Her Prince (The Wounded Souls Series Book 6)

  WOUNDED SOULS MC

  Her Prince

  LEAH SHARELLE

  Copyright © 2019 Leah Sharelle

  Her Prince (Wounded Souls MC Series – Book 7)

  By Leah Sharelle

  All Rights Reserved.

  ISBN-13: 978-19258742206

  Colleen Snibson, Chief Literary Editor

  Rogena Mitchell-Jones, Literary Editor

  Two Red Pens Editing www.tworedpens.com

  Photography: Lindee Robinson Photography

  Cover Design: Christy Van Elsen

  Cover Art: MLJ Quigg

  Cover Models. Nick and Julianne

  This book may not be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. All characters and storylines are the properties of the author, and your support and respect are appreciated.

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  This author writes in both American English and Australian English and may include Australian diction.

  This is for the hearts I broke in His Angel.

  Darth was a huge part of my life, so did you really think I would forget about him? He promised Shiloh he would always be there for her, and Darth never breaks his promises.

  Contents

  Part One

  Part Two

  Part Three

  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

  Chapter 19

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  Part One

  Shiloh

  AGE 4

  I’s could hear Mummy and Daddy whispering. Mummy had wet eyes, and Daddy looked like he does when Mummy goes off wifout telling him.

  Fordy talked to Daddy at brekkie, and they was looking at me, but I’s don’t know what he said. Maybe Fordy’s ’puter was broked or something ’cause he looked worried. I’s hoped he hadn’t done anything bad to my C.O.D. game—I’s would kick his butt if he did. I was proud I didn’t say the bad word for butt. Mummy said my swearing was getting better. I hadn’t put any of my pocket money in the jar for two days ’cept for that one time yesterday when Bastian gots into my toy box and dribbled all over my G.I. Joe dolls. For a little brudder, Bast is the coolest, but he deserved to be called a wanker. Mummy just didn’t understand.

  “I’s reckon I’s in trouble again, big man,” I said to Darf, who was sitting on the couch next to me. I lubbed spending time with him. He was my favourite person other than Daddy and Mummy, and Unca Vinnie and Blondie, and pretty boy and Miss Mia. Oh, and lady dancer and Unca Manny, Unca Creed—who smiled all the time now—and Aunty Memph, oh yeah, and Fordy and his man, Lucky. I lubbed all of my daddy’s Souls, and they lubbed me ’cause I’s the club princess, after all. But I’s got some trouble comin’ wif Manny’s twins and pretty boy’s little girl Meagan.

  “Darf, will I always be the princess of da Wounded Souls.” I turned and asked Darf.

  You will always be the first princess, baby girl. And always my princess, okay?

  I looked over at the grown-ups again. They were all still gawkin’ at me, and I’s didn’t understand why, buts my belly had a funny feelin’ in it, and not a good feelin’ like when Mummy and me dance. It was like that time when Unca Steel tolds me that Bullet went to heaven. That kinda bad tummy feelin.

  “Darf, whats if the doctor Mummy and Daddy make me go see tells me I hafs to stop talkin’ to ya?”

  The silly lady made me sit in a room on a really big beanbag—well, that was cool, and it had pictures of Elsa from Frozen on it, but the rest was stupid. She said dumb things about what was going on in my brain and stuff. Didn’t she know she was taking up lots of my time? I’s gots things to do and games to play, and I’s really wanted to ride my Harley.

  Not happening, kiddo. Believe me, I’m not going away until you tell me, sweetheart.

  I smiled real big, ’cause I’s was happy. Being wif Darf made me happy, and being wif my dogs and cat made me happy, too. Being wif Darf and my dogs and watching Zeke all at the same time made me extra big happy.

  “Wanna go watch Zeke?”

  You betcha, Squirt.

  Part Two

  Shiloh

  AGE 10

  I was so mad I could just spit! How was this my fault?

  Did I make Evie and Lacie climb the roof of the bike shed? No, I didn’t.

  And did I make Meagan follow me to the park where I could try out my new stunt? No, I didn’t. She asked to come. First, I said no because Meagan was a bit of a girlie girl. She liked to dress in pretty dresses and always had her hair done up with ribbons.

  “Gag me. Ribbons are for babies,” I mumbled aloud but not loud enough for Mummy to hear me. She looked kinda crazy when Uncle Steel and Daddy brought us back from the park. Her eyes were all teary, and she was shaking when she hugged me.

  She was worried, Squirt. You took off without telling anyone where you were going. Again. And this time, you took little Meagan with you. She is only six, baby girl, and her parents were frantic when they discovered you were both gone from the compound.

  I rolled my eyes. “Hell’s bells, I’m ten years old, and I wasn’t alone. You were with me. Nothing is gonna happen to me when you are there, Darf,” I scoffed. For six years, Darth, though I still call him Darf—the childhood name I had for him—had been my constant companion. No one else could see him, only me. He made a promise to never leave me, and so far, he hadn’t. I don’t know why when Darth was killed all those years ago at the dance school that he had come back to me, but I am glad he did. Darth saw me through my first day of school and every day since. He was my best friend. My second best friend was Lacie, Manny and Rainn’s daughter. Her twin sister Evie was cool, too, but she got along better with Meagan because they both liked dolls and crap.

  Shiloh, I am serious. Don’t go off without telling your dad or Booth or any of the patches. You remember that day at the park with you and Teach.

  “Yeah, yeah, I remember. Geez, Darf, that was ages ago. Ain’t nothing like that gonna happen again,” I grumbled, but the memory of that day was still in my mind sometimes. That was when a crazy man was after Daddy and the other Souls. He couldn’t get at my dad, so he came after me and my mum, Charlotte. She wasn’t my mum at the time. My real mum died when she gave birth to me. I never met her, so being sad about that was sorta weird. I had her name for my middle name, and Uncle Jason talked about her all the time because he used to be married to her. I know, right? Confusing. My dad and birth mum were not together when she got pregnant with me, and she ended up being my uncle’s girlfriend. Daddy didn’t cheat or nothin’. They weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend. Just friends with benefits—whatever that meant. I heard Dad say it once when he was talkin’ with Vinnie.

  Promise me you won’t do it again. And, while we are at it, no more climbing roofs. Jesus, kiddo, you nearly gave me a heart attack when your foot fell through that rotten shingle.

  “I was fine, big fella. If Evie h
adn’t screamed and got Steel’s attention, I would have gotten down all by myself,” I said with confidence.

  It wasn’t like I didn’t know what I was doing. I mean, come on, that wasn’t my first rodeo. Climbing things were my speciality—and Zander’s, too, who was Creed’s oldest son. He was one of my closest friends and partner in crime when it came to getting into trouble. For a six-year-old, he looked more like a ten-year-old. He had no fear, which I think came from Aunty Memphis.

  You see, Aunty Memphis has always taught her kids that they can do anything if they try hard enough. Memph can’t see, and I mean nothing at all, but she doesn’t let being blind stop her. She writes lady-love books, whatever they are. And she owns a bookstore here in town. I love going there to read. She has this really cool reading spot with beanbags and those swinging bed things. Darf and I spend a lot of time reading together as I learned to read bigger books—bigger ones than I read at school.

  Shiloh, I will not read with you next time we go to Memphis’s bookstore if you don’t promise me right now.

  Oh, boy, Darth was using his growly voice again. That meant he was angry as hell with me, and I didn’t like it when he got mad. Last time, he didn’t let me read for two whole days. I guess it was my fault that time, but damn, it was so much fun hanging from the swing set by one of Uncle Creed’s ropes. I tied it around my waist and swung off the ground just like that dude in Mission Impossible did. Zander had helped. He pulled on the rope until I was way high in the air, then he tied it to a pole so that I was suspended off the ground. Well, it was fun until our dads found us and went nuts. My belly hurt for a few days after that, but it had been worth it, well, until Darth went nuts at me, too. Geez, I was always getting into trouble.

  “All right, all right, keep ya pants on, Vader. No more trouble, I promise.” It didn’t count as a lie if my fingers were crossed, right?

  Yeah, that will be the day.

  I laughed at the grumble from Darth. He knew me well. I looked over at my dad, who was coming toward me with a drink in one hand and a sandwich in the other. Oh, cool, I’m starving.

  “Hey, Dad,” I said in my sweetest voice, which had Darth letting out a deep chuckle beside me.

  “Don’t hey me, young lady. What you did yesterday and today will not happen again, understand me? Bloody hell, Shiloh, you are giving me grey hairs, and you are only ten. I’m not looking forward to seeing what you get up to when you are sixteen!” My dad pushed his fingers through his short hair, which did look a little grey in some places. Dad was somewhere in his forties, but you really wouldn’t know it. He was still fit and muscled like he had been when I was a little girl, and he was still the SAA for the Wounded Souls. Mum was always touching his arms, and when she did, she would make this funny breathing sound, which made Dad look at her really strange like, and it often led to them doing icky kissing. They were always kissing.

  I was about to say sorry when Darth whispered something in my ear, making me laugh.

  “It’s not funny, Squirt. You could have been seriously hurt up on that roof, and don’t get me started on the excursion to the playground.”

  “I wasn’t laughing at you, Daddy. Darf said to tell you that you hardly have any hair to go grey,” I repeated the joke. Everyone pretty much accepted that I talked with Darth. In the beginning, my parents were really spooked by it, and so were all my uncles. Except for Vinnie, who had believed me from the start. I had worried that I was going to have to stop when Dad took me to a doctor lady, who told me Darth was just in my imagination. Something about me coping with all the bad things I’d seen and what happened to me when I was four. But Darth helped me convince everyone that he was real. One day, when I was I five, I was in the war room, and Darth told me something only the patched guys knew, and once I repeated to them what Darth told me, they believed. At first, they were a bit quiet and didn’t say much, then Vinnie stood up and said he believed me. After that, everyone pretty much left me alone, and no one stared at me when they saw me talking to Darth. They couldn’t see him ’cause only I could do that. Now and then, Darth and I liked to freak them out—like now.

  “Tell Darth he can suck my—”

  “Deck Johnston, finish that sentence, and you will be sleeping on the couch tonight,” my mum said in a stern voice. She was behind Dad, a plate of Aunty Stella’s caramel slice in her hands.

  Score!

  “Sweetness, you couldn’t go one night without my body wrapped around you,” Dad said in his growly voice, but he had a smile on his face that was only for my mum, and she had one just for him, too. Even though their kissing made me want to puke, I was happy they loved each other so much. Mum was the best, and she loved me like I was her own daughter. Even after my brother Bastian was born, she never left me out or made me feel like he was more important. She loved us both just the same.

  “Hmm, I really must do something about that ego of yours, soldier man.” Mum giggled when Dad pulled her into his arms, nearly squashing my dessert.

  “Later, Sweetness, you can do anything you want to me.”

  “Ewww, really, Dad? Can’t you control yourself? My ears are bleeding,” I complained because… just ewww.

  One day, sweet girl, the right boy will come along, and you will want him to talk that way to you. I could hear the sadness in Darth’s voice, and I knew he was thinking of Vegas. When he thought about her, he sometimes went away for a while—not long, just a few hours. He never told me where he went off to, but I hoped it was to see Ve-Ve.

  I thought about what Darth had just said. Did I want a boy to look at me like Dad looked at Mum? Ah, no. Hell no! I didn’t have time for that rubbish. I had plans. First becoming a mechanic, then the army and sniper training, and then I was going to be the president of the Wounded Souls. I already told Vinnie of my plans. He had this soft smile on his face but didn’t say anything. He just smiled at me, kissed me on my cheek, and then went back to looking at the screen on his desk in the war room.

  I was serious, though. I was going to do all those things, and boys weren’t on the list. Absolutely no boys. Nope, Shiloh Johnston didn’t need a boy to show her how to do things, no way, no how.

  Part Three

  Shiloh

  AGE 16

  “Oh, my God, did you see how hot Alex looked today at school? He is one hunk of a spunk,” Lacie singsonged.

  I groaned every time she mentioned that boy’s name. She was obsessed with him. Alex this and Alex that. It was all she could talk about lately, and she was going to get into some real trouble if her dad heard her talking that way, for sure. Mannix was very over-protective when it came to his daughters, especially since Ebony got married last week. Now the twins were really copping it from their dad. Rainn tried to control him as much as she could, but even her bad-arse ways weren’t working on him. Lacie had complained to her mum that she didn’t have any privacy and couldn’t even talk on the phone without her dad standing there listening. It got so bad that Rainn ended up telling them to speak to their father about tampons and cycles and see if that got him off their backs for a while. It had, but I was sure he was going to be back on the case now that Alex was in the picture.

  “And did you see his arse in those tight jeans? Couldn’t you just squeeze it?” Lacie sighed dramatically, which made me roll my eyes as a deep, pained groan came from the other side of my room.

  She has got to be kidding. Since when do twelve-year-old girls think about squeezing boys’ arses?

  I stifled a giggle—barely. Poor Darth. He looked a little white and a lot disturbed at the conversation. Over the years, he had heard many things he probably wished he hadn’t. Normally, he would leave when any of my friends from school or the girls of the Souls and I holed up in my room to have what Darth called our ‘have a chat time.’ But after what happened today at school, he hadn’t budged from his perch in the corner.

  I was fine, but Darth wasn’t.

  Today was the first time since that day at the dance school that anyone
had attacked me. Well, not attacked exactly. It was more like a push that turned into me losing my balance, which sent me tumbling down half a flight of stairs. It had all happened so quickly I hadn’t even realised I was hurt until one of the kids who watched the whole thing go down noticed and pointed it out.

  I had a few bumps and bruises, obviously, because I fell down some stairs, but the worst of the injuries was a slice to my hand. At the time, I hadn’t felt it because I was too busy trying to comprehend that I was falling to notice any pain.

  Darth had been furious. I’d heard his growl of rage then saw him barrel towards me. Slicing his way through the bodies like a… like a ghost, which he was, of course, but had he been alive, there would have been a lot of sore and sorry high-school students picking themselves off the ground.

  The worst was when I got home, though. When I returned to the compound, and everyone got a look at me, all hell broke loose.

  The members of the Wounded Souls weren’t impressed, my father being the most pissed off. Mum dragged him off to their bedroom to calm him down—and no, I did not want to know her tactics to accomplish that—so he couldn’t get on his bike and hunt down the teen boys responsible.

  The most surprising reaction I found came from Zander. He went ballistic when he saw the cut on my hand and the deep blue bruises on my arms, elbows, and knees. Seriously, his anger and rage scared me. I had never seen him so riled up before over me getting hurt. Over the years, our escapades nearly always ended in at least one of us needing the first-aid kit or a trip to the ER.

  Zander was only twelve years old, four years younger than me, but today, he looked so much older than that. He was always big for his age, which was expected since he was Creed’s son. I mean, his dad was huge. Creed and Memphis’s other three boys—Dane, Cole, and Chase—were exactly the same. The Stephens boys always stood in the back row of the photos because they were taller and bigger than the rest of the kids. They were carbon copies of their dad, broody and quiet, never saying much unless it was needed. But when they smiled… hell’s bells, they had their dad’s killer smile.