Chapter 1
1
Anchor – Twenty Years Old
“How do you feel, son?” my dad asks as he puts his arm over my shoulder and passes me a beer.
I accept the beer and state, “Really good,” as I itch my scar on my cheek that I got after falling off my bike at sixteen.
My dad grins, his dark eyes sparkling with happiness as he replies, “I’ll bet, after a year of grunt work, and now you’re finally a brother.”
I smirk as I look around the common room at the Huntsmen clubhouse. Brothers are all celebrating Cole, now known as Steal, a name he earned after he stole his dad’s bike and crashed it. James, now known as Art, for obvious reasons, and I are patched over to brothers.
Anchor.
That’s the name I’ve been given because, apparently, I’m everyone’s anchor, the person they come to with problems, and I hold them down so they don’t freak out.
I take a sip of my beer as my little sister Callie runs around the room. I notice Mom’s eyes watching her with love but also pain, and concern hits me.
“You won’t fuck up like I did, son,” Dad says after a few seconds of silence as he watches me.
I snort. “Dad, what you did wasn’t a fuck up; it was downright stupidity.”
He hums and agrees, “It was, and I’m fortunate enough that your mother forgave me.”
“Only because you refused to let her off club property,” I interject and he sighs.
“You still haven’t forgiven me, have you?”
I look at him, take in the sadness that fills his eyes, and admit, “You hurt Mom. I was the one who held her up, and instead of treating her like a queen after she took in your child, you left her to do all the work on her own, struggling to connect with her husband’s affair baby…. I love you, Dad, but no, I haven’t forgiven you, and yes, you were the reason why I wasn’t sure I could become a brother. I'm scared I'd go down the same route as you because I have your blood.”
He sighs and takes a sip of his whiskey before he looks at Mom and rasps, “What I did to your mother, I’ll forever feel guilty for, and forever regret, which is fucking bad because I love your sister.” I nod. “But I can promise you I’ll never make that mistake again.”
I take another sip of beer and admit, “I know you won’t because if you do, I’ll kill you.”
He chuckles, knowing full well I mean it as Ginger, formerly known as Harley, saunters over to me wearing a dress so short you can see her panties.
“Hey, Anchor,” she purrs, and Dad snorts in his drink.
The moment Hammer mentioned Ginger applied to be a clubwhore I was fucking shocked.
I thought I saw the back of her when I graduated high school, but apparently not because as soon as she graduated, she came here and now lives on club land, sharing a room with two other clubwhores down the hallway just off the entrance of the common room where the prospects also sleep, where I used to sleep.
With me becoming the VP in a few years, I do have a house being built behind the clubhouse. As soon as we take the roles within the club, we’ll have the officer suites just off the room to church as well, but for now, we’re moving upstairs to our assigned rooms, mine being connected to Steal’s through a shared bathroom.
Though, I won’t be staying here much.
“Want to go up to your new room?” Ginger asks with a rasp to her voice, trying to be seductive.
I huff, “No, I don’t. Now fuck off to another brother.”
She growls and stomps her foot and turns on her heels when I don’t look at her, and Dad chuckles. “At least now you can tell the brothers that you’re married and give your beautiful wife her property cut, meaning that shit won’t happen anymore,” my dad says, and I smile wide.
“Do you Heaven take Travis Turner to be your lawfully wedded husband?” the judge asks.
I grin wide as Heaven keeps eye contact with me and states firmly, “I absolutely do,” and my heart fills with so much love that it consumes me.
“And it’s about time as well,” I mumble, and he chuckles softly, knowing how much I’ve wanted to celebrate having that amazing woman as my wife.
“It was for the best to keep your relationship on the down low, son. You know this. After you finished high school, she was still there and didn’t need any trouble,” my dad counters, and I hum.
The moment I saw Heaven, I knew she was going to mine. I put her on the back of my bike on our first date and haven’t looked back.
She’s fucking everything, and when I graduated, Dad suggested people believe I ended things with her more for her protection because she wasn’t protected by the club while I was prospecting, but now, I can have this beer then go home and bring my wife back, giving her the cut Hammer had made for me when I joined the club.
Patting my dad on the back, I mutter, “I’m going to grab Heaven.”
He nods with a grin, and I quickly down my bottle before throwing it in the trash and heading to the door. I make eye contact with Steal, who grins wide, knowing where I’m off to, and I give him a salute, walking out of the clubhouse with a pep in my step, though a niggling feeling hits me, like I’ve forgotten something.
It only takes me twenty minutes before I pull up outside our small bungalow on Checkers Street and I smile as I pull up behind her dark gray Nissan, my eyes sliding to the lit-up house.
With a grin stretching my face, I quickly climb off my Harley and rush inside. My eyes instantly go to the living area, and nothing but love consumes me when I notice her sitting on the large, dark gray chair, our son nursing.
Our son….
Fuck, it still feels weird that we have a son.
A few months after we tied the knot, Heaven found out she was pregnant. I was shocked, and I’ll admit, I did panic a little, and with only my mother, father, and Steal knowing about our marriage and my son’s existence, I couldn’t panic on anyone, I had to swallow it all and act like I was happy when in reality, I wasn’t.
I love my son, but I felt like we still had a few years together before kids; I mean, Heaven hasn’t really lived, and now she’s a teen mom.
She ended up quitting college and working nights, something I didn’t fucking want her to do, to earn money because my father refused for me to leave the business courses he signed me up for.
As he stated, once I patched in, I’ll earn more, and she can return to college. And now that’s finally happening, especially since she returned to work two weeks ago, a lot earlier than most new mothers.
“Hey, Angel,” I say quietly, not wanting to disturb our son's feeding.
She looks up and smiles, and I instantly melt as I walk over to my little family and kneel, my hand going to her thigh and my other to our son’s tiny foot.
Fuck, motherhood suits her.
“Hey…” she whispers back before looking down at our son attached to her breast.
Lucky fucking kid.
We haven’t had sex in three months, which is a long fucking time in my eyes, but I understand it. The last month of her pregnancy was hard for her, and it’s been two months since Micha was born, and it was only last week that she got cleared for sex again, but she’s been tired.
“How’s he doing?” I ask as I gently rub his head, my heart softening at how tiny he is.
With dark hair and his mother’s icy blue eyes, he’s perfect….
“Okay,” she replies, “I took a nap with him today so that I don’t fall asleep at our meal later.”
Our meal, what…? Shit!
I shoot my head up, and our eyes connect. She furrows her brows. “You forgot?”
I wince. “Yeah, Angel, I did, but only because Colt, James, and I finally got patched in today—it was a surprise. There’s a big party going on, so I came to pick you up and show you off to the club.”
Her eyes dim, and I hate it, but she knows how important this is to me. I’ve wanted my dad’s approval for years, especially when I questioned whether or not I wanted even to be a part of the club.
“And what about our son?” she asks.
Crap, I didn’t think about that.
And the father of the year goes to….
I sigh, “I don’t know, Angel. Maybe we could call a sitter for the night.”
She flinches before snapping, “A sitter when I’m nursing? Are you serious right now? I can’t be away from him for too long, Travis, and you know this; it’s why my night shifts have been halved.”
She goes in for four hours, returns home for an hour, then goes back in for another four hours.
I huff and stand, placing my hands on my hips, and snap back, “Seriously, Heaven?” She flinches, but I ignore it and continue, “This is part of my legacy. Is it so bad I want my wife there?”
Her nostrils flare. “Yes, when we’ve just had a baby!”
I roll my eyes, my anger now flaring, my mind not seeing the situation as it is, and I grunt, “It was your choice to continue with the pregnancy, Heaven!”
Her eyes widen in shock, and I instantly regret my words because I love my son just as much as I love his mother. I sigh, “I didn’t mean it like that, and you know it.” She scoffs, but I continue, “You are my wife, and today is really important.”
She shakes her head. “Last time I checked, it takes two to make a baby, and you were the one who took my virginity and suddenly couldn’t keep your hands off me!” I flinch at the coldness in her voice and I know my words hurt her. She continues, “And secondly, I won’t leave our son because you want to party on our day.”
Our day? This is my fucking day.
She’s being selfish, for fuck’s sake.
Fury builds, and I growl, “You’re being a heartless bitch, Heaven! I do fucking everything for you, including putting your mother in her place, and you can’t give me this?”
Micha starts to cry at my loud growl, and Heaven quickly puts her large tit away, and places him over her shoulder to burp him before we make eye contact, and the look of hurt in her eyes fucking burns.
“I’ve not long had your child, I’m tired, I stink, and all I wanted was a peaceful night with my husband to celebrate before spending the evening in bed with you. If staying with him makes me heartless, then fine. You go to your party and get drunk while I take care of our responsibilities like I have since the day the stick gave me two lines,” she says.
I scoff at her, hating that she won’t be there for me, and I snap, “Fine, don’t fucking wait up!” And I turn and storm out of our home, not realizing the damage I’m causing.
My anger doesn’t subside as I get to the clubhouse. If anything, it’s festered.
I get it, she’s just given birth, but this is fucking important, and I know we were supposed to have a meal tonight for reasons I really can’t fucking remember, but her not being here right now just makes her a selfish bitch.
I nod to the prospect behind the bar as I approach and demand, “Shots,” and he nods, quickly lining several up. Over the next forty minutes, I drown myself in alcohol, allowing it to soak into my system while resenting my wife.
Not a good fucking mix.
“Hey baby,” Ginger whispers as she gently grips my bicep after my eighth shot, and I turn my fuzzy head to her, my eyes going to her bare tits, and I lick my bottom lip as they travel further down to see her bare cunt, glistening.
My dick hardens, and without a single thought in my drunken brain, I remove her touch and throw her over my shoulder, making her squeal.
I head upstairs to my new room, open the door, then kick it shut behind me before I throw Ginger on my bed, my dick ready for some fun….
I groan as banging echoes around me, my head pounding, and I rub my hand over my face.
“Oh God, tell them to stop,” a whiny voice says from beside me, and I freeze, my heart racing, knowing it’s not my wife.
Oh fuck, fuck, fuck, please let me have clothes on….
The banging gets louder, and I slowly open my eyes and look down, seeing I am, in fact, naked before I turn my head and see Ginger with her arm thrown over her face, also naked with dried cum on her chest.
No, please, fuck, no….
Vomit builds, and without a second thought, I twist and gag and wretch, emptying the bile from my stomach on the floor.
“Open the fucking door, Trav, before I knock it down,” Steal shouts, and I quickly climb out of the bed, grab my boxers and quickly put them on before I twist and grab Ginger by her arm. She gasps in shock as I yank her hard and drag her off my bed, her body landing with a thump in the puke.
“Ouch!” she whines, but I ignore her as I pull her to standing, drag her over to my door, and open it.
Steal sneers seeing Ginger as I throw her past him and growl, “Get the fuck outta here!”
She smirks as she rubs her arm before she stands and struts down the staircase naked, looking pleased with herself.
I look at my friend.
Disgust shows, and my body trembles, knowing how much I’ve fucked up but not realizing just as much until he holds his hand out. Seeing a gold band, I frown, but true fear hits me when he states, “Heaven says happy first wedding anniversary and that she wants a divorce.”
My heart pounds as I slowly take the ring from him with my trembling hand and make eye contact with him.
“She ran outta the club yesterday in tears,” he admits.
I shake my head and beg, “Please, please, no.”
He sniffs hard and continues, “She saw exactly what you were doing last night, on your anniversary at that, and she’s done with you. Oh, and she also crashed her car into the gate when I told the prospect to keep it shut.”
With that said, he turns and leaves me reeling with his confession, and I look at the ring in my hand.
“Yes baby, fuck me harder….”
Ginger’s moans echo, and my eyes tear up as I stumble into my room, looking around with fear and pain, my wife’s wedding band squeezed tight in my palm. The weight of the pain I feel drowns me as I realize I’ve done exactly what I worried I’d do after patching in the club—and on the first fucking day—all because my wife wanted to stay home with our son.
Like father like son….