s kiss, her skin glowing from his caress, and throat bruised from his bite, it took everything Daniel had to even look at her. “God damn, Fallon. Him? Really?”

Daniel had been in the process of going to his room with the intention of actually sleeping through the night. He hadn’t made it to the end of the hall before the smell of sex hit him in the face and the echoes of male and female satisfaction struck his ears. His feet had stayed planted to the spot and his eyes riveted on the door. He had been under the mistaken belief that Fallon would come to him in time. He had made not one move to go to her. As usual, he let his pride and his ego get in the way. He hadn’t expected her to fall into another man’s arms, not so soon, not ever. It was as if in their one night together she had expunged him from her system and moved on.

He couldn’t take Fallon standing there in front of him wearing nothing but a sheet and the flush of embarrassment on her cheeks. There was no way to have a reasonable conversation with a woman still glowing from the aftermath of sex. He riffled through the closet and plucked a random t-shirt and a pair of sweatpants off their hangers and threw them at her. “I can’t…I can’t talk to you…when you’re…” He cleared the fury and hurt clogging his throat. “Get dressed. Please.”

Fallon grasped the clothes Daniel had thrown at her to her chest. Gathering up the ends of the sheet to keep from tripping over them she mustered what little bit of pride she had left and retreated to the bathroom. She didn’t bother turning on the lights. She didn’t want to see herself in the mirror’s reflection. She stood there in the dark, the cool tile freezing her from her toes all the way up into her soul, gripping the sheet and the clothes to her as if they were a life preserver.

She hadn’t realized the true depth of Daniel’s emotions. She thought, well, she knew he cared for her, but she hadn’t guessed he actually loved her. Maybe, it was self-preservation that had caused her to deceive herself. She couldn’t have afforded to lose her heart to Daniel. Her body, yes, and she had given it to him, but her heart? Never. Not when she would have never believed Daniel had any space in his for her.

They had shared their bodies and one wonderful night. She expected that to be the end of it. Especially when Daniel had slunk off afterwards and hadn’t darkened her doorstep since. In truth, she hadn’t really expected him to. With Daniel, it didn’t pay to expect anything from him beyond that he was as unpredictable as a windstorm. He was the type of man that blew into your life, turned everything upside down in the gale that was simply him, and then left nothing behind but destruction in his wake.

She had hurt him badly. It was completely unintentional on her part, but that particular thought did little to ease the heartache over what she had done. Well, it was too late to change things now. She had set her feet on a course in her determination to move beyond the destruction that Daniel always left in his path and she wasn’t going to back down now just because maybe, perhaps maybe, he had finally come to his senses and wanted to be a grownup. Fallon untied the knot gathered at her shoulder and dropped the sheet, letting it fall to the tile floor in a whisper of fabric. She refused to be ashamed for what she had done. Embarrassed, well, sure, who wouldn’t be considering everybody in the whole house knew what went down? But, shame? It had no part to do with anything.

She pulled the t-shirt over her head. The cotton was worn and soft, smelling of wolf and man and Daniel. The scent made her heart contort in grief over all the things she had realized too late. The sweatpants were three sizes too big and she had to knot the drawstring tightly to keep them in place over her hips. Fallon gathered up the sheet off the floor and not knowing what else to do with the damning evidence, tossed it in the hamper beside the toilet.

There was nothing she could do about her hair. The curls were knotted and would take no small act of courage to untangle. Catcher’s bite would fade quickly. Already the ache of the bruising was lessening. But, there were plenty of things she couldn’t erase with time or a change of clothes. For a few moments she stood there in the dark letting herself grieve what might have been before she took a step forward, reached for the doorknob, and walked into what was.

Daniel cringed at the sound of rustling clothes and Fallon’s feet as they padded bare against the tile floor. Damn him. Damn her. Damn Catcher. Damn all three of them. It was his fault. It was her fault. And it was Catcher’s fault. They were all to blame for this mess. She fucked his best friend. His best friend. Daniel had fucked her first in a wild, tangle of crashing bodies and surging emotion. Then Catcher, opportunistic son of a bitch that he was, had fucked her afterwards. Daniel took a twisted view on that. He wondered how Catcher had liked tasting and smelling him on Fallon’s cunt. That was the ultimate male possession. The lingering essence no female could wash down the drain. God knew Fallon had probably tried.

Daniel shook it off. His jealousy and rage had made him petty and shallow. He had no right to think like that. Fallon hadn’t done anything other than what he had pushed her into. She was lonely. Catcher had filled the void left behind in his wake of destruction. Daniel paced the bedroom waiting for her to gather the courage to face him. He scrounged up what little determination he could find. He had things to say to her. Things she needed to hear and that he needed to hear for himself from her lips. The bathroom door opened up with a snick of the lock and she stood there, feet poised on the sill, wearing his clothes and dwarfed in the folds, looking so much like the little girl she wasn’t anymore. “Why him, Fallon? Out of all the males in the pack, why Catcher?”

Daniel hadn’t even given her time to catch her breath before the onslaught of questions began. She could stand there and list all Catcher’s finer qualities and completely insult Daniel. She could ignore the question all together. She could walk out the door and leave him hurt and wondering. Or she could answer him as honestly as she could while still sparing his feelings.

“He needed me. I needed him and he needed me. Daniel, you’re not an easy person to like, let alone love. The truth of it is. I do love you, but I sure as hell don’t like you. Catcher likes you, but he doesn’t love you enough to throw his future away for you. People tend to bash themselves to pieces on the jagged rocks that simply are who you are. You love, deeply, but you don’t know how to love, not in a way that builds people up. You take what you want without the slightest consideration for what might come out of it. You took. I took. You gave. I gave. It was never going to be enough for either of us. You don’t have room in your heart for me and I had nothing but miles and miles of open space, too much for you to fill with what little you have to offer. You’re here, but for how long? You’ll run. We both know it.”