Sassy Ever After: Sassy and a little Bad-Assy (Kindle Worlds Novella)

by Jessie Lane

  Once she was in the car, still giving Harald the silent treatment, she sighed and tipped her head back, leaning against the neck rest of her seat. How was she going to keep up with five kids, one of them with special needs, and a grandfather with Alzheimer’s while resting her broken leg? It was simply impossible.

  The car rumbled to life, and she felt it moving as Harald drove them away from the hospital. It was only a fifteen-minute drive. Hopefully, her brother would take the silence as a hint that she still didn’t want to talk and give her some peace and quiet.

  There were approximately two minutes of a blessed lull before Harald blew it all to hell.

  “This is ridiculous. I can’t believe you’re still not talking to me! It was a freakin’ accident, Nikki. And what were you doing with Thor’s hammer on the kitchen table, anyway? In a way, you could say this whole mess is your own fault.”

  “Harald, I swear on every silly Viking god Papa Ái believes in, that if you don’t shut up right this minute, I will take out that billboard ad next to the mall and put your picture on it, along with your favorite nickname, ‘Hairy Harald.’ Then this whole town will know what the kids called you from elementary to middle school until you discovered what man-scaping was.”

  Her eldest brother snarled, “That’s a little extreme, don’t you think?”

  After the day she’d had, Nikki didn’t think Harald wanted to know what she thought extreme would be right now. Her give-a-damn was busted, the last fuck given, and all patience was long gone. Hell, she just needed to get out of this car before she went psycho and cracked her brother’s head against the steering wheel.

  Seeing the pharmacy, she ordered Harald to pull over.

  “What?” he asked, shocked at the change of subject.

  “Pull this car over, Harald, right now.”

  “Why would I do that? We’re almost home!” he sputtered.

  “Pull this fucking car over, or I’m going to tell Mom about the porn under your mattress.”

  Her brother whipped the car over to the side of the road so fast Nikki almost got whiplash. She didn’t bother to bitch him out for it, though. Instead, she got out of the car. It was either get away from Harald or commit homicide. Done with capital D. All she wanted right now was a few minutes away from her family.

  After pulling her crutches out of the car, she slammed the door shut and flipped Harald the bird. Her brother slammed on the car’s gas pedal so fast he spun tires and left tire tracks in his haste to get away from her. Nikki stood there for a minute and watched him drive away, feeling a weight lifting off her shoulders.

  Was this the end of whatever shenanigans her family had in store for her today? Absolutely not. However, she would have a few blessed moments of peace and quiet before Harald got home and they discovered she wasn’t with him. Then someone, probably one of her parents, would come looking for her. Until then, she was going to hobble her ass across the street and drop off the prescription.

  Blinking lights in the distance behind the pharmacy caught her eye, and she focused on them.

  The Thirsty Wolfe.

  She’d driven past the bar a few times, but had never gone in. It was a known bar in their community for paranormals, mainly werewolves from what she had heard. Today was different. After stopping off at the pharmacy, it was long past time for her to go in and check the bar out. Not because she was suddenly morbidly infatuated with checking out supernaturally strong beings that could probably eat her for a snack, but more or less because it would be the last place her family would come looking for her.

  Nikki had never been known to be a party animal or frequent bars, even when she had been in college. Now, well, why the hell not? If going into that place could buy her a few minutes of peace, then she could muster up the courage to hobble her ass in there for a beverage or something.

  She knew she shouldn’t have an alcoholic drink, but it would give her a place to hide out for a little while until she was ready to go home to the insanity that was her life.

  Thinking about trying to go up the stairs to her bedroom with a cast on her leg flashed through her mind.

  Maybe one beer wouldn’t hurt.

  ~~~

  A few hours in and not so bad.

  At least, that was what Cruz was thinking as he studied the patrons of The Thirsty Wolfe. Perhaps this job wouldn’t be so bad, after all.

  He looked over to check on the bartender, finding his boss Nathan helping with the busy crowd. Then he scanned back toward the main area.

  He was studying a group of drunk wolves who were starting to get rowdy when it happened.

  The bell on the door chimed, announcing someone new had entered. Cruz looked over … and his jaw dropped in shock.

  A Viking walks into a bar …

  Holy shit. This was a joke, right?

  “Fear my wrath! It does not matter to me if the lot of you are descendants of Fenrir the great wolf himself. Odin protects me!”

  Cruz wasn’t too sure who the Fenrir character was. He’d never been big into myths.

  His boss said the place could get crazy, but Vikings? Really?

  Yeah, he never in a million years had thought that would happen. At least, he thought that was what the old man was supposed to be. He sure couldn’t come up with any other reason a human man who clearly belonged in a nursing home was wearing leather pants, fur boots, a fur cape, and wielding a sword, hollering about Odin being on his side.

  Odin had been a Viking, right?

  Just then, the old man hollered again while the whole bar remained silent and still, utterly in shock of the spectacle before them. No human in their right mind would come into a bar known to be the hangout spot for paranormals and wolves and threaten them.

  “Give me the shield-maiden, and I will leave you damn fanged beasts in one piece. Otherwise, I will call down the wrath of Thor himself to obliterate this puny hall!”

  What the fuck was a shield-maiden? And why did the old man think they had one?

  A feminine groan caught his attention, and Cruz turned his head toward the sound. That was how he singled out the brunette with gorgeous blue eyes and a hideous green cast on her left leg, hiding underneath one of the tables. He took a deep breath in to capture her scent … then froze.

  The aromas of lavender and vanilla hit him like a sucker punch. His entire world tipped on its axis as the truth hit him …

  Fate was a fickle bitch. That was the only reasonable explanation Cruz could come up with for his current predicament.

  Not the Viking who was screaming again, forcing Cruz’s attention back to the threat near the front of the bar. No, his problem was the brunette. She was the one thing he never wanted to find: his true mate.

  Fuck!

  Positioning his body into a stance much like a baseball player would hold his bat, the old man stood there with his sword, as if ready to strike.

  The wolf inside of him went insane with the thought that their true mate could be in danger, while the human side of him didn’t want to hurt the old man. However, it was becoming clear that Cruz would have to do something before their intruder accidentally hurt someone. Like his mate.

  He could feel his wolf’s fur pushing through his skin, urging Cruz to let him out so he could deal with the threat. Somehow, he managed to hold on to reason as he took a step in the old man’s direction.

  Suddenly, his opponent yelled, “Valhalla will welcome me with open arms this day!” With that, he lunged toward Cruz with the sword. It was a damn good thing he had reflexes and senses stronger than any human could ever dream of possessing.

  With swift, sure movements, Cruz stepped to the side of his opponent’s lunge, grabbing the old man’s hand as he went. From there, it was a simple thing to use his strength to bend the intruder’s wrist at an unnatural angle, causing him to drop his sword as he shouted in pain. Now all he had to do was get the threat outside, and his mate would be safe.

  Dropping his shoulder so it landed in the man’s gut, he
threw his weight forward in a semi-tackle, using his free hand to open the bar’s door as he carried his package quickly forward. Once the door was open, Cruz literally threw the old man out of the bar. He flew through the air and landed on his back in the parking lot.

  The human side of Cruz cringed at the slight bit of force he had used on the old man, while the wolf howled in victory for having protected their mate.

  Turning around, he took in the cheers of the patrons he had protected. They weren’t who he was looking for, though.

  Searching the crowd that was closing in to congratulate him with back slaps and handshakes, he didn’t see his mate anywhere.

  Where the hell had she gone?

  ~~~

  Nikki couldn’t believe her eyes.

  A sexy werewolf had just thrown Papa Ái out of the bar on his ass!

  At least, she assumed he was a wolf shifter since the bar was owned by wolf shifters.

  Now everyone in the bar was crowding around the bouncer, congratulating him for tossing a seventy-year-old man out the door. Those assholes!

  Nikki was so mad she was trembling. Pulling herself carefully out from underneath the table, she hobbled as fast as she could on her crutches around the bouncer with his adoring crowd and out the front door, making her way over to her poor grandfather who was still on the ground.

  Standing over him, she felt so helpless. With her cast on, she couldn’t pick him up. “Papa Ái?”

  His eyes were open and blinking, but he looked a little dazed.

  “Papa Ái, are you okay?”

  Her grandfather turned his blue gaze toward her, blinking a few times as if to clear his head before a look of recognition finally crossed his face. “Nikki, my girl! How good it is to see you! When did you come for a visit?”

  Nikki let out a sigh of relief that was also tinged with worry. He was talking to her; that had to be good. However, he seemed to have reverted back to the mind frame that he was living on his own.

  Gentling her voice to a soothing croon, she played along, “I just arrived today to pick you up and take you to Mom and Dad’s house, remember? We got sidetracked, though. Now we need to go home. Can you get up off the ground?”

  The old man looked around him, bewildered. “Why am I lying on the ground, Nikki girl?”

  When one took care of someone who had something like Alzheimer’s, they learned darn quickly that it was sometimes best to lie and keep the patient calm rather than tell them the truth. “We were walking, and you tripped and fell. Can you get up now, or did you hurt yourself?”

  Papa Ái pulled himself up into a sitting position, swaying a little before he could get up.

  Putting her hand out to stop him, Nikki cautioned, “Just wait a minute. Don’t stand up yet. Is your head okay? Did you hit it?”

  Her grandfather ran his hands over his head as if he were inspecting it. “I don’t feel anything, so I don’t think I did.”

  “That’s good if you didn’t hit your head, Papa, but just wait there for a minute until you’re not dizzy anymore, okay?”

  Her grandfather opened his mouth to say something, but a deep, gravelly voice spoke from behind her, scaring the hell out of her.

  “Is he okay?”

  Whirling around the best she could on her crutches, Nikki glared at the man who had hurled her little, old grandfather as if he were nothing more than a potato sack.

  “You’re a monster!” she screamed at the bouncer. Pointing back to her grandfather, who was still sitting on the cement, trying to get his bearing, Nikki continued, “He’s a seventy-year-old man. Why in the world would you literally throw him out of a bar?”

  The bouncer seemed genuinely taken aback by her outburst. “Did you miss the part where he came at me with a sword? Because I remember that rather vividly, lady.”

  Nikki took him in from head to toe, wishing she had some sort of superpowers, such as laser beams that shot out from her eyeballs. She would incinerate the jackass where he stood.

  The man held up his hands in surrender and took a small step toward her. “I didn’t come out here to cause any problems. I just wanted to make sure he was okay.”

  If it were possible for someone’s head to explode in rage, hers totally would have in that moment.

  “Okay? Okay! Are you serious? No, he’s not okay! You just threw an old man through a door and into the parking lot. Why in the world would you possibly think he would be okay after that?”

  The bouncer glanced around Nikki to look at her grandfather. She wanted to be petty and block his view, but she didn’t want to take the chance of falling on her ass.

  After looking him over, the werewolf in front of her turned his attention back to her. “Look, I know this isn’t the best situation, but can I just apologize and we start over? I can help you two to wherever it is you need to go.”

  Did those words just come out of his mouth? Seriously? Nikki couldn’t believe the gall of this guy! Suddenly, she understood why Papa Ái was always screaming at the top of his lungs when he slipped into Viking mode. Never before in her life had Nikki wanted to slap the sense into someone so badly.

  Since she couldn’t knock him the hell out, she went with the weapon she could use: her mouth.

  “If brains were gasoline, you wouldn’t be able to power a pissant’s go-cart two laps around a cheerio, asshole!”

  The bouncer’s jaw dropped in shock, and the teeny, tiny part of Nikki’s brain that was still firing all cylinders on logic told her she really shouldn’t talk to a guy who could turn into a big, dangerous wolf that way.

  Well, Mom always did say my mouth was going to get me killed one day.

  ~~~

  Cruz didn’t know if he should be mad or impressed.

  Apparently, his mate was feisty as hell and full of all sorts of sass. The wolf inside him thought it was hot. She could be fiery like that in the bedroom with them. Then he could play-wrestle her until she was pinned down beneath him, tease and torture her until she begged her for more, and then give her his mark as he filled her with his hard cock. His human half knew this was a totally inappropriate time to be thinking things like that. But did the wolf care about that?

  Hell, no.

  Of course, after the way their true mate had just insulted him by insinuating he had the brain the size of a pea, he wasn’t quite sure what he should say or think, anyway. What in the hell did one say to something like that?

  You’re wrong. I could turbo charge that pissant’s go-cart and shoot it off like a rocket to the moon. That’s just my brain. Want to see what my body can do to you?

  Cruz didn’t have a chance to reply with anything at all, appropriate or not, because his mate wasn’t done letting him witness her wrath.

  She stumbled forward with awkward steps and suddenly slapped him several times on his arms and chest in a fury. The taps didn’t hurt him, and all he had to do was block the blows, but he couldn’t believe she was actually hitting him.

  “You could have killed him!”

  When it didn’t seem as if she was going to stop hitting him, Cruz grabbed both of her hands in a firm yet gentle hold. He made sure she wouldn’t lose her balance or drop her crutches. She didn’t know it yet, but he would never do anything to purposely hurt her.

  Bringing his face close to hers, he growled, letting his wolf show a little in his expression to get her attention. Once he had it, Cruz gave her the facts.

  “He came into the bar and attacked me with a sword.” She started to protest, but he cut her off. “Quiet! Keep that pretty mouth shut and listen to what I’m saying. He came in and attacked me. That point aside, I could smell he was human. I would have never killed him. My job was to take out the threat, and I did. I also did it in a way that I knew would incapacitate him without permanent injury. You should be thanking me for disarming your grandfather before he accidentally hurt someone.”

  His mate’s eyes were brimming with angry tears, but not one fell down her face. Cruz watched as she snatched he
r hands out of his grip and then pulled herself back out of his range with her crutches so he couldn’t grab her as easily again. She glanced back once to check on her grandfather then returned her now cool and collected stare to him.

  “You’re absolutely right. He did attack you with a weapon. I also know that sword could have killed you. The thing is, call it intuition, but something tells me that you could have disabled him without throwing him out like last week’s trash. Call me crazy, but somehow, I think that would have been more of a gentleman’s response to dealing with someone much older and feebler than you obviously are.”

  With those damning words, Cruz felt about an inch tall.

  She was absolutely right. He should have thought the situation through a bit more clearly, not let his wolf get out of control. Then he would have thought of a way to disable her grandfather without doing what he had done.

  What a way to realize you were a total jackass. It was obvious there was no way he could defend himself.

  You hurt our mate, the wolf whined inside of him.

  Awesome. Now even his animal half thought he was an asshole.

  With wooden steps, Cruz stepped around his mate, ignoring her squawk of protest. Squatting down, he looked the Viking straight in the eye. “I’m very sorry for what happened, sir. Are you okay?”

  The old man seemed out of it and rather confused. “Not sure what you’re sorry for. Nikki says I tripped and fell.”

  His mate hissed at the sound of her name. It seemed as though she didn’t like her grandfather revealing that tidbit. Too bad. Even though he had fucked everything up, he still wanted whatever he could get of her right now.

  Her name was like music to his ears. Just as beautiful as she was. With it, he could track her down. For now, though, he needed to let her go and cool down. As enraged as she was, it was obvious she would never listen to him right now.

  Without taking his attention off the Viking, he tried to figure out why the man was so confused about this situation. Was it a head injury? Or was something else at play here? He guessed it was time to ask a few questions to clear things up.