Sassy Ever After: Sassy and a little Bad-Assy (Kindle Worlds Novella) (3 page)

“Understood, Morales. Now that we have that out of the way, are you ready for me to show you around?”

Giving him a nod, Cruz stepped to the side and waited for Nathan to lead the way.

As his boss showed him every nook and cranny of The Thirsty Wolfe, pointing out the need-to-know things, such as where the bathroom was, Cruz’s wolf was pushing through, totally unsettled. Was it because they were in an unfamiliar place with a bunch of people around them?

When he questioned the animal inside of him, his wolf gave him the impression that it wasn’t the problem. His beast was anxious. Something was coming. But what?

What in the world would have his wolf on edge like this?

He couldn’t figure it out, but as he took up his spot on a stool near the front door with a view of the entire bar before him, he told himself that, whatever was coming, he was ready.

At least, he thought he was.

Chapter Three

“Well, young lady, it looks like you have a Jones fracture of the fifth metatarsal.”

Nikki stared at the x-ray of her foot hanging on the light board on the wall and silently cursed Thor, his stupid hammer, and her brother for knocking it onto her foot. Now the bone on the outside of her left foot was broken, and the entire thing looked like a swollen, blueish-purple mess.

“What now, doctor?” she sighed wearily.

“That sort of fracture will require a fiberglass cast, so hang tight, and I’ll have our specialist in here shortly to get you taken care of. I’ll come back and check on you before you’re released.”

She watched as the doctor left. Then she closed her eyes to shut out the bright hospital lights.

“You can’t ignore me forever, you know.”

The lights weren’t the only thing she was trying to shut out. To her dismay, the reason she was in the emergency room right now was also here with her.

“I said I was sorry, Nikki!”

With the way her foot was throbbing, she didn’t give a rat’s ass if Harald was sorry. He wasn’t the one sitting in the hospital bed, waiting to get a freakin’ cast. As far as Nikki was concerned, she would lie here in this godawful uncomfortable bed and ignore Harald until she absolutely had to talk to him, which was when they would be leaving.

After all, there was nothing like torturing an eighteen-year-old man-child with a woman’s best weapon: the silent treatment.

Nikki lay there for over an hour, studiously ignoring Harald as the specialist came in, explained the procedure, and then gave her the option of either a neon orange or neon green cast. Apparently, they were completely out of every other color, including basic white. No matter what color Nikki chose, she was practically going to glow in the dark.

After she chose the green, not wanting to look like she was walking around with a street cone on her leg, Nikki patiently waited as the nurse and specialist wrapped her foot and lower leg up in what seemed like four million layers. Once they were finally done, the doctor popped in for two minutes, checked the cast, gave her a prescription for pain meds, and discharged her with specific instructions to take it easy and rest.

The poor man had looked confused as hell when Nikki had laughed in his face over his instructions. Then she had hobbled away on her crutches with Harald trailing sulkily behind her.

All the way to the car, she fumed. Rest? Yeah, right! Who in the world could rest when they lived in an insane household? If Ivar wasn’t asking her to cook, then she was having to tell Papa Ái that they were not going to be pillaging any villages that day. You know, because that was stealing, which was illegal, and she didn’t really look good in orange; hence, the green cast she was wearing now.

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?”