by Abby Weeks
She didn’t see Heath the same way she had in the past, and it wasn’t because of the scarring. It went far deeper than that. It was because of everything she’d learned during the past few weeks. She was a different person from the girl who’d left Washington with Heath and Hunter at the outset of their voyage. She’d been through so much, she’d learned so much about the world, things she’d never dared to dream were possible. The truth was, after all she’d been through, she couldn’t just go back to living the life she’d always lived before. She couldn’t go on letting Heath take advantage of her, hold her down, abuse her, and knock her confidence.
She was beginning to realize that the world was opening up before her. Despite the fact that she was probably in the most oppressive and restrictive place she’d ever lived, she was learning that freedom and strength came from within.
She wasn’t there yet, it would be a long and difficult process, but she knew that something had changed. As she sat across from Heath, she realized that she’d seen the worst he had to offer. She’d seen the worst he could do to her. And she’d survived it.
*
Chapter 8
AFTER BREAKFAST THEY WENT BACK up to their room. Heath wanted to see the village. He also had to see about reporting for duty at the company. They put on their boots and coats, and Heath also asked Aisha to show him where she’d hidden the money she’d earned. He took all of it and put it in his pocket. He also took the rifle he’d been issued back in Fairbanks.
Their first stop was the doctor. They waited in his cabin, and when he came out to greet them Aisha could see from his face that he was distressed by the scarring.
“I see you’ve taken off the bandages,” the doctor said.
Heath nodded.
“Any pain?”
“Nothing I can’t handle.”
“Usually, if we were down south, you’d have had a counselor or a therapist to talk to about this.”
“I don’t need a shrink, doc,” Heath said.
“Are you sure? It wouldn’t be anything to be ashamed of. It’s no small thing what happened to you.”
“I’ll be fine. I just need for you to give me the all clear to get to work.”
The doctor looked at the scars a little more closely in his examination room and gave Heath fresh pills and topical medications. Then he signed off on Heath’s medical record and gave him a copy of it.
Aisha walked with Heath to the guard tower at the very beginning of the town. They were at the gate they’d entered through when they’d first arrived with Hunter. Heath checked his rifle and made sure it was loaded.
“What are you doing?” Aisha said.
“I’ve got to report for work.”
“Where?”
“The lumber mill.”
“Where’s that?” Aisha said.
“It’s a mile down the road.”
Aisha laughed. “You’re not thinking of heading out down the road are you?”
“That’s where I’ve got to go,” Heath said.
“But we need a vehicle, or an escort.”
Heath shrugged. “I haven’t been issued one yet.”
“Heath,” Aisha said. “We can’t go outside the fence. Look.” She pointed up at the guard tower. There was a man up there sitting on a wooden bench with a rifle resting against his leg.
“All clear?” Heath shouted up to him.
“All clear,” the guard shouted back down.
“What about wolves?” Aisha said.
“Honey, this place isn’t all about drinking beer at the inn and being served by pretty girls. Men have to work up here. If we don’t work, everything stops. The power stops, the money stops, the heat stops.”
“I know that,” Aisha said, “but you’ve been attacked. You’ve seen the wolves.”
“Look,” Heath said, beginning to walk down the road, past the guard tower. “Around the town is safer than everywhere else. This town has four shifters in the vicinity. I’m sure you’ve heard about it by now.”
“I have,” Aisha said.
“Where there are shifters, there are no wolves. That’s the way it works. That’s the reason they allow those filthy beasts to live here.”
Aisha wasn’t sure Heath should speak about them that way. Not when it was their protection that made him feel safe enough to even leave the town fence.
“I’m coming with you,” Aisha said.
She followed him over the packed snow of the main road that led from Dead Wolf all the way back to Fairbanks. She glanced constantly at the trees and brush, nervous every time she heard a sound. Heath was acting confident, but Aisha could tell he was scared too. There’s no way he could walk into that forest and not remember the wolf attack. She didn’t blame him one bit.
“I wish I brought my rifle,” Aisha said.
Heath nodded.
*
Chapter 9
THEY WERE HEADED TO THE mill which was down a side road off the highway. It wasn’t very far. Just a few hundred yards to the turn off, and a few hundred more to the mill. She could smell the smoke and see it rising from the trees ahead before she could see the gates of the work area.
The mill had the same high, wooden fencing that protected the village, and there were guard towers at the four corners of the yard.
Heath waved to the guards watching the gates. They nodded back, eyeing his scars. They didn’t know Heath personally, but they’d heard the story of what had happened, and they knew he’d be reporting for duty when he was ready. Aisha recognized a few of the men she saw wandering around the yard. She’d served them at the inn.
“What kind of work do they do here?” she said, looking around. Heath had called the place a mill, but she didn’t see a lot of logging going on. There were large metal warehouses in rows and heavy machinery parked around the yard. She wondered if it wasn’t maybe some other sort of industry that they carried out.
Heath didn’t answer her. He was eager to get into the office to report for duty, and she followed him through the door of the double-wide that served as the administrative building of the operation.
Inside, a woman was sitting behind a desk, a pile of papers in front of her. She looked twice when she saw Heath’s scars, but she caught herself quickly and smiled at him.
“You must be the new man,” she said. “Heath, right?”
“That’s right,” Heath said gruffly.
Aisha knew it would take time for him to get used to the way people would look at his scars. Gracie was a pretty woman, about Heath’s age, late twenties, with dark hair and bright, lively eyes. She had a good figure and a pair of tight-fitting jeans that covered her ass and hips in a way that left little to the imagination. The top three buttons of her blouse were open, and Aisha could see the edge of her pink bra. Aisha didn’t like to judge people too quickly, but looking at Gracie, she got the idea that she was a pretty easygoing sort of girl.
“You’re his wife?” Gracie said to Aisha.
“Fiancée,” Heath said, for some reason eager that Gracie didn’t get the wrong idea.
“You’re signing up for duty then?” Gracie said, looking at Heath.
Aisha was impressed at the way Gracie managed to look at Heath. She held his eye, spoke to him straight, and didn’t give any sign that she thought his scars were off-putting. The more she saw of the women in this town, the more she realized that they had to have a lot going for them if they were to survive. They had to be able to handle men, give them what they wanted, and make themselves indispensable. Tilly and Hilda did it back at the inn. Gracie did it here. Aisha just hoped she’d be able to do the same.
“I was supposed to sign up at the start of the week,” Heath said.
“Oh gosh, don’t worry about it,” Gracie said, smiling right at Heath. “We all heard about the vicious attack you survived. I’ll tell you, I was glad to hear a man like you was headed up this way. We need guys who can take on wolves like that. Men who aren’t afraid of anything, who know what it takes to s
urvive.”
Heath laughed. Aisha felt like laughing herself. Gracie was flirting with Heath. This girl didn’t waste any time. She was right on it. She didn’t care what his face looked like. Aisha felt like correcting Gracie and telling her she’d been the one to kill the wolf, but she didn’t bother. For one thing, Heath wouldn’t like it.
Heath seemed to suddenly have found the confidence to take over. He didn’t need Aisha along for moral support anymore.
He nodded toward her. “She’s going to need an escort back to the village. I’m ready to start work right away.”
“All right,” Gracie said, smiling politely at Aisha. “You want me to get someone to drive you back in?”
Aisha nodded. She wasn’t sure about leaving Heath here alone with this seductive woman, but the truth was, she didn’t really care what Heath got up to. If he could find a woman to flirt with now that his face had been completely mauled, good for him. That was what Aisha thought of it.
“Wait here,” Gracie said to Heath.
She took Aisha out to the lot and got one of the guards to drive her back to the village.
“Hey,” Aisha said to Gracie before she left.
“What is it, hon?” Gracie said.
“You’re going to sleep with him, aren’t you?”
Gracie smiled. She wasn’t embarrassed. She wasn’t apologizing either. “I take it you’ve already learned how things work around here?” Gracie said.
“Sure,” Aisha said. “Chicks throw their cat at every single guy in town, just to win their favor.”
“It’s nothing personal,” Gracie said.
“Sure it isn’t,” Aisha said.
“Look, you want to try and keep him for yourself, good luck to you. You might have a chance now that his face has been clawed off, but if you want my advice, you won’t even try. He’s not the kind of guy to stick to one woman. I can tell it already. And you’ll just end up pissing off every other guy in town who flirts with you if you keep rejecting them and telling them you’re Heath’s fiancée. They don’t care for that too much.”
“I don’t give a damn what they care for,” Aisha said, her temper getting the better of her.
“You don’t know, but you saw how easy it was for Heath to get hurt. Guys don’t last forever around here. They get killed all the time. And you’ll care about the other men a whole lot once something happens to Heath. You’re going to wish every single one of them had your back. And the only way to guarantee that is to give them your ass now.”
“Heath’s a strong guy. You said so yourself.”
“He’s strong, but I saw he’s volunteered for hunting duty. Guys who sign up for that are lucky to survive their first season.”
*
Chapter 10
THE GUY WHO DROVE AISHA back to the inn was typical looking for Dead Wolf. He was a burly character with a thick beard and a large, muscular body. He was sipping coffee from a thermos as he drove. The land cruiser was the same issue as the one Hunter drove.
The man eyed her up and down before speaking to her. “You’re the new girl, aren’t you?”
“My name’s Aisha.”
“Are you a friendly girl, Aisha?” he said to her.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“No offense or nothing,” the man said. “I’m just wondering if you’d like to make a little detour before we get you home.”
“What are you proposing?” Aisha said. She couldn’t believe this place. It was like being a woman guard in an all-male prison, or one of those female singers, like Marilyn Monroe, that the US government sent to entertain the troops during the Second World War.
“Whatever you like,” the man said.
“You might try introducing yourself before you hit on someone,” Aisha said.
“They call me Chopper,” he said.
“Why do they call you that?”
“I chop down trees,” he said, “and I’m also a helicopter pilot.”
There was something that interested Aisha. A helicopter meant he could get out of here.
“Do you fly for the company?”
“Yes ma’am,” Chopper said.
“What do you do for them?”
“Air patrols, emergency deliveries, medical airlifts, whatever needs doing.”
“If the road’s so dangerous,” Aisha said, “why can’t everyone get here by helicopter?”
Chopper laughed. “You ever paid the fuel bill for a helicopter?” he said.
Aisha shook her head. “So instead of paying money, they allow people to risk their lives to get up here?”
“That’s the way the world works.”
They’d reached the turnoff onto the main road and Chopper pulled the cruiser over. He put his hand on Aisha’s lap. She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do. She wasn’t particularly attracted to Chopper. He was a decent-looking man, muscular, definitely very strong, but she’d only just met him. Aisha wasn’t in the habit of taking up with every man that said he fancied her.
“What do you want from me?” she said.
“I’m sure they’ve told you how things work,” Chopper said. “Quid pro quo is the name of the game.”
“I give you something and you give me something?” Aisha said.
Chopper nodded.
“That’s what Heath and Hunter told me on the way up here,” she said.
“I bet they did. I’m hardly surprised. If I had you trapped in one of those little ship’s cabins for days at a time, I’d show you how things worked too.”
“I didn’t want to go along with it,” Aisha said.
Chopper shrugged. “That’s the way things are.”
“Why do people keep telling me that?” Aisha said.
“Look. I’m not trying to upset you, lady. But you’ve seen this place. How many women do you think are in this town?”
“So far I’ve encountered Tilly, Hilda, Gracie and Ma Hetty.”
Chopper laughed. “I don’t think Ma Hetty really counts.”
“Why not?”
“I mean, from a man’s point of view. If you were looking for a good time, who would you go to?”
“I’d go to Gracie,” Aisha said.
Chopper laughed. “All I’m saying is, there’s not a lot of options. Over a hundred men in this town. A dozen women. You get my meaning?”
“I get it,” Aisha said, exasperated. “But how is that my problem? Why don’t you go to the brothel?”
“The brothel’s been closed ever since we lost the last of the handmaidens.”
“Did you ever screw a handmaiden?” Aisha said.
She was trying to picture the life her mother would have lived, if she could believe Ma Hetty’s stories.
“I was young, but I tried one. That was before she ran off. She was the last of them.”
“What was she like?” Aisha said.
Chopper looked at Aisha. “It was a long time ago, and she was a pretty girl. She had voluptuous breasts, a delicious, curvy figure, clear, tanned skin. She actually looked a lot like you.”
Aisha shuddered. Had this man slept with her mother in the brothel? If Ma Hetty’s version of events was true, then it was likely he had.
“Why do you think she ran away?” Aisha said.
“Boy, that’s going a long ways back,” Chopper said. “As I remember it, there was talk that she’d done it with a shifter.”
“Mated with one?”
“Yes.”
“And that was illegal?”
“Not officially. Not in the law books or anything. But it would likely have gotten her killed back then. It would have gotten her baby killed too, in all likelihood.”
Aisha thought about that. She’d refused to allow herself to think about what Ma Hetty had told her, but now that it was coming from a second source, she didn’t feel that she could ignore it forever.
“So what do you say?” Chopper said. “There could be a lot of benefits for you in pleasing a chopper pilot. In an emergency I coul
d get you out of this place.”
“You’d do that for me?” Aisha said sarcastically. “You’d forget about everyone and everything and fly me to safety just for one quick bout of hanky-panky?”
“You’d get more help than if I didn’t know you.”
Aisha rolled her eyes. “It’s medieval here,” she said. “Haven’t you guys heard of progress, or women’s rights, or respect, or equality, or any of those things?”
“Look around you, sweetheart,” Chopper said. “This isn’t Manhattan or some place. Up here, we’re all just struggling to survive. The rest of the world wouldn’t believe it if we told them what goes on. How do you think they kept the secret about the shifters? Practically wiped out their entire race, and the world still doesn’t even know about them.”
For some reason, Aisha felt offended when he spoke of shifters like that. She was already beginning to think of herself as one of them. She had to shake herself out of that. It was all just myth. She didn’t believe it. Ma Hetty was just blowing smoke up her ass.
“So,” Chopper said, his hand still on her lap, rubbing her thighs seductively, “are you going to give me a little sugar or not? It will only stand to benefit you.”
“Of course I’m not,” Aisha said, lifting his hand from her thighs. “I don’t know who you think I am. I’ve got some self-respect.”
“You want to be loyal to your man, do you?”
“Of course I do. What woman worth her salt wouldn’t?”
Chopper was shaking his head. “You’ve got a lot to learn,” he said. “That just ain’t the way things work up here. You think your man’s going to be loyal to you? Because I guarantee it that Gracie’s all over him back there.”
Aisha didn’t want to think about it. She was slowly building up the courage to face her demons with Heath, but she wasn’t there yet.
“Just take me to the inn,” she said.
Chopper sighed. He looked sorely disappointed. Aisha was having a very hard time getting used to the fact that pretty much every guy in this town had a hard-on for her. It was quite a change from what she was used to, which was basically being invisible.