by Abby Weeks
She bathed in the stream before leaving the cabin. Then she dressed warmly in the furs and packed a little food to bring with her. She knew where Packer was. She didn’t tell him she was coming to meet him, but she was able to sense his mood, and she knew that he was feeling better than he had at any time since the bonding ceremony. He was finally beginning to calm down after everything that had happened. He knew about her mating with Hardy and Tucker, and he wasn’t really jealous of it. He wasn’t angry with her either. He was just confused. He had so much emotion built up within him, and he didn’t know what to do with it.
She felt strange about him. They’d been the closest. She’d been closer to him than she’d ever been with anyone. Now she felt like there was an enormous gulf between them. Her mission, as she set out into the forest in the early sunlight, was to bridge that gulf, reconnect, and pull him back to her.
Chapter 14
CLIMBING THE MOUNTAINS WAS HARD WORK. Aisha had never been a huge fan of the outdoors, now it seemed like all she did was hike through the forest and climb mountains. She was beginning to get used to it, but it was still a massive change from the life she had known before. As she ascended into the higher stretches of the mountain range around the valley, she could feel the air getting colder and thinner. The atmosphere was different up there. There was less of it. When she caught glimpses through the trees of the surrounding landscape, she was stunned at how far she could see. She’d never experienced anything like that before coming to the valley. She could make out deer that were tens of miles away in the valley. She could make out the village of Dead Wolf and the people milling around it as if she were looking at it through a telescope.
She thought back sadly to the time she’d spent in the village. It had been the last period of her life that she’d been able to live as a human. She knew all that was gone now forever. Even if she lived among humans again, even if she went back to Washington and never told anyone about the strange adventure she’d had here in the valley of the shifters, she knew nothing would ever be the same. It would be different because she was different. Her view of the world was different. And most importantly, her knowledge of herself was different. She’d grown. She was more assertive now, more confident. She couldn’t imagine herself getting tongue-tied and nervous about the guys who she’d grown up around. After the things she’d experienced, facing them would be a walk in the park.
She smiled to herself. It felt good to have grown. She knew she’d no longer be intimidated by the girls back home either. She was a new creature now, a shifter, a handmaiden. Handmaidens didn’t fear cheerleaders.
When she got to the crest of the ridge she scanned the horizon in all directions. The view was breathtaking. She’d never felt so alive, so free. She could see for a hundred miles, and she felt that everything before her was hers for the taking. She knew she could do this. She could survive in this new world. She could thrive here. She could give pups to the four brothers. She could ensure that shifters remained in the valley for at least one more generation. All she had to do was win the brothers over, pull them back together as a pack, and make sure that Packer and Logan’s powerful emotions didn’t get out of control.
She turned her mind toward Packer and reached out to him. She didn’t hide. She wanted him to know she was coming. She’d kept herself hidden from him till now because she didn’t want him to run off, but now she knew he was close.
“Packer,” she said.
He heard her. He realized that she was close, just a few miles from his position farther along the ridge, but he didn’t respond. He was feeling sheepish.
She flashed him the image of her face, smiling, offering friendship. He acknowledged her, but didn’t say anything.
“I’m coming to speak to you,” she told him. “Wait where you are.”
She’d been jogging through the mountains for hours, and was surprised that she wasn’t even getting tired yet. She was always surprised at how much physical strength and stamina she had now.
She heard some movement on the slope beneath her and directed her attention toward it. She scanned the area. She hadn’t been concentrating, she’d been thinking too much about Packer and how he’d been when she saw him, and she’d let her guard down. Lower down the slope was a pack of wolves, and the scent of them suddenly filled her nostrils like a stench. How had she missed them?
She looked down the hill and saw nothing. She scanned the area with her senses, and suddenly she realized that she could sense the wolves in almost the same way she could sense the brothers. It was fainter—she couldn’t understand their thoughts or speak to them, but she could definitely sense their presence, and she could interpret their emotions.
The wolves were aggressive. They were stalking her. They’d been stalking her for some time, and she’d been too preoccupied to pick up on it. She increased her pace to where she knew Packer was. She reached out to him.
He was still sullen. He wasn’t ready to speak to her. He wasn’t ready to make amends.
“I’m in trouble,” she said.
And as soon as she sent the message, everything in his mind changed. He forgot everything else. He no longer cared about his petty jealousy. He forgot that he’d been sulking. He was running toward her as fast as he could move, speeding along the spine of the mountain range toward her. His only concern was her safety.
Aisha felt such relief. She’d been afraid that she might have caused permanent damage to their relationship. Now she saw that the trouble between them had been something small, something petty. She prayed the same was true of her issues with Logan.
She was running along the ridge now, but she was painfully aware of the presence of the wolf pack in the forest beneath her. There were a few of them, and they were running ahead of her now, climbing up the ridge to block her. They knew she’d sensed them, and they were moving in.
She tried to count them. They weren’t a full pack, more of a hunting party, six wolves she counted, all males, all aggressive, ready to kill.
She looked ahead, and for the first time saw the wolves. Four were up ahead of her, standing on the mountain ridge, blocking her path. Two more were running up the side of the slope toward her. She had no choice, she had to turn and run. She skidded to a halt and turned around. The four wolves on the ridge were coming toward her now at full speed, and she had to run down the side of the ridge, away from all of the wolves, and into the forest. She reached out to Packer and could tell he was speeding toward her, but he was still some miles away. She had to keep running. She had to stay out of the jaws of the wolves until Packer got to her.
She slid down the snow toward the trees, and as soon as the snow gave way to rock she was back on her feet and speeding down the slope of the mountain. She didn’t dare look behind her, there were too many trees and branches to avoid, but she didn’t need to. She knew the six wolves were closing in on her, their teeth bared, their jaws ready to close in on her.
She saw a fallen log up ahead and leapt over it. When she landed, she lost her footing and slipped. She rolled on the ground and got back up to her feet immediately, but she’d lost some ground. The wolves were even closer behind her now. They were already sending her mental images of what they wanted to do to her. When Aisha received the imagery, she grew terrified. She had no idea that animals could be so cruel and ruthless. Packer had been right. These wolves were terrible beasts. They weren’t like the creatures she’d rescued in Washington. These wolves were a lesser breed, cruel and brutish and horrible.
Chapter 15
THE IMAGES OF WHAT THEY wanted to do to her were awful. They didn’t just want to kill her. They weren’t hunting her for food. They were hunting her for sport. They knew she was a handmaiden, and they hated the shifters even more than they hated humans. They were going to kill her, they were going to make her suffer, but not before they humiliated her sexually. The six of them had disgusting images of what they wanted to do to her when they found her. They knew that shifters had used their fe
males for sex before, and now they wanted to do the same. They wanted to make the shifters pay for everything they’d ever done by punishing her.
Aisha kept running. She could tell that Packer was racing in her direction, but she didn’t know how far off he was. There was a stream up ahead, and she tried to jump it. She landed on the far bank of the stream and lost her footing in the slippery mud that led to the water. She slipped backward and landed back in the stream, the icy water splashing around her.
By the time she’d regained her footing it was too late. The six wolves were around her, snarling, their dark muzzles looking like vicious weapons that they wanted to use against her.
“Please,” Aisha said to them. She said it mentally, she knew they understood her, but they weren’t interested in her begging. They wanted to make her pay for everything they’d suffered at the hands of the shifters.
They were transmitting images of what they wanted to do to her. Aisha could hardly bare to see the images. She knew Packer could see them too, and he was rushing toward her, but she could tell he was still up on the mountain ridge. He hadn’t yet reached the place where she’d turned around. She prayed he’d get to her in time.
The wolves came in closer to her and nipped at her legs and hands. She screamed. The painful bites didn’t draw blood, but they weren’t intended to. The wolves were just playing with her. They were showing her that they were in control. They were scaring her.
They began to send her orders, images of the things they wanted her to do, and the sight of them made her start to cry. It was too much. She couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be humiliated in this way by the ravenous wolves. The first image was of her removing her fur clothing. She couldn’t do it. She refused. She didn’t care what they did to her, she wouldn’t strip.
She stood her ground and faced them. One of the wolves stepped forward and bit her painfully on her left calf. Aisha cried out in pain. They sent her the images of her removing her furs again, but she just couldn’t do it. She didn’t want to feel the pain of another bite, but something inside her stopped her from doing what they wanted. They were animals. They were lesser creatures. They had no right to do something like this to her. She was the last of the handmaidens. What the hell did they think they were doing?
Another painful bite from behind, this time on her other calf. Aisha fell down onto her knees and cried out.
The wolves came in even closer and snarled. They were so close now that she could feel the warmth of their breaths. If they wanted, they could rip out her throat in a single bite.
One of the wolves, the leader, came up to her. He was standing in front of her, and he leaned in and showed her his sharp teeth.
Aisha looked away. The wolf yapped at her. It was giving her the image of her stripping, and then of the wolf biting her throat. The implication was clear. If she didn’t strip, the wolf would kill her. Aisha didn’t care. She knew the wolves intended to kill her anyway. At least, she thought, she could try to die with her dignity intact.
She didn’t move. The wolf turned its back on her and Aisha saw two more come forward. She knew this was the moment. They were going to kill her. If she wouldn’t let them have any fun with her, then she was of no use to them. She braced herself. She could see them snarling and readying themselves for the final kill. The wolf on the left leaned forward. It was about to clamp its jaw on her throat.
Aisha saw her whole life flash before her eyes. She’d come so far. She’d gone through so much to get here, to find the shifters, to find her place in the world. It seemed incredibly unfair that she was about to lose everything just as it was all beginning. She didn’t want to die. She knew that now more than she ever had in her life. She wanted to live. She wanted to create a life with the brothers. She wanted to help the shifters to live on in the valley.
“Wait,” she cried.
The wolf’s jaws were open around her neck, but it didn’t bite down. It backed off and let the leader of the wolves come forward.
Aisha began opening the tie on her fur coat. She would do what they wanted. She would do what was necessary to survive. There was too much at stake to throw away her life. She let her fur coat fall to the ground, exposing her tender breasts to the hungry eyes of the six ferocious wolves. They snarled at her. They wanted her to remove the skirt she was wearing too.
She stood up, slowly, and began to open the tie that held up the skirt. She opened the tie and was about to let the skirt fall into the water of the stream when her mind was suddenly filled with a flash of pure white light. She didn’t have time to think, but instinctively she ducked, diving into the water of the stream.
At that very moment, Packer’s body, flying at full speed, leapt over her and landed on the leader of the wolf hunting pack. Aisha rose out of the water in time to see Packer raise the wolf high up in his jaws and fling the body of the wolf against some nearby trees. The other five wolves were closing in on him now, but without their leader, they’d lost their confidence. Packer, even though he was alone, had the initiative. He leapt on a second wolf and clawed its back before diving into a third with his jaw wide open. He clamped his jaws down hard on the unfortunate wolf’s throat, and the life was squeezed out of its body in seconds. By now, the three wolves left standing had backed off a considerable distance. They knew they were no match for Packer. Packer snapped and lunged at them, and they turned tail and ran into the forest. Aisha knew they wouldn’t be coming back.
She looked at Packer and watched him shift. His body transformed before her eyes from wolf to man. Suddenly she realized she was completely naked. She’d lost hold of her skirt in the confusion of the fight. Both of her garments had been washed away by the current of the stream.
He looked at her and grinned. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Did I interrupt something there?”
Aisha blushed. She pictured what the wolves had had in mind for her and shivered at the thought of it.
“You took your sweet time,” she said. “That’s what you did.”
“Sorry,” Packer said more seriously. “I came as quickly as I could.”
“I know you did, Packer,” she said, softening. She was touched at how protective he still was of her. She’d been afraid she might have ruined everything between them. “I’m sorry about what happened. I’m sorry if I hurt you. It was never my intention.”
Packer nodded. “It’s me who should be sorry,” he said. “I was the one who lost my composure. You did nothing wrong. You’re fulfilling your role as the last handmaiden, and you’re doing an excellent job.”
“If I’m doing such a good job, then why haven’t I seen you or Logan since the bonding ritual? I didn’t even get to form a bond with Logan.”
“No,” Packer said. “But you formed a bond with me.”
Aisha looked at him. She found it difficult to look him in the eye. He was so powerful, so majestic looking. She was embarrassed that she was naked, and she was also embarrassed that the wolves had wanted to rape her. She knew exactly what would have happened to her if he hadn’t shown up when he had, and it wasn’t pretty.
“Don’t be embarrassed,” Packer said, reading her emotions.
He came down to the water and reached out to her with his hand. She took it and let him help her up from the stream.
“Thank you,” she said.
“Do you want to go somewhere warm?” he said. “Somewhere where we can talk?”
“I’d like that very much,” Aisha said, holding his gaze.
She was naked, but she wasn’t overly self-conscious. She wasn’t as worried about being naked as she’d once been. Packer shifted, and he crouched down to let her climb up onto his back. His long fur was comfortable to sit on and she felt warm and safe as she rode him back up the slope to the top of the ridge.
When she thought about the image they must have made together, him a giant wolf running along a mountain ridge, her a naked, beautiful female riding on his back, she laughed out loud. She felt so exhilarated, so aliv
e, that she cried out when Packer stopped on the mountain peak to let her look down on the valley.
“This place is amazing,” she said.
The sun was high above the valley, and Aisha leaned back and let the warmth of it bathe her naked skin for a few moments. Then she tried to howl. She startled herself. She was able to howl almost as loudly as the males were when they were in human form. It was incredible. She howled long and loud, a howl in celebration of life and freedom and everything that her new situation with the shifter brothers had to offer her. She howled out to Logan, who she knew couldn’t hear her, and she howled out to the enemy wolves, who she knew could.
Packer made a deep grunting sound that Aisha realized was the sound of a wolf laughing. Then he turned and continued running along the mountain ridge, Aisha holding tightly to his mane.
Chapter 16
THE PLACE PACKER BROUGHT HER to was simple and comfortable, and it felt very safe. There was a cave beneath the mountain ridge, and he’d collected wood for a large fire that he built at the mouth of the cave. Once it was lit, it began to heat the little area beneath the rock and created a cozy place for Aisha to rest. She was exhausted after all that she’d been through that day. The ground and back wall of the cave were covered in soft furs, like blankets, and Aisha wrapped one of them around her naked body as she warmed up by the fire.
“You were fast when you were running,” Packer said. “I thought I wasn’t going to make it. I was many miles away when you told me you were in trouble. I was impressed.”
Aisha looked at him. “Well, when your life depends on it, it really gets you moving fast,” she said.
“You were very fast, though. Much faster than I’d expected. It’s a good thing. That speed bought you valuable time.”
Aisha smiled. She was enjoying the extra strength and physical abilities that were beginning to make themselves apparent to her. Her senses were keener than they’d ever been. She was stronger and faster than any girl she’d ever met. The sexual pleasure she’d experienced with Tucker and Hardy had been mind-blowing. She looked at Packer and realized that she was very soon going to experience something even more intense. She could sense that he was aroused already, just by the proximity of her body. She wasn’t surprised. She’d formed her handmaiden’s bond with him. That was something he’d been waiting his entire life for.
