A Fang in the Sass: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Sassy Ever After Book 6) (4 page)

EIGHT

The drive south was longer than Trevan remembered. Though, it had been quite a while since he’d ventured anywhere close to home. The South clan was as close as they could get, seeing that part of their land was his rightful home.

He wondered if Alain and Roen were purposely not saying anything about going back, or if they didn’t think about it anymore. Fuck. He wished he could stop thinking about it. It’d been the only thing on his mind for over eighty years. The images from that day were burned into his brain.

That morning long ago had started off nicely. Alain, Roen, and he had spent the past several days camping and scouting the area. Even though they weren’t true enforcers, they trained and took on enforcer duties so they’d be prepared when they graduated high school next year.

This particular assignment was to learn and memorize every inch of the land, including what lay beyond the borders. This was the mountainous side of the Stone Mountain wolf pack. Not the Stone Mountain with the theme park and rock sculptures, but a more private group farther west. Rough terrain and forested hills dominated their northern landscape. The east side faced a large city that would one day spread far enough to encompass the territory.

The west side consisted of more vacant land settlers hadn’t claimed and probably wouldn’t for a while. He knew there was a vampire clan off to the west. How did he know? Because his brother, the alpha of the pack, had more than one run-in with vamps crossing their land to drag humans to their clan.

In the 1800s, roads were muddy paths that went from city to city. Humans hadn’t the mindset yet to travel the wilderness much. But each year, that became less true as the city grew and expanded its territory.

His brother talked a lot about assimilating into human society. He said if they blended in, they wouldn’t stick out. Sticking out gets your head chopped off. Trevan had no problem with that. He actually liked most humans he’d met. They weren’t his enemy like the vampire became.

Before the three boys reached the pack settlement coming back from camping, they knew something was wrong. The air was saturated with the stench of rotting meat. Only one thing could’ve made that big of smell: a massacre.

His first thought was the natives that lived in the area had attacked the pack. Wolves could take down humans easily. Humans were fragile with nothing protecting the covering that held their blood in. Wolves’ fur was thick enough to survive winters in the mountains.

When they reached the cluster of cabins, they stopped. He couldn’t breathe, his body and mind in shock. Corpses littered the ground: men, women, and children. This wasn’t a massacre; it was pure evil. Whoever did this had no respect for life.

Bodies lay haphazardly as if thrown to the ground, discarded like trash. Cabin doors hung open. Some had people blocking the entries, several with belongings strewed across the porches.

Dead wolves scattered into the mix. Very few things could kill a wolf at that time. Most looked like their necks had been snapped. That was impossible. Indians weren’t capable of the strength required.

Each boy went his own way to find his family. Trevan’s loved ones had the same fate as all else.

He couldn’t fathom what happened. It seemed as if the attackers killed everyone then left, walked away without taking anything. Why? What was the purpose? The boys huddled around a dead campfire in the center square. None spoke for a long time until Roen said, “Something is off. Why doesn’t this look like a killing field?”

“Because,” Alain started, “there is no blood anywhere: the ground, on clothes, on hands. Nothing.”

Trevan looked around again. Alain was right. It looked as if everyone was asleep on the ground. Just passed-out. A few people had the side of their neck ravaged. But the lack of heartbeats in their ears told the truth.

At that point, he knew the vampires to the west had done this. But why? They’d lived alongside each other peacefully for over a century. Well, peacefully except when caught in wolf territory. Even then, his brother just gave them a hard time to remember whose property they were on, then let them go.

The vamps wouldn’t have done this to take over the land, would they? No, that wasn’t a good enough reason to kill his family. Over fucking dirt? Just to be closer to the human population?

A hardness settled in Trevan’s heart. He would get revenge for the injustice done to those he loved. He would hunt down the vampire who led the attack, tie him up, and watch him bake in the sun. Then the rest of the clan would follow.

The boys gathered the bodies to the center then set the village on fire as they walked away, never to return or see their families again. They planned their own vengeance attack for a few days later after the creatures were forced to escape the sun.

As soon as light spilled over Stone Mountain, the three hiked the woods to where the vampires roosted. Trevan didn’t know what he expected to see when they arrived, but it wasn’t what lay before him now.

The patch of ground the killers called home was little more than several abandoned-looking one-room shacks with a structure resembling a cabin at the end of the dirt path. He didn’t understand why they hadn’t developed the area like his parents did the wolf settlement. And where did they hide from the sun?

They searched the shacks and stumbled across a trapdoor in the dirt. It opened to stairs leading into darkness. That was where they were. Fine by him. He set the stairs on fire and then the shack. The others met the same fate as the first.

When they approached the cabin at the end of the lane, a girl dressed in the fashion of the day stood out front. She couldn’t be a vampire because she was in the sun. So who was she? A terrifying thought crossed his mind—maybe this wasn’t the vampires’ hide out.

The boys stopped a few feet from the girl. She was around thirteen, he guessed. Definitely not a threat to them. A frown marred her face, but she had the most beautiful violet eyes he had ever seen. Actually, the
only
violet eyes he’d ever seen. Her dark curly hair draped over her shoulders.

She crossed her arms. “You better get out of here before my father gets upstairs. He’ll be mad at you for burning the houses.”

Trevan didn’t smell a lie from the human, but there was something different in her scent. He liked it. A lot. He shook his head to clear it from such stupid thoughts. He asked, “Is your father the one in charge?”

She raised her chin as if in defiance. “Yes, he is. The
only
leader.”

The girl was cute. He liked her spunk. “What’s his last name?”

“Valderi. Don’t forget it,” she yelled.

He never would.

The door to the cabin opened. A female voice said, “Darling, why are you yelling?”

She turned around. “Because these men set the houses on fire.”

They didn’t stick around to see what the mother said. The three were gone as fast as their wolves allowed. Luck was on their side when they were able to jump onto a new-fangled iron horse called a locomotive. They rode the lines to the East Coast.

From there he started his life’s new goal. Revenge.

NINE

They watched the door to the vampire guesthouse open. Roen elbowed Trevan, but he was already itching to go. He set them up downwind from the home, hoping he could catch her coming out on her own during the daylight hours. Bingo. Did he know her or what? A little twang pinched his heart. He brushed it aside to focus on his prey.

His mate stepped outside. His breath whooshed from his body. It’d been a couple months since he’d seen her last, and damn, she was beautiful. More so than when he last saw her. She crossed the porch, headed for the steps leading to the sidewalk. She stopped and took in a big breath, as if smelling something.

His finger refused to pull the trigger. He reminded himself why he was doing this and that it was only a tranquilizer, not a bullet. Not that a bullet would hurt her any more. In his periphery, he saw the other two eyeing him. He squeezed the trigger.

The dart hit exactly where he wanted, between her shoulder blades where it was harder to reach. She spun around and somehow found his eyes through the cluster of forest between them. His mate was not a happy camper. Her fingers plucked the shaft as her legs gave way, sending her to the grass. The men came from their hiding place and hurried to their victim.

Alain reached out for her first and Trevan about ripped his arm off. He couldn’t help his growl, and his eyes probably showed his animal. But dammit, no one would touch his mate except him. Maybe he should share that mate fact with the others. The other two probably suspected something, but mate would never cross their minds. Species didn’t mix, for the most part.

As he stood with his precious cargo, a curtain on the shadowed side of the house moved. Good. He told them he’d take care of her, and that was exactly what he planned to do. Part one of his strategy was completed. Now he needed to make up part two.

Alain brought the truck around and they quickly loaded, him in the back with his mate.

“Where am I going?”

“Siri, I need directions to Central Wolfe pack,” Roen said into his phone.

He groaned. A phone couldn’t give directions. “Take the next left to Interstate 20 West.” Well, fuck him.

They rode in silence while Siri guided them to their destination. He looked down at the beautiful face on his lap. He had every man’s dream: a gorgeous woman with her face between his legs. His cock stirred. Not yet, boy. She had to be conscious, at least.

His heart felt torn. His life’s mission rammed heads with his luscious mate. How did one change eighty years of hate into love? Ha, have Siri answer that! Damn phone. He sighed and stared out the window.

Alain glanced in the rearview mirror. “She’s your mate, isn’t she?”

He rubbed a hand over his face. “She is.”

“How can that be? You’re a wolf, she’s a vamp. That doesn’t happen, does it?” Alain asked.

“Apparently, it does.”

“What are you going to do? She’s the last Valderi, right?”

He nodded.

Roen lifted his head from his toy. “Wanna know what I think?”

He smirked. “Let me think about it.” Roen called him a shithead and threw a wrapper from their breakfast tacos at him. “Lay it on us, Roen.”

Roen sat straighter in his seat as if that would make him look smarter. For fuck’s sake, they’d been together for a century; he knew how the man thought.

“I think this was planned by the powers who be. Both of you are the last of a feud started too long ago. Not to mention the end of your family trees. I see this as the time to heal each other through combining your souls like mates are supposed to do.”

Well, butter his ass and call him a biscuit. He
thought
he knew how the man thought. He sure as hell wasn’t expecting something like that. Maybe the phone had taken control of his brain.

“Wow, Roe,” Trevan said, “never saw that coming from your mouth.”

“Yeah,” Alain grinned. “It almost sounded romantic and mushy.”

Roen grunted. “Whatever. Just don’t tell anyone I said it. I have a reputation to keep up.” The men laughed.

“What reputation would that be, Roen?” Alain asked. “The biggest schmuck on the planet?”

Roen flipped him off. “It’s nice to know you think so highly of me, my
friends
.”

“You know we’re just giving you shit because you’re the first one chicks flock to,” Alain admitted.

“That’s because I look mature and studly. The one in the backseat still looks like a kid compared to us,” Roen said.

Alain looked into the rearview mirror again. “Yeah, why is that, man? You still look under thirty. We’re mid-thirties.”

He yanked his collar forward and smirked. “I got good genes.”

“Fuck me,” Alain said. “Your jeans come from the boy’s section at Walmart.”

“Better than the old man’s department,” Trevan shot back.

Roen laughed. “It’s getting deep in here. Need my waders to get through all the shit being flung.”

Trevan threw the balled up taco wrapper at him with a smile. “Shut it. Go back to your damn phone. It was peaceful before you started yappin’.”

“Me?” Roen feigned surprise, slapping his hand on his chest. “I recall the other chump in the truck asking what you were going to do about the lady with her head in your lap.”

Trevan growled at Roen, his wolf just under skin.

Roen turned forward in his seat, hands up in surrender. “Don’t whine at me. I’m just sayin’.”

One thing was certain, even if he couldn’t have her, no one else would.
 

TEN

Aria dreamed Trevan was in her bed, pounding into her like there was no tomorrow. His cock was thick and fucking hard; it felt so good gliding up and down her inner walls.

She hadn’t had sex for a long time. She didn’t need it, but more importantly, no one ever appealed to her. She’d had an occasional tryst or two in her time on this earth. But either her companions sucked (actually, didn’t suck was more like it) or she was broken. The big O never even crept into the picture with them. For her, sex was a messy, I’d rather not, thing.

But dear Trevan was the exact opposite of her previous lovers. Fuck, she’d never get out of bed with him in it. She knew he’d be awesome under the sheets.

So while they’re going at it like rabbits in the dream, her bedroom door opens and in walks Emma Wolfe in a little black and white French maid’s costume. She has a duster in one hand, a glass of wine in the other, and her katana strapped to her back. Aria remembered whipping it through the air to un-attach Anton’s head from his body.

“Oh, don’t mind me,” Emma said. “I’m just waiting for your kids to pop out.”

Trevan was still pounding away, oblivious to Emma’s presence. Aria was about to tell Emma to leave when a furry, wagging-tail rear end backs from under the covers. Was that her child? A baby wolf? His little legs and tail were so cute. The pup pulled free of the covers and flipped around to see her.

Instead of adorable puppy eyes and lolling tongue, it had an angry vampire face scrunched in a hiss, fangs hanging low. It lunged for her eyes.

Aria sat bolt upright in a bed, breathing heavily. The dream faded quickly. Her name was called from a distance in the house she was in. She looked around the room. It was a pleasant guestroom with warm colors and very inviting. Simple and comfortable.

The door flew open and Emma stood on the other side, barely containing herself from running in. She had the happiest expression Aria had seen in a while. She had forgotten how nice it was to see shining faces. Since the battle at her nightclub, no one had done anything but frown.

“Emma?” she said as she threw off the covers to her fully-clothed body. “How the hell did I get here? Wait.” Her memory recalled something stinging her in the back, and Trevan’s eyes screaming anger at her. She hadn’t even done anything wrong yet. “How did I get here? Are we at your home?”

Her wolf friend bounced into the room and wrapped her arms around Aria. “It’s so awesome to see you again. I’ve missed you.”

“Great to see you, too. But I still don’t know how or really why I’m here.”

Emma pulled back. “Let’s start with we’re at my alpha home with the Central pack.”

Aria wasn’t expecting that, but fine. She’d roll with it.

“And to answer your other question, Trevan and his friends brought you here. And I don’t know why, so don’t ask.”

Okay, that was too confusing. “Why would they do—” Then it hit her. The object that tagged her back was a tranq dart. Anger erupted within her. “He tranquilized me. The bastard shot me with a fucking dart!” She stepped around Emma. “Where is he? I’m gonna rip his balls off and feed them to the pigs.”

Her friend lunged for her hand. “Aria, settle down. Trevan isn’t here. He and Mason left after dropping you off. And you can’t rip his balls off.“

She hated when someone told her she couldn’t do something. Even friends. “Why not?” She fisted her other hand.

Emma looked at her sadly. “We don’t have pigs.” After a heartbeat, Aria busted out in laughter. It felt so good to release the tension and anxiety she’d kept bottled for so long now. If anyone could make her laugh, it was Emma.

Still holding her hand, Emma dragged her forward. “Let’s go to the kitchen. I’m hungry.” Aria took a deep breath through her nose.

“Oh my god. You’re pregnant.”

Emma whipped around. “You can smell I’m different?”

“Yes. And for women, that usually means their having a baby.” She wrapped her arms around her friend and gave her tight squeeze. “You don’t even show.”

Emma rolled her eyes. “Well, I do have a lot here to begin with, and it’s only the size of a grape, the doctor said.”

“Yeah, but still,” Aria said. “You guys must be thrilled.”

Emma grabbed her hand again and pulled her through the door. “That’s an understatement. Mason is already having morning sickness.”

Aria spit out a laugh. “Oh my god. I can so see that, too.”

When reaching the kitchen, Aria sat at the table while Emma pulled out a box of Oreos and tub of ice cream from the freezer. “I’d offer you something to drink, but I know we don’t have your preference.”

Aria lifted a brow at the contents Emma set on the table. “That’s your new diet?”

Emma grinned. “Isn’t it great. I’d stay pregnant forever if I could eat this all the time.” She quickly added, “Don’t tell Mason that. He’d take me up on it.” They giggled.

Emma scooped out a bite of ice cream with a cookie. “So, I’m guessing you and Trevan haven’t mated yet.”

She about fell out of her chair. “Emma? Are you serious? Why would you say that?”

Her friend pointed a half-eaten cookie at her. “Because, woman, everyone but you and him see you are natural mates. You both need to shut up, accept it, mate, and move on.”

She snorted. “Look who’s talking. How long did it take you and Mason to finally mate?”

“No, that doesn’t count.” Emma waved a new cookie in the air. “He’s a mutt. That excuses all the dumb stuff he does.”

“Trevan is a mutt, too.”

Emma bit into a cookie topped with ice cream. “Oh, yeah. Forgot he was a wolf. He feels vampish to me.”

“Vampish?”

“Yeah, you know,” she shrugged, “like a vampire but not.”

“Emma,” she said, “either you’re a vamp or you’re not. There isn’t much leeway there.”

Her friend raised a shoulder then dropped it. “Eh, maybe yes, maybe no.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means, dear vamp,” Emma started, “I don’t care if you’re different species, you’re still mates and you need to get it on and start a family. How much longer can you have kids? I remember you mentioning your fortieth birthday once.”

“That was the simple answer for you at the time. It’s sort of complicated.”

“Complicated how?”

“It’s not my fortieth birthday, per se. It’s more like when my body reaches the equivalent of a forty-year old.”

“Oh, when’s that?” Emma asked.

“It’s not an exact science for the blood borne, but I’m thinking a few hundred years.”

Emma jerked forward, slapping her chest, coughing. Aria jumped from her chair and patted her back. “You all right? I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Through hacks, Emma managed, “No, no. I’m okay. I just wasn’t expecting that…that amount of time. How old are you? If you don’t mind me asking.”

She made her way back to the chair. “You know I’m not vain like that. I’m around a hundred.”

“Holy cow, Aria. You look twenty-five. Is that normal to age so slowly?”

“Yeah, comes with the territory. You wolves age slower, too, right?”

“Mason said something about it once when I asked him how old his parents were. I forgot what the ratio to human years is. Need to ask again.”

The sound of the front door opening took their attention. Emma called out, “We’re in the kitchen, darling mutt.”

A deep, playful voice replied, “Perfect, brat. Are you shoeless?”

Emma looked at Aria with a questioning look. “No shoes on. Why?”

“Because,” an incredibly gorgeous man said from the kitchen entry, “you’re right where I want you. Barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.”

“Mason Wolfe!” She threw a cookie at him, hitting him in the chest and it crumbled to the floor. Both his hands held a clear plastic pitcher filled with red liquid. Trevan walked in behind him.

Aria sprang from her chair, forgotten anger flaring at the sight of his hot body. In a flash, she had Trevan by the throat, pinned to the ground. She should kill him now.