by Abby Weeks
“What do you mean?”
“What do I mean? Aisha! We thought the handmaidens had been wiped out. We thought we were literally the last of our race. Ma Hetty is the only one alive, and she’s a seer, which means she’s celibate. We’ve never scented a handmaiden in heat in our lives. It’s like heaven. It’s like the world has come back to life.”
“What do you mean, in heat?”
Packer laughed. “Sorry, that probably sounded rude.”
“Do you mean I’m horny?” Aisha said, her cheeks flushed red.
“It just means you’re capable of mating with us. Can you appreciate how amazing this is for us?”
Aisha was shaking her head. This was all too much to take in.
“Aisha, my brothers and I, we thought there weren’t any women left who could mate with us without dying from it. It’s been a living hell for us. These people killed off the handmaidens, or drove them away. We weren’t even really alive, we were just waiting for death to come and find us. Now we realize that you’re here.”
“This doesn’t make any sense to me,” Aisha said.
“Imagine there were no men in the world,” Packer said. “That’s what life was like for us.”
Aisha looked at him, looked into his rugged face, and felt so much compassion. She didn’t know how he and his brothers could have lived, thinking that their race was going to end with them.
“How could you live here and help the humans when they killed off your people?” Aisha said.
Packer thought before answering her.
“Believe me, we’ve fought about it. But in the end, we saw that the people needed it. We couldn’t let the wolves overrun this town. This is the ancestral homeland of the shifters. The wolves are an affront to us, an insult. We vowed that as long as we lived, we’d help hold the town. When we’re gone, that will be the end of it, but in the meantime, the wolves will have to wait.”
“That’s really why you came back?”
“Well, that, and we made a deal with the humans. They were supposed to offer us one of their females each year, a girl who we could mate with and slake our constant thirst for a handmaiden.”
“Would that have satisfied you?”
“Not fully. There’s nothing on earth that compares to a real handmaiden,” he said, looking closely into her eyes.
Aisha blushed. She couldn’t believe how intensely he was looking at her.
“Wouldn’t a human girl have died if you mated with her?”
Packer nodded. “That’s why we never ended up taking the sacrifice. After a few years, they stopped offering. We decided that it just wouldn’t be right to kill a woman just so we could be sexually pleasured.”
“That’s more compassion than the humans ever showed you. I heard they raped and killed handmaidens.”
“Yes, they did,” Packer said, “and that’s why I’m worried about you. If they ever discovered what you were, there’s no telling what they’d do to you. I don’t know that they’d kill you, but they’d probably lock you up in that disgusting brothel and use you as a whore.”
“They treat their own women like whores up here,” Aisha said. She was shocked to find herself referring to the humans as they. She was one of them, wasn’t she?
“Aisha, you think they treat the human women badly. You should see what they’d do if they ever found out you’re a handmaiden. They’d ravage you. There’s no limit to what the men of this town would do to you. There’s something about handmaidens that drives human men into a frenzy. They’ll go crazy. They’ll lose themselves, lose control of themselves. They’ll rape you so badly that you might not even survive it.”
“I’ve never driven men into a frenzy before,” Aisha said.
“That’s because you weren’t here. This is your homeland, Aisha. This is where your handmaiden instincts and powers will come back to life. Shifters and handmaidens can only live in this valley and the country around it. If we go farther away for too long, we lose our abilities. We’re linked to this valley. Without it, we turn into ordinary people.”
“That’s why I’ve been feeling changes,” Aisha said.
“Yes, and that’s why the paw mark on your shoulder is getting darker. The humans can’t see it, but you can.”
“It is getting darker,” Aisha said.
“That’s a sign that your handmaiden instincts are coming back to life.”
“What’s going to happen to me?”
“You’ll know it when you see it. Your senses will be keener, you’ll be stronger, you’ll be able to think in different ways, communicate with me and my brothers, but most dangerously for you, you’ll notice that the men in the village can’t resist you.”
*
Chapter 6
AISHA LOOKED AT PACKER. She was so grateful to him for bringing her this information, even if it meant that everything she thought she knew about her life was going to change. She was realizing that it was better to know the truth, no matter how painful, than to live in the dark.
“How long has it been since you’ve seen a handmaiden?” she said.
He looked at her again. She saw his eyes travel over her body. There wasn’t much for him to see inside her coat and with her thick boots on. He leaned into her and inhaled her scent.
“Not since I was a child. None of my brothers have ever known a handmaiden in adulthood.”
“So that means … .”
“That we’re virgins, yes.”
“And you weren’t tempted to take the humans’ offer to give you women?”
“We were tempted sorely, Aisha. But how could we kill a woman like that?”
Aisha didn’t know what to think. Everything Packer had told her was rushing around her head like a storm. There were emotions, fears, threats, even glimpses of happiness that she’d never realized existed. She was terrified and excited at the same time.
“So what are you telling me?” Aisha said.
“Bottom line, I don’t think it’s safe for you in the village. Sooner or later, the men are going to start lusting after you, and they’ll realize you’re a handmaiden.”
“But what options do I have?”
“You can come away with me and my brothers. You belong with us. We’re your species. We’d live and die to protect you, Aisha. You’ve got to believe that.”
“And what of the humans?”
“We’d stay away from them.”
“But we’d have to remain in this valley.”
“It’s a big valley,” Packer said.
“So you want me to just drop everything and run away with you?”
Packer looked at her and nodded.
“I haven’t even met your brothers,” Aisha said.
Packer nodded again. “I know,” he said at last. “I know this is an impossible request, Aisha. I know you’re in an impossible situation.”
“How can I just up and leave everything I know?”
“Sooner or later it’s going to happen. Something’s going to happen, and you’ll realize that it’s no longer safe for you to live with the humans.”
“What if I leave this place?”
“If you leave this place?” Packer said, a sudden sound of desperation in his voice.
Aisha could understand where that desperation came from. She was threatening to leave with the only chance of fulfillment he and his brothers would ever know. Could she even do that to them? Now that she knew how much her existence meant to them?
“If you left,” Packer said slowly, “no one would ever know about any of this. You’d be a normal woman again, like you were before you came here.”
Aisha thought about that. Was it really an option? Had she ever been a normal woman? She’d always felt as if something important was missing from her life.
“You and your brothers could leave too,” Aisha said.
Packer nodded. “Believe me, we’ve thought about it.”
“Why don’t you?”
He shrugged. “This is our life, Aisha. This
is where we belong. This is where we have something to offer.”
“You mean protecting the town.”
He nodded.
“But the humans don’t even thank you for it.”
Packer nodded. “We don’t do it for them. We do it for ourselves.”
Aisha felt sorry for him. His life and the life of his brothers, it all seemed so bleak. So cold and lonely and hard. She leaned into him and inhaled.
Packer locked eyes. “I bet that’s the first time in your life you ever did that,” he said.
“Did what?”
“Breathed in the scent of a mate.”
“What?”
“I saw what you did.”
“I did no such thing.”
“It’s intoxicating, isn’t it?”
Aisha smiled. It was true. She’d breathed in his scent and it was like nothing she’d ever experienced in her life. It was completely unique and overpowering and erotic. It was the most sensual, intimate thing she could imagine. She’d be able to detect Packer by that scent for the rest of her life.
“Could you imagine giving that up, now that you’ve experienced it?”
“I don’t know,” Aisha said thoughtfully.
Packer stood up in front of her. Aisha saw his penis up close for the first time, and she was shocked. She wanted to reach out and touch it. It looked bigger than it had earlier. Was Packer becoming aroused around her?
“Will you come with me?” he said.
She looked up at him. She could see absolutely everything. Not just his body, but his thoughts too. She couldn’t read his mind, but she could sense his emotions. She couldn’t tell exactly what he was thinking, but she could sense that he was being honest with her.
And then she did something that she’d never in a million years thought she would do. She reached out with her hand and gently brushed the back of it against Packer’s long, thick penis. Instantly it stiffened. The erection happened so fast it frightened her. She drew back her hand. Packer reached down, his hand moving so swiftly she didn’t even see it move, and he grabbed her hand.
Then he reared his head back and howled at the sky. The sound of his howl was deafening.
She looked up at him and saw the golden flash in his eyes like a fire blazing.
“Oh, God,” she gasped. “Packer, I’m sorry.”
She looked down at his cock. It was so long it scared her. It was so hard and firm, she could even see it throb with the beating of Packer’s powerful heart.
He looked at her, and there was such an intensity in his gaze that she didn’t know what to do. He reached down and took hold of her in his arms and lifted her powerfully from the log she was sitting on. As he held her, she felt so light, like a child in a man’s arms. He looked into her face, and she looked into his, and then she looked away. She had to look away. It was too intense. She should never have touched him. She’d awakened a beast, and she knew it.
“Put me down,” she said.
“Will you come back to our home with me?” Packer said.
“Right now?”
“My brothers are all waiting. They’ve been waiting ever since you got here.”
“They know about me?”
“They picked up your scent the moment you arrived. They’re all the same as me, Aisha. They’ve never even met a handmaiden since reaching maturity. They’ve been running off into the distant mountains and howling at the moon like teenage boys who are in love for the first time in their lives.”
“Have you been doing that?” she said.
He still hadn’t put her down. She didn’t even want him to. She wanted to touch his cock again. She wanted to feel the hard virility of it. She wanted to feel him inside her.
She put her hand on his chest. He almost growled he breathed so heavily. He just looked at her. She could tell he wanted to carry her back to his home where his brothers were waiting. Now that he had her in his arms, he didn’t want to let her go. She could understand that. If she’d never met a male before, she’d have been as desperate and unpredictable as he was.
The question was, was she ready to go back with him? She didn’t even know where he’d be taking her. She didn’t know anything. She was too scared.
“You better put me down,” Aisha said.
“Won’t you come back with me?” Packer said.
“Not yet,” Aisha said.
She felt so sad as he put her down that she started to cry.
Packer looked at her kindly. “Why are you crying?”
“I don’t know,” Aisha said. “I believe everything you said.”
“Then why would you go back to the town?”
“I’m just not ready to give up on the life I’ve known till now,” she said. “I just can’t do it, not yet at least.”
“I understand that,” Packer said.
“I’ll think about what you said,” she said. “Will you tell your brothers that I hope to meet them very soon?”
Packer nodded. “I will,” he said. “And I’ll distract the guards in the tower while you get back into the town.”
He walked her back to the edge of the trees. When he was about to leave she stopped him and threw her arms around him. He hugged her so tightly, and she knew she never wanted to let him go. She could even feel the bulge of that giant penis pressing against her. He wanted her so badly she almost felt cruel denying it. But she just wasn’t ready. It was too much.
Packer stepped back into the forest, and for the first time Aisha saw him shift. His body transitioned smoothly, growing in bulk around the shoulders, losing mass in the hind legs, and sprouting white fur that looked so soft and luxurious that she would have gladly slept wrapped up in it. It didn’t seem to hurt him at all. It was a smooth and seamless transition, performed by someone who’d done it a million times.
He made his way back to the road through the forest. Aisha heard him howl as he ran up it, away from the village. She slipped in through the gates without being detected and hurried back to the inn. The sun was already rising, and she was in a hurry to get back before Heath noticed she’d ever slipped out.
*
Chapter 7
THAT MORNING WHEN AISHA WOKE UP, she felt as if everything that had happened during the night was a distant, mystical dream. She wasn’t sure what to make of any of it. It was like she’d discovered that a whole other world existed. One that she wasn’t yet ready to enter. She woke up and lay in the bed waiting for Heath. They spoke little and went downstairs for breakfast together. It was their first time going out in public together since their arrival in Dead Wolf. She refused to allow herself to think about what had happened the night before.
“Have you seen Hunter around?” Heath said when they were seated at a table in the restaurant.
The place was empty. It was before dawn, and even Tilly and Hilda weren’t up and about.
“He had to go back down south,” Aisha said.
Heath nodded. He’d wanted to come down for breakfast early because he was self-conscious of his scars, but now that there was no one there to serve him, he seemed agitated.
“Want me to put on the coffee?” Aisha said.
“You know where it is?”
“Sure. I’ve been helping Hilda, the innkeeper. She’s short-staffed. It’s just her and one other girl, Tilly, and this place is very busy.”
“What has she had you doing?”
“Serving, bussing tables, working the bar, everything,” Aisha said.
Aisha realized that she was fond of the work. She had a sudden fear that Heath might find some problem with it and force her to stop.
“You get paid?” he said.
“Sure. It’s not much, but she gives me something.”
“What have you done with the money?”
“Nothing. It’s upstairs in our room.”
Heath nodded again. “Good,” he said. “We might need it.”
Aisha knew that that was Heath’s way of telling her not to spend it. It was his money now. Sh
e knew it was unfair, but there was a part of her that didn’t care. She liked doing the work, and as long as Heath was getting something out of it, she’d be allowed to continue. There was nothing to spend money on in these parts anyway.
Aisha got up and left Heath at the table. She put on the coffee, poured orange juice, and when the coffee was ready, she brought everything over to the table on a tray. They sat there and drank the coffee and waited. Aisha knew it wouldn’t be long before Hilda was up and ready to cook them breakfast.
“So,” Heath said to her, “you ready to start a new life in this country?”
Aisha shrugged. She didn’t know how to answer that. There was so much to take into consideration, not least the fact that the area seemed to be overrun with man-eating wolves. It didn’t really feel like the type of place where a solid future could be built. She didn’t say any of that.
She said, “Wherever you go, I go.”
Heath seemed to approve of that. He took a sip from his coffee and put his hand on hers.
Aisha wasn’t at all sure how she felt about him. He was being nice this morning, but that was no guarantee that he wouldn’t turn on her and be cruel later when they got upstairs.
He was wearing a shirt with the collar up, a brimmed hat pulled low over his brow, and a scarf. She knew he was trying to cover his scars as much as he could, but there was no way he could cover it all completely. His face was frightful, and anyone he came across would see it immediately.
When Hilda came down, she was surprised to see them already waiting in the dining room.
“Good morning, you two,” she said cheerfully.
Aisha smiled at her, but when Hilda saw Heath’s face, her jaw dropped. She regained her composure quickly, but not before Heath noticed.
He gave her a wry smile. “Not what you were expecting?” he said.
“Oh no,” Hilda said. “They’re healing up nicely.”
Heath laughed but there was no mirth in it. “It was nice of you to serve me the soup when I was ill,” he said to Hilda. “I won’t forget your kindness.”
Hilda looked embarrassed. She pulled her dress up over her cleavage. Aisha could see she was embarrassed, but then she remembered what Hilda had said. The entire point of serving Heath like that had been to win his favor. If it worked, Aisha supposed she was okay with it. She cared more about Hilda’s safety than Heath’s fidelity. It was strange to admit that to herself, but it was the truth.
