Sassy Ever After: A Hot Piece Of Sass (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Melanie James

she was happy to find our pack. I asked her why she’d come, but she only held her finger to her mouth, as if it were a secret. The image of a small cabin in the woods was revealed to me, and somehow I knew that was where she could be found. Then I woke up. That was it.”
    “And her dream checks out,” Rafe added. “I went looking for a cabin in the area Mom described. It’s there and someone is definitely living in it. I didn’t approach it, out of caution. The way Mom described the stories, I guessed the old woman didn’t get this far without being very secretive. I didn’t want to be the one to expose her.”
    “That’s right, son. Neither do I. So Tanner, you can understand my shock when you asked about finding a volva, out of the blue. Is it a coincidence? No. Now tell me more about why you want to find one.”
    “Dagrun. That name. It’s the same name as the old woman in my dream. All my life I’ve had the exact same dream over and over. In my dream, I’m an ancient Viking warrior. I know that Dagrun is a volva, but until now I never knew what it meant. I only know that, in the dream, she became a teacher of some kind to me and sent me on a journey to ‘find death and be reborn.’ Most of the dream seems to be about the end of the journey. I’m caught up in a blizzard, a complete white-out. Suddenly the wind stops, the air clears, and two crows are flying in circles above me. I know I’ve found Odin—or maybe he’s found me.  I never see him, just a shadow that flies across the snow. But he speaks to me. I tell him to give me the majik to be reborn as a wolf-warrior, like I was told my fate would be. Then he basically tells me to go away and I’m crushed. That’s how it ends. Every damn time, it’s the same dream.”
    “And what do you think it means? Certainly you’ve thought about it quite a bit.”
    “I honestly have no idea. The best I could come up with is that this dream is about my own self-doubts because I’m different. For example, everyone in the pack already knows my wolf is big. But it’s more than that. You and a few others know that I can read other people’s thoughts, and now there’s something else. Something very strange happened when I was trying to save Hannah. This may seem unbelievable, but… I found myself in that blizzard. It was just like my dream. The two crows showed up and I heard Odin tell me it was time to attack. I was sure I wouldn’t make it in time, but then everything became a blur. My next step took me right to Hannah’s side. Like, I went through a wall and suddenly transported to Hannah.” Tanner glanced at Rafe then Grace, wishing like fuck someone would clue him in on what the fuck happened.
    “I need to know what the hell is going on. That’s why I asked about a volva. The way I see it, I need to find out who Dagrun was, or is, and why I was sent on that journey. I need to know how the dream ends and what it means.”
    “I think she came here to find you, Tanner.” Grace turned to her son. “Rafe, you should take us to that cabin you found. It’s time for Tanner to learn his fate.”

Chapter Eighteen
     
    T he Alpha cautiously led Grace, Hannah, and Tanner along a winding path deep in the forest. The four wolves paused at the edge of a clearing. Rafe and Tanner stood shoulder to shoulder, inhaling the scents as they scanned the small log cabin for movement.
    Unexpectedly, Grace shifted into human form. When she spoke the voice was familiar, but the accent was not right. “I’ve been expecting you, Tanner. A thousand years? You sure know how to make a woman wait. I see you brought along your mate. Shift, so I can get a good look at you.”
    The rest of the wolves shifted into their human forms. “Dagrun? Is that you?”
    “It’s not Little Red Riding Hood, big bad wolf. What have you been feeding on, Tanner? Redheads? Pretty girl, that one. She looks very much like someone we both knew, long ago.”
    “Why don’t you stop using