Lady Sass Read online

  Table of Contents

  Lady Sass

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Epilogue

  Books by Jen Talty

  About the Author

  Text copyright ©2018 by the Author.

  This work was made possible by a special license through the Kindle Worlds publishing program and has not necessarily been reviewed by LATIN GODDESS PRESS INC.. All characters, scenes, events, plots and related elements appearing in the original Sassy Ever After remain the exclusive copyrighted and/or trademarked property of LATIN GODDESS PRESS INC., or their affiliates or licensors.

  For more information on Kindle Worlds: http://www.amazon.com/kindleworlds

  Table of Contents

  Lady Sass

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Epilogue

  Books by Jen Talty

  About the Author

  Lady Sass

  Witches and Werewolves Novella series

  book 1

  Sassy Ever After Kindle World

  JEN TALTY

  Chapter 1

  The song Looking Out My Backdoor by Creedence Clearwater Revival blasted from Lady Amanda Windsor’s cell phone right in the middle of the monthly family dinner.

  Her father dropped his fork in his lap. “All phones are supposed to be turned off.”

  “Sorry, but my agent is supposed to call about that part today.” She bent over, digging through her purse, ignoring the glares of everyone, including the staff standing off to the sides. The Windsor’s didn’t have such elaborate dinners on a daily basis, complete with their staff waiting for them to ring a bell or snap their fingers, demanding, though ever so politely, to have another cup of tea poured. However, as part of the Royal Coven of the Silver Flock, they would occasionally follow tradition.

  “You could have put it on vibrate, hiding it in your back pocket,” her older sister, Arianna, said with a sarcastic tone and an arched brow. In her youth, Arianna had been more into her princess lady status and enjoyed the courtship of a dozen or so worthy suitors, until one broke her heart, leaving her cynical about love, and life.

  Of all the sisters, Arianna resented their status the most.

  “I’m wearing leggings, so I have no pockets.” She glanced at the caller ID. “It’s my agent. I’ve got to take this.” She jumped from the table, knocking over a younger sister’s water.

  “Oh, my, God.” Avery snagged her napkin, dabbing up the water before it flowed over the edge of the table and onto her lap. “That was so unnecessary.”

  Avery was the baby of the family, and a bit of a prima donna, and as the lead ballerina in the Los Angeles City Ballet, the two seemed to go hand in hand.

  “I didn’t mean to do it,” Amanda said as she scurried from the dining room, both her parents glaring at her while all three of her sisters complained about her breaking the family rule, one that none of them saw any value in other than the entire family being together.

  Amanda ignored them all and tapped the accept button on her phone as she entered her father’s office. If she didn’t get this part, everyone would think she didn’t have what it took to be a serious actress. Even her sister, Arianna, the art journalist, believed the press would have a field day considering they constantly labeled Amanda as a spoiled princess who bought her way into the industry.

  It wasn’t true, but her father had pulled some strings, and his actions hurt her reputation from the beginning.

  Acting could be somewhat subjective and since she’d been constantly cast in supporting roles for the most part in romantic comedies, she’d never had the chance to show off her real talent.

  “Hi, Reana.” Amanda took in a slow breath, sitting behind her father’s large, oak desk. His office looked more like a living room with its leather sofa and love seat, his desk looking out of place, as if it were plunked down in the middle of the room without a care for style and taste. Colorful artwork he’d bought from various new artist showings lined the walls. “I was beginning to worry you weren’t going to call today.”

  She stared at the picture of her and her sisters taken when they’d been small children. Each blessed with a different talent.

  Alicia had the voice of an angel. Instead of speaking her first words, she sang them, and she was well on her way to making it big as a country singer.

  Avery had their mother’s grace and style and instead of stumbling as most children tend to while learning to walk, she danced her way through toddlerhood. By the time she reached three, everyone knew she’d be a star.

  Amanda and Arianna’s talents were more subjective, and constantly scrutinized by the world. Arianna had her father’s gift for weaving words, though her father was a novelist, not a journalist. To this day, Arianna struggled for equal respect as her non-royalty counterparts.

  No matter how good Amanda’s performance had been in any movie or TV show, the critics always viewed her performances as average, at best.

  “Are you sitting down?” Reana had been Amanda’s agent for the last five years. They had developed a plan to get her to this exact moment. All the roles she’d taken thus far were stepping stones, leading to the one film that would catapult her into megastar status.

  Remington Falls was that movie. Filled with romance, drama, heartache, and a moral dilemma, it had it all. It was the kind of movie that people would talk about twenty years from now. Amanda had been lucky to get a reading, but getting the second and third call back, that, she had to believe, was based on her talent.

  “I can’t tell if that means you have good news or bad.”

  “I have both.”

  Amanda swallowed. “Give me the bad news first.” Might as well get the disappointment over with. Wouldn’t be the first time she was passed over for the lead and offered a smaller role in a film.

  “You weren’t their first choice. Heidi Boyet and Nelly Gratma were both offered a contract but passed.”

  Amanda’s heart hammered in her chest like a scared rabbit. “I got the part?” She pushed aside the fact that two of the highest paid actresses walked away from the role. Her gut churned. Perhaps this wasn’t such a great film after all.

  “The part is yours if you want it.”

  “Hell, yes, I want it.” Her last movie wrapped three months ago, and she had nothing on her plate. She didn’t need the money.

  She needed to work.

  She needed to prove herself, once and for all.

  “I thought you might say that, but I should warn you that both Heidi and Nelly’s managers will publicly say they declined the role.”

  “I would do the same thing in their shoes, but why did they pass?”

  Both actresses were known for being difficult to work with and demanded certain perks that not every producer and director were willing to accept, though eventually they caved to their demands.

  “Jackson Ledger will be playing the male lead, and since both of them had a nasty, public break-up with him, they don’t want the part.”

  The fluttering excitement that had filled her belly dropped to the pit of her stomach like a brick being tossed from the top of a ten-story building. For her family’s sake, she should say no. Her father would be furious, and her grandparents would roll over in their graves. Nothing good could come from her co-starring with Jackson Ledger, renegade werewolf.

  Amanda had to
wonder if Reana knew the connection between the Ledger family and her own.

  She opened her mouth to tell Reana she’d also have to decline the role, but nothing came out. This was a professional job.

  Her career.

  Her moment to shine.

  No way would she let something that happened twenty years ago, and had nothing to do with her, stop her from taking this opportunity. And really, Jackson hadn’t done anything wrong.

  “Shall I call the director?” Reana asked.

  “Yes. I’m taking the role.”

  “Good choice.”

  “Talk to you tomorrow,” Amanda tapped her cell, ending the call. Leaning back in her father’s chair, she contemplated how the hell she would tell her family, and when.

  Only she knew it had to be tonight, before some entertainment news show picked up the story and ran with it.

  She made her way through the hallway of her childhood home, glancing at all the family photos displayed in custom-made, matching wooden frames, hanging on the walls. Generations of the Royal Windsors. Their family was the representation of all witch covens, not just the Coven of the Silver Flock. They were more like the British Royal Family, as in they held no real power of any kind over witches but were held above all others.

  Sucking in a deep breath, she entered the dining room.

  “Well?” her father said, wiping his mouth with a white napkin before tossing it to the table and pushing back his chair. “I hope you got the part, otherwise ruining our family time was for nothing.”

  “I got the part.” She slipped into her chair across from Alicia and Avery and next to Arianna. They’d always sat in the same spots, never questioning if there had been a reason why.

  “You don’t seem too excited, dear,” her mother said, reaching across the table, pouring another glass of wine. Her mother, a human, had entered royal life with ease, as if she’d been born into it. Of course, she came from one of the wealthiest political families in the state of California, so in a way, she understood tradition and respected it.

  “I’m thrilled, really I am.”

  Her mother leaned across the table, resting her hand over Amanda’s forearm. “You were more excited when you didn’t get the lead in the school play your senior year. What’s going on?”

  Amanda’s mother had always been considered soft spoken, but never meek, and she never minced words. When she walked into a room, with her long, dark hair and hourglass figure, everyone was captivated by her beauty. But it was her poise and self-confidence that stopped everyone in their tracks.

  “My co-star is going to be somewhat controversial.” Amanda bit down on the inside of her cheek, glancing between her parents. Jackson’s name had been brought up a time or two over the years. Her parents had seen a couple of his films and while they didn’t blame Jackson, her father always got teary-eyed over the memory of his little brother’s senseless murder.

  Her mother picked up on the meaning first as she narrowed her eyes. “Please don’t tell me you’re going to be in a movie with Jackson Ledger.”

  “He’s been cast opposite me,” she said softly.

  “Good grief,” her mother said, shaking her head. “And you said yes?”

  She nodded.

  Under the table, Arianna grabbed her hand and held it tight. Her sisters understood she had to take the role and would support her, but she wasn’t sure if her parents would.

  “Yes, Mother. I did. This is the kind of movie that will put me at the top of the industry.”

  “That poor boy,” her mother said, letting out a long breath. “The media is going to crucify him once again if you star in a movie with him.”

  Amanda stared at her mother with her mouth gaping open. This wasn’t the response she’d expected. Their family had been through so much between the death of Uncle Armand and then the long-drawn-out trial before Reed Ledger was finally convicted of murder and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole.

  “That’s being kind, Mom,” Arianna said. “When he won the Oscar for Returning to Hitchcock Park, the press turned his life upside down and often didn’t paint him out to be a nice wolf, and his own pack turned on him, saying he was just like his old man. I’ve heard from my entertainment reporter friends that his pack still doesn’t give him or his family any respect because of his father.”

  “He was even arrested twice after that film, and his career has been slowly tanking ever since,” Avery added.

  “It’s a shame the world wants to think the worst of Jackson,” her father said, lighting his pipe, the smoke filling the air above his head like big, puffy clouds. “Do you know how he feels about working with you?”

  “I honestly have no idea.” Amanda blinked a few times, trying to wrap her brain around her parents’ reactions. While they’d never spoken badly of Jackson, they’d never said anything kind other than they liked his movies. “I’ve been too worried about how you will take the news.”

  “I can’t say I’m thrilled you’re going to be working with him.” Her father blew a couple of smoke rings. “But he didn’t kill your uncle, and he shouldn’t be held responsible for his father’s sins.”

  Amanda downed the rest of her wine in one gulp. “You don’t have a problem with me working with Jackson Ledger?”

  “I didn’t say that,” her father said, resting his arm on the table. His eyes glassed over as they always did when this subject was broached. “His father murdered my brother in cold blood. Doesn’t matter that he was a small boy, Jackson will forever be known as Reed’s son before anyone puts Oscar-Winning actor to his name. You working with him, will just compound that issue, not to mention the pain it will stir up in our family.” Her father wiped a hand over his eyes, drawing his palm down over his nose and mouth. “I take it you’ve only verbally accepted the role.”

  She nodded.

  “I’ll support you no matter what you decide, but I think we should have a sit-down with Jackson before we move forward,” her father said.

  “Why?” She swallowed.

  “You’re my little girl, and all I’ve ever wanted is for you to be happy. I’ve pushed you girls to chase your dreams, whatever they might be, regardless of what I think. I’m not going to stand in your way now. That said, this is your career, and I don’t want it to be tainted by something that young man’s father did.”

  “We should cast a protection spell,” Avery said.

  “I plan on it, but that won’t change how the press, or other witch covens, respond to this pairing.”

  “We could use our magic to muzzle the—”

  Her father interrupted Alicia. “That would be breaking more laws, besides being unethical. “

  “What are you suggesting then, honey?” her mother asked.

  “An official statement from me.”

  “Auntie Alley isn’t going to approve,” Amanda said.

  It had been nearly twenty-two years since Reed Jackson stepped into the ballroom at the Regency during a gathering of covens from across the country, honoring the Royal Family. She shivered remembering the pop, pop, pop of the gun. Then the screams filled the room as her father and mother jumped on her and her sisters, dragging them under the table. Twenty minutes later, they were shuffled out of the room. It wasn’t until the trial that Amanda had seen the images captured on film of her uncle falling to the ground, and her aunt hurling herself over his bloodied body.

  And their grandmother screaming as she covered her mouth, dropping to her knees. Amanda’s beloved grandfather trying to pull both his wife and daughter off his son, only to collapse and sob next to Armand’s dead body.

  “She doesn’t have to approve,” her father said, chewing on the end of his pipe, something he only did when he was anxious about something. “Amanda, sweetheart, please call your agent and set up a meeting with Jackson and his people.”

  Chapter 2

  “No way. She can’t be my co-star. It will be a bigger media circus than if one of my exes took the role.” Jac
kson Ledger paced in the producer’s office at the lot at Media-Max. Paul Ricter had called him three weeks ago, begging him to take the job.

  At first, seeing the deep, romantic element, Jackson thought it was too far outside his normal genre, but after reading the script, he knew in his gut that this was the role that could put him back on the top of the industry.

  Paul had kept Jackson’s name out of the press until they cast the lead actress. Now that Lady Amanda Windsor had been cast, Jackson wanted to march himself down to the federal prison and strangle his father with his bare hands.

  Jackson had hated his old man long before he’d been arrested for murder. Reed Ledger had a taste for whiskey, women, and guns. Not to mention the old man verbally and physically abused his mother. Jackson had been too young to do anything about it, but he swore the day he was big enough, and strong enough, to take on his father, he’d take him out.

  But Reed decided to kill the Royal Witch family member. His father claimed they’d cast a spell on his family years ago, which was why Reed had been a failure his entire life. It was total bullshit. Reed was a womanizing drunk who blamed the Royals simply because they’d fired him from their employment after he stole from them. That had been before Jackson was born and every job his father had after that, he’d managed to get fired from. He wished he could understand why his mother had stayed and had more children with his father, but even she couldn’t explain it.

  One therapist he spoke with during his adolescence said oftentimes abused women felt trapped and feared that if they left, it would just get worse, or maybe the abuser would start to take it out on the children. None of it ever made sense, but his father was in prison for life, and his mother and younger siblings, no matter the shame, were better off without that bastard.

  Except, his father’s legacy followed him wherever he went. Even Jackson’s Oscar win had been tainted when a gossip entertainment show ran a piece about his father, focusing on his father’s past transgressions and not all the things Jackson had accomplished, in spite of being the offspring of an outcast wolf.