Sassy Ever After: A Hot Piece Of Sass (Kindle Worlds Novella) (7 page)

Chapter Thirteen

I
t had been hours since the two men had left Hannah alone with their friend, who was passed out on the floor. At first she worried that he was dead, until he started tossing and turning, making noises in his sleep. Then she worried about him waking up.

Was he an asshole like his friends? It was a rhetorical question, but still one she really didn’t want to find out the answer to.

Hannah felt like she could sleep for three days straight, but she had to find a way out of the mess she was in. She tried shifting positions to see if she could work the deadly silver free from her body. Twisting and rotating, choking back a slew of profanities, all she managed to do was wrap the dreaded silver even tighter around her.

Anxiety flooded her body. Hannah felt like she was being strangled by the thin silver chain that seared her neck. Sucking in a shallow breath to calm herself before she freaked the fuck out, she tried to find a distraction for herself and her wolf from the unbelievably jacked-up situation.

Closing her eyes and breathing slowly, Hannah thought about the first time she’d seen Tanner. Gods, he was hotter than hell. Seeing him take on the bad guys in the forest had sent shivers through her body. And her wolf had been excited by the very thought of mating with him.

At the time, Hannah had still needed a bit of convincing, but she couldn’t argue with her wolf: Their mate was easy on the eyes. Seeing his transformation to human form left her weak at the knees and wanting to lick every inch of his body. Twice.

Hannah sighed. Unfortunately, she had been too distracted by her big strong mate to see the threat coming right at them.

She imagined being anywhere other than trapped in a dusty rotting hell-hole, imagined his scent enveloping her in a cocoon of safety. Guilt tore through her, making her feel even worse.

If only she hadn’t lost her shit when she’d found her mate, the day could’ve ended so much differently. If she had allowed him to mark her as he had wanted, she would be able to communicate with him now. Not only that, but she wouldn’t have the mark of another on her neck.

Hannah swore to God that once she was free from this situation, she’d never let him out of her sight again.

If he’s still alive.
Her wolf chose the most inopportune time to speak up.

He has to be alive. There has to be a way out of this situation
.
A lone tear streaked down her face.
I just found him. The Fates couldn’t be that cruel. Could they?

Hannah knew better than to ask that question. Of course they could. She’d known many wolves who’d lost their mates just as they’d found them. She knew exactly how cruel the Fates could be.

What was supposed to be one of the happiest days of her life had turned into a nightmare in the blink of an eye. Hannah had no idea if her true mate was alive or dead, and it scared the shit out of her.

Remembering what Tanner had said about his Nordic background, Hannah did something she’d never done. She prayed to Skuld for the future she wanted and deserved with her mate. Then she prayed to Freyja for the strength she needed to break free from the silver.

Her ears perked up when she heard wolves howling in the distance. Her instinct told her to respond, but her wolf kept her mouth firmly shut, not knowing who it was. She held her breath as the man on the couch sat up and looked at her. He shook his head, trying to clear the fog.

Hannah watched as he tried to stand, and grimaced as he fell back onto the tattered coushins. “You’ve been injured. Pretty badly at that. I think you should try and rest a little more to get your energy back.”

“What the fuck? Why are you being nice to him?”

“I’m trying to use a little reverse psychology. Maybe if we’re nice to him, he’ll get this silver off of us and not kill us.”

“You saw what he did to the woman in the woods. You can’t possibly have forgotten the marks they left on her. What makes you think he’ll spare us?”

“Call it a hunch or whatever you want, but I have to try. I can’t just sit here and do nothing.”

“Sure you can. It’s easy. Just close your mouth and act like he doesn’t exist.”

Hannah chose to ignore her wolf’s criticism. She was out of options and time.

“Who the fuck are you?” The burly man’s voice was harsh and unsteady. Three rotted teeth greeted her when he spoke. Even before Tanner had handed the guy his ass, he looked like he’d seen better days. His graying hair was shaggy and unkempt. He was definitely not up to any of the personal hygiene standards set by her pack.

If all that wasn’t enough to give her the heebie-jeebies, his clothes did. His classy ensemble consisted of a pair of grimy ripped jeans and a stained, slightly torn, used-to-be-white-long-long-ago wife-beater. Then there were the blaze orange suspenders holding the whole mess together.

Honestly, she’d seen beggars dressed better.

“My—my name is Hannah. What’s yours?”

“Scott. What happened? Did you do this to me? Is that why Mac and Jimmy brought you here?”

“Hardly.” Hannah swallowed the bile rising in the back of her throat. She couldn’t believe what she was about to say. “I’m Mac’s mate. See?” Hannah turned her head, showing him the vicious mating mark she had been given. “Besides, I’m only a quarter of your size. There’s no way I could have inflicted that much damage.”

Trying to sound like the voice of reason, Hannah decided that now was not the best time to mention that the second she got free, she was going to kick his ass up around his eyeballs, then lop off his balls for shits and giggles.

Scott eyed her warily. She could almost see the hamsters running on the wheel in his head as he tried to process what she’d told him. She imagined him playing a game of eenie-meenie-miney-mo in that enormous revolting head of his, trying to decide if she was telling the truth or not.

Hannah guessed that he would want to believe her, because if he didn’t, he’d have to hang his head in shame at being beaten by a woman who was a quarter of his size. That would be a hard pill for any man to swallow, and Hannah surmised it would be even harder for someone like Papa Redneck.

“Why would Mac restrain his mate with silver?”

“I was scared at first when he claimed me. Maybe he thought I was going to run? Either way, it’s all a huge misunderstanding.”

“How did he find you?”

“I stumbled upon this giant wolf in the woods. It looked like he was trying to attack everyone around him. I tried to run away from the fight, but Mac captured me.”

“Lies, lies, lies.”

“Would you hush? He doesn’t know what happened. He was out cold. Why not pretend to be innocent? Maybe we can use it to our advantage.”

“Let’s hope you’re right.”

Hannah’s wolf perked up as the howling started up again, this time closer to their location.

“He’s coming for us,”
her wolf warned.

“Who?”

“Tanner. And he’s bringing company.”

“You’re lying to me.” Scott struggled to stand once again, and this attempt proved to be successful. He pressed one hand against the wall for balance. Sneering in pain, he closed his eyes and forced his shift in order to heal his wounds.

Once Scott was in his wolf form, he crept deliberately towards Hannah. A snarl covered his hideous, mangled face and strings of saliva dripped from his misshapen mouth. She had no idea why the gashes on the side of his head hadn’t fully healed with his shift, but one thing was crystal clear—unless there was a divine intervention, Hannah would not survive. Tanner and whomever he had with him would not be in time to save her.

Saying a few dozen prayers, Hannah closed her eyes and prepared for the worst. The last thing she wanted to see was Scott’s snaggle-toothed face coming at her with the intent of ending her life.

Chapter Fourteen

T
ristian shifted back to human form so he could speak to Tanner. Yeah, it was a bitch, but there was no way around it: They couldn’t communicate via the standard pack link because they were from two very different packs. “The cabin should be just ahead. I still can’t pick up her scent. Can you?”

Tanner shook his head and whined. His nose worked strenuously trying to locate the sweet strawberry scent of his mate, but he found nothing, not even a tiny whiff of her deliciousness. Wherever she had been taken, her feet had never touched the ground. If they had, he would have picked up her scent in a heartbeat.

“If you had left me in charge, we would have already marked and claimed her. And we’d know exactly where the fuck she was.”
Tanner’s wolf was not a happy camper. He was seconds away from unleashing his berserker and killing anyone who got in the way of finding his mate, along with anyone who dared to look at him wrong.

A blood-curdling scream made Tanner’s fur stand on end.

Hannah’s in trouble.

Tanner’s heart stopped. Chills covered his body, head to toe. The cottage was still too far away. By the sound of the terror in Hannah’s scream, he’d never make it in time to save her.

Abruptly the world spun around him. Time seemed to stand still. Losing his footing, he stumbled about like a newborn deer.

Tanner blinked to clear his eyes as a strange glimmer passed over him. The forest around him flashed in and out of view. Maybe the blow to his head earlier had been harder than he’d thought. He looked down at his paws to see if he was imagining things. One second they were there; the next, they were gone.

One glance back to Tristian and Barbara, with their mouths agape and the look of pure astonishment on their faces told Tanner that something was very wrong. Whatever was happening was real and he was in deep shit.

“Tristian, what’s happening?” Barbara cried as she reached out to Tanner.

“I—I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Maybe if I shift back to human form, it will help.
Desperation seeped through his pores. Whatever the fuck was going on had to stop. He had to save his mate. That had to be his priority, above all else.

His ears started to buzz and he felt like he was being sucked into a vacuum. Freezing cold air suddenly filled his lungs, only to escape back into the air as a rolling fog. Thick, fluffy snowflakes landed on his muzzle and covered the changing landscape around him.

The scene was oddly familiar—it was one that appeared to him every night in his dreams. Tanner looked to the Heavens and, sure enough, he spotted two gray shadows circling high above.

Crows.

A booming voice filled his ears.

“Now is the time.”

“The time for what?” Tanner listened for a response, but none was forthcoming. The landscape before him shifted once again. In the blink of an eye the barren snow-covered land melted away, and he found himself standing in a tiny dilapidated shack. The sweet smell of fresh strawberries filled his nose.

“Hannah!”

“Tanner! Watch out!” Hannah screamed, but it was too late. The rogue wolf holding her captive had changed back to human form, attacking Tanner at first sight.

Tanner flew backwards into a wooden support post, knocking the air from his lungs. A blow that hard would have been enough to force any other wolf back to human form, but not Tanner. The cheap shot only fueled his fury. Jumping to his feet, he snarled at the man, causing him to retreat cautiously.

“If you come any closer, I’ll slice her fucking throat,” the man threatened, pulling a long silver dagger from his hip as he inched closer to Hannah.

One single, stupid threat was all it took for Tanner’s berserker to break through the thin veil that kept him contained. He surged forward, high into the air, latching on to the man’s arm and tearing the limb from his body in one swift motion.

Shrieks filled the cabin as the man tried to run, but he slipped in a puddle of his own blood. He fumbled around, attempting to scoop up the silver dagger with his remaining hand. Finding the handle, he lunged at Tanner, but stumbled again, losing his footing. Falling to his knees, he looked up to see Tanner directly above him.

Without hesitation, Tanner ripped the man’s head from his body and tossed it to the ground. The savage death should have been enough to appease the berserker, but it wasn’t. It didn’t matter that every inch of Tanner’s body was covered in blood. The berserker demanded more.

“Tanner, come back to me,” Hannah pleaded.

He wanted to respond, by Odin, he did, but the berserker wasn’t quite ready to let go. Once unleashed, the beast demanded to be fed. Death and destruction went hand-in-hand with his berserker rage.

The cabin door flew open, crashing against the wall. Tanner turned to the intruders, snarling a vicious warning.

Barbara and Tristian skidded to a halt. Eyeing the bloody scene, Barbara gasped, “Jesus Christ. What happened in here? Where’s Hannah? Is she okay?”

A deep rumble was the only response Tanner offered.

“It’s all right, Tanner. They won’t hurt us. I need your help.” Hannah strained to free herself from the silver, only to cry out as a fresh wave of pain swept over her. “Please, it burns.”

Barbara tried rushing to her niece’s side only to stop dead in her tracks when a growl rose up from Tanner’s throat, cautioning her away.

“Get it under control, boy. That’s my niece over there and she needs help.” Barbara’s voice was firm. One step at a time, she inched closer to Hannah. “I’m going to help her whether you like it or not.”

“Tanner, please!” Hannah cried again.

Hearing his mate in agony tore at his heart, and thankfully slowed the rage that burned through his veins. Struggling to gain control over the berserker, he sucked in a deep, controlled breath, filling his lungs with air. Closing his eyes, Tanner centered himself and his emotions, calling on the sacred majik he had been born with.

Agonizing pain exploded through his body as each bone made the slow transition from wolf to man. It was one of the worst and most painful ways to bring about a shift.

“That’s it, Tanner, come back to me.”

“Hannah.” Tanner stretched out a shaky hand in the direction of his mate before collapsing to the ground.

“Tanner!” Hannah screamed.