The Other Princess Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Author’s Note

  Book Description

  M.C. World Romances

  *

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  *

  A Love So Hard

  Preview Chapter

  Dancing With Danger

  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

  Redemption Weather

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  The Other Princess

  Aces High – Charleston #1

  Christine Michelle

  Copyright © 2018 Christine M. Butler / Christine Michelle

  All rights reserved.

  Scanning, uploading, copying, and/or any distribution of this book, either electronically or otherwise, is illegal and punishable by law without express written permission from the publisher.

  Help support authors you love by only purchasing legitimate copies of their work through trusted sources.

  Any similarities to persons, organizations, or places written about within these pages are purely coincidental, as this is a work of fiction.

  Smashwords Version

  Author’s Note

  Fair warning:

  This is a family drama with a slow burn romance simmering in the background.

  While MC books tend to run high on over-the-top drama this book came from a different place. It started in my head as a family drama with a twist. I wrote four chapters, and then I set my notebook aside. Apparently, I set it aside for a really long time.

  As this book lay forgotten, collecting dust amongst my many “idea books” I thought up the whole S.H.E. Series and then started delving into the Aces High books that ended up totaling 16 full length novels from the S.H.E. Series and Aces High Dakotas, Cedar Falls, Tallahassee, and Sierra High Chapters.

  The Other Princess was originally written about an MC I had dubbed Joker’s Wrath, but I figured since I had the Aces High guys on deck now, and I mentioned in Angel Girl that there was a chapter in South Carolina near the beach, that I would just weave this one right into the mix when I rediscovered my notes. Hopefully, it blends seamlessly even though it revolves around more family style drama than outside influences. Sometimes, the low key stories end up being the most interesting to tell. This was definitely one of them.

  Once again though, I warn you, while the family in this book is part of a motorcycle club, the story is one of a broken family trying to figure out where they went wrong and how to put those broken pieces back together. The MC plays a part in everything that happens, but this isn’t your typical MCs doing battle with each other drama. Everything is very much internalized. If you’re still willing to dive into some heartache before getting to the happy with the Aces High MC – Charleston Chapter, then turn the page…

  Book Description

  The Other Princess

  Aces High – Charleston Book 1

  I was eight years old when I found out I had a father. It was the same day I held my dead mother in my arms while praying her life wasn't really over.

  I was dropped into the middle of a new family not long after that. My dad, his wife, and their two kids to be exact. My new brother was ten years old and my sister was five. It doesn't take a genius to figure out I wasn’t supposed to be there.

  My family ended up bigger than that though. My dad was a member of the Aces High Motorcycle Club. From the very beginning I was ostracized because of who my mother had been. The daughters of club members were generally known as MC Princesses. My little sister was one. My title was a bit different, and proved that my mom's sins would always be held against me. I was The Other Princess.

  My family, both by blood and MC ties, did wrong by me so I walked away from them. That was until he came home from the Army.

  He tried to fix everything.

  He tried to win an unattainable heart that had shut down years earlier.

  I would know since it was my heart he was after.

  He didn't realize it would take a miracle.

  Secretly, I hoped I could still believe in miracles.

  *Note: The Aces High Charleston Series should be read in order.

  While each book revolves around different members of the Aces High MC Family, they all follow along a timeline that will lead to spoilers if you skip around. They do not have to be read in any particular order with Aces High Books from other chapters (Dakotas, Cedar Falls, etc.)

  Book 1: The Other Princess

  Book 2: A Love So Hard

  Book 3: The Princess & the Prospect

  Book 4: The Killing Ride

  Book 5: A Twist of Fate

  M.C. World Romances

  S.H.E. Series

  Angel-Girl

  JoJo

  Aces High – Dakotas Series

  Dancing With Danger

  Whiskey Tango Foxtrot

  Aces High – Cedar Falls Series

  Redemption Weather

  Aces High – Charleston Series

  The Other Princess

  *

  ~ Ever – 8 years old ~

  They didn’t think I could hear them speaking from the other room, but I did. “What do we do if this doesn’t work out? I mean, she’s a stranger to all of us,” my new stepmother asked Donna. Donna was the social worker who had brought me here to South Carolina to find the man who was supposedly my dad. I was afraid of him, because my mom had always told me he was a bad man and that was why I couldn’t know who he was or go see him. I wondered why Donna would bring me to stay with a bad man, but she assured me that he had other kids my age and a wife who would be a good mom to me. It didn’t sound like his wife wanted to be my new mom though.

  “She is Mr. Brothers’ biological child,” Donna explained to her. “We understand that this is an extreme situation since you didn’t know about her. If for any reason it doesn’t work out you can contact me and I will try to find her different placement. I will warn you now though that finding placement for an eight-year-old child isn’t easy. She’ll likely go into the foster care system and be bounced around there until she ages out. There was no other family on her mother’s side to take her that we could find. You are that little girl’s only option for a stable home at this point.”

  “What if she’s a monster? I’ve heard horror stories about things like this,” my dad’s wife whined.

  “Really, Lucy?” My father’s voice boomed sternly.

  “She’s been nothing but a sweet girl since I picked her up. She’s sad right now because her mom died, and the poor thing was there when it happened. She called 911 and then held her mom until the ambulance got there. It will take a while for her to move past that. She’s a bit more quiet and withdrawn than I would like to see, but considering what she’s just been through and knowing she’s being left in the care of strangers, I can’t say that I blame her.”

  “Great!” My stepmother huffed exaggeratedly. “So she’s going to be a mute, depressed kid. What if she tries to hurt my children?”

  “That is enough, Lucy! We are done with this bullshit. This is MY daughter we are talking about, and you are going to stop trying to make excuses for why she can’t be here with us.” My dad’s harsh sounding words made me feel a little better while also startling me. I wondered if he would yell at me like that too. “
Thank you, Donna. I’m sure we’ll adjust once all the dust settles. This has been a shock to all of us.” His voice was calmer when he spoke to the lady who had brought me here.

  “I understand,” Donna started to say, but I didn’t stick around to hear anything else. Instead, I moved away from the door, my head lost in thoughts of what I would do if no one wanted me here. The foster care thing Donna talked about didn’t sound like it was going to be a nice place. Maybe I could get a job. Did jobs hire kids? I didn’t know. I wished my mom were here so I could ask her. Sadness swept through me as I thought of my mom again. I missed her so much. I got lost in memories of my mom as I walked away so I couldn’t hear the adults talking anymore. That was why I ran face first into a boy who looked to be my age, maybe a little older.

  When I finally got my head on straight again I figured out that the boy was my new brother, Toby, and he had a friend standing beside him grinning down at me as they pulled me up from where I had been knocked to my butt in the collision.

  “You saw your mom die, huh?” Toby asked, obviously having been eavesdropping from some other part of the house too. I merely nodded my head at him in answer. “That sucks!” He exclaimed as tears started welling up in my eyes and threatening to spill over. I did not want to be the crybaby in the house. The woman in the kitchen was already mad that I was here. How would she react to my tears? “Wanna know a secret?” Toby’s question cut through the panic that was ramping up inside me. Again, I nodded my head, because maybe whatever he had to say would keep the sadness away.

  “Dad didn’t know about me at first either.” He laughed with his buddy then. “Guess pregnant women don’t much like to tell him nothin’.”

  “But Lucy is your mom, right?” I asked quickly, sniffing back the stinging saltiness of the tears that escaped despite my best effort to keep them inside.

  “Yep. They got back together when I was three,” Toby told me. He seemed proud of that fact.

  “Oh,” was all I could manage to say.

  “It will be okay, Ever. My mom’s not mean or nothin’. She’s just freaking out ‘cause my dad had another kid with another lady is all.”

  I knew nothing about dads, let alone dads with hidden kids so I just stood there trying to swallow around the lump that was tuck in my throat. That’s when Toby pulled me close, wrapped me up in a hug, and told me, “Everything will be okay, Ever. Me and Jason will protect you. You’re my sister, and that’s my job. Jay will do it because he’s my best friend so it’s his job too.”

  Lucy’s gasping sob at the sight of us, or maybe at her son’s words, drew our attention. It was the first I had noticed that the adults had joined us in the living room. The fake smile Donna had been wearing during our trip brightened and actually looked real for a minute.

  “It seems the kids, at least, know what to do to make things work.” Donna spoke the words softly to Lucy who ended up blubbering harder and running for another part of the house. I would later find out she ran to hide her shame over how she had behaved, but at the time I thought it was because she hated seeing her son touch me.

  “You’re a good man, Toby,” our dad said to him while ruffling the short brown hair on his head. Toby’s chest puffed up with pride as he finally released me from his hug. Then he turned to Donna and told her, “Don’t worry lady, I’ll make sure she’s happy here and at school.” All the while my new little sister, who was five years old, just sat and watched everything with fascinated interest.

  “I’m gonna help make her happy too,” Toby’s friend agreed. It was the first time I’d heard Jay speak, and that sound would stay etched in my heart for a few more years before he found a way to wipe any lingering fondness it once held from what remained of the little hopeful girl residing in my head.

  My name is Ever Lee Brothers – a cruel joke my mom played on me, apparently – and I was just finding out what it meant to be the other princess in a motorcycle club family, because once Donna left I was taken to a barbecue party where I got to meet the rest of my new family. At least they were happy to meet me, unlike my new mom who stayed home to take care of her real daughter, Annalise.

  ~ Ever – 15 years old ~

  There is a distinct feeling in the air, maybe it’s the bitter tang of defeat and sorrow, that hovers around you like a cloud on a rainy day when your life is about to plummet head first into life-altering change. I knew that feeling well. It clung to my eight year old memories like a second skin as I relived the nightmare of seeing my mom clutch her head and drop to the floor out of the blue. She never woke back up. My life changed drastically that day, and as a result I will never forget that feeling as long as I live.

  It’s important to note that as I stood in front of the bleachers in the school’s gymnasium, searching for my best friend, Erin, that the same peculiar, life-altering zing was in the air. I almost panicked and left the crowded, noisy space. Hell, if I had known exactly how much the next few moments would impact the rest of my high school days I would have fled that moment and never looked back. Too bad hindsight is a bitch for a reason.

  I finally locked eyes with Erin whose face crinkled in confusion at the same exact moment a hand landed squarely on my shoulder, holding me in place, so I couldn’t go sit with my best friend. I turned my head to see Jay Donovan standing there and I beamed my trademark bubbly-sunshine smile up at him. Jay was my brother’s best friend already when I came to live with my dad after my mom died. He also became one of my best friends, and my protector. He was also my secret – or not so secret to some – crush. Not that I would ever tell him that. He never saw me as anything more than a friend and surrogate sister. That is exactly why the deep scowl painting his face in anger had my sunshine smile disappearing from my face in the blink of an eye.

  “Who the hell do you think you are spreading rumors about Tiffany?” He yelled in my face. “You cornered my girl in the bathroom, and tried to get her to break up with me? You thought that shit would fly? You know you’re nothing but a princess and I’m about to be a patched brother after graduation and you’re trying this shit? I ought to get Double-D to spank your goddamn ass for pulling a stunt like this.”

  His rapid-fire, angry, verbal shots were only confusing me more as embarrassment over the fact that he was screaming at me in front of the entire student body was burning through my face. I had to be a disgusting shade of red by now. I just blinked at him, because what could I say to someone who was berating me, telling me he was going to get my daddy to spank me, and doing it all in front of the whole school.

  “You fuckin’ step one foot near Tiff, let one more bad word about her come from those lips, and I will personally see to it that you are banned from the club forever.” He shook his head angrily at me before adding the worst insult Id ever heard out of his lips, because he’d never spoken to me in that way before. “You disloyal, ungrateful little bitch,” his words were spat with pure venom and were strong enough to shatter my rampantly beating heart.

  A shocked gasp escaped my lips before I could pull it back as I felt white-hot tears spill down my already overheated cheeks with his words. “Your fucking alligator tears aren’t going to fly with me this time, Princess. You fucked up good. I had other bitches try to tell me about your bullshit before, and I always took your side. Looks like I fucked up. Looks like you were more fucked in the head from watching your whore of a mommy die all those years ago than any of us realized.” He looked like he was finally going to leave me there with that parting shot that killed a piece of my soul, but no. He wasn’t quite done with me. He scoffed out a hate-fueled laugh as he glanced back. “And next time you tell a bitch I’m fucking that she’s just a placeholder for when you’re old enough, I want you to remember that you will never be good enough to ride my dick. No matter whom I’m with, you can attempt to ruin it, but it won’t matter. I’ll never be yours.”

  Jay clearly didn’t realize that the venomous words he had just spewed at me were the things that would seal that fate more than
any actions I had ever taken, because I certainly hadn’t been guilty of the ones he accused me of. Actually, I hadn’t done a single thing he was accusing me of. I was late to this particular assembly because his bitch-ass girlfriend had cornered me in the bathroom on my way here and informed me that I was going to regret remaining friends with Jay after she’d warned me off twice before. I guess she got her wish, after all. I definitely was regretting ever having been his friend, all the wasted years crushing on him, and the heartache I was going to have to get through after this experience burned everything into my soul.

  He sneered at me one more time before speaking again. “So, you really have nothing to say? You’re just going to stand there and refuse to apologize, or even say a fuckin’ word?”

  “Mr. Donovan!” A teacher was finally cluing in and coming our way. “Office, now!”

  It didn’t matter. I took one last look at Jay through my blurry, tear-filled eyes, and I turned on my heels and walked away while an entire gymnasium full of students laughed at me as I went. I caught sight of Tiffany smugly giving me a little princess wave as I walked with my head held high straight out of the gym, out of the school, and then all the way across town until my aching feet carried me home.

  When I came through the door of the house Lucy was standing in the living room, just hanging up the phone. “Ever, what the hell happened today? I just got a call from the school saying you ditched…” she glanced up, took one look at the state I was in, and her attitude about me skipping school fell to the wayside as she came forward and pulled me solidly into her tight embrace. “Oh, sweet girl, what in the world happened to you today?” Lucy and I had gotten off to a rocky start, but it wasn’t long before she came around and became the mom to me that I’d been missing since my own had died. Lucy never treated me any differently than her own kids after that initial shock of finding out about me. I was thankful for that in this moment, because I didn’t know whom else I would turn to. Jay might not have been a full patch brother of the MC, but he was a prospect already since he’d turned 18 three months ago. My dad had already said that Jay and Toby would get their full-patch rockers after graduation. So, Jay was his brother. I was smart enough to know that meant that Jay would have my dad’s ear, and I would not be believed over him.