Sighing, I shifted in my chair, too tense to sit still. I had been against the union but now, I could see how Damesha had changed Kane, how she made him glow with happiness. An exception had been made, mainly because I was the leader of this clan and what I say goes. Some new blood might do us all some good anyway, I pondered as I thought about Kane and Damesha’s child. My niece. For a moment a smile played around my lips and I relaxed.
A knock came at my door and the urge to tell the knocker to fuck right off had to be bitten away. I was the leader of my clan, this was my job, even when it became too much of a burden.
“Hi there Cade, I’ve brought my niece to meet you. She’s just finished college you know, and this is her first visit home since she left four years ago.” A middle-aged woman bustled in, a tight white suit outlining her figure perfectly but doing little to attract my attention. Her white hair was perfectly coiffed and her makeup flawless. Her eyes revealed the lie her image created.
Greed rested in her brown orbs, avarice, a longing for more power that did little to make me want to look at her niece. I needed a bride, my clan kept insisting on it, kept bringing me candidates, and this one was only the latest.
I didn’t want to deal with this, but it was my duty, I reminded myself for the millionth time that day. I had to provide the clan with an heir; I had to provide a new shifter to maintain our population, our status in the shifter world. I had to do all of this while I darted between endless meetings, settled countless disputes, and kept tabs on a group of shifters that wanted to cause trouble for the human and shifter worlds alike.
I finally looked at the young woman, admitting defeat. This was the only time I had to meet women, the only way I could think of to provide my clan with a wife they would approve. I felt my heart shrivel as I looked at the dyed black hair, overtanned skin, and too thick makeup of the young “farmgirl” before me.
She wore a tiny pair of denim shorts that showed off her long, shapely legs, shaved smooth and perfect. Her top was like something out of a costume store, a gingham number in blue and white checks, tied just above her belly button and left open with a tiny white top beneath to protect her modesty. She gave me a perfectly composed shy grin, filled with straight white teeth, her own brown eyes looking up at me from her under her lashes. Also, perfectly executed.
The only sign that I was bored was a slight tilt to my right eyebrow. Another perfect, fresh from the farm breeder with perfect hips and a beautiful face.
“No.” I saw the girl’s face crumple, she couldn’t have been any more than twenty-one, and didn’t care. Her aunt was offering her up for her own gains, and the poor girl probably had no idea what she was being led into. That or she craved the position as much as her aunt did. That’s all any of the women from the clan wanted, it would seem; my money, my name, and my position. Too bad I didn’t want any of them.
For a moment I felt an unfamiliar emotion, something I hadn’t felt since I was a child, something I hadn’t felt since my parents died and left me in charge of my brothers and my clan. I think it might have been anger, or hurt, perhaps even resentment. I wasn’t sure and paused to examine it as the aunt ushered her now sobbing niece out, shooting me an angry glare.
“You’ll have to choose sometime, Cade. We demand an heir!” Her words were loud and rude in the quiet setting but I didn’t hear them, I was too busy examining this unfamiliar emotion.
I realized, after another sip of bourbon, that it was a mixture of all those emotions. These people trotting their offerings in here to me were making me feel like nothing more than a slab of meat, probably something all of these young women felt. I hated that feeling, even more than I hated feeling powerless to make my own decisions sometimes. As a clan leader, I had to think for everyone, not just myself.
Sometimes that got to me but I’d never let anyone know that.
This was my burden and my burden alone to bear. I would love to have a companion, the classical idea of a bride that would be my love, my best friend, and my partner in all things, but that was not going to be my fate. I could choose my bride though, whether she was a shifter or not. I did not have to provide them with a shifter bride; it was expected but not a written requirement.
There was the tradition to consider, the unwritten rule, but Kane had already broken it. And, I’m the leader, fuck the rules! If I have to marry, if I have to prove I’m a man by giving these people a bride, I’ll find my own. From the looks of it, Kane is going to provide us with as many heirs as we need anyway, I might as well solve this problem the best way I know how to. Calling somebody else to sort it.
I remembered the website of a woman I knew in Florida. A woman that ran a high-class escort service for well-to-do clients who knew how to keep their mouths shut. She also offered another kind of service, mail order brides. Scratching at my tired jaw, I thought about the option. A mail order bride might be just what I need.
I scoffed at the old-fashioned name, but when it comes down to it, that’s what the service was. I opened my laptop and found the site the woman kept, hidden behind firewalls, login screens, and other devices, and accessed the bride section. I knew the backgrounds of the women weren’t the most spotless but these were all classy ladies, the best money could provide, and one of these would do for my needs.
At this point, all I wanted was a wife, one that could be presented before my clan without a qualm, one that would always shine at my side, and one that didn’t want anything but the security of my name and my money for the rest of her life. Open honesty was the only thing I craved, the only thing I truly wanted out of this newest demand of my clan.
I didn’t want some young, nubile girl that wanted to lord it over her friends that she married the Alpha, or to be a feather in some aunt’s cap, I didn’t want an untried virgin who made social gaffs at every turn, or a wife that pretended to love me. I wanted a down to earth woman, one who knew the score from day one, and accepted me on the terms I’d set.
I scrolled through several pages, not finding a single profile that interested me until ice blond hair and an even icier blue gaze caught my eye. My lips parted as I looked at the woman, her gaze drawing me in. There was daring there, self-assurance, and something I don’t quite think she knew she revealed. A vulnerability hovered around her lips, lips I wanted to reach out and touch. Were they as soft as they appeared to be? Or would they be frozen and hard, matching the appearance I saw right through?
This was a woman that knew how to deal with life, this was a woman that would know me for what I was, and take what I offered without question. She knew the realities of life and how to hide her true thoughts well. Except from experts like me who knew what to look for, because I’d lived the same kind of life.
I dug through her profile a little more and decided to call the woman that could make this happen. Jacqui, the name of the woman I had my eye on, was not the kind you approached without a battle plan, not from what I could tell about her from her profile. This would take some doing.
“Cade, I didn’t expect to hear from you.” The soft southern twang on the other end of the line let me know I’d reached Evelyn directly.
“No, ever since I’ve started this bride hunt I haven’t had much time.” I knew the sigh went all the way to the other end of the line but Evelyn was the kind of woman that I knew I could be softer around. She just drug it out of you without even trying.
“Not going well is it?” I couldn’t tell if she was amused or considerate with that response.
“Not at all. Listen, I was going through the list of your ladies that want to find husbands and, well…” I let the words trail off, a moment of embarrassment taking over. I am Cade Alexander; I shouldn’t be having to order a bride!
“Oh, darling, good! Let me see if I can guess which one caught your eye. Let me think.” I could hear a manicured nail tapping against the older woman’s teeth and smiled. It was a peculiar but endearing habit.
“Hmmm, you always ask for the more refined of my ladi
es when you visit Florida. Someone sophisticated and knows how to, ahem, perform her job well. You always go for dark-haired women as well. Now let me think.”
I chuckled as she spoke, taking a sip of my bourbon as she thought on the other end of the line. And then she said a name and I knew she’d come to know me better than I thought she had.
“Jacqui Evans!” She sounded convinced she was right, and I knew my response wasn’t needed but still, I garbled out one anyway.
“How did you know?” I couldn’t fathom how she’d known Jacqui was the woman I was calling about.
“Cade, my darling, you’re a man, you’re all open books once you know what to look for!” Evelyn sounded rather smug and I was glad she couldn’t see my moment of pouting, my bottom lip sticking out a bit as I frowned. Only she could produce that response in me.
“Well, that still doesn’t explain it!”
“Alright Cade, calm down. Look, Jacqui is beautiful, she’s around the right age for you, and she’s the exact opposite of what you look for in a woman you just want to have some fun with.”
“Right, but that still doesn’t explain it!”
“Of course it doesn’t, you’re a man. It’s like this, Cade, men don’t pick the women they want to play house with the same way they pick bed partners. That goes especially for you. You are a powerful man, you need a jewel on your arm, not candy.”
“Okay, that makes more sense.” I was getting frustrated but I didn’t want her to know that.
“And you called me. Any man with a lick of sense would know they need a plan to win Jacqui over. If you simply wanted to arrange a wedding with one of my girls you, Cade, would have handled it. Only a special case would get you to call me. That special case is Jacqui.” She sounded tickled with her own deduction and I frowned some more, not sure I was enjoying her amusement as much as she was.
“Good work, Sherlock! Now, what do I need to do? As you said, not just anyone is going to win this woman. Tell me what I need to do.” I poured another shot of bourbon in my glass and settled back into my leather desk chair. This might take a while.
“Well, you have to let her come to you. She’s already asked to get out of the game we’re in so I think I know just what to do.”
“What’s that? How is she supposed to come to me? I don’t have a profile on that thing, website, whatever!” I wanted to growl, my shifter side getting a little annoyed now. I squashed it down, as in control of that as I was of everything else.
“I’ll arrange everything, Cade. You just let me handle this, my darling. But, once she’s on the hook, it’s up to you to land her. Understand me? Jacqui is a special one, very special, and I won’t force her to choose you. I think you two are suitable, and you have a lot in common. More than you realize, I’d say.” Her words trailed off and my interest was piqued, but she started to talk again. “Now, listen, you let me handle this part, Cade, you’ll hear from her soon enough. Don’t let me down, alright?”
“I’ll do my best, Evelyn. It’s all I do. Ever.”
We exchanged a few more pleasantries and then the line went dead. Evelyn was off to work her magic. I inhaled deeply as I pulled up the pictures of Jacqui one more time. The hardest part about this marriage, if it happened, was going to be keeping my hands off of her.
Jacqui was beautiful, seductive, but screamed don’t touch me. That made me want to touch her, to comfort her, even more. A deep ache started in my groin as I looked at her but I couldn’t allow it to blossom into anything more. I needed a wife in nothing more than name only, she wanted a husband that asked for a sexless marriage, with little contact. Maybe we were going to be perfect for each other.
As the ache in my groin continued to blossom, despite my efforts to squash it, I stood up and left the house. Removing my clothes, I shifted into the form of a black wolf, needing the exercise to take the edge off. I’ll need to get this under control, and quickly.
I’d figure out the rest, such as not producing an heir, later.
Problem one had been solved. Maybe that was enough to stop the rumors that had started all of this in the first place. With the wind in my fur and my paws eating up the ground, I ran at full tilt, losing myself for the moment in not worrying, and just running.
Sneak Peak - Cade
Alexander Shifter Brothers Book 2
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 ye
ars 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.
Kane (Alexander Shifter Brothers Book 1) Page 133
