“Eat, take today. I want you back tomorrow. Get your ass back to the saloon.”
It was time.
“Get the fuck out of my house.” He snarled, and it felt good. He was damned tired of being treated like a child.
River chuckled and stood.
“Here, take something to eat.” Harmony insisted pulling biscuits out of the oven.
In half an hour, the food was gone and they were alone for the first time since he’d spent the night with her. He’d left her to make her safe and instead, he’d brought her more trouble.
“I’m sorry.” He said when he had her in his arms again. “I wanted to make you safe, but now it’s all worse.”
She cupped his face. “This life was never going to be easy. Your life isn’t safe. I know that.”
He held her and buried his face in her neck. “Your mother is safe. She’s in a hospital. She’s being well cared for.”
He felt her shock. She looked up and her beautiful eyes were damp.
“I thought…”
“You thought I’d kill her.” He said simply.
She looked away but nodded.
“I was going to. Pie said I shouldn’t.” He shrugged.
“I’ll have to thank him.” She laid her head on his chest. “I know it doesn’t make sense, but I still love her. She didn’t know everything, she couldn’t. How could a mother know and do nothing?”
Line lifted her chin. “She doesn’t have your strength.”
Then he kissed her. He had gone too long without tasting her, too long without feeling her warmth. He kissed her and when she wrapped her arms around him, he bent and lifted her. Her legs wrapped around him and he grew so hard it hurt.
“I need you Harmony.” He said in a voice more animal than human.
“I need you too.” She whispered.
“I’ll be gentle.” He said and laid her on his bed.
She was so beautiful with her golden hair spread over the pillow. He touched her as he undressed her, kissed every inch he discovered. He tasted the sweetness of the skin on her neck and the salty musk of her need for him. He pulled pleasure from her again and again until she lay limp on his bed, her legs splayed, eyes filled with desire.
By the time he slipped into her body she was ready for him. Her body fit him, was made for him.
He leaned down to taste her lips as he began to move inside her.
He lost himself and found himself, died and was reborn in those moments and he came out stronger. No longer would he hide from what he was, no longer would he feel shame for what he was. He was strong and with Harmony, he could do anything.
15
Harmony rocked on the front porch she shared with Line. the sun was warm on her face and she was happy. She held a box on her lap. He would be home soon and she couldn’t wait another second to give him the gift she’d made for him.
She wasn’t sure if he even still knew when his birthday was, but she was determined to make it special. She’d baked a cake and dinner was ready to go into the oven, but this, this present was what she was really excited about.
She heard the rumble of his motorcycle and her heart leapt, what if he didn’t like it? What if he wanted to forget all of it?
Her nerves had her in a state when he climbed off his bike and walked toward her.
“Hey there beautiful.” He smiled at her.
“Hey there handsome.” She answered and stood.
“What’s that?” He looked apprehensive.
“Open it.” She handed him the box and watched him carefully remove the lid.
Inside was a scrapbook, it was filled with the pictures Lucian had given her.
She had put them in the order of his life and she worried now that they might be painful for him to see, to remember.
He opened the cover and his breath caught.
His name was scrawled across the first page with a picture of him as a baby. A woman smiled at the camera from a hospital bed and a man had his arm around her.
“How?” Was all he could say.
“Lucian.” She answered simply.
“Zane Imari.” He whispered. “I’d forgotten. Funny how you can forget your own name. Funny how it fits when you find it again.”
He flipped through the pages, slowly and Harmony waited. She didn’t know how he felt about it, didn’t know what to expect.
He looked up when he’d closed the book. “I don’t know how to thank you for this. I had no idea any of this existed.”
“Happy Birthday Zane.” She whispered.
He looked up at her and in his face, she could see the little boy he had been. There was happiness, excitement, and a little fear.
“I didn’t even know how old I was.” He shook his head.
“Now you do.” She said.
“Damn, I’m old.”
“Well, nobody knows the date, but you and me, and Lucian. We can make you ten years younger if you want.” She grinned, and he laughed.
“How old are you?” He asked her with narrowed eyes.
“Twenty-two, you missed my birthday it was in April.”
He let out a string of curses and she laughed.
“Not funny.” He shook his head. “Not a damned bit funny.”
“I can’t help when I was born.” She shrugged.
“I don’t care. I should, you could do better, but I don’t care.”
She stood and walked over to sit with him. He wrapped his arms around her and his warm hand settled on her belly.
“I can’t thank you enough, not just for this, but for staying.”
She lay her hand over his. “We are stronger together, a pack.
“They will never give up.” He said.
“I know, and we will fight them. We will win. We will always win together.”
He kissed her and she led him inside.
They would begin again. His life would be new and they would live each day in truth and love and never doubt.
It didn’t matter what he was, she loved him and his pack loved him, his family.
Different didn’t make him weak, it made him strong. It made him Clothesline.
16
Books crouched in the forest, his wolf snarled as he watched the woman move around the little trailer she stayed in.
The guards sat near the front and back doors, but they wouldn’t stop him. He could walk right in and rip her throat out and no one would stop him. No one would even care if he did.
Sure, River might pitch a fit, might even bleed him for it, but no one would really give a shit. They would be pissed that we lost the link to lions, but she meant nothing to them as a person.
His wolf screamed inside him, but he ignored it. He didn’t need his wolf to kill the woman, he could do it as a man and the world would be better for it.
One less thieving lion in the world.
He took a step and then another, but just like every night, he didn’t go in. he didn’t rid the world of her. He just left and let her live another day.
He hated lions, but there was something about her that made him curious. There was more to her, a scent, the tilt of her head, a flash of something more in her eyes. He didn’t understand it, but in those moments, he felt drawn to her, but they were few and then he was filled with hatred. Lions were not to be trusted. Having her this close was a danger to everything he held dear and he would not be fooled by her.
River told him that there were good people in all races. He wanted to believe that, but he had seen too much to believe that there was good in any lion.
River said she needed help, but Books just wanted her gone. He didn’t care if she was dead as long as she was gone far away from him.
She was mixing him up and he’d always prided himself on having his shit together. There was something inside him that wanted her and something more that thirsted for her blood. He was at war with his animal, a constant war that was making him crazy and it pissed him off.
His heart screamed and his head pounded
.
Memories flooded his mind.
Laughter rang in his ears, screams pounded in his head and his mother’s tears fell on his face.
We will get through this my son.
Her voice rang in his ears and rage burned in his belly.
How could fate be so cruel?
His wolf howled and scratched at his mind.
He released him. The beast howled and pawed the earth before he turned and ran into the forest.
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