Sassy Ever After: Magical Sass for Three (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Vella Cove Shifters Book 1) Read online

  She squeezed her thighs together. Now was not the time to get in horny witch mode. Not now. There was work to do, and it required her to focus.

  A breeze picked up and floated over her skin and made the fire dance. Derek and Kyro glanced around as if searching for something before they looked up in her direction.

  Damn, Hanna muttered under her breath. She crouched back down. There was no way they saw her. She’d been careful.

  The opening to her cave was only a few feet away. She wasn’t taking any chances, so she got down on the ground and crawled toward the entrance.

  A quick in and out. That’s how long it would take for her to do the spell. Since she had a better layout of the place, she didn’t have to walk back out and risk being seen. A transportation spell would do the trick this time. Then no one would have to know she was there.

  It was as she remembered it, dark and ominous at first due to the firelight from outside, but then her favorite part of the cavern lit it up. Neon blue reflected from the water in the center from the sea life’s bioluminescence below. It bounced off the ceiling and walls to give a blue shimmer to guide her path.

  She found her old nook in the middle of the cave, where a small crack in it opened up to the sky. Stars twinkled down to her, making it feel like a perfect night for magic.

  She could do this. One spell and she could go back to helping her sister without having to look over her shoulder. The shifters may sense it nearby, but she’d be gone right after it was completed.

  A growl made Hanna go still.

  Shit in pointy witch shoes, and she’d gone and stepped right into them.

  She was in trouble. Okay, make that extra trouble on top of the mess she already had to deal with. She tried to not make any sudden movements, but she had to see what was in the cave with her. More like who.

  Hanna slowly turned to see a large white wolf with peppered gray spots scattered in its coat. She knew that coat like the taste of her own magic.

  “Kyro?” she asked. If she remembered correctly, wolves could understand people talk even in their animal form. She didn’t mistake the intelligence in those eyes that stared back at her with an ethereal glimmer. Why was he moving closer to her?

  She stood up carefully.

  “It’s me,” she said, hoping he’d remember. “Hanna.” He looked at her as if analyzing her for the first time. “You sniffed my bags on the beach. Remember?”

  Okay, why would he remember that? She wanted to smack herself. That was reaching a bit. She wasn’t anyone special. Why would Kyro or Derek remember one random girl they met one morning years ago?

  That made her wonder. The Keller Duo went everywhere together, so where was Derek?

  Another growl echoed behind her. She immediately remembered that the cave had another entrance, one that was smaller than the side open to the ocean but still accessible. Why did she have to go and think of that important fact now when she was surrounded by wolves, two big wolves that could end her with one swipe of a paw?

  She backed up to the cave’s wall, so she could have both wolves in sight. “Derek. Forgot you two still came in pairs. I’m harmless. I promise.”

  Derek was also a white wolf, but his fur was sprinkled with reddish-brown spots. The two complimented each other well, even as wolves. When they weren’t cornering her in a dark cavern.

  Both of them had each exit covered.

  “Is this about me seeing your secret ceremony?” she asked. “If so, I promise I didn’t see anything I’d tell someone about.”

  Kyro’s wolf was the closest, and he stopped inches away from her. She’d forgotten how big they were up close, more like the size of small horses than regular wolves.

  “I’m just here to do one thing and then I’m gone. No one in your pack has to know I was even here.”

  Then Kyro threw her off guard by sticking his nose in her crotch.

  “What the hell?” She kept still, happy his wolf wasn’t going all crazy and bitey. It was awkward but interesting.

  Oh, no. She was so not getting aroused by this. There had to some moral lines crossed with what he was doing to her.

  When he pushed further between her legs and growled, she jumped out of his way. “Hey, Fluffy Boy. That’s a little too much investigation down there.” She had no idea where the Fluffy Boy name came from, but it was all she could think of at the moment.

  Another nose pressed between her legs from behind and sent her jerking sideways.

  “Whoa! Hey!” she said. “Down boys. Bad Wolfies. Very bad.”

  This was insane. She had things to do, and these two were just aggravating her to hell with the crotch probing. Nope. No arousal whatsoever.

  The air around them seemed to shift, and she watched as bones changed and fur receded before her eyes.

  Kyro and Derek stood before her. Naked. Not this again. How did they get sexier naked over time?

  Kyro grinned with that dimpled smile that hadn’t changed since she first saw him, no matter how much more all-male he was.

  “If it’s bad you want, we’d be happy to show you true wickedness,” Kyro said. “Guarantee there’s nothing fluffy about it.”

  Hanna didn’t remember him having a voice that made her want to rip her panties off and say, “Yes, please.” She was pretty sure said panties were soaked by watching the two of them transform into a whole new level of male nakedness before her eyes.

  Lines of muscle filled both of them out. Both had tattoos that covered their chests and arms. With the bioluminescence, the markings and tribal symbols seemed to be alive with movement and flickers that bounced around the cave.

  She certainly didn’t remember tattoos on them last time, especially the paw prints on their chests that had claws extended.

  Hanna had a brief moment of wondering what it would be like to trace her tongue over each marking on them. Her eyes roamed over each of them, not sure where to land. They kept moving down until she saw evidence that they had other hard parts to match.

  “Uh...I...” Words. What the fuck were words, and why couldn’t she think of any? Her brain couldn’t function properly.

  “We remember your scent, Hanna,” Derek said.

  “You do?” she asked. Great. She went from nothing to two words. She didn’t act this way with other men. Why did the Keller Brothers make her feel like a deer caught in headlights? She doubted the deer wanted to run straight into the blinding lights.

  “It’s one we’ll never forget, and from the smell of you, it seems we don’t have to work hard to bring out bad thoughts.” Derek’s voice sounded growly as he moved closer to her.

  “We knew we’d find you again,” Kyro said, near her ear. “It was only a matter of time.”

  How’d they get so close to her? She was trapped in between them, and she couldn’t think with them against her. Hands roamed over her arms and reached around her waist. Even through her clothes, she could feel the heat from them and the hardness of them pressing into her.

  Her jacket slid off her shoulders, and Derek’s hands slid up her arms, while Kyro’s hands roamed under her shirt.

  “Oh, Goddess,” she sighed, closing her eyes.

  “We want you calling out more names than that,” Kyro said.

  “I think it’s time,” Derek said.

  “Time for what?” she asked, opening her eyes.

  “To show you who you belong to, beautiful.” Derek didn’t waste any time pressing his lips onto hers. His kiss wasn’t gentle, but it was all-consuming in the way he took her.

  That need she experienced all those years ago had nothing on the ache that coursed through her veins now. This was raw longing laced with lust. Her body vibrated with things she’d never felt before.

  Derek’s kiss deepened as his tongue penetrated her mouth and explored her. He tasted like the sea mingled with raw masculinity. It intoxicated her as if she were drunk. She swayed, but they both held her up.

  Kyro’s mouth found the sensitive part of her neck and suc
ked there. His canines grazed her skin and made goose bumps rise to the surface.

  She wanted so much and having them biting her seemed like completeness. Where did that thought come from?

  Kyro cupped her breast and pinched her nipple over her bra.

  She gasped into Derek’s mouth. Fingers undid her pants and found her wetness, and she lost all concentration on whose hands belonged to Derek and to Kyro. They were two bundles of hotness that came together.

  Those probing fingers found her clit and traced glorious circles around it. A moan escaped her lips, but Derek swallowed it down.

  Her orgasm was close to the surface, and she held onto the arms that engulfed her and kept her snug between them.

  When Derek finally released her lips, she cried out her release, hearing her voice echo around her. As she felt two sets of teeth sink into her, piercing the flesh and both sides of her neck, the pain laced with pleasure took her orgasm to another level, and she flew higher than any magic had ever taken her before.

  Chapter 2

  Kyro couldn’t think straight. Not with his mate in between him and Derek. Theirs. Hanna was back and she was all theirs. He’d caught her scent at the bonfire as it traveled in the breeze, and he remembered it as if it were imprinted on his soul. His wolf was restless and begged to get out and chase her.

  He’d seen Derek’s reaction and knew he sensed her, too. Six damn years he’d waited for her to come back. It wasn’t lost on him that she was back during the Scenting Ceremony. There was no one there they wanted. No one came close to the girl they’d stumbled across on the beach.

  He’d been ready to claim her then, despite the warning from his brother that she wasn’t ready. Kyro had to push everything he had within him back in order to let her go. It was one of the hardest things he ever had to do in his life, but now she was back with them.

  His wolf crawled under his skin, wanting to get as close to her as he was. Her sounds of pleasure only made him harder, and he knew with everything inside of him that he needed to get a taste of her.

  There was no plan to bite her, but his wolf needed to mark her, if only a little to prove that she belonged to them and no one else. When she screamed out her release, his wolf chose that moment to strike.

  Even her blood tasted sweet on his tongue, and he knew then that his brother had done the same thing to keep her close to them this time.

  Hanna’s pleasure seemed to only increase with their bite. She shivered between them. So responsive. So sweet.

  Kyro had the deepest urge to discover all the ways they could get her to respond to their attentions on her body. Her curves filled his hands and made his wolf proud.

  He lapped at his bite on her neck, helping to soothe the sting of it. That’s when she tensed up between them.

  “What just happened?” she asked.

  “We had a little taste of you,” Kyro said, “and now we want the whole meal.”

  “Mate,” Derek whispered against her ear. “You’re our mate, and we’re never letting you go again.”

  “Mate?” She pushed away from them until they were no longer touching her. “What do you mean mate?”

  His body felt her absence and needed her back in his arms, but he could see they had startled her. The bites hadn’t freaked her out, but the word mate had?

  They were going to have to take their time getting to know Hanna and all the woman that she was, and he planned on taking his time doing that if she’d let them.

  “You can feel it, can’t you, Hanna?” Kyro asked. “The pull between us. It’s because you’re ours as much as we’re yours.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” Hanna said. “I’m a witch, not a shifter.”

  “Finding a mate doesn’t always mean they’re one of us,” Derek said. “Let us explain.”

  “No!” She held her hands up. “I need to get out of here.” She muttered something under her breath and vanished before their eyes.

  “Where did she go?” Kyro asked.

  “She’s a witch, so I’m guessing she used magic to transport somewhere,” Derek said.

  “We have to find her.” Kyro didn’t waste any more time to shift back to his wolf.

  “Kyro!” Derek called after him, his wolf falling in pace with him. “Don’t you think we need to think about what we’re going to say to her first?”

  “We can figure that out after we find her,” Kyro said, catching her scent outside the cave. “I’m not letting her leave town again.”

  Six years ago, he had listened to his brother when he first came across Hanna. Even then, he felt a primal attraction to her he never had for any other woman. He was confused when his brother said he thought she was their mate.

  They were young and didn’t know any better. If they had, they never would have left her alone on that beach and given her the chance to leave town. Maybe things could have worked out differently, but their past with Hanna didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she was back, and Kyro wasn’t about to make the same mistake twice.

  Her scent ended in the parking lot, but there was something deeper that pulled him along. They bit her. It wasn’t a completed mating mark, but it was something.

  “Do you feel that?” Derek asked. “It’s like we’re still connected to her.”

  “I feel it,” Kyro said. “Should we still be able to sense her like this?”

  They didn’t have to ask each other if they should follow it. Instinct pushed them forward, and Kyro felt that with each step they got closer to her.

  It was an odd pull that didn’t feel like it was just their bite that linked them to her. Kyro could still feel part of Hanna’s magic on him. His wolf had tasted her power, intoxicating and addictive just like her.

  Hanna was strong. Not just as a witch. She had a hidden strength in her that their wolves appreciated and respected. Kyro wasn’t even sure if Hanna knew just how strong she really was. It was one of the many things they’d sensed about her.

  Their wolves brought them to a stop in front of Vella Cove Hospital.

  A sense of dread built up inside Kyro. “Why would she come here?”

  Derek’s tone stayed calm. “Don’t think the worse. We just saw her. She may be just visiting someone inside.”

  “We should go inside in case she needs us.”

  “Do you hear yourself? Acting irrationally will only freak her out. As much as we hate it, we need to wait.”

  Sometimes Kyro wondered how Derek had the patience of a saint when he had none at all. They’d always been different in that way, a year apart but polar opposites. Yet, they depended on each other.

  Their father even groomed them to take over his place as Alpha together. As the oldest, Derek had the right to claim it for himself, but he couldn’t see ruling as the Alpha without Kyro and vice versa.

  Over the years, they shared everything, including their women. It seemed only right that one woman would be a mate for both of them. Hanna overshadowed all the other women they ever encountered. There was no one but her.

  Kyro and his wolf had waited for her for years. Derek felt the same way. He could sense it, even though his brother tried to remain the epitome of calm.

  “Fine,” Kyro said. “Tomorrow and not a day longer. She’s our mate. We have to get her to understand that.”

  “She’s not a shifter. She may not understand what this all means.”

  “Then we’ll just have to work hard to convince her.” Kyro didn’t care what it took. Hanna McCoy was their mate, and he was going to do everything in his power to convince her.

  Chapter 3

  Hanna was an awful person. She concluded that much. Who would have a near all-out sex session when she had to get back to the one person she cared about in that damn town?

  Yep. She had problems.

  Hanna didn’t waste any time on her way to Vella Cove Hospital.

  At least she was able to spell herself back to her Jeep. Thank the Goddess she had a change of clothes there since her bags
were still in her back seat. She was too much of a hot mess to wear what she had on.

  She’d been gone long enough and knew her sister probably thought the worst.

  Bad blood. That’s what Riana called her illness. Hanna hated that term, because there wasn’t a bad bone in her sister’s body. It was simply that her red blood cells weren’t functioning properly and making her severely anemic and weak. The strange part was that she wasn’t reacting to any of the treatments.

  Healing others wasn’t something Hanna did with her magic, but she’d seen enough witches in the Miami Coven do it to know how it worked. No one they healed was worth the effort, in her opinion. Healing gangsters and thieves just because they paid well left a bad taste in her mouth, but she stayed due to her obligation. That was the only thing that kept her down in South Florida for so long.

  Riana, on the other hand, deserved everything Hanna could do to help her. She just hoped she didn’t let her sister down in the process.

  Riana’s room was at the end of the hall, and since it was evening, the hospital was quiet. Visiting hours would be ending soon, so Hanna needed to hurry.

  “There you are,” Riana said, propped up in her bed. “I was starting to get worried.”

  Hanna couldn’t help but smile when she saw her baby sister. Usually, Riana was the only one who could get Hanna to smile or laugh on the rare occasions she did.

  Even though Riana was sitting in the hospital bed and looked exhausted, the girl still had a cheerful demeanor like she was the origin of sunshine and happiness, as if nothing bothered her. Her curly hair framed her face in a halo of goodness. They’d both been told growing up that they could be twins, even with their four year age difference, but Hanna never saw it. Riana always wore a cheerful expression on her face, while Hanna scowled most of the time. It was a look a guy or two had said made Hanna unattractive. Whatever. Most of them were jerks, to begin with.

  Although their mother kicked Hanna out of the house, she always stayed in touch with Riana. She had no choice after her sister threatened to hunt her down herself unless Hanna called her every day to check in. She was grateful Riana was the one bright thing in her life, which was why she came back home. No sister of hers was staying in a hospital. Not when she could finally use her powers for something good.