Clothesline
Howlers MC
Book 4
Amanda Anderson
This book is a work of fiction and any similarities to persons, living or dead, places, incidents are completely coincidental and not intended by the author.
The characters and events are productions of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously.
The author and publishers acknowledge the trademark status and ownership of all trademarks, service marks, and word marks mentioned in this book.
The author or publishers have no control over third-party web sites or their content.
Printed in the USA
Dear Readers,
I hope you enjoy this fourth book in the Howlers MC series. I have had so much fun working on these books and there are still two more at least to go...at least, because I am playing with the idea of giving Lucian a book, but I am still not sure how that would go, he’s just such an ass and I am in love with Creed.
So, there may be more than originally planned here, but we will have to wait and see, because if Creed gets a book, maybe Daisy should too…
You see how my mind works!
I do hope you enjoy Clothesline, it was not an easy story to tell, but I am very pleased with the end result!
Happy reading and as always, I love hearing from all of you, so feel free to leave me a comment on my website @ AmandaAndersonBooks.com and let me know what you think or ask any questions you may have.
Prologue
Clothesline stood in the bathroom of the Full Moon Saloon and groaned as he finished into the redhead’s mouth.
“Now get the fuck out of here.” He rasped.
Her eyes narrowed. “I could use a little extra cash Line. You know I always take care of you. I just need a little.”
Clothesline laughed. He couldn’t even remember her name. “I don’t have to pay you for shit.” He grabbed a handful of her hair. “I can fuck you all night and send you home broke and sore. Don’t’ think you can charge me. Go find some regular to blow if you expect cash. Get the hell out of the Full Moon.”
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t charging. I just need a little cash.” she whined, and it turned his stomach.
He shoved her away and fixed his pants.
He slammed out of the bathroom and cursed when he saw Pie banging a woman behind the bar.
“That shit will get us closed down. Fuck her in the back or hell, on a table, but keep it away from the service area.”
“Why? That’s what I’m doing. Servicing one of our pretty sweet butts.” He slapped the woman on the ass hard enough to leave a mark and kept pounding into her.
Clothesline grabbed them and shoved them toward the back.
Pie laughed and used the woman’s hair like reins as he rode her the few steps to the back room.
What the fuck kind of life was he living?
“Hey there Line. I’m mighty horny tonight.” Jacki, a blonde beauty purred, but Clothesline found no draw to her.
Books leaned against the bar and watched the room. “You ok brother?” He asked, and Clothesline nodded, but he wasn’t.
“What the hell are we doing here Books?” He asked and took a long drink of beer.
“Living I guess.” Books huffed, but Line could tell he was getting tired of it all too.
River was still recovering from the Sickness, Dice was home fucking his mate and Ricky was probably doing the same.
“Never thought I’d want that shit, you know?” He said and knew Books would understand. Books understood more than most.
“Guess it all gets to us sometimes.” Books shrugged, but his eyes lit up when his favorite whore walked toward him. “And sometimes a little familiar makes all that shit go away.” He laughed and slapped Line on the back.
He grinned when Teresa stepped between his legs and leaned into him.
Clothesline didn’t have that anymore. There was only one face he saw when he closed his eyes and she was so far out of his league it wasn’t funny, and she was too fucked up to take a man like him.
She deserved better.
He left the bar and straddled his bike. He didn’t know where he was going, but he needed to feel the road under him. He would let his heart be his compass.
It wasn’t until he parked in front of Creed’s sprawling farmhouse that it really sank in.
The only woman for him was Harmony and she would never accept him.
He was screwed.
1
Harmony was still jumpy, but she was getting better every day. She was safe. The monsters of her past couldn’t get to her here in Creed’s fortress.
She liked thinking of it as a fortress like those in old England, with walls so high no one could ever get in, but in truth, Lost Lakes was not a fortress and the secrecy of it was as much protection as the monsters that guarded it.
The trees and mountains were the walls and the sky stood guard over them all.
She shivered when she heard a sound echoed from the caves, there were always sounds there. The monsters were not quiet, but even their roars and oddness made her feel safer.
As long as she stayed in Lost Lakes, she was safe, but she would never be free.
She never allowed herself to think of it, but it was true. She was in a prison.
A beautiful cage that kept her safe, but still kept her from freedom.
Freedom had been a fairytale to Harmony. She’d been raised by a mother who believed that shifters were evil, despite having one as a son. She hid him away, unwilling to kill him, but unwilling to see him. She hid him away and tried to forget that he was a real person.
The cult her mother had joined believed in obedience of women and death to shifters.
Harmony had suffered abuse from her stepfather that would have broken most, but she’d endured it. She had fought to save the brother that she loved so much and she’d given her body in trade for food for her brother who was kept in a cage in an old shed.
She’d been trapped.
Now she was safe and Reed was safe to live in the caves and make his own life, but she was still trapped.
Freedom was a dream a gnawing need that she could not have, and it was eating her alive.
Oh, how sweet it would be to go to go shopping whenever she wanted or to get her nails done or even have a job.
She knew she should be grateful and she was, but she just wanted to be free, to be a normal woman doing normal things.
She wanted to find a man to love her, accept her, understand her and be gentle with her but not treat her like she was a freak that would break at any second. She wanted a family with children that she could love and raise to love everyone with an open heart.
She took a deep breath and then another. She wasn’t suffocating. She was in the wide open, under a big sky and she was free, but she could feel the walls closing in on her and she wanted to run.
“You are safe here.” She turned to see Clothesline standing a little ways away from her.
“I know. I am safe here and I am thankful for that.” She said, and she meant it.
“You aren’t happy. I can tell that much.” He sat down in the grass and leaned back on an old oak tree.
“I am happier than I was at home with mother and Don.” She answered truthfully.
“Come sit with me.” He said, and she couldn’t have refused him if she’d wanted to.
She sat beside him, not too close, but close enough to let him take away her worries. He did that, she didn’t understand how, but he always seemed to make her feel better.
“What are you doing up here?” She asked when the silence grew heavy.
“Had business with Creed.” He shrugged and looked away.
“And you thought
you’d come say hello?” She urged.
Clothesline was a strange man, one filled with secrets and one to be feared, but he didn’t frighten her, instead, she felt safe with him near.
“It would be rude to leave without saying hello.” He said, but still wouldn’t meet her eye.
“Your mother raised you right.” She said, and he stiffened.
“My mother was murdered just after I was born. I was raised by my aunt. She did the best she could I guess.”
His eyes were on her, studying her.
“Apparently she did.” Was all Harmony could think to say.
It broke her heart. Her mother had been hurt and sucked into a cult that hated shifters and she’d let her children be abused, but Harmony still loved her. She wanted her to get help and get well.
“My mother wasn’t always the way she is now.” She began, and she had Line’s complete interest.
“She was kind once, loving. We used to pick flowers and make dinner for when daddy came home. He was my step dad, but he loved me like his own. She loved him, and he was good to us. We were happy.”
“What changed?” He asked interested.
“Reed turned five and he started to act different. Something changed in daddy’s eye, I know now that it was fear. He started taking Reed with him everywhere and I was so jealous, but mother said it was good for men to spend time together in the woods and so she made sure to spend extra time with me doing girl things. It was a good life. Then one day daddy had to work late, and Reed was upset. He changed into his wolf in the middle of the living room. It was terrifying.”
“I can imagine.” He let out a breath. “My aunt was a wolf, so she knew what to expect, but when I changed the first time she wasn’t prepared. It’s always scary for everyone.”
“Reed was still my little brother, so I tried to understand, but mother was angry. She’d been lied to and somehow the devil was in her son. When daddy got home she lost her mind. He tried to explain. He told her he was like Reed and that there was nothing wrong with him, he was just different, but mother was afraid. She wouldn’t let daddy in the house and she wanted to turn Reed out too, but I begged her not to. I swore I would keep him away from her and I did. It was a terrible time. We snuck out to see daddy, but we got caught. Mother decided to move. We did and in a couple of years she joined up with Don and the cult.”
She didn’t know how it happened, but his arm rested on her shoulders and she was leaning on him. His warmth seeped into her, comforting her.
“My father never wanted me.” He said. “Killed my mother, but my aunt took me and hid me away. We lived on the run, but we were happy. He eventually found us.” He ran his thumb across his throat.
Harmony’s heart broke in her chest.
“But you survived.” She whispered.
“I told you sweetheart, nothing can kill me unless I say so. I didn’t want to die that day.”
“How old were you?”
“Around seven I think. After that we didn’t run so much. I heard he was killed a few years later. I don’t really know.”
His thumb ran up and down her arm causing chills to race along her skin.
“Don wanted to kill Reed, but I begged him not to, begged mother. They agreed that I could keep him in a cage like a pet, but Don made me pay for that.” Her throat closed up.
“He abused you. That isn’t your fault.” Line said, and he held her closer.
“I chose it, so I could feed my brother.” She said. She needed to believe that it had been her choice. Somehow that was better than what had really happened.
“It wasn’t your choice, not really, but you took it on yourself and you survived it. That took balls sweetheart. Don’t ever be ashamed of your scars.”
She looked up at him and swore she had never seen any man look so handsome. No, he wasn’t a man to grace the cover of magazines, but he was everything she had ever wanted.
His jaw was strong and stubborn, his nose was perfectly straight which she found odd in a man who lived such a violent life. His brows were dark and more than not, turned down in a scowl, but that was just the way he was. It all made up this man that she had learned to trust without effort.
“What is your real name?” She asked. The breeze blew gently and to Harmony, nothing could feel more right.
“I don’t remember. Sometimes I think I do, but I just don’t know. We changed it alot. The only thing that stayed the same was Clothesline.”
“Why that?” She asked. She knew that if the conversation lagged he would find a reason to leave and she couldn’t stand the thought of it.
“I was a wild kid. I didn’t understand how dangerous the world was. I would change every time my feet hit the grass. My aunt would hang me up in a pillowcase when she had to be outside, nothing dangerous, she just hung me up there while she hung out clothes. Kept me out of trouble and I didn’t mind because she would sing, and I just hung my head out and watched. She called me her clothesline puppy. It stuck.” he chuckled softly. “When I’d get into trouble and she couldn’t remember the name I had decided on for that week or however long we were staying in one place, she’d call me Clothesline.”
“Why did you never pick a name?” Harmony wondered.
“It keeps her alive I guess. Wolves are hard to kill, but it can be done. She was seen by hunters and they tracked her. She got her foot caught in a trap and they found her.” He let out a painful breath.
“When I found her, she was mostly dead. She’d fought them, but her foot was caught. They’d shot her up. When she didn’t die they sat around and waited. I killed them.”
She knew that was all he’d say about it.
“I’m so sorry.” She laid her hand on his chest and he reached up to hold it there. “What was her name?”
“Muriel. Funny how I can remember her name but not my own.” He let out a bewildered laugh and shook his head and looked down at her.
His eyes were so blue they rivaled the sky.
“I’m no good for you Harmony. I’m no good for anyone.”
“I don’t believe that.” She whispered. It was hard to talk to him when he was so serious.
“I’m not a gentle man and the life I live isn’t a good one. I drink, cuss, smoke, fuck women whenever I want to. My job is violent and usually illegal, but I try to do what is right when I can. I won’t try to pretend I’m different.”
“I never asked you to be different.” She whispered.
He lifted her chin and looked at her.
“Maybe you should.” He said and pressed his lips to hers.
It was fire and heat and comfort all at the same time and it terrified her even as it soothed something deep inside her.
He tore his mouth away and stood.
“I can’t fucking do this. I can’t.” He paced away from her only to come back and pull her into his arms.
“I can’t let you go and I can’t keep you. What the fuck am I supposed to do with that? You tell me what to do and I’ll find a fucking way.”
A tear slipped down her face. “I don’t know. All I know is that I’m less afraid when you are near. I feel whole.”
He stepped away and the sound that ripped from his throat was so mournful it broke her heart.
Then he was gone, walking away from her. She knew he would be back, he came and watched over her on nights when her dreams were to horrible. She didn’t know how he knew to come, but he was always there, keeping his silent vigil and he was always gone in the morning.
She didn’t understand him, but she didn’t need to. She loved him, and she didn’t pretend she didn’t. She had spent too much of her life telling herself not to feel, she refused to do it anymore. She loved him, and she would wait.
2
He was here, again. It seemed he spent all of his free time on the road between the Howler’s compound and Lost Lakes. Too many hours on the road, too many miles to think, and too much in his head to focus.
He always ended up here.
He slipped off his bike like a shadow and climbed silently to the roof of the porch. Her window was open a crack and the scent of her reached out to him.
He’d never lifted the window.
He knew he was lost if he ever stepped into that room, but he couldn’t help sitting there while she slept.
She called to him and often he could hear her thrash as a dream tormented her, but she always settled when he sat down, there by the window. He told himself that his nearness helped her. He told himself she needed him, but no one needed him.
He was nothing but trouble.
Clothesline scratched at the scar that ran across his throat, a gift from his old man, a reminder that anyone that loved him would suffer.
His chest rumbled with hatred and he felt his claws slide from under his fingernails.
He gritted his teeth and took a deep breath, it hurt like hell, but it was a reminder of what he was.
He didn’t know how he’d gotten so lucky for so long, didn’t know how he’d gotten away with it, but he had.
He was different, the only one of his kind that he knew of, but no one would admit to being a freak.
Harmony made a sound in her sleep and that small sound caused a vibration in Line’s throat that he hated more than the man that had cut it so many years ago.
He was a wolf, he told himself, and the reminder quieted the hated sound.
Harmony made a sound, it was low, but it was filled with pain.
Fury exploded behind his eyes when he heard her low whimper. He couldn’t stand the thought of her pain, it blinded him in a way he couldn’t control.
He lifted the window and slipped into the room.
Her body was bathed in moonlight and her face was drawn up in pain and fear.
He quietly sat beside her and ran a hand over her hair. Her eyes opened, they were so blue in the darkness and there was no fear in them when she saw Line sitting on her bed.
“Another dream?” He asked and gently ran his fingers down her face.
She nodded. “I was being punished.” Her eyes slipped closed.
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