Cade (Alexander Shifter Brothers Book 2) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Part I

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Part II

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Part III

  Part I

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Part II

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Part III

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Epilogue

  Part IV

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Part V

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Part VI

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Part I

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Part II

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Part III

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Epilogue

  Part IV

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Part I

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Part II

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Part III

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Part IV

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Part I

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Part II

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Part III

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Part I

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Part II

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Part III

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Part IV

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Part V

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Cade

  Alexander Shifter Brothers

  Selina Coffey

  Copyright © Lovy Books Ltd, 2017

  Selina Coffey has asserted her right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names and characters are the product of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

  Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

  Lovy Books Ltd, 20-22 Wedlock Road, London N1 7GU, United Kingdom.

  Join her mailing list today and receive a complimentary copy of Billionaire V Bodyguard, her latest release.

  Limited offer! Only 300 copies available!

  Dedication

  For Annie.

  Contents

  Personal Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Author’s Note

  Bear Shifter Romance Collection

  Dragon Shifter Romance Collection

  Cat Family Shifter Romance Collection

  Werewolf Romance Collection

  Vampire Romance Collection

  Deleted Scenes

  Sneak Peak - Jacob - Alexander Shifter Brothers

  About the Author

  Personal Note

  Hey there,

  Thank you so much for buying my book. As thank you, I thought I’d spoil you rotten with some free bonus books!

  Take a look at the Table of Contents for more information.

  Selina

  Chapter One

  Miami Beach, Florida 1991

  Less than four years old, Jacqui hid behind the couch as her parents argued. Lately, strange things had been happening, people were coming in and taking things from the house and her mommy had stopped buying her whatever she pointed at. Daddy had started to yell at her mommy too. She didn’t like Daddy yelling at Mommy.

  Jacqui’s long blonde hair, fine and silky, was tied at the nape of her neck but she wished she could let it down. She liked to hide behind it when she couldn’t escape her parents arguing. Mommy got mad when she let it down so she left it alone, hoping her hands over her ears would block out the arguing.

  “Why can’t you unbind her powers? You’re a witch for crying out loud, you can do anything!” Jacqui’s father screamed at her mother, his eyes bulging and desperate.

  “I told you it can’t be undone until she marries. You knew better, you wouldn’t listen! Besides, you’ve all but used up my powers and now we’re out of luck. And magic!” Jacqui’s mother, a mirror image of her beautiful daughter, looked different tonight. Her normally serene, unlined features looked older, harsher somehow.

  “Well,
something has to be done. It’s all gone, all the money is gone!”

  “That’s not my fault, Edmund! I told you not to go into cocaine! We had enough money but oh no, you were too greedy to turn down an opportunity. Now look where we’re at. You’re lucky you didn’t wind up in prison. Imagine, Tanya Evans brought down to a mobile home in a trailer park! It wasn’t this bad when I was a stripper! We don’t even have power now, the company pulled the meter off the wall! This is the “everything” you promised me huh, Edmund?”

  Jacqui didn’t know what all of the words meant but she knew her parents weren’t happy anymore. Ever since the policeman took Daddy away that day over a year ago, things had gone downhill. When Daddy came back things had changed, her mother had become a woman of anger and tears, instead of the smiles and love she used to shower on her daughter. Jacqui had come to accept, over time, that Mommy and Daddy had changed but she didn’t know why. She couldn’t figure out what she’d done wrong. She decided it was better to take a nap, maybe things would be quiet after a nap, they sometimes were.

  The fight raged on and Jacqui woke up a few times, screams piercing her dreams, screams of anger, of pain. Shattering glass woke her at one point but she simply rolled over, not wanting to look, to see what had happened. She just wanted to live in a world of quiet, with no shouting, where she had enough to eat and her dolls back. Maybe a puppy would be nice. With her tiny thumb between her lips, Jacqui settled back into sleep.

  The months passed and Daddy started to act strange, slurring his words and falling over a lot. Mommy yelled at him about getting a job but he’d just keep drinking from his special glass, the one Jacqui wasn’t allowed to touch. When Daddy left one night and didn’t come back, Jacqui’s mommy started leaving at night, locking her softly crying daughter in her bedroom as she went out in skimpy clothes.

  Jacqui heard the other women in the trailer park talking and learned her mommy was a stripper. She didn’t know what that meant but she knew it mustn’t be anything good by the way the women sneered the word.

  Years passed and Jacqui became a young woman. She’d found out at sixteen that her father killed himself when she was six, jumping off a bridge into the ocean, never to be seen again. Life hadn’t improved for young Jacqui. Her mother was a drug addict now and Jacqui had to hide the money she made from her after-school job at a local restaurant. She worked hard, made good grades, but she had no plans to go to college, there just wasn’t money for it and her mom needed her.

  Jacqui loved her mother but the years of hardship and neglect had taken their toll. When you knew almost every STD, drug, and “trick” men expected from their prostitute by the time you were eighteen, your relationship with your mother was strained, to say the least. Jacqui’s mother stole from her own daughter to buy the drugs she craved and Jacqui paid the price, going hungry until she earned the money back at her job.

  Jacqui wasn’t sure if she felt despair or grief more when her mother died. She just knew she felt numb. Numb but free. She also felt a lot of guilt; she hadn’t been enough to save her mother. That was a heavy burden for an eighteen-year-old girl to carry around with her.

  Instead of going to her graduation ceremony, Jacqui attended her mother’s funeral. There she met an elderly woman who changed her life. The woman was beautiful, even with a lined face and a rounded back. Time had stooped the woman but her fire and will had not waned.

  Evelyn Sawyers saved Jacqui from the same fate as her mother. She told Jacqui of how she’d saved Tanya from a life of stripping and set her up with a fantastic life, she’d just let her heart rule her instead of her head. Evelyn taught Jacqui all she knew about men, about how to please them in every imaginable way, and about how to wrap them around her fingers.

  Jacqui had been appalled at first, her mother had been a dirty prostitute, a drug addicted hag at the end, she didn’t want the same life. Evelyn told Jacqui about her mother meeting a waiter at a restaurant one night and falling in love. Love had ruined Tanya. Jacqui swore she wasn’t going to make the same mistake her mother made. She’d never love a man, not the way Tanya had loved Edmund.

  She escorted very rich men to parties, but she never slept with any of them. Known by many in her world as an ice-queen, Jacqui could have made far more money if she’d given up her virginity but she wouldn’t allow herself to take that step. It might invite emotion in and she could not allow herself to lose any control. She didn’t want to end up like her mother.

  She made a lot of money in her eleven years with Evelyn, despite not sleeping with the clients. Now she was looking for a new life. A life of a similar quiet atmosphere and peace. She wanted to live in peace. That was all she wanted. Maybe a puppy too. She still hadn’t got that puppy she’d always wanted.

  Miami, Florida 2016

  Jacqui put down her smartphone and looked out at the people buzzing past the street café she was sitting at. Well-dressed tourists walked by, trying to look as though they belonged by not gawking at everything that looked exceptionally expensive, amusing Jacqui. They were almost harder to take seriously than the ones dressed in the cheap bikinis and flip-flops from the discount stores that dotted parts of Florida. Snobbery for snobbery’s sake always amused Jacqui.

  She came from humble beginnings and though she was now rich, she felt like she didn’t quite fit in. She hid those feelings behind ice-blue eyes and pale skin, far paler than anyone living in Florida had a right to be, but she managed to protect herself from the sun’s harsh rays with her clothes and a lot of careful planning. Along with gallons of sunblock.

  Just now she was sitting beneath an umbrella, her eyes protected by large designer sunglasses, watching the tourists go by. Sometimes she came down from her high-rise world, down to the ground, just to make sure it still existed. The only time she left otherwise was to go somewhere with a client. Her needs were cared for by a wealthy patron, a man that had his own proclivities but kept Jacqui around for appearance’s sake. Just one of many men she’d served over her life as an escort.

  She was a front, a haven, a ruse for gay men that refused to be dragged out of the closet. She was paid well for her services but sometimes she needed to come back down to the real world. Jacqui shifted as she spotted the woman she was meeting and held her arm out. The woman saw her and came to sit with Jacqui.

  “Good morning my darling, how are you?” Carla held her hand out to Jacqui, her own eyes hidden behind large glasses but her beautifully full lips stretched in a warm smile.

  “I’m fine, Carla, want a drink?” Jacqui took the other woman’s hand and squeezed before she let it go. Besides Evelyn, this was the only other soul on earth that Jacqui had formed any kind of bond with. As Evelyn’s personal assistant, Carla knew about Jacqui’s life but did not intrude on it or judge her, she simply acted as a friend to the other woman. When Jacqui allowed it.

  Tall, Latin and beautiful, Carla was a dream come true for many but she had no time for such things. Her life as a child had not been so great either and she was also one of Evelyn’s foundlings. Carla had chosen a different path in her life than Jacqui but she was still well-cared for.

  “Have you considered Liam’s offer?” Jacqui’s eyes narrowed as she looked at her friend, watching for any clue Carla might give away. Carla was a professional ice queen too, she had to be in her line of work, and gave nothing away. Jacqui knew a man had recently offered quite a bit of money for a night with Carla but Carla had refused to answer so far.

  “I have. I’m considering it. But for now, I’m here to talk about you. Here is the list you requested.” Carla slid a folder over to Jacqui and Jacqui took it.

  Pictures of very handsome men with their profiles outlined filled the folder, an inch thick. This was another of Evelyn’s services, men who required wives but didn’t want questions asked. They wanted a woman with an impeccable past with excellent skills at hiding the truth. The need for secrecy was obvious when she saw that many were politicians and men with a need to hide their sexuality. The w
orld had become more accepting of homosexuality, but for those in the higher echelons of power, the need to hide their true selves seemed to be necessary. Others were in fields ruled by men that would see a gay male as weak.

  Others, such as a few of the actors Jacqui now saw in the folder, had contracts with their studios that held a clause that they would not disclose their sexuality. Straight women wanted straight male heartthrobs, not gay men that were completely unattainable. The illusion that there might be a chance, some windswept night when the stars aligned, had to be there and gay actors didn’t often get leading male roles.

  Jacqui suppressed the urge to raise her eyebrows at some of the names she found in the folder. She’d have never guessed about the men she recognized. She’d simply had no clue.

  “Shocking isn’t it?” Carla sipped at a mojito as Jacqui flipped pages.

  “It is. Sometimes I feel like my entire life has been an illusion.” She sighed and put the folder down. She’d have to make a choice within 24 hours then incinerate the folder. Secrecy must be maintained.

  “That’s why we do what we do, Jacqui. I’m glad to see you’re going for some kind of normal, though. Even if the marriage is a sham.”

  “This life can be a long one. Eleven years feels like a hundred, you know?” Jacqui brushed a sleek lock behind her ear and began to eat the salad the waiter brought out to her.

  “I understand. Evelyn says to let her know your choice and she’ll send another envelope over with the details.” In an age where electronics could be hacked, paper could still burn. Most of the information about clients was kept out of computer systems and could be incinerated at a moment’s notice.

  “I’ll let her know.” Jacqui’s naturally strong white teeth picked a black olive from her fork delicately, seductively, without any effort. She was trained to give an illusion and though she’d never been with a man she’d made many quiver just by eating in front of them. The skills had become second nature to her now and she didn’t even notice Carla watching her avidly.