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

  “Do you know where you are, sir?”

  The Viking looked around. “I don’t think I do.” Looking up at Cruz’s mate, he asked her, “Where are we, Nikki, my girl?”

  His mate glared down at him over her nose. It was a look that told him she was thinking about bashing him over the head with one of her crutches. “Just down the street from Mom and Dad’s house, Papa Ái. If you’re okay, we can walk home. It’ll only take a few minutes.”

  Pursing his lips, the old Viking nodded.

  Looking back at Cruz, he held his hand out. “Help an old man up?” he asked kindly.

  The sincere tone of his voice made Cruz’s gut twist. He was starting to get the feeling he had screwed up more than he could have initially realized.

  “Before we stand you up, do you hurt anywhere? Your head, legs, or back?”

  The Viking moved his shoulders around a little, as if testing them. Then he patted his legs down with his hands. “I think I’m A-okay. I was lucky I didn’t hurt myself, huh?”

  No, he was lucky Cruz hadn’t accidentally hurt him.

  Hating himself for being such a dipshit, Cruz held out his hand to the man. Once the old Viking placed a wrinkled hand in his, he gripped it gently so his fingertips were touching the veins of the grandfather’s wrist and covertly checked for his pulse.

  “One last question to make sure you’re all right, okay?”

  The old Viking nodded again.

  “Do you know your name and today’s date?”

  “Name is Arthur Wolf. Don’t let that Saxon first name fool you, though, son. I’m a Viking through and through!”

  Cruz’s mouth tipped up on one side in a reluctant grin. He sort of believed the old man when he said that.

  His pulse seemed nice and steady, so Cruz didn’t think he had really caused trauma to his mate’s grandfather. Now he just wanted to finish checking for mental clarity.

  “And the date, Arthur?”

  The Viking’s eyes became distant, and he looked at his granddaughter. “I can’t remember the date, Nikki. You know what it is, honey?”

  Cruz’s mate’s face softened, and a small, sad look crossed her face. “It’s October twenty-eighth, Papa, remember?”

  This was no raving lunatic. No, he knew now that this was an old man with some sort of mental deterioration. Dementia, perhaps? Whatever it was, it let Cruz know that there was absolutely no salvaging this situation right now. He needed to get his mate and her grandfather on their way home. He would have to figure out how to do damage control later.

  After pulling Arthur up slowly, he waited until the man was steady before letting go of his hand. Then he looked over to see the cab pulled up next to them that he’d had the bartender call for before he had come out here.

  Motioning to the yellow vehicle, he told Arthur, “He’s here to take you and Nikki home. If you’ll get in the car and tell him the address, you’ll get there faster than your granddaughter trying to walk on that cast.”

  “That was mighty nice of you, son! Thank you.” Arthur walked over to the back door of the yellow cab, ignoring his granddaughter’s protests. “Quiet now, Nikki girl. It’s late, and I want to get home. All of a sudden, it’s really chilly.”

  Cruz had to stop himself from laughing out loud. The man was probably cold because he wasn’t wearing a shirt, only a fur cape that he hadn’t bothered to pull around and cover the exposed skin of his chest.

  Walking over to the driver’s side door of the cab, Cruz gave the man a twenty-dollar bill with a gruff order. “This should get them home plus tip. Be careful with them both.”

  He stepped back from the car then looked back over at Nikki who still stood in the same spot. He could tell she wanted to refuse the cab and anything else that had to do with him. Luckily for Cruz, Arthur didn’t give a shit. He was yelling for his granddaughter to hurry up before he died of old age.

  He stood there, watching silently as his mate hobbled to the taxi, gingerly climbed in, and then let the driver take her away. Cruz was forced to stand there and watch as his true mate left him with the knowledge of only two things:

  One, her name was Nikki Wolfe, which meant she was related to his boss.

  Two, her middle finger was in perfect working order. She flicked him off through the back window before the car turned out of sight.

  Chapter Four

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” Cruz roared at his boss.

  Nathan looked at him in a confused manner. “Tell you what?”

  “That she is a Wolfe!”

  Still confused, Nathan asked, “She is a wolf?”

  Frustrated beyond belief, Cruz pulled at his own hair. “No! She is a human … but she is also a Wolfe. How is a human a Wolfe?”

  It was clear as day that Nathan was losing his patience. Running his hands down his face, he then held them up in the air between them as if he could somehow calm Cruz down that way. “Let’s get this straight. Is she a human or a wolf?”

  At this point, Cruz was about to lose control of his animal. He felt the bones in his body urging him to shift. The wolf wanted out so he could track down their mate. He couldn’t do that yet. No matter what, he needed to figure out why his boss hadn’t told him that the old man he had thrown out of the bar was related to a woman who apparently was related to Nathan. At least, that was what he assumed since his boss had told him that any “Wolfe” around there was a relative of his.

  Dropping his hands from his head, he gripped his thighs to give himself something to hold on to. It was taking everything Cruz had to focus his body into not shifting. “She is a human with the last name Wolfe. Why didn’t you tell me that she and the old man are related to you somehow?” By the time the last word had come out of his mouth, he was roaring, and his nails had cut through his jeans and broken skin.

  Taking deep breaths, Cruz pushed his wolf back as he saw Nathan’s face go from confused to thoughtful.

  “She told you her last name is Wolfe?”

  Cruz nodded, unwilling to take the chance of actually speaking and losing his internal focus.

  “Did she say she was related to me directly?”

  This time, it was Cruz who paused in shock. His mind raced over the short, terse conversation with his mate.

  Nathan cocked his head to the side and considered him. “Did you ever think that perhaps she just happens to be a human with the last name Wolfe? Because, I can assure you, she’s no relative of mine.”

  How many fucking people had the last name Wolfe in this town?

  “Do we have a problem here, Cruz? Because, either you want to tear that woman limb from limb for some odd reason, or she’s your—”

  “True mate!” he snarled at his boss.

  Just the thought of anyone touching one of Nikki’s limbs was almost enough for the tentative hold he had on his wolf to snap.

  “Yeah … We can’t have you losing control here, man. I get that you’re probably freaked out about finding your true mate after losing your family, but you need to pull your shit together. You can’t go all crazy wolf in the bar.”

  “I know that!” Cruz roared. “I’m trying to control myself!”

  His boss scratched the side of his cheek absentmindedly, giving Cruz a doubtful look. “Not trying to be an asshole here, man. Seriously. But I don’t think you’re doing such a good job on the control thing right now.”

  Cruz felt his bones start the shift again, causing him to snarl in rage. Nathan, on the other hand, just stood calmly across the desk from him.

  “How about I help you with that?”

  Confused, Cruz stared at the other man, trying to understand what that statement meant, and then he felt a prick in the side of his neck, followed by the feeling of something being injected into him. He didn’t have time to shout for help or even push his attacker off. Whatever they had injected him with had Cruz dropping to his knees immediately, his entire body becoming lethargic and unresponsive. The only thing he was able to do was cast an accusing s
tare at Nathan while he tried with all his might to stay upright on his knees instead of falling on his face. Unfortunately for him, he was losing the battle rapidly.

  Nathan waved away whoever was behind him. Cruz could hear their retreating footsteps, but he never got the chance to catch a glimpse of their face or scent.

  Looking back at him, his boss said rather sincerely, “Sorry about that. I’m sure you’ll thank me later after you wake up calmer.”

  Cruz wanted to tell the man where he could take his thanks and shove it. Too bad he couldn’t make his mouth work.

  Black spots started showing up in his vision, which seemed to narrow down by the second, right as Cruz started to sway. He was going to fall flat on his face in probably five seconds.

  Nathan spoke again, but Cruz couldn’t focus on the man’s face anymore. “Don’t worry; I’ll take you home so you can sleep it off at your place.”

  Four seconds …

  Footsteps came toward him as Cruz’s eyelids became too heavy to hold up. Sleeping this off sounded like a damn good idea.

  Three seconds …

  He heard Nathan grunt as his strong hands caught Cruz, keeping him from hitting the floor. “Damn, you’re a big guy. I might need to have someone help me carry you.”

  Two seconds …

  He might not be able to move right now, but Cruz’s mind was full-steam ahead with frantic thoughts. Right now, all he could think about was kicking his boss’s ass after he woke up from whatever they had given him.

  One second …

  “Sleep tight, man. It’s been a hard first day for you. Not to get all mushy and shit, but maybe you’ll have sweet dreams about your girl.”

  Nikki …

  ~~~

  Nikki kept one hand on her grandfather and the other holding the crutches in her lap. She was still trembling from the incident at the bar, partly from anger at the bouncer and partly from fear.

  Papa Ái had truly attacked the man. The bouncer hadn’t been exaggerating about that. She had seen it with her own two eyes. It was one of her family’s worst fears come to life.

  How was she going to tell her parents what had happened? She also couldn’t help feeling as if part of this were her fault for going into that damn bar and being stubborn.

  It wasn’t long before the cab pulled up in front of her parents’ house. Papa helped her out of the vehicle and stayed by her side as she made her way to the front door.

  Hand hovering over the doorknob, Nikki couldn’t bring herself to open it. Instead, she turned around and asked her grandfather to sit with her on the porch swing.

  The old man lumbered over and held the swing still so she could sit down without hurting herself. Then he sat down and said, “What is it, sweetheart?”

  Trying to figure out the best way to approach the questions she needed to ask, Nikki took a deep breath, grabbing Papa’s hand. “How did you find out I was in the bar, Papa?”

  The devious patriarch tapped the side of his head with two fingers and a mischievous twinkle in his eye. “Used my best weapon, my girl. When the boy came home without you, I asked him where you were. When he told me you had forced him to drop you off at the pharmacy, I knew I couldn’t leave you out there hurt and alone, especially after Harald explained you had wooden sticks to help you walk on your green rock foot there. So I prepared myself for a short journey, slipped out of the house while your parents were talking in the kitchen, and then walked myself down the street to the pharmacy.”

  Nikki listened to her grandfather, a bit surprised that Papa had slipped back so easily into the present day again. But that was the mystery of Alzheimer’s it seemed. Always slipping back and forth in time.

  “Once I arrived there, I didn’t see you, so I asked the woman running the store if she had seen a young shield-maiden walking on wooden sticks with a green rock on her foot. She pointed me in the direction of that bar where the descendants of Fenrir commune. Have you lost your mind, girl, walking into a place like that?”

  Her grandfather had walked into a bar known to be full of wolf shifters, attacked one, and now he was asking her if she had lost her mind? Nikki didn’t get a chance to point this out to him, though, because Papa Ái suddenly shouted, “My sword! Loki’s hairy balls, we left my sword back at that wolves’ den. We have to go back and get it, Nikki girl. I can’t let those furry bastards keep my weapon!”

  Patting his hand, she did her best to soothe him. “We’ll get it back tomorrow, promise. Those hairy old wolves wouldn’t know what to do with such a mighty weapon such as yours, anyway, Papa. Now how about we go inside and let everyone know we’re home?”

  Her grandfather’s eyes glazed over a bit, and he nodded, in a sort of daze. Nikki had a feeling he was about to go through one of his particularly bad spells, so she needed to get him inside and to his room as fast as she could.

  They helped each other to the front door then through it. Once the front door slammed shut behind them, the rest of the human Wolf family came racing out to meet them from their various directions. The sight sort of made her think of a plague of locusts attacking some poor, unsuspecting town. Except, it wasn’t a town these angry locusts were buzzing at; it was her.

  Pointing an accusing finger at her, Harald was the first to speak. “Tell Mom and Dad that you made me drop you off! They don’t believe me.”

  Nikki’s mother smacked Harald upside the head. “Your sister is in a cast and on crutches! How in the world could she make you pull the car over?”

  Her brother shot her a nasty look. He couldn’t answer that question without admitting that Nikki had blackmailed him with his porn collection, which was exactly why knowing every one of her little siblings’ dirty secrets came in handy sometimes. Not that she got to enjoy her internal glee for long. Little Ivar took that away from her when he was the next to pipe up.

  “Nikki has a Hulk leg now! Get mad, Nikki, so your Hulk leg can smash!” The little boy’s glee as he stomped his foot in a mock leg smash was as obvious as her contempt of the comparison. And she knew this because all of her siblings started laughing at the frown on her face like a pack of hyenas as they each shouted, “Hulk, smash!”

  Damn heathens!

  Chapter Five

  It was an itch at the end of his nose that pulled him from his deep sleep. The nagging, ticklish sensation wouldn’t go away.

  Cruz went to scratch it with his fingers and ended up slapping the side of his wolf’s muzzle with a paw, instead. The rake of claws sliding down his nose slowly was enough to finish pulling Cruz out of his drugged slumber. Groggily lifting his head, he shook it a little to try to clear the fog from his brain.

  What the hell? Looking down at his wolf’s body curled up on his bed, he tried to remember how he had ended up this way.

  When in the world had he shifted? More importantly, why had he shifted?

  Sliding off the bed unsteadily, he stood in the middle of his bedroom and focused on shifting to his human form. It took Cruz a few minutes to feel centered enough to go from one form to the next, but finally, his bones started to pop with the change. Fur slowly receded to reveal human muscle covered by skin, and his body lengthened as the wolf turned into the man.

  When his shift was finally over, he was on hands and knees, naked, shaking from head to toe.

  Snippets of hazy memories started to come back to him: starting his new job at The Thirsty Wolfe yesterday, an old man attacking him with a sword, and Cruz literally throwing the old man out of the bar.

  That wasn’t all, though. No, a pair of gorgeous blue eyes flashed through his mind, followed by the sweetest smell of lavender and vanilla. The image of the brunette came to him full-force then as her feisty wrath of slaps and screams bombarded him.

  True mate, his wolf growled, wanting to come out again to track Nikki down. Cruz managed to keep his wolf at bay, though the realization hit him like a bucket of cold water.

  Yesterday, he had accidentally stumbled upon his true mate while at the bar �
� Then he had unknowingly made a very poor first impression by throwing her grandfather out like a piece of trash.

  Find mate. Fix this.

  Cruz heard his wolf loud and clear. The beast was damned right he needed to find her and fix this between them. At least, he hoped he could. Now he just had to get his ass up off the floor to do it. He wasn’t going to let a little fatigue stop him from what he needed to do.

  Pushing through rolling nausea and the general fatigue that was settling over his body, he managed to get to his feet and then to the bathroom. It was slow going, but Cruz managed to get in and out of the shower without falling over as if he were drunk. In fact, with every minute that passed, he grew a little stronger, a bit surer footed.

  The rest of his memories also returned while he dried off: yelling at his boss Nathan, the confusion over Nikki being a human named Wolfe, and then Nathan telling him he needed to calm down. Only, Cruz had been unable to calm down and was on the verge of shifting in public when Nathan had someone sedate him. It made him want to find the sneaky bastard and punch him in the face.

  After getting dressed, he stopped in his kitchen long enough to devour a thick sandwich with extra slices of lunchmeat. He practically had to force the food down, but he knew he needed something in his stomach so he wouldn’t pass out.

  Once he swallowed the last bite, he guzzled an oversized bottle of water to rehydrate. Feeling a bit more like himself, Cruz then walked out of that apartment, determined to kick his boss’s ass.

  The walk to the bar went pretty damn quickly. Cruz stormed into the bar, ignored all the greetings from yesterday’s customers, and made his way behind the bar and into the back office. That was where he found Nathan sitting at his desk, looking at some papers.

  Nathan didn’t bother to look up at him, but Cruz wasn’t looking for a friendly hello, anyway. The other wolf knew he was there, mad as hell, and definitely at a disadvantage since Cruz was new to this pack and Nathan was related to the alpha. That didn’t stop him from walking forward, slapping his hands down on the man’s desk, and growling low in his throat.