Cash [Pyrate's Treasure 3] (Siren Publishing Classic)

Pyrate's Treasure 3

Cash

Zoe Shannon Vaughn is the King of Wolves’ human wife in name only. Pyrate’s Island pack Beta Cash Pyrate recognizes his mate the moment he sees her and does not care that she is married. As a gifted seer, Zoe has dreamed of Cash for years and knew this moment was coming long before they arrived on the island for Edward Pyrate’s funeral.

As a “simple island boy,” Cash mates Zoe first and then realizes she is a lady and deserves to be romanced, not just claimed. When another wolf threatens them, Cash shifts just inches from Zoe. His actions scare her and she worries that one day he might shift and attack her.

Will King Luka stand in the way of Cash claiming Zoe as his life mate? Can she learn to love him without the romance he feels she deserves?

Genre:
Contemporary, Paranormal, Vampires/Werewolves
Length:
21,963 words
 

Pyrate’s Treasure 3

Cooper McKenzie

EROTIC ROMANCE

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

ABOUT THE E-BOOK YOU HAVE PURCHASED:
Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to only ONE LEGAL copy for your own personal reading on your own personal computer or device.
You do not have resell or distribution rights without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book.
This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If you do not want this book anymore, you must delete it from your computer.

WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

If you find a Siren-BookStrand e-book being sold or shared illegally, please let us know at

[email protected]

A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

IMPRINT: Erotic Romance

CASH

E-book ISBN:
978-1-62241-723-0

First E-book Publication: October 2012

Cover design by Harris Channing

All cover art and logo copyright © 2012 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED:
This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

PUBLISHER

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

Letter to Readers

Dear Readers,

If you have purchased this copy of 
Cash
 by Cooper McKenzie from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

Regarding E-book Piracy

This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

This is Cooper McKenzie’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Ms. McKenzie’s right to earn a living from her work.

Amanda Hilton, Publisher

www.SirenPublishing.com

www.BookStrand.com

In memory of Dad, who was proud of me for having the courage to follow my dream of being a writer.

CASH

Pyrate’s Treasure 3

COOPER MCKENZIE

Copyright © 2012

“Zoe and Ca–ash sitting in a tree,
k-i-s-s-i-n-g
, first comes mating then comes love—”

A hand on her shoulder pulled Zoe Shannon Vaughn’s attention from the scene her mind’s eye was showing yet again. The children’s voices faded before finishing the song, but she knew they would return. The vision of her sitting in a tree with a wolf name Cash had started ten years ago but had been growing stronger since she had learned of their upcoming trip to Pyrate Island, North Carolina.

“Are you all right?” the man she had been with for the past ten years asked as he sat down on the bench beside her.

When she glanced around, she found the rest of his inner circle had left. Had she missed the end of the meeting? Or had he cut it short because her mind had drifted off again?

“I’m fine, Your Highness,” she responded automatically. “Why?”

“You were staring across the room humming a tune I remember from childhood while tears rolled down your cheeks. You were wearing the oddest expression, like you were overjoyed and your heart was breaking all at the same time.”

Zoe turned her head and looked across the room so his steel-gray eyes could not see into her heart by looking deep into her eyes. That was but one of the things she had taught him in her ill-defined, all-encompassing capacity of royal advisor.

She had known since she could walk that she had been gifted with the power to see things coming for other people long before they did for a reason. Just before her eighteenth birthday, she began having visions of her standing just behind this man’s right shoulder, whispering in his ear. The people of his shape-shifter world knew him as “King of Wolves,” but in the human world, Luka Vaughn was a very private, very successful businessman.

Instead of explaining her strange behavior to him, she broke the news that had been weighing heavily on her heart for the past few days. No doubt this was the reason for the tears he had just witnessed.

“My liege, our time is coming to an end,” she said softly, continuing over his soft inhalation of shocked breath, “but there will be another to step into my place. Your mate will be so much more to you than I ever have been.”

With that, she shifted to face the man the world knew as her husband. The man she called her friend. He looked stunned. And skeptical. And curious. It was the same expression he wore every time she made such bold, out-of-left-field statements. Even after all these years together, he sometimes still refused to take her word on things such as this without evidence to back up her statement.

“And when will these people come into our lives?” he asked warily, obviously hesitant to say the word “mate.”

Only Zoe knew that he had given up on finding his other half years before. He had explained that to her when he had asked her to marry him just days after she had barged into his life a decade before. He had been thirty-two years old and had come to the conclusion that mates were for younger shape-shifters.

That was but one of the reasons they had married. The other was to protect her reputation and allow her to remain at his side at all times. None of his shifter subjects ever voiced the question of whether or not they were mates. They were just happy their king had found a woman for his bed. If only they knew they not only slept in separate beds, but also in separate rooms at opposite ends of their large suite.

While she tried many times over their years together to assure Luka that he would find his fate-destined soul mate when he least expected, he still did not believe her.

“Soon,” she said, “very soon.”

“I guess this means we need to dig out those annulment papers we filed the day after of our wedding.”

Zoe nodded but did not look at the man she had come to think of more as an older brother than a husband. “Yes, my liege, though I do not think our mates will care if we are married to other people or not.”

* * * *

Cash Pyrate was the last to turn his back on the landing helicopter as sand began to fill the air from the prop wash. Other rich, kinky, human guests had arrived at Pyrate Island resort by helicopter before but always used the clearing in the center of the village. But this guest was special, and so his whirlybird was landing on the far side of the island where humans were forbidden for their own protection.

Glancing to his left, he looked at his cousin, Goldie Pyrate, who would be installed as the newest Alpha of the Pyrate Pack. Edward Pyrate, their grandfather and the previous Alpha, had been found dead in his bed just two mornings before. After a call to the King of Wolves, Ruby and Silver had cancelled the guests scheduled to visit the resort for the next two weeks. Then plans were made for Edward’s funeral and the ceremony that would make Goldie the leader of Pyrate Island pack.

She was ready to take over, having been training for this for the last eighteen years. Edward had been slow in handing over the position because, as he had secretly admitted to Cash and Silver one night long ago, he wanted her to find her mate first. Goldie had met her mate in Deputy Caleb Slattery nearly a month earlier, and they were settling into a happy life together.

Though he would rather be running in the woods and dealing with his sadness, Cash’s presence as Goldie’s Beta was required here. The King of Wolves had shocked the entire pack by accepting their invitation to the week’s events. He had also requested accommodations for himself and his inner circle for a week, mentioning that he would like to take a few days afterward to rest.

Once the helicopter landed and flying sand settled, he and the others turned around and waited as the door slowly opened. Two men appeared in the doorway first. They were even bigger than Cash’s own six and a half feet and two hundred sixty pounds of solid muscle. They paused and scanned the area for danger before coming down the helicopter’s short staircase.

They wore jeans and T-shirts, but their aura was as intimidating as if they had been wearing thousand-dollar suits. These were the King’s Betas, providing advice and protection to him as he and Silver did for Goldie.

They took up flanking positions on either side of the stairs before a third man appeared in the open doorway. Luka Vaughn, King of Wolves, wore a black suit with a white shirt and dark tie. He looked like he was ready to negotiate world peace or a multibillion-dollar business takeover instead of starting a week-long vacation.

The king took in their small group in a glance as he descended the handful of stairs to the sand. Cash’s gaze returned to the top of the stairs when a fourth person stepped into view and hesitated.

The woman was beautiful. Long dark-brown hair tied in a braid draped over her right shoulder to end just below the peak of her breast. Her eyes were dark as well, though he could not tell their color at this distance. Her features were delicate, and she looked very familiar, though he could not place her.