The Wife Lottery: Fallon (Six Men of Alaska Book 1) Read online

  Table of Contents

  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

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  The Wife Lottery

  Six Men of Alaska

  Charlie Hart

  Chantel Seabrook

  Contents

  Blurb

  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

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Continue the Journey

  The Wife Protectors

  Chantel Seabrook

  Also by Chantel Seabrook

  Charlie Hart

  Also by Charlie Hart

  Blurb

  I wanted to taste freedom.

  In a world where women are seen as a commodity to barter, Alaska promised a sanctuary. But to stay, I have to enter the wife lottery.

  Six men, one wife. And I have no say in who those men will be. It's more than a game of chance—it's my life falling into the hands of strangers.

  But the men who win my hand are ruggedly handsome and promise to protect me until death do us part.

  Fallon and his strong will.

  Giles and his protective streak.

  Salinger and his easy smile.

  Banks and his intellect.

  Emerson and his faith.

  Huxley and his charm.

  I want them all, each for a different reason. My body is awake, my heart beats wild. But I’m also a woman running from a past that’s catching up. Fast. My father is coming for me and he'll make my husbands pay--and that’s not a gamble.

  That’s a guarantee.

  The Wife Lottery is book one of a six book series. Passion and suspense fill the pages of this dystopian romance. The world as we know it may be over, but Tia and her six men of Alaska aren’t giving up without a fight.

  Chapter 1

  Tia

  The room is full of men. Most are tall, all well-built, a mass of muscles and testosterone.

  The rough and rugged men of Alaska.

  I’ve counted seventy-two already, and more continue to pile in. Each one here for one thing. Me.

  Well, me and the other two women who have come here by our own free will to find sanctuary in the wild north. The only cost - our lives.

  After tonight, I’ll belong to six of these men.

  And they’ll belong to me.

  I swallow the anxiety that creeps up my throat, not wanting to reveal my apprehension to anyone.

  I’ve never been one to be ruled by fear. It was one of my father’s greatest frustrations, that he could never bully me into the docile child he wanted.

  But right now, fear presses heavy against my chest, as a hundred what ifs race through my mind.

  The scariest - what if choosing a life here, with these strangers, is worse than the life I would have had back home?

  No. That’s impossible. I had to run. If I wanted to taste freedom, of any kind, I had to take this chance.

  Of course, when I escaped home on a cargo ship, after hearing rumors about this wild land where honorable men roamed, I didn’t realize I would be forced into marriage - and with six men, instead of one.

  I close my eyes, steadying my breath. These men can’t be as horrid as Lawson. A life with him would have been pure hell.

  At least here, I’m giving myself a chance at a life that has more meaning than being a trophy, owned by a man I loathe.

  Still, fear crawls up my throat. There is so much unknown.

  The Lottery Council explained the situation after I arrived. Nearly dead from exhaustion, and a lack of resources on the ship, I’d signed the papers, agreeing to their terms.

  After health and background checks, the men of Alaska are free to purchase lottery tickets, as many as they like, and then add them to the pot for each bride listed.

  Tonight, there are three of us.

  I look over at Kate. She’s an exotic dark-haired beauty, with olive skin and almond-shaped eyes. Both her and Lilah were on the same ship I arrived on.

  But of all the rumors we’d heard about this place, being part of a wife lottery wasn’t one of them. I’m not sure I would have come if I’d known.

  Kate reaches for my hand clutching it. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll be safe here.”

  I pray she’s right and hope that I’ve done a good enough job covering my tracks getting here.

  Because if they find me….

  I blink rapidly, not wanting to cry on stage with so many men watching me.

  Breathe, Tia.

  “Besides, you’re gorgeous, Tia. ” The delicate blonde, Lilah, on my right, looks at me with her wide, innocent blue eyes as she speaks. I didn’t know either of the women before I boarded that cargo ship, but there’s a bond between us, a friendship that gives me strength. “You’re going to make your husbands very happy.”

  I bite hard on my bottom lip. I know there are harems in the world. In Liberia, I hear it is common for one woman to have upwards of twenty husbands.

  In France, people say women have at least a dozen. But in America, the rules are different. Only the richest men get wives. And only one.

  American men don’t share. But apparently, Alaskan men do.

  And that thought makes me feel faint.

  Back home I was confident in who I was. The daughter of one of the world’s most prestigious scientists. Educated. Well-groomed. I knew exactly how to act. How to lower my eyes and feign submission, despite the wildness that ran through my veins.

  But here? I exhale slowly, so entirely outside of my comfort zone.

  This is not what I expected.

  Six men.

  I knew coming here would mean marrying.

  But I’d thought I’d have one husband, a man I’d choose, and together we would forge some sort of frontier life in the woods.

  That side by side we would work to better a world that had turned upside down.

  A man who would learn to love me for my mind.

  That was the dream I followed coming here, the hope that led me to risk everything, even my life.

  I see now that it was a far-fetched fantasy. No one gets that sort of happily ever after.

  Not anymore.

  Not when only ten percent of the world’s population is women.

  We are coveted. Our lives, no longer our own. The freedom women once had only a memory.

  Standing on stage, overdressed and underprepared, I still hold out hope, albeit small, that maybe, here, things can be different.

  As I glance around, I wonder if fleeing for a better life is all a ruse.

  Maybe I’m just running into the arm
s of a new enemy. What if I only traded one prison for another? Or what if my real identity is found out? What if I made a terrible, irreversible choice?

  But at least it was a choice. My choice. The first one I ever really made.

  “Aren’t they handsome,” Kate says beside me, squeezing my hand in hers, black hair tumbling in waves across her bare shoulder. “Can you believe this is really happening. That we’re actually marrying men our own age, and not...” She glances back at the old men sitting behind us, lined up like a jury, and wrinkles her nose. “That.”

  The man Kate had run from, the one she’d been sold to, had been well past sixty. A wealthy banker who bought and sold wives like thoroughbred horses. None of whom, to his violent disappointment, had given him a child.

  When she’d learned that he had plans to sell her to one of his business partners, Kate fled.

  “Aren’t they positively delicious.” She giggles, dark eyes roaming the room. “They look good enough to eat.”

  I force a smile and nod, unable to share her enthusiasm. She isn’t wrong about their looks.

  More than a few faces have caught my eye. But they’re still men.

  And I’ve never known a good, true man in my life.

  Am I so naive to think I would find one now?

  And not just one honorable man-but six?

  “Look at the redhead in the corner. He keeps staring at you,” Lilah says on the other side of me. “I bet his ticket is for you. Isn’t he gorgeous?”

  She gives a little sigh, wearing her heart, and her life on her sleeve.

  We’ve given up everything for a chance at a real life of our own.

  Once I crossed the border into Alaska, we came under the protection of this state. We’re safe. Or as safe as I’ll ever be.

  I know people are already looking for me. Men of means and power.

  My father.

  Lawson.

  The odds of me truly escaping are next to none. But I’d rather die in this cold barren wasteland fighting for a freedom I’ve never known, than spend the rest of my life as someone’s property.

  If I hadn’t run, I’d be sold to the highest bidder. Living a life of luxury, sure, but I wouldn’t have been my own person in any right.

  I would have been beholden to a man who believes the lies the government spreads. That there is no way out of the predicament the world has found itself in. A man who saw me as nothing more than a commodity, to be bought and sold at will.

  But here, it will be different. Or at least that’s what I tell myself, because there’s no turning back now.

  The redhead that Lilah mentioned does watch me from across the room. He’s a mountain of a man, with a dark auburn beard, and kind eyes that smile at me when he sees me staring back.

  It’s a look I’m not used to. Not just lust and a desire to possess, but respect. And it gives me a flicker of hope.

  For years, I’d heard the rumors about the wild men of the north, and the community they had built. A place where women were honored and cherished.

  And free.

  I want to taste that freedom. Swim in it. I want to duck my head under fresh spring water and come up for air, having lived...and loved.

  Maybe, of the six men, one will come to love me, and I him. And that’s something that causes hope to stir in my chest.

  From my position on the stage, I glance out at a sea of faces. A few others catch my gaze, including a pair of intense, light blue eyes that watch me from the back of the room, close to the red-headed man.

  He’s...gorgeous. The man drags long fingers through short, dark blonde hair, then roughs his palm over the slightly darker scruff that coats his jaw.

  I should pull my gaze away. But I don’t. He holds my attention. His entire demeanor commanding, and I have no doubt he’s someone high up around here. But he’s still young enough to be included in the lottery, and I wonder just how many tickets he’s entered.

  And if any are for me.

  I shiver under his gaze, and let myself have a brief second of hope that his name will be called.

  Doors shut around the now full room.

  The lottery is about to begin, and I feel the tension of the men mounting. There are a few who look bored, leaning against the back wall, hands crossed over their large chests. But most have an intensity to their gaze that tells me that they’re just as invested as I am.

  They know nothing about me, other than I’ve been confirmed healthy and fit by the medical board, and the fake back story I gave when I got here. I know I broke a dozen laws by lying, but even though they swore protection no matter who I was, or who I was running from, I knew anonymity was my only option.

  Christina Thorne is dead, and Hypatia Curie is born in the wild Alaskan wilderness.

  I chose the name in honor of two women of science I always admired and respected. The mathematician, Hypatia of Alexandria, and the renowned physicist Marie Curie.

  “May I have your attention.” An older man, wearing a decorated military uniform announces that the lottery is about to begin, and a murmur runs throughout the room.

  I let out a shaky breath.

  There’s no turning back now.

  I’m really doing this.

  It’s insane. An act of desperation. But it’s my only choice.

  The man with the microphone calls my name first, and I’m instructed to move forward on the stage, but I feel my feet cemented in place.

  Terror of what comes next glues me to the ground.

  Six husbands. I am not prepared for this. In my twenty-one years, I’ve never even kissed a man.

  “It’s okay,” Kate whispers, giving my hand one last squeeze before letting it go. “You’re safe here.”

  “It’s all right,” Lilah whispers, her sugary sweet voice so foreign to my ears. Where I am jaded, she is smooth. “This is better than it could have been. This is a choice, remember? Your choice.”

  How this fragile woman is now the strong one is beyond me. On the boat ride here, she was a jumble of emotions. But now, on stage, she has composed herself. Now it’s me who’s a mess.

  Kate, wearing rose-colored glasses since the moment we met, leans in to whisper, “This isn’t an auction, it’s a lottery. It’s our destiny, Tia.”

  I smooth down my white bridal gown as the man motions me with an impatient gesture to step forward. When I do, I hear a murmur of appreciation from the men.

  I lower my chin, my breasts pushed up high in this satin dress. The material cinches tight on my waist. In this gown there is no disguising the woman my men will receive.

  Here I am, on display, for all to see.

  This is everything I wanted to avoid.

  I never wanted to be a prize.

  I don’t want to be won.

  I want a man to earn my affection.

  I want to be treasured and adored.

  I want to be more than a wife who was bought.

  I want to be chosen.

  More afraid than I’ve ever been in my life, I blink back tears, and straighten my shoulders.

  My choice.

  Exhaling slowly, I glance back at Kate and Lilah who look at me with encouraging smiles. I’m not alone.

  In this new world, women stick together. We have to. It was only by the kindness of strangers, seeing my plight, sheltering and hiding me, that I managed to get here at all. A small pink ribbon hanging in the front window of a home, a symbol that it was a safehouse.

  But in Alaska every house is safe. At least that’s the line we bought coming here.

  My hands tremble as the announcer runs through the list of my abilities and talents, and I nearly choke when he mentions my culinary skills.

  Despite all my tutors’ frustrated efforts to make me a proper housewife, my only real passion was science - is science. I know if I was just given the chance, I could make a real difference in finding a way to reverse the population crisis. But that wasn’t my fate.

  And I don’t think fate is going to intervene o
n my behalf now.

  I lift my eyes, wishing my distrust in everyone and everything could be replaced with some of the warmth Lilah and Kate possess. How I wish my hard edges were soft lines. But I need to keep my guard up until I meet my husbands.

  This night has just begun. I have no idea what they will expect of me once we leave the safety of this meeting hall. But I have an idea. I shiver in both fear and anticipation.

  A man, announced as The Director comes onto the stage. A silver-haired man in his early sixties, he carries a bronze, decorated antique looking device that’s a contrast to the unornamented, concrete walled room, with its high-tech security system.

  His gaze lingers and narrows for a moment on me before moving on.

  After he sets the bronze device, a wire ball filled with slips of paper, on a pedestal at one side of the stage, a ceremonial speech is read, then the Director gives the ball a sharp turn with the handle on its side, and I can hear a scattering of paper rustling, ready to determine my fate.

  As the first ticket is drawn, the room goes completely silent.

  There’s a sharp crack in the microphone as the Director leans forward and says, “Ticket two-zero-five. Giles Knight. You are the first winner of tonight’s lottery and husband one of Hypatia Curie.”

  There’s a shift in the crowd. A rustle of clothing. Then a man steps forward. Dark auburn hair, and a matching beard frames a handsome face. But it’s his size that has me swallowing hard as he steps onto the stage. He’s one of the men I caught watching me earlier.

  A wall of muscle, the man towers over me, and if it weren’t for the kindness I see in his confident green eyes, I might be frightened.