by Jessie Lane
The only downside she could think of so far to this whole super sniffer nose thing was the fact that she had known her eighteen-year-old brother had lost his virginity when he had come home with an odd, goofy grin on his face. The smell of sex on him had made her want to sniff bleach and try to erase that knowledge from her brain.
Nikki hadn’t shifted into a wolf, but Cruz had told her that, along with her super senses, she would also live a longer lifespan with him. That had been a huge relief to find out. While she loved her family beyond measure, Cruz was her top priority, and she was going to do everything in her power to stay with him as long as she could. That meant Nikki was extremely grateful that her once human lifespan wouldn’t leave him alone one day. Her poor wolf-man couldn’t handle losing another mate prematurely. Now she would have decades upon decades to shower him with love and comfort.
She was sitting at her parents’ kitchen table, peeling potatoes for dinner and anxiously awaiting her mate’s arrival. She loved spending time with Cruz and her family. He fit right in with the crazy little tribe somehow, and each and every one of her relatives had taken to him right away, especially the three younger boys—Ivar, Erik, and Olaf—who were constantly asking him to shift into his wolf for them.
They had learned quickly, though, to keep the shifting to a minimum around Papa, because he had taken one look at Cruz’s massive wolf and started screaming about Fenrir being here on earth, bringing forth Ragnarök and the end of the whole world.
Papa Ái had spent an entire week in his Viking clothes after that, looking for his sword and shield that her parents had hidden. After that, Nikki had been a little afraid her grandfather wouldn’t want Cruz around, but he seemed fine with her mate as long as he stayed in his human form.
She finished preparing the potatoes and put them in a pot on the stove to start cooking them. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ivar go past the kitchen to the living room. A small smile spread across her face at the sight. Ivar knew Cruz would be here soon. The little boy was utterly taken with her mate, and it was easy to see that the feeling was mutual. Cruz loved to spend time with Ivar, playing Battleship. He had forbidden Nikki from playing with them on the account that she was a sore loser.
If watching those two bond wasn’t enough to make her heart overflow with love for Cruz, the knowledge that he had been speaking with his pack alpha about Ivar would.
Cruz and some other members of the pack were researching for evidence or proof of a wolf’s mate healing a debilitating condition such as the boy’s spina bifida. It couldn’t be guaranteed that Ivar had a wolf mate out there, but Cruz liked to talk with her late at night about how he hoped there was. He saw Ivar as a fierce spirit who deserved the chance to live his life to the fullest.
Now she stood in the kitchen, making dinner for all of them, anxiously waiting for the man she loved to arrive. Nikki was in the mood to give her mate some love bites of her own tonight.
~~~
“You sure you want to do this, man? The family next door can get a little wild from time to time. Hell, the old man living there is the reason I haven’t been able to sell this place. Last time the realtor had potential buyers over, he came running over here shirtless in leather pants with a helmet and some kind of shield, hollering about keeping the Saxons out.”
Cruz looked up from the paperwork he was signing to smile at the man across the table from him. “Never been more sure of anything in my life. Anything else we need to do to finalize this?”
The man reached across the table and slid the stack of papers back in front of himself so he could flip through them. After checking to make sure Cruz had signed all the pages that had little flags sticking off them, he nodded. “Looks all good to me.”
They both stood up, and Cruz held his hand out. “Thanks. I can’t wait to get moved in.”
The other man gave a derisive laugh. “I’m the one who should be thanking you. I was starting to think I was never going to sell this place.” Letting go of Cruz’s hand, he dug into his jeans pocket then pulled out a set of keys. “I imagine you’ll want to change the locks after you get in here, but here are the keys that open it now. The place is all yours.” With that, the man let go of Cruz’s hand and walked out of the house, leaving him to stand in the empty house that he now owned next door to his mate’s family.
Looking around at the silent space, Cruz tried to imagine how his mate would decorate it. He couldn’t wait to give her the keys and tell her the news. The two of them had been trying to figure out for months now how they were going to move in with each other without taking her away from her family who needed her.
Now she would never have to worry about being far from them. Her family would literally be only steps away whenever they needed her.
Cruz laughed to himself, knowing she would hate it just as much as she loved it. His future was going to be filled with all sorts of crazy shit now that he had a family again, but he wouldn’t give it up for a second.
Taking a deep breath, he put the house keys in his pocket as he walked out. It was time to go tell Nikki the news. He just hoped like hell she would be happy about it.
Cruz had decided to buy the place without asking her first, knowing his mate would worry that he felt obligated to do it because of her. The woman just didn’t understand yet that he would do anything for her. Nikki had given him back what he never thought he would have again: a family.
He walked up to her parents’ front door and was about to knock when it was whipped open by the twins. He looked down at the two precocious boys, took in the smiles on their faces, and felt his stomach turn a bit in dread. It was never good when those two smiled at someone like that. It meant they were up to something.
“What were you doing in the neighbor’s house?” Olaf asked.
Shit. They had been spying on him.
“None of your business,” Cruz told them tersely.
He might love Nikki’s family as if they were his own, because they were now, but he wasn’t letting the brats run roughshod over him.
One boy looked at the other boy and mused, “I think he’s trying to keep a secret, Erik! Maybe we should tell Nikki he was over there.”
The other boy nodded his agreement. Then, as eerie as some horror flick, the two boys turned their heads to look back at him and spoke at the same exact time. “Unless you give us what we want.”
One predator always knew how to recognize another.
Those two might not be higher than his waist, but Cruz had a feeling they could team up and take down someone twice their size if they wanted to.
“And what do you want?” he asked them silkily.
They spoke as one again, which really sort of freaked him out. “Money.”
Cruz’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline. That wasn’t the answer he had been expecting.
“Not candy?”
The two boys shook their heads in synchronization.
“We have loads of candy stashed away,” one said.
“Now we want money,” the other boy finished.
It was a battle not to laugh at the boys’ attempt to blackmail him. God help the world when those two became adults. He had a feeling they might take the world over.
Bending over so his face was level with theirs, Cruz whispered, “If you walk away now, I’ll pretend this never happened, but if you try to extort money from me again, I’ll tell your parents where you hide that candy stash of yours.”
The twin’s eyes narrowed in disbelief as Olaf retorted, “You don’t know where our stash is! No one does.”
Cruz tapped the end of his nose with one finger. “I might not … but it wouldn’t take me long to find it.”
“Abort! Abort the mission!” Erik yelled, and then the two ran back upstairs, presumably to guard their candy stash from Cruz.
Stepping over the threshold, he closed the front door behind him then looked over to where his mate had been spying on him from the doorway to the kitchen. Crooking his finger at he
r, he watched as Nikki cocked an eyebrow and slowly sauntered his way. Ever since she had the cast taken off, Cruz loved to watch the way his mate’s hips swayed as she walked.
Once she reached Cruz, she threw her arms around his neck. “Are you keeping secrets from me, wolf?”
He pretended to look up at the ceiling, considering. “Let’s not call it a secret. I like the word bribe better.”
“Oh? And just what are you trying to bribe me into?”
“Marrying me.”
Nikki was stunned. She knew that some shifters didn’t get married at all. They let the mating stand as the basis of their relationship.
“You want to get married?”
Cruz tightened his fingers on her. “You told me the night we mated to make you mine in all ways, right? This is the last step. I want to get married so you have my last name.”
Feeling a tad playful, Nikki ran a finger down the valley of his pectoral muscles. “And this has nothing to do with you being surrounded by people with the last name Wolf?”
Her mate snarled a little. “Everywhere! Everywhere I turn is a Wolfe or a Wolf!” He gave her a frisky smack on the ass. “Not you! You’re going to be a Morales, and I have just the thing to bribe you into doing it.”
“You do, do you?” she purred playfully.
Cruz reached into his pocket and pulled out the keys, holding them up in front of her face. “These are the keys to the house next door, pretty girl. I bought it so we could get married and move in together, but you’ll be right there for your family whenever they need you.”
Nikki teared up, totally surprised by her mate’s thoughtful gesture. “You really do understand how much my family means to me, don’t you?”
Giving her a sweet smile, Cruz let her know how he really felt. “They’re not just your family now, Nikki; they’re mine, too. I love them like you love them, but I love you more. I would do anything to make you happy. So now, make me happy and tell me you’ll marry me.”
She launched herself into his arms, wrapping her legs around his waist as she peppered kisses all over his face. “Yes, yes, yes. A thousand times, yes!”
Cruz let out a sigh of relief and was about to kiss his mate when a booming voice suddenly shouted from behind them, “He has brought a suitable dowry, family! Arrange a feast! Bring me ale and a woman! We need to pick a Frigg’s-day to commence their union!”
Cruz and Nikki turned their heads to see Papa Ái beaming at them, fully dressed in his Viking regalia while the rest of her family looked on. He was used to things like this happening around the Wolf household now, but he still couldn’t help leaning closer to his mate’s ear and asking, “Frigg’s-day?”
“Let’s just say it means Friday,” she whispered back.
“You know you’re going to have to keep translating this Viking stuff for me, right?”
Nikki gave his cheek a pat. “No worries, wolf. I’ve got your back. Can we go look at the house now?”
“You’ve got it, pretty girl.” He didn’t bother to put his mate down, just carried her while she was still wrapped around his body as he headed out of her parents’ home.
Of course, Papa Ái had one last piece of advice for Cruz before he could make it out the door.
“Remember to invade her often like a good Viking would!”
About the Author
Jessie Lane is a best-selling author of Paranormal and Contemporary Romance, as well as, Upper YA Paranormal Romance/Fantasy.
She lives in Kentucky with her two little Rock Chicks in-the-making and her over-protective alpha husband, who she’s pretty sure is a latent grizzly bear shifter. She has a passionate love for reading and writing naughty romance, cliff hanging suspense, and out-of-this-world characters that demand your attention, or threaten to slap you around until you do pay attention to them.
She’s also a proud member of the Romance Writers of America (RWA).
For more information on Jessie Lane:
http://jessielanebooks.com/
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Other Titles from Jessie Lane
Ex Ops Series
Secret Maneuvers
Stripping Her Defenses
Mission Delivery
Sweet Agony
Sweet Recovery
Regulators MC Series
(co-written with Chelsea Camaron)
Ice
Hammer
Big Bad Bite Series
Big Bad Bite
Walk On The Striped Side
Star Series
(co-written with M.L. Pahl)
The Burning Star
The Frozen Star
Kindle World Stories
Lone Wolf Wanted
Sassy and a little Bad-Assy
Sassy Mates
Thank you for reading Sassy and a little Bad-Assy! I hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you did, please consider leaving a review when you have time.
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Discover the series that inspired the World!
AUTHOR: Milly Taiden
TITLES: (listed in series order)
Dirty Scent of a Mate | A Mate’s Bite | Unexpectedly Mated | The Mate Challenge | Fighting For Her Mate | A Fang in the Sass
WEBSITE: http://millytaiden.com/
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