ROMANCE: PARANORMAL ROMANCE: The Billionaire Shifter´s Secret Baby (Werewolf Alpha Male Pregnancy Interracial Romance) (Paranormal Young Adult Suspense Romance) Read online

  © Copyright 2016 by Pure Passion Reads – All rights reserved.

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

  Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

  THANK YOU so much for downloading this book!

  As a way of showing gratitude I wanted to extend a very special offer to you. I’m giving selected readers access to my VIP Mailing List. As part of this group you will receive notifications about promotions and new releases!

  Want to read more romance stories full of Adventures, Passion and Emotions every week?

  Click the “Get Access Now” link below to join today!

  GET ACCESS NOW

  The Billionaire Shifter´s Secret Baby

  A Paranormal Romance

  By Jasmine Wylder

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter One

  Katrina stared at her Facebook page and felt herself sinking further into the funk she had been in for going on six months now.

  Her grandmother had been an important matriarch and role model for her whole family, raising Katrina all by herself. But now, that woman was gone; the crippling effects of old age taking her away before she even saw the big 8-0. The only consolation was that Katrina knew that her Grandmother, Rita, had had a full and amazing life. Now, she was probably walking hand in hand with her husband, who also died much too soon.

  Katrina’s Facebook page was filled with pictures from the service. She’d had to pay for it herself with money she scraped out of her grandmother’s savings combined with the condolence cards.

  All of her friends posted workout selfies, roses from boyfriends, or photos of themselves running around with their little ones. Her page just reeked of death. It was more than past time to change that, even as much as she wanted to honor the memory of Grandma Rita. The best way to do that was to go live life to the fullest, and the first step was to change her status from unemployed to employed. She needed to pay her bills and all that other adult stuff she had been avoiding through the grieving process.

  The money her grandmother left her could stretch no more.

  Katrina pushed back a lock of dark hair and sighed. She pulled up the map on her computer. She had heard from an acquaintance that it was easy to get a job with a temp service. You just walk in and give them your resume, then they matched your skills with a job opening. If the job didn’t work out, then they find you another one.

  Upon investigation Katrina realized it wasn’t so simple. The jobs were not always ideal, and they were unstable. Most were looking for people to hire for a couple of months and then let them go. She would always be left to find a new job each time. But it was worth a try. She didn’t have a lot of skills or experience, and the only college credits she had were two years’ worth at a community college. It was all she could afford.

  Money had never come so easily to her or her grandmother. The only reason bills could be paid with money to spare was because her grandmother had been great at budgeting and investing her money, and the woman had never stopped working in some form or fashion.

  In fact, her grandmother had hated being idle. It was one of the things Katrina had so admired about her. But it turned out that admiration didn’t mean that she had the same kind of talent in such matters.

  Katrina did a search for temp services near her and found that there was a place just a couple of blocks away. That was her best bet to not use too much gas. Her car was great; very reliable for a used car, but it wasn’t so efficient.

  She made note of the address and went to her closet to find the nicest clothes she had. Her grandmother had always taught her to dress for the job she wanted rather than the one she had. She had always noticed how appearance made people react differently, whether it was shallow or not.

  Katrina had one nice blue skirt with a matching jacket that was a go to for anything fancy. Blue had always looked good against her chocolate skin, which was why it had become her favorite color. It would definitely work for the occasion. She quickly got dressed and brushed her straight, thick hair to perfection, which often took more than 100 strokes. She often joked that she didn’t need to lift weights because she got all the workout she needed from brushing her hair.

  She pulled her hair into a low ponytail, applied mascara, and a soft lipstick. The effect was good. She looked at her large golden brown eyes in the mirror, her soft round lips, and the high cheek bones she’d inherited from her grandmother.

  “I would hire you,” she said to herself with a smile.

  Katrina went into her files and pulled out a copy of her resume. She felt like she needed to give it another look before she left, just in case she needed to tweak it again. She had actually put it together with a professional years ago in a class she took and had been adding to it ever since, but she needed…wanted a job so badly, she found herself nitpicking at it; afraid that it wouldn’t be good enough to get her anything.

  Her experience was limited to a short stint as a secretary and another doing seasonal work at a boutique in the mall. Her most recent job had been as an office manager in a dentist office that she lost only two weeks in, when she had to start really caring for her grandmother.

  She hoped it didn’t look like she couldn’t hold a job and stay somewhere. After all, it seemed that in the business world all a person boiled down to was that piece of paper. No one seemed to care about merit and personality.

  Katrina couldn’t see anything she could improve whilst still being honest, so she had no choice but to get in her car, with her resume as is, and head over to Carmen & Braxton Temp Service.

  It didn’t take long to get there; one song on the radio was all she got to hear before she approached the unassuming, one-story, concrete building. The logo was on the top in thick blue letters.

  Everything about the place looked simple. She could see a number of desks where consultants were meeting with other candidates through the translucent, brown glass that wrapped around the building. There was nothing to be nervous about; they were all there to help people. That’s what she told herself anyway.

  As she walked in through the door and was greeted by a young dark haired woman with a smiling face. She wondered for a moment if there could be a job opening at the temp service itself. How did these women get their job anyway? She doubted she was the first person to have that thought.

  The woman asked to see her resume and then sent her into an office to wait for some other woman who had gone to get some coffee. Apparently you were assigned a consultant based upon the industry you worked in or were looking to work in. Soon, another woman came in to greet her. She was a little older, maybe in her late thirties, and had her hair up in a severe bun. But her eyes were kind as she smiled and shook Katrina’s hand and took her resume, a coffee in her other hand.

  “Hello there, I am Angela; the
recruitment manager for the office and customer service division of the Carmen & Braxton Temp Service. You’re Katrina, is that right?” Her voice was like a wind chime, always sounding like a high-pitched song., Katrina would say the woman had been a fairy in another life, if she had believed in that sort of thing.

  “Yes, that is correct,” Katrina answered, ready for a true line of questioning as she passed her resume to this Angela person.

  Angela looked it over for what seemed like a little too long with pursed lips. The expression made her look much older; like a dried up prune. But she had the power of Katrina’s situation at the moment, so it didn’t really matter what she thought of her.

  “Can I be honest,” Angela asked, looking up from the resume and leaning against her desk. Katrina nodded nervously, readying herself for rejection. “It is a slow time of year for the type of jobs you could do. Your resume definitely shows some experience for the kind of clients we usually have, but right now I really only have one job available, and I am not so sure you would want it.”

  “Honestly, I need a job pretty badly. Not much is going to scare me off right now,” Katrina admitted, knowing it was her only chance to begin to change her circumstances.

  Angela sighed and gave a knowing nod.

  “Alright, but I warned you. The job is working as a personal assistant to a man called The Beast. He’s used our service a couple of times and has a high turnover rate. He’s quite the recluse, though he has a lot of money from whatever he does—which I am assuming is why he needs a personal assistant. The job is a live in one at his home.”

  Angela paused. “You should know the last person to work for him went mysteriously missing, though authorities have not found any foul play involving the man himself. If you take it, I would of course keep looking for other jobs for you in the meantime.”

  Katrina thought about it for a moment and wondered if it was worth the risk. She would be going into this blind, not really knowing what was in store for her other than a reclusive, rich man.

  But she needed the money and wouldn’t have to worry about a place to live. She could rent out her current place and have even more steady income.

  It really didn’t sound like something she could afford to turn down.

  Katrina smiled at Angela with false confidence. “I’ll take it.”

  Chapter Two

  Katrina arrived just after dark to the mansion where her new boss Zachary Drew, otherwise known as The Beast, lived. That was the request she had received by e-mail, that she should arrive later in the evening after dinner was complete.

  Apparently, the man was a little nocturnal. She could already see why some people might not want to take the job. For the length of time that she would be working there, she would have to live in his mansion, which was not the ideal place.

  In fact, when she had heard the words “rich” and “mansion” she had assumed it was some modern beautiful home with a huge pool and landscaping that cost thousands of dollars. It was something very different standing before her, though.

  It was a nice enough place; the sort of place a person might live who had a lot of money, but it had a creepy feel to it. Katrina thought the house would do well on the set of a horror film.

  There was a large piece of land and a huge fence surrounding it; which fit with the theory that the man who owned it was a bit of a recluse. It was mostly made out of brick and didn’t look that old. Despite the newer construction it was built to have an old world feel like it was a historic home.

  Katrina looked up at the house and all its windows. All the windows made her feel she was being watched as she walked up to the door, which was black with a knocker on it. The place was probably a big hit at Halloween.

  She used the knocker and waited to see who might answer the door. She had to admit that she was kind of curious what he looked like. Did he have a hump back or was he very pale? There must have been a reason for his nickname besides his introversion.

  To her disappointment, a tall thin, older man opened the door.

  "Good evening. Are you Katrina Dreyer?" The man was wearing a very expensive suit, and she was positive that this was not Zachary. He must have been some other kind of house staff.

  She nodded at the man whose look fit in well with the house. He was rather scary himself with his deep voice and creepy skin. "Let me take your bags and see you to your room. Then, I will show you around the place and discuss your duties. If you are still interested, you will be required to sign a contract in order to work for and receive payment from Mr. Drew."

  The man was talking and moving rather fast for someone so old, and it felt like Katrina couldn’t catch her breath as they climbed the narrow staircase up and up until they reached the next floor which was even more disconcerting than the outside.

  There were three dark hallways that looked identical and easy to get lost in. The floor was covered in real wood, and the clanking of their shoes echoed in the silence as he took her down the corridor to the left and into a room a few doors down.

  What were all the other rooms for? Katrina wondered. It was way too quiet for other people to live there.

  "It's a restored parish," the man, who she figured by now was the butler, blurted out as if reading her mind. He unlocked the room with a key that was around his neck.

  “Oh.” Katrina tried to keep her intense curiosity out of her voice.

  "That's why there are so many rooms; many people stayed here or were given sanctuary. Much of the bottom floor and the outside was destroyed in a fire, but this part of the house is almost all the original structure." He sounded proud of it, like he had a lot of passion about the place.

  She imagined that the man had worked with Zachary for a long time. Maybe he was there when Zachary picked the place out.

  "That's pretty impressive.” She looked over the walls of her new room. “The creepiness is almost forgivable now."

  The butler gave her a look of disapproval, which Katrina ignored.

  The inside of it had been made as modern as possible at least. She had been given a full size bed that hung over a full office area. The room was painted in a canary color, making it light and airy. It wasn't so bad really.

  "This is yours now.” The man passed her the key he had opened the door with. “Get everything settled and then meet me back downstairs. We have a lot to go over."

  Katrina didn't know how to feel about the fact that the butler was the one showing her around and having her sign some contract rather than the man she worked for. It made her have an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach about why in the world this young billionaire had such a problem with interacting with other people.

  What was he hiding that he didn’t want anyone to see? It made her mind go back to the thoughts about the missing woman who had worked there last and all the other turnovers. She really hoped she hadn’t made some kind of big mistake taking the job out of desperation. She did know that if it weren’t for the money, she would not have been accepting such a position.

  She plopped down on the bed, which was surprisingly soft and sighed. It was what it was.

  The next morning, Katrina tried to stay positive as she found herself in the massive kitchen trying to figure out how to work the fancy one-cup coffee machine that was not a Keurig. The night before had been exhausting, walking a million halls and trying to learn where everything was. She also met the chef who had come in late the night before to prep for the next day.

  Her boss was clearly loaded, with all the staff running around, but she still hadn’t seen him and it was nearly eleven in the morning. Everything she was doing was for him, to get things ready for whenever he decided to rear his possibly ugly head, but it was the butler giving her the orders. She felt like she was a maid or a secretary, not a personal assistant. Was she really only there to make coffee and shred a couple of papers? Because that was all she had done so far.

  She heard a stirring in the large living room behind her; a shuffling of feet on the
floor. It sounded like bare feet against the wood, and she was almost positive it must be her elusive boss finally up from bed.

  Almost immediately she heard the ringing of a cell phone that definitely wasn’t hers and a gruff voice answering as soon as she finally got some coffee to come out of the crazy machine in front of her.

  Katrina waited to turn around as he talked on the phone to someone she assumed was an associate of whatever business he ran. She caught a few technical terms that she didn’t understand but tried not to eavesdrop too much. After all, part of her contract was complete secrecy about anything that went on inside that home, so she felt she was better off knowing less.

  She took her time putting sugar in the cup and wiping at the sides, anything not to go in there while he was still on the business call. She didn’t know how he felt about that or if he had a temper.

  He finally got off the call, and she turned around to see the back of his head as she walked towards him. He was sitting in one of the chairs with his feet up on his beautiful glass coffee table. He clearly didn’t care about prints on the furniture or anything.

  Did he have so much money that he didn’t realize the worth of things? She was trying not to judge him so harshly, but she found that it might be hard coming from not having much.

  Katrina put a smile on her face and tried to make the best of things.

  “Good morning Mr. Drew. I have your morning coffee here. Just let me know if it needs more sugar or cream in it or if you need another cup.” She stood there with her hands behind her back, waiting for him to say or do anything, but he didn’t.

  He kept his head down where she could just barely see that he had a long angular face, stubble across his solid jaw, and a lone scar down his left cheek that looked pretty old. He was pretty handsome if you over looked the scar, she thought.

  He finally grunted and picked up the cup before taking a sip. Katrina was beginning to feel awkward about just hanging out and watching him sip his coffee. She shifted uncomfortably in the silence.