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.