After Dawn, What Came Next

“Well of course it is. And if I may be so bold as to say, Fallon.” Carter tilted her chin up to meet his eyes. “In all of my days, and mind you, I’ve seen quite a few. There isn’t a creature alive more terrifying than a woman. Love is a place where angels fear to tread. Walk upon those sacred grounds with care, Fallon.”



























Chapter 74

Danni picked at the food on her plate and took a hesitant bite. So far, their ‘husbands’ had been nothing but above board. There was nothing she or Phoenix had asked for that they hadn’t immediately done. Except, of course, for letting them go. The twins were as creepy as the rest of this place. Their self-proclaimed husbands were pretty to look at, but they were so off, just like the rest of this fucked up situation. The food was impeccable. The chicken baked to perfection and the tiny veggies sliding around on her plate were tender and fresh as if they had just been picked from the garden.

So far, her ‘husband’ hadn’t put a finger on her to claim his ‘marital’ rights. Good thing that, because she would have broken his fucking hand. Pretty or not, she was not bedding a man she didn’t know, especially not one who happened to be conveniently holding her prisoner.

It might be best to play along until a solution presented itself. She was trying. It simply wasn’t going to happen. She had dressed in the finery the two men had provided. The stiff lace and slippery satin of the gown chafed her skin and tangled her feet. Danni tried to smile after forcing a nibble down her throat. The food immediately wadded into a ball and felt as if it were trying to force its way out. Cooperation was the key to getting out of here. She just wasn’t in a very cooperative mood. Her wolf wasn’t much help. Subdued by the drugs, her other half was silent.

“Is the food not to your liking?” Jack wanted the woman who was to be his wife happy. He had learned long ago not to cross his mother. This little she wolf would do well to do the same. His mother had a horrible temper and when her fury was unleashed one was wise to get out of its path. His memories of the past were foggy. Once, just once, he had dared to question her about the things he remembered. His name wasn’t his real name and his mom and dad were not his true parents. If he tried hard enough he could recall the soft, smiling face and the smell of his real mother and if he probed long enough a name came to his mind in a gentle whisper.

Jackson was his real name no more than Starr was his real mother or Sebastian his father. He remembered people. Their faces were vague and distant and difficult to recall almost as if they were a dream. The name on the woman’s lips, his mother’s lips, was a lullaby he would use to drift off to sleep. He was Stephen, little Steve, and his father big Steve and his twin was Paul, named after his mother, Paula. He remembered no more other than that. He had learned long ago that it didn’t pay to ask or remember the truth. This mad woman and her passive husband were the only parents he and his twin had ever known.

His bride was beautiful, dark as night and tenuous as a thunderstorm. She masked her glare of disdain for him behind a coy little smile and averted eyes. Jack sensed the energy rolling through her, a storm about to hit land. He was careful and gave her no reason to unleash her fury. Dressed in cream colored satin and lace, she was anything but soft and feminine. Her wolf was subdued just as his father had promised it would be and she presented no danger. Yet. Underneath that tanned skin and demure surface, she was capable of rending flesh from bone and snatching a man’s beating heart out of his chest. She was perhaps the most beautiful danger he had ever encountered. Wolf or not, she was not a woman he would readily turn his back on.

She picked at the food and wore the clothes he provided. And all the while, sitting at his table and alive because his mother wanted it, he got the uncanny sense she was watching and waiting for the opportunity to strike. Jack was on his best behavior, ever the gentleman as mother Starr had instructed. He was supposed to win her over. But, exactly how did a man win a woman’s heart when the only thing she wanted to do was snatch his heart out of his chest and squeeze it in her fist? He didn’t want this marriage any more than she did. But, they were both subject to his mother’s whims and nobody disappointed his mother.

Despite his foggy memories of a life he should have lived. This was the life he had. The only life he had ever known. Mother Starr had raised him and his twin. She had sheltered them in her bosom and watched them grow into men. And when the time came, she had given them her eternal kiss. The world was out there, beyond the walls of brick and mortar. But, he knew nothing of it. His world and his life were inside these walls. At the age of twenty-three, time had stopped for him. He was a vampire, an immortal, and this little she-wolf would be his bride. Her dowry was the blood in her veins and with it he would father the first generation of something more…something other than wolf and vampire…eternal but still so human…into being.

Phoenix ate like she would never get another meal in her life. There was nothing but a pile of picked over chicken bones and a smear of grease on her plate. Underneath the table she kicked Danni in the shin. Oh, make no mistake about it. When the time was right she was going to kill this pair of demented, demonic twins and their twisted little sister along with them. A child vampire, the idea of it made her guts roll with nausea. It was impossible to determine the true age of the cherubic faced little girl. A woman trapped in a child’s body, Phoenix could not envision a worse fate. At least the twins, if they were victims in a bigger plot, as she suspected, might have a chance. For the little girl, there would be no other fate but the blade.

The twins watched them with interest. They truly were a beautiful pair of men. Tall and blond, their jaw lines well formed and square, lips full, and green eyes wide set and slanted up at the corners, every woman’s dream of perfection. But, they were a nightmare come to reality. Jackson and Jefferson, whoever had named them deserved to be shot for that insult alone. The pair of them sat stiffly in their chairs, spines straight and shoulders squared, eyes focused, too focused on Danni and her.

Anything…absolutely anything could be used as a weapon. The chicken bones on the plate could be fashioned into a dagger of sorts. The fork she toyed with could jab out an eye. The dense lace of the sleeves on her dress could choke the life out of a man. If her captors had been human, she might consider it. They were not men. They were vampires and their powerful bodies could heal about any damage she dreamed of inflicting with the meager weapons at her disposal. Then, even if they did manage to injure the twins badly enough to escape the room, they had do get clear of the house.

Without her wolf, she was almost as defenseless as an ordinary human. The drugs would wear off. They had to. Until then, the both of them had no choice but to cooperate. That little girl was creepy. Who would do such a thing to a child? The little girl was a vampire. That fact alone hinted at exactly how much danger Danni and she were in. If someone could do that, turn a child into a vampire, there was no limit to what lengths such a person might go.

Her ‘husband’ was a smart man. He paid particular attention to the cutlery on her tray. As if he had already guessed if he turned his back on her for a second she would palm the knife and slip it into the folds of her dress. He was so right about that. The twins were quite a pair. Lethal. Dangerous. At the command of someone higher up, if she had to guess. And maybe, just as afraid as Danni and she were. They didn’t want this marriage any more than Danni and she did. Maybe, if they would work together, they could all get out of this mess. The pack and the brotherhood were coming. Phoenix simply had to buy them time.

Dinner conversation was good. The more she could find out the quicker she could figure out where they were and how to get out. There was a saying everyone joked about with snide snickers. Maybe, it was true. The way to man’s heart wasn’t though his stomach but his cock. Phoenix shuddered at the thought of sleeping with this man, her husband to be. But, there was nothing she wouldn’t do to ensure Danni and she kept on breathing till the pack and the brothers came to rescue the pair of them. She sipped on the wine and put on her most seductive smile. “So, tell me Jeff. You don’t mind if I call you Jeff, do you? If I am to be your bride, when is the happy occasion?”

Jefferson returned his intended’s smile and dipped his head. Damn, she was good. She left the dress loose at the neck to display her cleavage and the bare curve of her shoulder. Her hair was long and loose spilling down her back in a dark velvet curtain. Even her body language hinted at readiness, every move as subtle as a suggestive whisper. Too bad he could see the lie of it in her brown eyes. This woman would rather kill him than accept his hand in marriage. Damn his mother, a viper would have been a better choice of wives than this little she-wolf.

Keeping them was dangerous, but killing them would be even more dangerous. His father had warned the both of them that this was the only chance they’d get at making the lady of the house, their mother, happy. When mama wasn’t happy. Nobody was happy. Mama wanted grandchildren and these women were her way to getting what she wanted. Their father was weak and had always yielded to her whims. First there was their sister and when she hadn’t been enough to please mother, he had added the pair of them. At least his twin and he had been allowed to grow up before their mother had laid her kiss upon them. His poor sister, the tiny thing as delicate as a doll and fragile as an antique scrap of lace, she would never become the adult she was on the inside.

For twenty-seven years the trio of them had lived side by side. Angelica had envied their ascent into puberty and into adulthood. She hated them for getting what she had not, an adult’s body. She despised the women. The soft breasts and curves she would never get. They would have to guard the she-wolves well against their sister. Angelica was right. The women were beautiful and exotic, like the orchids their mother grew in her greenhouse.

They didn’t have a choice. Nobody in this house truly had a choice about anything and the women were just another piece in his mother’s vast collection. There was no escape. The sooner his bride to be got that idea out of her head, the better it would be for all of them. He pulled a gilded box out of the pocket of his suit jacket and presented it to Phoenix as if it were a rare treasure. It cost a small fortune, but it wasn’t a gift. It was the sheer embodiment of the price she was about to pay. When the wolf came to her along came the danger. None of them could risk it, not her, not him or his brother, and not his father. “Accept this token of my deepest affections, wife to be.”

He spoke as if he were from another time. His speech so proper and formal it set her teeth on edge. Jefferson was cultured and smooth as silk and a much greater danger to her than he could ever imagine. Phoenix took the gilded box from his up tilted palms. The box was wood, deep reddish rosewood and inlaid with pure gold and perhaps the most expensive thing she had ever dared to touch. She lifted the lid, the hinges groaning from the stress and stared down at the bauble resting on a bed of midnight blue velvet. Any thoughts of escape and cooperation flew out the window with the opening of that box. The inch wide collar made of solid gold and encrusted with jewels of every color of the rainbow was her wedding gift and the only prison she would ever need to confine her.

She could practically smell the titanium in the lock. Unbreakable. Her prison measured only one inch wide. She would not be able to shift with that thing around her throat, not without choking her wolf and herself to death in the process. She fingered the collar and glared up at him. Suddenly, he wasn’t so beautiful and this damnable situation was even direr than she had ever thought. Phoenix cleared her throat and played ignorant. “Truly, I could not accept such an expensive gift. You have my thanks though,” she said pushing the box across the table.

“I insist,” Jefferson said. Mother had given him and his brother very detailed instructions to get the collars around the women’s necks. She said it would keep them safe. He could judge by Phoenix’s expression, so expertly guarded and careful, that his mother was right. Jefferson avoided Phoenix’s eyes. In this moment and probably the others to follow, he hated his mother. He was not the obedient fop his mom thought he was. He feared her. Only a fool would cross his mother. But, that didn’t mean he necessarily wanted this woman, her blood, or the gift she would give him on their wedding night. “Neither one of us has a choice. You know that, right?”

Phoenix lowered her eyes. She couldn’t bear the truth in Jeff’s eyes. It did give her some hope that he might be on her side in some small way that the green of his irises were tinted with regret. There was more than one way out of any situation. Her wolf would have made the way out a bit handier, but she had learned, been trained by her father, that her wolf wasn’t the only weapon she had at her disposal. As long as she had her mind and her wits, she had the most valuable weapon of all.

Danni kicked Phoenix’s shin under the table. It was a sharp, hard kick meant to cause pain. Surely, she wasn’t going to let that vampire put the collar around her neck. Choice or not, whether it was going to happen or not. Danni wasn’t going to wear the pretty collar without a fight. Her bridegroom leapt from his chair, so much for refined and cultured. Jack was on his feet and moving toward her with slow, careful movements filled with intent. The box with her collar crushed into shattered wood in his fist. The pretty gold and jewel encrusted collar was clutched in his fingers and the intent was simple. He intended to put the thing around her neck.

In this damned dress she couldn’t fight. Without her wolf she was nothing, simply slightly stronger than an ordinary female. Death would be preferable to wearing a collar and made little more than a possession. Danni snatched a fork off the table. Jack wanted to play. Well, she could play. She had no chance of winning the game with cutlery as her only weapon, but she sure as hell could give him a run for his money.

Phoenix grabbed for Danni. All they had to do was play along until the brotherhood and the pack came for them. Her father had taught her the difference between fighting a fight that she could win and a fool’s errand. A display of trust would go far towards softening their captors. Once the men trusted and were stupid enough to turn their backs, then Danni and she could go for their throats and hopefully tear them out.

Danni clutched a fork in her fist, facing off against their captors. In the confusion of the commotion her friend caused, Phoenix neatly slid a knife off the table and tucked it into the folds of her skirt, but now was not the time to use it. Danni was too panicked to listen to her or to catch the nuances of her body language. For now, these fuckers were in control. Fighting would not go well for either one of them. Bravely, Phoenix gathered the length of her hair out of the way and thrust out her neck. “Do it.”

Jefferson fastened the collar around his betrothed’s neck and clicked the lock into place. It seemed his mother was right. Women could listen to reason. It hadn’t taken him long to figure Phoenix out. She was going to play along and then she would rip his throat out as soon as the opportunity presented itself. He simply had to make sure she never got the chance. His father reassured him that once the deed was done there was no undoing it. Her pack would yield to save her life and the life of the unborn child he planned to father. The vampires were no threat. Once they saw the gift her blood could yield, they too would come to understand there was no other way.

Her friend looked upon her with a mix of horror and terror in her eyes. Slowly backing away and shaking her head, her eyes flicking from Phoenix to Jackson, back and forth, and her fingers clutching the fork grasped in her fist, the first glimmer of comprehension and resolve melted her features. Jefferson fanned Phoenix’s hair over her shoulders and gently petted her head as if she were an obedient dog and not the feral wolf she truly was. With the collar in place she would strangle herself if she tried to shift shapes and with this little wolf effectively muzzled the wedding could at last commence.

It was a laughable, old-fashioned gesture, a mockery of the vows, but one his mother insisted upon. They would be wed in ceremony, with pomp and circumstance and all the trimmings. Jefferson was relieved his mother had picked the tamer of the two little she-wolves to be his bride. Jackson seemed to be destined to have his hands full with Phoenix’s friend. But, then again their mother had always thought Jackson was the stronger of the two of them. “Thank you,” he said to Phoenix.

Phoenix stared Danni down, hoping to will her into compliance for the time being. Jeff’s hands were cool on her neck and the collar a noose she could not slip. Whoever had planned this knew the pack too well. The responsible party knew a wolf’s every weakness, the darts, the drugs, and the collar. That thought boiled her rage to a fevered pitch. Someone was going to pay for what had been done to them. There were dozens of ways to kill a vampire and as soon as she got the chance she was going to explore them all in great detail. “I wish I could say you’re welcome, but you’re not. Planning on forcing me into the marriage bed too?”

Jefferson shrugged. He was not a rapist, but if it came down to it he would use force. Once his blood cooled her fevered veins, he hoped the effect alone would subdue her into unwilling compliance and quite possibly her body would do the rest. Phoenix would never love him nor would he ever love her. Love wasn’t important. She wasn’t here by choice and neither was he. His brother and he had been snatched out of their cradles as infants and forced to life a life that was a lie. He wished their dear mother had chosen a different crib. But, he had never had any wishes fulfilled or choices about anything in his entire life.

“Don’t fight me. You won’t like the result,” Jack said. The woman’s friend had gone down so complacently. She had even gone as far as to slide the thick curtain of her hair over her shoulder so that Jefferson could fasten the collar in place. Now, if his bride could get it through her thick head that there was no other way, he could finally have his wedding night. He didn’t want to think about what had to be done. He did not want to touch this woman and the thought of having sex with her to please his mother left a foul taste in his mouth.

“Touch me and you’ll not like the result!” Danni jabbed the fork at him as if she held a dagger in her fist. She sidestepped him and went for the throat. It was a foolish thing to do. Jack batted her hand away and the fork fell into a clattering tumble onto the floor. Her father had always taught her that going for the balls was a last resort and a truly dishonorable thing to do to a man. Well, in her opinion Jack wasn’t a very honorable man and he deserved nothing better than her foot kicking his balls into his frontal lobe.

Jack anticipated the move and had her pinned face first against the wall and arms wrenched behind her back by the weight of his body. Her hair was pulled tight and wound around his fist forcing her head back and extending her throat. “NO! Please!”