Free Sassy Ever After: Wise Sass Mates (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Tasha Black

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.

Chapter 16
    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.

Chapter 17
    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