Chapter 7
Fallon knelt next to Zara and Tatum in Zara and Crew’s bedroom, picking up the biggest shards of glass before the shop vac would be used. Every window in the farmhouse—and the barn where she and Avi had been sleeping—was broken, leaving glass everywhere.
Nancy and Tris had come over with Dexter and Khyle to help a little while ago. Every herd member was taking part in the cleanup because it was such a massive job. Thankfully, only the glass had been broken. No one had been seriously hurt by the rigged trip wire and explosives on the porch.
She shuddered, thinking how close she’d come to losing Avi or him being seriously hurt.
Before the cleanup began, the herd had met in the kitchen and she’d listened to their thoughts about Colton and his small herd. He seemed like a maniac, much like Otto, trying to take something that didn’t belong to him because he was selfish and insane.
“Did you ever think you’d be cleaning up glass at three in the morning because an unhinged alpha thinks he should take over another herd’s territory?” Nancy asked, her voice a mixture of annoyance and humor.
Zara snorted and dropped a large shard of glass into the trash bin that Ford had brought into the room for them. “It’s a new one for me.”
“Good thing you had intuition that something was going on outside, or we might have two fewer stallions in the herd,” Tris said.
Jaguars, like stallions, had territory battles, and in the history of her people, Fallon had heard some really nasty, awful things that one group would do to another.
But it didn’t lessen the fact that there were two people who were trying to upheave the peaceful life in Little River—Colton, who thought he was entitled to take over the farm and kill everyone else, and Otto, who thought he was entitled to claim Fallon as his mate.
She felt Avi before she saw him, her cat attuned to him already.
He smiled at her from the doorway and she rose to her feet. Gingerly stepping over the glass shards, she met him with a kiss.
“How’s it going in here?” he asked.
“Slow but good.”
He smiled at her, but anger simmered in the depths of his blue eyes.
She put her hand on his cheek and said with a low voice, “We’re okay.”
“I know.”
“I’m thankful that no one got hurt and we’re only dealing with broken windows and not broken bodies.”
“Yeah, me too.” He pulled her close and buried his face in her neck with a sigh.
He straightened and gave her a quick peck on the lips.
“I brought up the shop vac. We’re using Dexter’s downstairs.
And listen, I think we should sleep in the farmhouse for the time being.
The barn is just too removed from things. ”
“Of course, I don’t mind. We hadn’t even talked about where we were going to stay, though I kind of figured we’d end up in the farmhouse with the rest of the herd.”
“It’s the place to be,” Tatum said with a chuckle.
“I need to run,” Avi said. “I’ll see you in a little while.”
She nodded with a smile and watched him leave, heading down the hall to the stairs. She could hear the hum of the males talking on the first floor, where they were cleaning up the glass and making plans for the repairs of the damaged walls and windows.
Something squeaked behind her and she turned around to see Nancy lifting a metal curtain rod from its hooks and sliding the torn and paint-stained curtains off.
“Let me see those,” she said, carefully crossing the room.
“The glass cut them up a bit,” Nancy said as she gave them to Fallon. “I don’t know if the paint can be washed out, but they might be beyond repair anyway.”
There were a few slices along the hem where glass had punctured the fabric, and there were splotches of colorful paint too. “Well, I don’t know about the staining, but if we can get them clean, I can repair them.”
“You can?” Tatum asked. “You can sew?”
“Yeah. My grandma taught me before she passed away. I was always looking for things to sew when I was younger. It’s fun to fix things and make them new.”
“When we’re done in here, I’ve got something to show you,” Zara said.
“Sure thing,” Fallon said.
She folded the curtains and put them on the bed, which had been stripped of linens that had been shaken out carefully onto the floor.
Everything had to be checked to ensure there were no glass shards and then washed.
There were four bedrooms in use in the farmhouse, including the one she and Avi would share.
Her stomach flipped at the thought of being with him again, but she pushed the sexy thoughts away.
There would be time for that later.
* * *
When Crew and Zara’s room was free of glass shards and the linens were in the laundry, they moved on to Grey and Tatum’s room, but Zara grabbed Fallon and took her downstairs to a room down a hall off the family room.
“There are a few rooms down on the first floor we use for storage or that are empty,” she said.
“I told Crew the other day that I wanted to go through them and see what we actually have in storage, and I remembered seeing a sewing machine in this room. I think when the guys bought the farm, they just closed the doors down here and didn’t worry about the stuff left behind.
I don’t like clutter.” She smiled at Fallon as she opened the door to a small room.
There were boxes and old furniture everywhere, and in the corner, a sewing table and old sewing machine.
“Oh!” Fallon said, picking her way through the boxes to the table and sewing machine. “It’s just like the one my grandma had. How cool!”
“We can order whatever supplies you need and have them delivered so you can repair or replace the curtains. And I also have a skirt that’s a little too long, if that’s something you could do?”
Fallon smiled. “I absolutely can hem it for you.” She ran her hand over the cool metal of the machine. “This is so neat, thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Zara sighed. “Ready to head back to glass cleanup?”
“Yep.” She followed Zara out of the room, taking one last look at the sewing machine, eager to use it and be helpful to the herd. She couldn’t wait to talk to Avi about what Zara had shared with her.
* * *
Fallon tried hard not to toss and turn Monday night in the very comfortable bed that Avi had so expertly worn her out in earlier, but she couldn’t seem to turn off her brain or stay asleep. Every time she dozed off, she startled awake with a soft groan.
Avi was breathing deeply in sleep next to her, and she should have been resting too, but she just couldn’t seem to.
She’d spent the entire day cleaning the bedrooms with the females save for Tatum, who’d had to work at the library.
Grey had gone to watch over her in case Colton tried something with her again, so they were down two people but the work still got done.
At least the bedrooms and kitchen were free of glass.
The other rooms would get finished up soon enough.
With a quiet sigh, she decided staying in bed was not going to work for her and she needed to clear her thoughts.
She slipped from the bed quietly and put on a pair of shorts and a tank top and grabbed the cell phone the park had given her.
Then she walked out of the bedroom and shut the door quietly, leaving Avi to rest.
She wasn’t sure what she was doing on the first floor of the farmhouse, but she moved from room to room, stopping at the kitchen and seeing Ford on patrol. He walked by and paused, seeing her in the kitchen. He lifted a hand and she waved back.
The coffee pot was primed to go off in a couple hours, but she was more in the mood for tea, so she filled the kettle with water and tilted the lid so it wouldn’t whistle and wake anyone up.
In the pantry, she found a shelf of different teas and chose a simple black tea, which she’d pair with a little milk and sugar.
As she turned to walk out of the pantry, she saw the section set aside for baking and paused. She remembered her mom getting up really early to make breakfast items to share with those in need in the prowl, and how Fallon had always loved waking up to warm baked goods fresh from the oven.
Her eyes stung a little.
Was her mom okay?
She hoped she’d hear from her soon. It was killing her not knowing what was going on with her.
Pushing the dark thoughts away and hoping for the best, she gathered the ingredients for the coffee cake her mom always made and had taught Fallon how to make.
As the kettle boiled and the tea steeped, Fallon mixed the ingredients for the recipe she knew by heart, feeling close to her mom despite their distance.
As the two large coffee cakes baked in the oven, she sat with her second cup of tea on the back porch where she and Avi had their first date.
“Sweetheart?”
She turned to see Avi, sleepy-eyed and deliciously shirtless, standing in the doorway.
“Morning.”
He joined her with a kiss to her forehead.
“It smells like cinnamon in the kitchen.”
“Coffee cakes.”
“How long have you been up?” he asked, taking a seat next to her and resting his warm hand on hers.
“I came down here about two. What time is it?”
“Four fifteen. Is everything okay?”
“I didn’t want to wake you. I couldn’t sleep.”
He gave her a gentle smile. “You can always wake me up. I would have joined you down here.”
“I appreciate that. I actually liked the quiet. I needed time to think.”
She told him about making the coffee cakes that her mom used to make, and the early mornings spent in the kitchen with her when she was growing up. When her mom had switched to making what she called fancy coffees, Fallon had done a lot of the baking.
“Sounds like you two could have opened a coffee shop.”
“We talked about it, but it was just talk, you know? Because we never thought we’d leave the prowl.”
“When your mom is finally free of the prowl, you two can make coffee cake and fancy coffees anytime.”
“I’d love that.”
She leaned into him and he held her close.
They didn’t say anything for a long time, just sat in sweet silence, until the timer beeped and she needed to check on the oven.
By the time the coffee cakes had cooled enough to be cut, the farmhouse was waking up and she and Avi had only a little while alone on the porch with coffee and squares of cake.
She’d spent most of the time since she came into the kitchen in quiet thought about her mom, Otto, Colton, and Sunny, and wondering what the future held for her and her family.
Avi was her family now too, and she was glad he was by her side through whatever might come. She didn’t know what the day would bring, but for the first time in a long time, she wasn’t afraid. She had a home to protect and a mate by her side, and the fragile hope that her mom would make it out too.
Until then, Fallon would live. She would mend curtains and hem skirts and bake coffee cakes and carve out a place for herself in the herd.
She wouldn’t live in fear anymore.