Sassy Ever After: Wise Sass Mates (Kindle Worlds Novella) (7 page)

B
ianca stood
in Ian’s living room, taking in the space as she hadn’t been able to do last night.

He’d run out a few minutes ago to meet with a parent from school. She had promised to stay put and wait for him.

The whole house smelled like a mesquite fire - he must use the wood stove often.

She studied the books in the built-ins. He had so much English lit, from Chaucer to Beckett and everything in between.

She had just slid an antique looking copy of
Sense and Sensibility
off the shelf when her cell phone buzzed.

M
ei
Cohen

Going 2 look for that journal 2night. U staying in with ur bf?

B
ianca wondered briefly
how they were planning to check it out when the homeowners were away.

She scowled, feeling irritated, but unable to figure out why.

The phone buzzed again.

M
ei
Cohen

That’s what I thought. C U tomorrow if he lets U out of bed LOL

D
amn
. That was the problem. She’d barely been with Ian for forty-eight hours and already her friends thought she was under lock and key.

Screw that noise.

B
ianca Silver

I’ll be there in ten min.

T
he phone went
crazy and she decided to ignore it. She hopped in her car and headed over to the former League of Women Voters building.

The sun was going down and she shivered a bit, wishing she’d thought to throw on a sweater.

Oh well, she wouldn’t be gone long. Just long enough to accompany her friends inside, pry open a stair tread and leave again, undoubtedly empty-handed.

She pulled up under the shade of the sycamore that marked the front lawn of the house on Hinkson. It was a massive stone colonial. An expansive front lawn with a circular drive now stood where the parking lot used to be.

Addison’s VW pulled up a moment later.

“In a hurry, much?” Addison asked.

“Mei texted me, I didn’t want to miss out,” Bianca replied, thinking to herself that she also wanted to be back before Ian got home. He wasn’t the boss of her, but there was no reason to upset him.

“How did you get away from Ian?” Addison asked. “I thought he was going to shadow you everywhere, you know, protect you?”

“How did you get us in?” Bianca asked instead of answering.

“I didn’t,” Addison admitted. “I thought we’d knock and see if anyone was here. Just in case.”

Bianca nodded, disappointed. It was pretty clear no one was home. This was a bust.

Mei joined them and they all climbed the stone steps to knock on the door.

They knocked. They rang the bell.

Nothing happened.

Then Mei bent to lift the mat in front of the door.

“What are you doing?” Addison asked worriedly.

“Just checking something,” Mei said.

Addison gave Bianca a worried look.

“Got it,” Mei said triumphantly, straightening up with a key in her hand.

“We can’t just go in,” Addison said.

Mei was already slipping the key into the lock.

Bianca stepped in front of her quickly, effectively blocking the view from the street.

“We’re in,” Mei whispered. “Where are the back stairs?”

“I’ll go,” Bianca whispered back, pushing her way past the other two.

“Are you serious?” Mei asked, looking impressed.

Bianca was already through the doorway.

“Someone’s feeling brave today,” Mei said to Addison.

“Just be my lookouts,” Bianca whispered behind her.

The door closed behind her with a click, and she was alone in the house.

Maybe she was being crazy, but somehow she
did
feel brave today. It was likely the wolf blood now running in her veins, making her feel a little quicker, a little smarter…

Light filtered through the stained glass windows and into the massive parlor. This must have once been a meeting room. The current owners seemed to be art collectors - maybe that’s why they had left such a large parlor instead of breaking up the space into separate rooms.

She was just glad they didn’t have a security system.

Bianca knew the back stair would be through the kitchen, so she crept down the darkened center hall, past a series of family photos, and into the kitchen.

The room was a mix of old and new - soapstone counters and a stove that looked like it was from the 1920s. The bell system was still on the wall in the servants’ room off the kitchen, with lights corresponding to each room of the house. Neat.

She continued into the rear corner of the room where the backstairs twisted around.

Someone must have gotten a bonus in the seventies. The whole stairwell was covered in cheap paneling and the stairs themselves were covered with matted shag carpet. Bianca doubted the current owners used these stairs often, they were too steep and curvy for the elderly couple.

She knelt at the thirteenth step, slipped her keys out of her pocket, and mentally thanked her grandfather for about the millionth time for giving her a Swiss Army knife on her tenth birthday. Her parents had flipped out, but she always kept it with her, and it had helped her in countless situations.

Though she wasn’t convinced her grandpa would be especially pleased with her today.

Bianca wasn’t sure what had gotten into her. Maybe it was that her friends thought she was tied to Ian’s apron strings.

Or maybe it was just the mystery - the fact that a puzzle like this one might be solved, unlike the mystery of the man who was chasing her.

At any rate, she was feeling fearless.

Besides, she could totally leave an anonymous envelope of cash here later to make it up to the Peterson’s for their stair runner.

She opened her knife and slid it under the first section of carpet.

T
he brown wolf loped along
, hanging close to the rear boundaries of the backyards lining Hinkson Avenue.

He was shadowing the silver car that contained the woman he loved and hated. Eventually she would lead him to the thing his human wanted.

At last the silver car pulled over, so the brown wolf hid in the rhododendron forest behind the house.

He heard her talk with her friends, then enter the house alone.

The brown wolf darted up onto the back porch, sailing over the stairs two at a time.

He sniffed around. At last he found what he sought.

He stood up into his human form.

Then he lifted the pot of scarlet geraniums, to reveal the key underneath.

This fucking town.

Why did anyone bother to lock anything if they were just going to hide a key right next to the door?

Not that it did him any good without knowing where he was supposed to look.

The librarian, Angus Wolfe, had been drunk at the Seven Veils two months ago when he bragged that he’d found treasure in the Historical Files room at the library.

“It’s
stupendous
,” he’d said, lisping comically after too many celebratory drinks. “It will change everything!”

It was a shame he hadn’t been more forthright when questioned under duress.

The “accident” had him out of commission, at least temporarily. Which meant the treasure needed to be located as quickly as possible - a task that was turning out to be rather difficult without access to the files room.

He’d tried everything to get in there.

But when he saw that fat bitch was back in town he figured he’d had it made.

Too bad she was so snotty.

And so goddamned alluring, in spite of her asinine behavior.

His wolf slavered and moaned at the idea of mating with her.

She was chubby and crude, and yet somehow he wanted her like no woman he’d ever encountered.

He thought of that old teacher and wanted to vomit thinking about the man’s scent on Bianca Silver.

No matter.

He was going to take what she had led him to, and then he was going to make her see the light. He’d have Anderson’s scent off her in no time and mark her himself, permanently.

She’d find it hard to give him any lip when she was his mate. And it would serve her right to be in his thrall after she’d shown him such disrespect.

Zach Greenfield slipped the key into the lock on the back door and quietly turned the handle.

B
ianca had finally worked
the carpet off the step.

The thirteenth tread was indeed a tiny trap door.

Though the shag carpet had given her hope that perhaps the journal wasn’t missing after all, she’d been sad to see an actual hinge at the back of the step when she removed it. Sure it would make it easier to open now, but it meant that the journal had probably been found in the seventies when the new runner was installed.

She tried lifting it, but it was stuck. She had just begun to pry her knife under the tread when she sensed someone on the back porch.

Fighting panic, she tried to use her newfound senses.

Her ears told her only that someone was there.

Her nose told her that the scent was… familiar.

Maybe it was Mei or Addison, just covering their bases, or trying to help her since it was taking so long.

Bianca hurried in her work.

The knife slipped, and she cut her thumb. A tiny bead of blood welled up on her skin.

She sucked it off, and tried again.

The tread lifted with a pop just as the back door opened and someone entered the kitchen.

Torn between running and trying to grab the journal, her brave side took the reins for the second time that night, and she lifted the tread.

It squealed in protest.

She thrust her hand into the dark space, trying not to think about the dust and spiders that were surely lurking there.

She felt the leathery shape and grabbed it as footsteps headed her way.

This wasn’t Mei or Addison.

The scent was masculine.

“Bianca,” a deep voice said.

Oh, god.

Zach.

She dashed up the back stairs, hoping she could make it to the main staircase before he got to her. Thank god these old houses always had plenty of ways in and out.

She heard him behind her, running up the back stairs, only a few feet away.

Suddenly there was a crash and a stream of terrible curse words.

The step. She’d left it open and he must have stepped into it and fallen.

There was silence for a moment.

She remembered herself and kept moving, finally reaching the second floor hallway.

A roar sounded behind her, and claws skittered across the pine floor of the hall.

No
.

She knew she didn’t have time to turn and look, but she did anyway.

As if in slow motion, the brown wolf glared at her with yellow eyes as is gathered itself and leapt at her.

Bianca screamed as she flew through the air. She landed at the edge of the main stairway and teetered for a moment.

For one glorious instant she thought she had regained her footing.

Then she felt her ankle give out.

Bianca fell onto her back and slid down the stairs until she landed in a crumpled pile in the center hall, the journal slipping from her grasp at some point along the way down.

She stayed conscious long enough to see the front door open, upside down.

“Bianca?” Mei asked.

A furry streak flew down the steps and attacked.

The last thing Bianca saw as the darkness blurred the edges of her vision was the brown wolf tackling her friend.

I
an had just arrived
home and was headed up the steps when a screech of tires on his quiet street roused him from his dreamy plans for the evening with Bianca.

He turned to see a yellow VW pull up and Bianca’s friend Addison leap out. The tall African-American girl looked terrified.

“Ian,” she cried, her voice hoarse.

Bianca.

“What happened?” he asked.

“Please, you have to come with me, now,” she said.

“I can’t leave Bianca,” he said. Though as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he knew to his bones that she wasn’t here.

She had left him a third time.

And now there was danger, real danger.

Without another word he ran to the car with Addison.

“We went to find the journal, it was stupid and I’m so sorry. She went in, and he must have been there already. We heard a scream. Mei went in and when I heard the growling, I ran…” Addison began to sob.

“Don’t talk, just drive,” Ian said, fighting the urge to shift and run to protect his mate. He needed to know what was going on first, or he could be putting her in more danger.

They pulled up outside the house. It was almost full dark now.

There were no lights on inside.

Addison jumped out of the car without cutting the engine and dashed up the stairs and in the front door.

Ian cursed her foolishness even as he applauded her nerve. Bianca had good friends, loyal friends. Even if the three of them were beyond careless, it was good to know they really cared about her.

Inside Addison knelt on the rug next to their other friend, Mei.

Mei was sitting up, but seemed to be dazed.

“He jumped on me, and I hit my head on the way down. I don’t remember anything,” she said.

Bianca wasn’t with her.

He searched the first floor, inhaling deeply. She wasn’t there.

He dropped into his wolf, jeans and t-shirt shredding in the transformation, and landed with a click on his front paws.

He lowered his snout to the floor. He recognized the scent at once - the same one from Bianca’s invitation.

Zachary Greenfield
.

The silver wolf howled with fury, and ran out the back door, following the soft scent of his mate, and the stink of his enemy.