Broke Down: My Over the Top Possessive Alpha Harem Read online

  Broke Down

  My Over-The-Top Possessive Alpha Harem

  Sharan Daire

  Copyright © 2021 by Sharan Daire

  Cover Art by Moonstruck Cover Design & Photography

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Created with Vellum

  For my beloved sis.

  Thank you to Sherri Meyer

  for all your help and late night edits!

  Contents

  Broke Down

  1. Shelby

  2. Shelby

  3. Kaleb

  4. Shelby

  5. Shelby

  6. Shelby

  7. Shelby

  8. Shelby

  9. Shelby

  10. Shelby

  11. Shelby

  12. Shelby

  13. Shelby

  14. Shelby

  15. Shelby

  16. Shelby

  17. Kaleb

  18. Kaleb

  19. Shelby

  20. Derek

  21. Shelby

  22. Shelby

  23. Shelby

  24. Shelby

  25. Shelby

  26. Derek

  27. Shelby

  28. Shelby

  29. Shelby

  30. Chris

  31. Shelby

  32. Chris

  33. Shelby

  34. Shelby

  35. Shelby

  Note from the Author

  Broke Down

  My car broke down on an icy road in the middle of nowhere. I’ve got no money in the bank, no place to stay, and no food for my kids. Can it get any worse?

  Sure. A police car pulls up.

  The county sheriff calls his twin brother to tow my car for repairs that'll probably cost more than the beater is worth. They say don’t worry about it. They only want to help.

  Sure they do.

  These gorgeous guys just happen to have two friends who own a luxurious motel called Little Cypress Lodge. I walk into this incredible hotel and it's like I've entered a new fantasy world. It's warm, there's plenty of food for my kids, and they say I can stay. For free. As long as I need a place.

  The four of them even want to hire me to do some modeling work for their new fashion line. Crazy, right?

  Me. The broke down, homeless single mom.

  If I can keep up the act long enough to make some deposits on a new place, I can start a new life for me and my kids.

  If I don't lose my heart first.

  1

  Shelby

  Broke down on an icy road in the middle of nowhere was the perfect metaphor for my life.

  Twenty-nine years old, divorced, broke, and homeless with two young children, the string of bad decisions and terrible luck had struck again. My ancient car that was barely held together with bubblegum and duct tape had finally kicked the bucket.

  My dead-beat ex may have given me two kids I'd do anything for, but he'd also broken my heart, ruined my credit, and destroyed any hope I had for a future. Let alone a place for us to live. Mr. Jenkins had been working with me on the rent. He might be the nicest landlord on the planet by not evicting me over the holidays, but it was coming. He couldn't keep accepting my measly fifty bucks a week that barely covered utilities, let alone the actual rent.

  So I'd done the only thing I could think of and called my elderly grandma to politely suggest that I should come visit her in Missouri. I hadn't seen Granny since Mom had come back for me when I was twelve years old. At least ninety, Granny still lived in the same house in the small town that was barely a dot off the freeway somewhere near Kansas City. Once she'd finally understood exactly who I was—with me yelling Mom's name over and over—she'd been downright excited to have me come to see her.

  Hopefully her joy would extend to letting us stay a few weeks. Or longer. Yeah, it was horrible of me to drop in with my two kids and all our crap without asking first, but I literally had nowhere else to go. Granny was my last hope.

  Now I couldn't even make it to her. I scanned the map on my phone again, trying to figure out where we were and how much further it was to her house. I suspected I may have taken a wrong turn after stopping at the small gas station a few miles back so Allie could use the restroom. Google insisted I had to drive another three hours—but I couldn't tell for sure with such a bad connection. The area was super hilly, and I barely had a bar of reception. I couldn't imagine getting Granny to hear me well enough with spotty reception to send help, and I couldn't tell her exactly where we were anyway.

  "Moooooommy," Allie drew the single word out in a long plaintive cry. "I'm cold. And hungry. I don't wanna be in the car anymore."

  "I know, baby. I'm trying to figure out where we are." I turned around in the seat enough to see my eight-year-old son tuck the blanket up around his four-year-old sister's shoulders. "Thanks, Bubby." His name was Liam, but Allie hadn't been able to say it when she was younger. The nickname stuck. "Do you have any more snacks?"

  He shook his head, much too solemn and responsible for such a young age. "She ate the last applesauce a while back."

  I had a twenty in my wallet, and maybe another twenty bucks' worth of change in the emergency coffee can in the trunk. The bank account was overdrawn, so I couldn't use the debit card. I'd planned to get to Granny's and hope she had some leftovers or something. Grandmas always had snacks and candy, right? But if we couldn't get to her house tonight...

  "Try Bessie again, Mom," Bubby said.

  "Yeah, good idea." I closed my eyes and whispered a quick mental prayer to the universe. Please. Please help us. I need a miracle.

  Holding my breath, I turned the key. The engine didn't even sputter like last time. Something clicked but the lights didn't come on. Maybe I needed to charge the battery? What else could be wrong?

  Sick to my stomach, I leaned forward and pressed my forehead to the steering wheel. I couldn't fix whatever was wrong. I didn't even have enough money for a full tank of gas. I only needed a few more hours to get to Granny's, and even then, we'd probably be coasting in on fumes. I tried to think of a solution that didn't involve money.

  Hitchhiking? In the dead of winter, in a strange state, with two kids... That seemed like a sure way to end up dead in a ditch.

  "Mommy!" Allie cried out more sharply, an alert cry not the whiny one.

  I jerked my head up, startled to see flashing red-and-blue lights in the rearview mirror. "It's okay, honey. It's a policeman."

  "Cops shoot people," Bubby whispered, his voice quavering ever so slightly. "I saw it on the news."

  "Yeah, sometimes. Let's hope this is a good cop and not a bad one, okay? We're not doing anything wrong, so he's here to help." I rolled my window down with shaking hands as the officer came up the side of my car.

  Despite my words, I'd always been anxious about getting pulled over. The last time a cop pulled me over for having a broken taillight, I'd had a panic attack. Robert had laughed like it was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. Only one of the many reasons he was my ex-husband.

  A small flashlight flickered into the car, catching my face and then each of my kids'. I carefully kept my hands on the wheel.

  "You alright, ma'am?"

  "I’m sorry, officer. My car quit. I barely got off the road."

  With the flashlight blinding me, I couldn't see much beyond the broad shoulders of his outline. He had a deep, booming voice, though he spoke quietly as if he se
nsed we were already scared. He scanned the back seat again and flicked the light off. Grateful, I blinked my streaming eyes several times.

  "Well, it's good luck for you that I came along, then. Not too many people would be out this far from town. Where're you headed?"

  Maybe I was paranoid after dealing with my ex, but I really didn't care to divulge my plans to a stranger, even if he was a cop. "We're visiting family. I think I got turned around a few miles back."

  "I'd say so, unless you had a reservation at Little Cypress Lodge."

  I shook my head. "No, no reservation. I just want to get back out on the freeway."

  Now that my eyes were readjusting to the darkness, I could see more details of his appearance. He had a short, neatly trimmed beard, a big, easy smile, and kind eyes. At least they seemed kind to me. He didn't wear a uniform, though, which made my throat tighten up. I glanced in the rearview mirror, trying to see if he really was in a patrol car, but with the swirling lights, it was impossible for me to tell.

  He noticed my sudden wariness. His damned cop eyes probably wouldn't miss much. "I'm Sheriff Derek Anderson with the Taney County Sheriff's Department. I'm sorry I didn't introduce myself right away, ma’am. Let me take a look under your hood and see if I can tell what's wrong."

  I gripped the steering wheel tightly, as if I could screech away in a hurry if I needed to as he walked to the front of the car. Allie sniffled, and Bubby had his arm around her shoulder, hushing her.

  I had to keep myself together, at least for them. Keeping my voice low, I whispered. "Everything's okay. The nice policeman is going to get Bessie started again."

  I didn't need working headlights to see that he was an impressively tall and wide man. That wasn't reassuring. If I needed to get away or hold him off somehow, I wouldn't have a prayer. I didn't want to say anything to the kids, though. They were already scared enough.

  The sheriff lifted Bessie's hood, blocking my vision. It made me twitchy not to know what he was doing, but even if it was broad daylight and I was standing outside watching his every move, I wouldn't have a clue if he was sabotaging the car even more than it already was. My fingers ached from their fierce grip on the steering wheel, so I let go of it, though I did clutch my useless cell phone in my right hand. If nothing else, maybe I could get a call through to 911, or at least make that threat. He didn't have to know that my carrier's coverage was garbage.

  He came back around to the window. "I'm sorry, ma'am, but I'm not enough of a mechanic to know what's wrong. Let me make a call to my brother. He can tow—"

  Shaking my head, I cut him off. "No thanks, officer. That's not necessary."

  He leaned down and braced his forearm on my car door. "What are you going to do? Stay in the car and let your little ones freeze all night? Is there someplace I can take you? Someone I can call?"

  Tears thickened my voice but I refused to cry. Maybe later. Once the kids were warm and safe. Then I'd bawl like a baby where no one could see. "I can't afford a tow bill. I can't afford a mechanic. I'll just have to wait it out."

  He studied my face, his gaze probing so deeply it was all I could do not to hunch my shoulders and whimper a little. I couldn't tell what color his eyes were in the darkness, but that intense, soul-searching look made me feel much too vulnerable. Like he could peel back my skin layer by layer and reveal all my hurts. All my sadness. All my mistakes.

  I hated it. He didn't have the right to peek inside my soul and judge me lacking.

  Though that must have been exactly what he'd decided, because he straightened and stepped away from the car without another word to me. Blinking back tears, I waited for him to get back in his vehicle and drive off. But he leaned back against the hood of his vehicle, talking to someone on the phone.

  What if he was calling Child Protective Services? My heart pounded frantically, my breathing much too rapid. Soft pants echoed inside the car.

  "Mom?" Bubby asked, his voice quivering. He wrapped a skinny arm around my seat, his small hand patting my cheek. "What's wrong?"

  I couldn't answer him, though I closed my hand over his and squeezed.

  I can't lose my kids. They're all I have left.

  DEREK

  That look of hopelessness and fear in her eyes haunted me. I hated seeing anyone scared and vulnerable. That was why I'd gone into the military and then joined the Sheriff's Department. I wanted to help people, but instead, I found myself wasting time busting up drug buys, bringing drunks in to sleep it off, and tracking down small-time thieves. It wasn't nearly often enough that I had the chance to truly help someone rather than haul them off to jail or give them a ticket.

  Let alone help someone like her.

  Pretty. Vulnerable. Defenseless.

  Fuck me, but those big eyes of hers, wobbling with tears, had reached down inside me and yanked. Hard. And her kids? I couldn't believe some asshole would make two adorable-as-fuck kids on such a babe and then leave them to freeze to death in a junk car in the middle of the Ozark Mountains.

  My twin brother, Kaleb, answered on the second ring. "Hey, what's up?"

  "Can you bring the wrecker out and help me do a good deed tonight?"

  "You know I'm always up for a good deed. When you call, it's gonna be really good. Where are you?"

  "Oh, it's a good one, alright. We're just off AA about a mile or two."

  We'd grown up in this area. I could hear the wheels turning in his head, the same way I'd gone through a quick checklist when I'd seen her stranded car. Nobody would normally be on this road unless they had reservations at Little Cypress. "Someone staying at the lodge?"

  "Nope." I didn't elaborate. Partly to jerk his chain, which was always fun, but mostly because I wanted to keep her a surprise. Maybe even a surprise for myself.

  That realization rocked me to my core. The stranded damsel with the big eyes and cute kids had really gotten to me. I wasn't normally the selfish kind, especially when it came to women. I had a rather unusual relationship. The kind of relationship that made anything permanent with a woman downright impossible.

  It'd gotten pretty old watching every woman we met turn tail and run for the hills when she heard that four men wanted to share her.

  "Now you've really got me interested," Kaleb replied. "I'll be there in ten minutes."

  "Thanks. I've got the lights running so you'll see where we are."

  I hung up and turned back to face her car. In the few minutes that I'd been on the phone, everything had changed in her demeanor. In the rearview mirror, her narrowed eyes tracked my slow, measured steps back toward her. Instead of frightened and helpless, now she looked pissed, though still pale and scared. I ran back through the conversation with Kaleb, trying to think of something she might have overheard that had upset her. If that car hadn't quit on her, she'd have burned rubber getting the hell away from me.

  Keeping my voice steady and easy, I said, "I never did get your name, ma'am."

  Her lips flattened out in a hard line. "Damned straight."

  I weighed my options, trying to decide the best way to get around this suddenly prickly exterior. She needed help, though for some reason she'd decided I was the last person on earth she'd accept a hand from. "I called my brother. He'll be here in ten minutes. If anyone can get this heap running again, it'll be Kaleb."

  Her jaws flexed, her teeth clenched, and her eyes flashed. "You didn't call CPS on me?"

  Ah. That explained where the mama bear attitude had come from. "Why the f..." I glanced at her kids, huddled in the backseat, and modified my language. "Why on earth would I try to get your kids taken away, ma'am? From what I can see, you're doing the best you can with what you've got. I'm the last man who'd interfere with that."

  She stared at me. Her bottom lip quivered. Her eyes shimmered. A jagged sound came out of her mouth that fucking wrecked me.

  A nuclear bomb leveled me. Every cell in my body shimmered and vibrated with the sudden realization that I'd do anything. Anything. To keep her.

&n
bsp; Her kids pressed against the back of her seat, wrapping their arms around her. Her boy gave me a hard look that I appreciated. He might be young, but he loved his mama and god help anyone who tried to hurt her. I just had to convince him—them all—that I was the last man on earth who'd hurt her. In fact, if anyone ever thought of even saying a harsh word in their hearing, I'd fucking end them.

  It was all I could do not to yank open that car door and haul her up into my arms so I could carry her to my patrol car. I ached to hold her. To smell her hair and feel her arms closing around my neck. Her breath on my cheek. Those shimmering eyes looking up at me like I was the fucking hero she deserved.

  "Everything's gone wrong," she cried. Not pretty little tears, but messy sobs that made me grind my teeth to dust. "I couldn't pay the rent. I can barely keep food on the table. I work all the time. I never see my kids. My neighbor was helping me with daycare but now I don't even have that. I don't have any money to pay your brother. I can't fill Bessie up with gas, let alone fix whatever's wrong. I can't even call anyone on this crappy phone that ought to be in a museum. But I can't afford a new one. I can't afford anything, and he knows it. He doesn't fucking care about us. My kids are cold and hungry and tired and we've got no place to go."

  Her words tumbled out in a torrent, sparking my fury even more. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know he was the kids' deadbeat father. At least I wouldn't have any competition in that regard. And if the bastard dared to come sniffing around again... Well I'd be fucking glad to haul his ass to jail on a trumped-up charge.