After Dawn, What Came Next

Catcher held Fallon still, giving her time to adjust to his bulk. Her weight was nothing to support. In her palms the muscles of his buttocks rippled from the strain of holding back. Her cheeks burned with the heated blush of passion. Holding back was killing him. He wanted nothing more than to drive his length into her in wild abandon until the both of them were nothing but a quivering mass of panting well pleasured flesh. They’d get there. A bit of restraint would make that end all the better. And after so many years of bitter denial, he was the king of restraint.

He couldn’t help the smile that curved his lips and heated his flesh to the very core of his being. He could come. He could find his release inside of Fallon and she would welcome it. There was no shame or guilt or fear of punishment. He would fill her with his seed until she was wet and dripping with the very essence of him. At this angle with him supporting her weight, he was so deep inside of her, buried to the base and surrounded in her tight warmth. He eased in and out of her heat, gritting his teeth from the effort of getting her where he wanted her first.

Fallon dug her heels into the small of his back and bucked her hips with impatience. His little fire dancer was burning with the heat of the fire. He wanted her consumed by the flames. Catcher moved with intent, slow and easy, driving her to the brink with each thrust. Her core tightened around him, milking him and turning his resolve to ash from the wonder of her slick heat. She clung to his forearms, digging her nails into his flesh. The sting of the bite added to his pleasure. He pressed her harder, colliding their bodies together as one faster and faster until he had not only her where he wanted her, burning in the flames, but himself as well.

A roar of possessiveness tore from Catcher’s throat. Beneath him, Fallon shuddered and quivered in the throes of bliss. Damn, he loved the sounds she made when she was totally lost in orgasm. It was the music of heaven’s angels and so sweet in his ears. Balancing on the balls of his feet, his thighs twitching and his groin so tight he thought he was going to burst, he filled her with the raw heat of his release.

The air whooshed out of Fallon’s chest as Catcher’s weight collapsed on top of her. He was heavy and his skin so hot, burning hot. The insides of her thighs were slick from his release. He buried his face between her breasts and exhaled a completely male grunt of contentment. He was crushing her beneath him, but she had not one complaint. Wrapping her legs around his hips and locking her feet together at the ankles, she trapped their bodies and reveled in the heat they had made together.

Catcher looked boyish, grinning up at her with his chin propped on her breast as if he’d gotten caught with his hand in the cookie jar and didn’t mind the punishment. She brushed the sweat-dampened hair off his brow and traced the corners of his mouth with a fingertip. He didn’t smile nearly often enough. He was devastatingly handsome, but when he smiled, he was breathtaking.

Catcher lowered his lips to the point of her nipple. Watching him suckle her, his tongue wrapping around the bud then pausing to flick the tip was erotic. The sensation rising up from her the center of her chest was terrifying and had her digging her nails into his shoulders, as if the contact could keep her earthbound and prevent her from drifting away. She had loved Daniel for so very long. The sensation, the heady feeling of loving someone else with such deep, perhaps deeper, intensity and falling so hard so fast, scared her to death.

“Go with it, Fallon. For once, don’t think.” Catcher watched doubt and fear settle over Fallon’s features, clouding them with dark storm clouds. Ripping her heart out of Daniel’s grasp was a painful, almost cruel thing, but something that had to be done. Fallon would never become all that she could be if she didn’t tear the scab from the wound and let it bleed so that it could finally heal. She was ready for so much more in her life than what Daniel was even capable of giving. Some things called for gentleness and some things did not. Catcher knew this. She had been gentle when she had cured him of the horrors of his past. He wished he could do the same for her. He couldn’t. This pain was what she needed to finally let Daniel go.

“But…I…I mean…Catcher, I could fall in love with you so easily.”

“And that’s a bad thing?” Catcher captured one nipple between his teeth and lathed his tongue over the ripe bud. Her body responded, arching against him for more. He was hard and so ready to give, but he needed her there with him, not only in body but in spirit as well.

“No, it’s a good thing, but…”

“It hurts to let the past…everything you hoped for and dreamed of. It hurts to let it…to let him go.”

Fallon sighed. Catcher did amazing things with his tongue. His hand stroked her hair, calming her as if she were a frightened animal. He knew no deceit. Lying wasn’t in his nature. If anything, he was brutally honest to a fault, not only with her, but with himself. He gambled when he had so much to lose. Placed all his money on this one turn of the wheel. “It does. I thought…I wanted for so very long. Everything I waited for was based on nothing but a dream and now that dream is over. It’s too soon for us. Too soon for me to move on.”

“Yet, here you are. You taught me the past doesn’t necessarily define a person. We choose our own future. Stop letting your past and your shattered dreams determine your fate. I am here. Daniel isn’t. You love him. Love him if you need to, but don’t shut me out. You need this. I need this. We need this and together we are everything we need to be. You love me and don’t you dare deny it. Not when you’re naked and shuddering with desire beneath me.”

“It’s wrong. It’s wrong to love you like I do not when everything is so raw and painful. Daniel sleeps just two doors down the hall. How can the three of us ever face each other? How can we live like this? What if what we have is one of those rebound affairs? Those never turn out well for anybody. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You’re worth the risk of pain. And as for Daniel, he is my friend, but I could care less about his personal drama. He gave away something precious and rare when he turned his back on your love. That is something I don’t ever intend to do. Walk with me, Fallon. Take my hand and walk boldly through the present and into the future. I want to build a life with you. God knows we both deserve it…a good damn good one for all we’ve suffered. I want to make babies and for us to grow old together. I want it. I want it all and I want it with you.”

“You mean that. Don’t you.”

“With every beat of my heart. Let him go, Fallon. I’m here. Daniel isn’t and he isn’t ever going to be.”

Fallon closed her eyes and gave her body into Catcher’s arms. He loved her completely in every way possible, with his body, his heart, and the wholeness of everything that he was. He was right. The way he loved her was a way that Daniel never could. Her body burst with orgasms and her heart bled for love lost. She closed the chapters of her life that had been dedicated to Daniel. There were so many blank pages he could have filled, but in the end had chosen not to. Catcher was here and together they would write the next chapters.



















Chapter 87

“See, we’re just like anybody else,” Cat said. Christian stayed stuck to her side like glue. His eyes were big and round with trepidation as she showed him the layout of the compound. There had been plenty of hugs and welcome homes from the second she had stepped foot through the door and plenty of slant eyed curious glances at Christian too. Poor guy, she couldn’t blame him for being wary. It wasn’t everyday that you learned beyond a shadow of a doubt you were human and not everybody else was.

Cat wasn’t embarrassed or afraid to hold his hand and her head up high as they walked through the halls. Some areas were off limits to Christian for his own good. There were places that no human eyes should see and he probably wouldn’t want to anyway.

The long corridor down in the very bowels of the earth where the brothers housed the three vampire prisoners wouldn’t be on the tour. Neither would the creepy tunnels deeper below that not even the brotherhood had fully explored yet either. The original layout of the compound hadn’t been changed since the brothers had moved in over thirty years ago. And while everyone still held out hope that their numbers would increase and the dark, empty spaces eventually claimed and illuminated and made as bright and cheery as the rest of the compound. There simply hadn’t been a need yet.

Cat dragged Christian by the hand through the more mundane places…the ordinary spaces such as the kitchen, the living quarters, and the recreation room. There had been some adaptations over the years. A chapel had been added. The garage expanded. The décor was updated to keep up with the times and the furniture the brothers sometimes busted to bits when scuffles arose.

The pack didn’t come down here very often. Wolves had a natural tendency to crave fresh air on their faces and the openness of outdoors. They didn’t like being caged up underground. For her, the compound was home and cozy as anyplace on earth. She preferred the comfort of the dim lighting and shadowy spaces to sunlight and the winding maze of the woods miles above her head.

Christian hoped he wasn’t hurting Cat. He gripped her hand so hard the bones of his fingers ached. The compound was a maze of dim hallways and closed doorways. The curious sets of eyes on him made his skin crawl. And of course, there was the wrinkle of noses and the ripple of an upper lip as the ‘people’ Cat introduced him to caught his human scent. Everyone was polite, naturally. Cat had celebrity status down here. Nobody wanted to upset the Great Father’s little girl.

It befuddled the mind to think that these ‘people’ Cat had proclaimed were just like everybody else and truly weren’t had been human at one time. The brothers were big sons of bitches. He hadn’t met a brother yet that didn’t dwarf him by comparison. And the women, so breathtakingly beautiful he had to wonder if being big and beautiful were prerequisites to becoming a vampire. But, of course, they didn’t call themselves vampires. Cat had warned him about that, not to say the word vampire in reference to anybody down here. Cat had drilled it into his head that they were people, not human, but people just like anybody else.

Hell if they were. But, for all the apparent anti-ordinariness of this place everything appeared ordinary as in Brady Bunch ordinary. The compound boasted every conceivable creature comfort, a gym that would rival the very best Olympic training center, a movie theater, a kitchen and dining area, a recreation room, and a garage that would make a gear head drool. The vampires, and no he wouldn’t call them anything other than what they were, acted human. At least around him they did. But, Christian had to wonder if it was just an act. Cat had been bottle fed the Kool-aid since birth. She believed every word she said. He just wasn’t quite ready to swallow down the Dixie cupful she was trying to force on him yet.

“Oh, cookies!” Cat exclaimed sniffing the sweet smell of vanilla and sugar in the air. Spinning on her heel she dragged Christian toward the kitchen. “Anna must have heard we had company. C’mon, her cookies are best fresh from the oven.”

“Cookies?” Christian let Cat tow him toward the kitchen. He didn’t say a word when she parked him on a stool at the counter and shoved a plate of chocolate chip cookies under his nose. Cat was so happy and enthusiastic about showing him her world. He didn’t want to do anything to crush her joy, such as mentioning the obvious. He took a cookie off the plate and shoved it into his mouth. Smiling at the blonde leaning against the counter studying him speculatively, he nodded his approval. The cookie was melt in your mouth good, but it did nothing but solidify the doubts in his mind.

Whatever the politically correct term for vampire was…person, fanged creature of the dark, Brother, Guardian, Rogue…whatever it was…it wasn’t human. Cat could eat because of her mixed genes. It was obvious that the blonde vampire glancing longingly from the plate of cookies to the crumbs on his lips. Anna, he supposed. Could not.

Cat was too busy munching on cookies to get around to officially introduce them yet. He sipped on hot chocolate that had cooled and left a ring of scum at the top of the mug and took another cookie off the plate before Cat devoured them all. Christian had never known ordinary. Not that his parents hadn’t tried. It was just that after Rachael’s death and his surprise birth. There wasn’t much normalcy to be had. Christian would rather the vampires show their true selves and stop tiptoeing around him. It was all of this normalcy. The cookies and coca, and the politeness, he didn’t trust.

Anna leaned on the counter and studied the human boy. Oh, he wasn’t a boy, but a man. But, at her age anyone under forty was still a kid. God, she didn’t want to think about how old she really was. In fact, she had to count on her fingers and toes to come up with the sum. Seventy-three, if she had added correctly. Not that age or the passing of the years had any hold on her.

Cat was overwhelming the kid with trying to prove how normal and human everything was down here. It wasn’t and the boy wasn’t fooled. She called to her power, just a sliver of it, and pressed her palm to his mug to warm his cocoa. He stared down at her glowing hand in awe and no small amount of terror. Anna grinned at him and eased back on the energy. She wanted to heat his hot chocolate, not boil it. “Welcome to Oz.”

Patrick rounded the corner. He wanted to put a face with the scent just in case the kid got any bright ideas to bolt. “Yeah, and you just met Glenda the Good Witch,” he said with a laugh. “Anna, quit freaking the kid out.”

“Who me?” Anna said, batting her eyes innocently.

Patrick sniffed the cookies and wrinkled his nose. He had the kid’s scent and his face implanted into his memory bank. Christian wasn’t going anywhere he couldn’t be found. Leaning casually on the counter, Patrick asked. “You seen my wife around here anywhere?”

“She tried on a pair of vintage skinny jeans this morning and she has been in the gym ever since,” Anna replied.

Patrick rolled his eyes. Of course, Janine was in the gym. His wife was perfect, petite and curvy in all the right places. But, she was preoccupied with the size of her butt. He thought her ass was perfect. She however, did not agree. He grunted. “I’ll go rescue her. Whoever said a dog was a man’s best friend hasn’t seen my wife in a pair of spandex running shorts. My wife’s ass, a thing of beauty.” He winked at Christian. “See ya around, kid.”

Anna topped off Christian’s mug with the coca left in the pan and set it down in front of him. It wasn’t lost on her that he hadn’t touched the cocoa since she had warmed it for him. Oh, she got it. He was human and freaked out. She had been there once too. “What would you like for supper?”

Christian was surprised by Anna’s question. Food was the last thing on his mind. “I usually just zap something in the microwave. It doesn’t matter, really. I’ll eat anything.”

“Hmmm, let me see. Nope. Anything is not on the menu,” Anna said. “I cook. You eat.” She shuddered at the very idea of serving something fresh out of the box for supper. “Processed food will kill you. Garlic chicken sound good?”

Christian shrugged. He could care less about the supper menu as long as he wasn’t the main course. “It doesn’t matter. Chicken is good.”

Anna narrowed her eyes and glared at Christian. It mattered. Of course, it mattered. He simply didn’t get how much it mattered. She had been so ill at the time of her turning. Plagued by a madman and almost driven to insanity, she had begged Toby to turn her. She hadn’t gotten a last meal. No cheeseburger and chocolate shake send off, like Chance had. No drunken margarita fest like Janine got. No heaping stack of pancakes and buttery syrup, like the breakfast she had made for Alex when it had been her turn. Nothing. She had not eaten food, not one bite, in over thirty years. And given that, a meal was everything. “I know you don’t understand, but trust me. Food is everything.”

Cat swallowed down the cookie caught in her throat. So much for trying to convince Christian how normal her world was. Anna was ready to reach across the counter and rattle out of him what he wanted for supper. Food was a tender subject for the brothers, almost as tender of a subject as what they actually did eat…or rather drank. “Garlic chicken sounds great, Anna!” She said over enthusiastically. “Anna makes the best garlic chicken I’ve ever tasted.”

“Why thank you,” Anna said. She lived for complements on her cooking. She couldn’t taste what she cooked, but she experienced every bite vicariously though the pallets of others.

“Garlic chicken works for me,” Christian said. He wasn’t about to disagree with Anna or Cat. Anna left them alone in the kitchen. There was one last cookie left on the plate. He pushed the cookie to Cat. She pushed it back to him. “Will you quit trying so hard?”

“Trying to what?”

“To convince me that I belong here. I don’t. This is your world, not mine. This.” He waved his hand in the air. “Is not normal.”

“Of course it is,” Cat scoffed. “We love each other. Me and you, we do belong together.”

“Be that as it may. I don’t belong here.”

“Why not?”

Christian grunted. She had to ask? “Primarily because I don’t have fangs.” Cat sometimes didn’t have her fingers on the pulse of reality, mainly because she chose not to. She loved him and that was the only reality she truly wanted to see. He didn’t know how they were going to make this work. There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her. But, he wasn’t certain he would take the plunge and drink the Kool-aid.

“You could have fangs if you wanted them. Do you, Christian? I like you just the way you are. Everyone will come around and they’ll love you too. You’ll see. But, if you think sprouting a pair of fangs will help you to accept what is. I’ll do it. For you. For us.”

“No…hell no! I don’t want fangs. I want you and a life. This is not a life. Hiding down here in the dark. Pretending to be human when you’re not. That’s living a lie. Life is out there not down here.”

“You saw what happened. I can’t go out there.”

“And I’m not sure I can stay down here.”

“What do we do about that?”

Christian crushed Cat to his chest and inhaled the scent of her hair. “I don’t know.”



Chapter 88

Daniel gritted his teeth and tried to ignore his superior sense of hearing. Being two doors down from the sheet wrestling contest going on behind the closed door at the end of the hall was killing him. Overhearing Fallon’s breathy sighs of contentment and her scent, the musk of sex and sated woman, the occasional groan of a bedspring, and of course, Catcher’s grunt of masculine completion as he filled her with his release was enough to make Daniel seriously consider moving to another zip code. Maybe Alaska would be far enough away to forget her and the things he had overheard going on in her bedroom.

He could hardly play wounded lover considering he was the one to let her go. Daniel had told her he wasn’t any good for her. Shouldn’t he be flip dizzy that Fallon had moved on so quickly? By rights he should, but if that were truly the case. Why wasn’t he? Fallon was better off without him. Catcher was the better man, damaged as he was, far better than Daniel ever would be for a woman like Fallon.

What was he going to do with the rest of his very long life? Daniel could see the unspoken question on Tristen and Mouse’s faces. His brother and sister had always seemed to know what direction their lives were going to take. Daniel hadn’t had a clue and still didn’t. His siblings were too much like their mother. The bits and pieces of her he could remember anyway. Daniel was a carbon copy of his dad. Restless and wandering just like the old man had for almost two decades. Hunter, his father, claimed the love of a good woman had pulled him out of his downward spiral into hell. Well, Daniel had fucked up that possible escape from his personal damnation in setting Fallon free.