by Abby Weeks
Then they started pulling the chain, forcing Logan to his feet, the chain dragging his neck up. Aisha could hardly bare to watch. This was how they were going to kill Logan. She sent out a desperate image to Ma Hetty and the three brothers, begging them to do something now, but they knew they had to wait. They had to wait for exactly the right moment to move in.
It pained Aisha to watch what was happening, but she couldn’t look away either. The men had Logan strung up against the post, his hands in the air above his head. He was facing the post, and someone had brought out a leather whip. When Aisha got a closer look, she saw that it was Heath who was holding the whip.
She wished she could run out and grab him and use his own whip on him. The men were crowding around Logan, closing in on him. Now that he was chained to the post, they weren’t quite so afraid. Logan was still a dangerous animal though, and the way he was snarling at the men was terrifying. Aisha wondered why he didn’t shift. He’d have been safer as a wolf, more powerful, wilder.
She sent a message to Logan to shift. He told her he couldn’t. The collar was already tight on his human neck. If he shifted now, it would strangle him.
Aisha could hardly bare to watch. All of the men she’d met in the village were there. Heath, holding the whip, Hunter, who’d brought her north, Chopper and Harry, the brutish men who’d been so cruel to her when they’d discovered she was a handmaiden, even Hilda and Tilly were there, although they were terrified of what they were watching. Whatever happened to the shifters could easily be redirected toward the women of the village, and they were painfully aware of that. They knew that what they were watching was as much a warning to them as to the shifters.
“You ready to pay for what you did?” Harry shouted.
The crowd all cheered and jeered as they watched.
Logan said nothing. There was nothing for him to say at this point. Heath drew back the whip and sent it flying in a terrifying flash toward Logan’s back. The leather struck him like lightning and left a red streak of blood where it had made contact. Aisha cried out at the sight of it. The flash of Logan’s pain ran through her body.
“Tell us what you did,” Harry said.
Chapter 32
LOGAN REFUSED TO SPEAK. The whip came back down on his back and drew another streak of bright red blood. Aisha felt it again. She even put her hand on her back to check if she was bleeding.
Surely it was time to move in. She signaled Ma Hetty. Ma Hetty said to wait. They had to figure out how they were going to get the collar off Logan’s neck before they moved in. If Logan couldn’t move, if he couldn’t shift, he’d be a sitting duck. Someone would shoot him dead.
The whip came down on Logan’s back again, and again Aisha winced. It was so cruel. It looked so painful. The blood spattered from Logan’s back and flew onto the faces of the men in the crowd. They all cheered.
Again and again the whip came down terribly onto his exposed muscle. Logan’s back grew red with blood. It began to look as if someone had run a rake over it. The flesh was cut up. In some places it started to hang loose from the muscle and bone of his back. The sound the whip made grew wetter. The blood spatters grew worse, and with each new stroke, with each new splash of Logan’s blood, the crowd grew more and more ravenous. They wanted blood. They wanted pain. They wanted Logan to suffer for what he’d done. And they wanted him to admit what he’d done.
Aisha wasn’t even certain yet of what that was. She had no idea of what Logan had been up to when he’d been captured in Fairbanks.
“Tell us what you did, you shifter scum,” Harry shouted at Logan, as if on cue.
The whip came down yet again on Logan’s back, ripping a devastating gash into him.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll tell you what I did.”
The crowd suddenly hushed. They were all ears for Logan’s confession. Logan coughed. He spat blood. Aisha’s heart went out to him. She wanted to lay him down on a bed and nurse his wounds, but all she could do was watch the horrific scene.
“I went to the city,” Logan said.
“And what else?” Chopper said. “You know we already know.”
The men were as mean as ever, but at least no whip came down on Logan’s back this time.
“I seduced your women,” Logan said.
There were shouts from the crowd.
“Kill him,” someone yelled.
“Make him pay,” another said.
Now the whip came back down, and this time it was harsher and more violent than ever. Again and again and again it came down, cutting so far into Logan’s poor back that Aisha thought she could see clear to bone, even from the distance she was at.
She reached out to Ma Hetty and the others. Surely it was time to move in.
Ma Hetty said to wait a little longer. Logan received so many lashes that eventually he lost consciousness. The men were laughing. They got a large bucket of water from one of the cabins and threw it over him to revive him. They weren’t done with him yet. But the water didn’t revive him. He’d collapsed and was dangling limp from the chain that suspended him.
“Take him down,” Heath said, throwing the whip to the ground.
Chapter 33
SOME MEN CAME FORWARD AND removed the collar. Instantly, they regretted it. Logan turned and threw the men who were within his reach like they were dolls. They were taken completely by surprise. The first man was flung into the crowd, knocking over the men who were at the front and best prepared to restrain Logan. Logan raised the second man up above his head and smacked him down into the ground at his feet. Aisha heard a snap and was sure it was the man’s spine.
As the crowd caught its wits and realized what was happening, Logan didn’t waste a second. He shifted into his wolf form and lunged at Heath, who was still standing over the whip. Aisha shut her eyes. She didn’t want to see what happened next, even though it was happening to Heath, someone she had more reason to hate than anyone else on earth.
Logan mauled his face and chest, tearing flesh as if it were paper. The wounds that had deformed him so badly were reopened, and Aisha didn’t know if they would ever heal again. She couldn’t imagine that they would.
From Heath, Logan leapt onto Hunter, who was by now raising his rifle to take aim. He didn’t stand a chance. Logan held the man in his jaws as if he were a toy, and then flung him against the log that the men had erected in the ground. Hunter struck it with a thud. He didn’t get back up.
By now the men had backed off and created more of a distance between themselves and Logan. Many of them had raised their rifles, but they couldn’t risk firing for fear of hitting another man in the crossfire. It was then that the other three brothers entered the scene. They seemed to come out of nowhere and attacked the crowd of man from behind. They grabbed the men closest to them in their powerful jaws and flung them around like they were playthings.
There was panic. The men were running down the street toward the other end of the town. The brothers followed them, biting the men they caught and flinging them around. Aisha rushed out of the cabin and ran straight for Logan.
He had turned back into his human form and she winced when she saw the wounds on his back. They were even worse once she got up close to him.
“Help me,” she screamed as she reached him. She dropped to her knees and ripped her fur garment off her so that she could wrap it around Logan’s wounded body. Ma Hetty, Tilly, and Hilda all rushed to her aid, lifting Logan’s powerful, heavy body up onto their shoulders and bringing him, limping, only semi-conscious, into Ma Hetty’s cabin.
They lay him on her bed, his back looking up at them like a war zone that had just been shelled.
“What can we do for him?” Aisha cried in desperation.
Ma Hetty put her hand on Aisha’s arm. “Shh, child. Keep calm. We’ll see what we can do for him, but crying won’t help.”
Aisha knew she was right. She restrained herself and regained her composure. She wanted to help. She had to help. She filled Ma
Hetty’s kettle with water and put it over the fire. Ma Hetty looked at her approvingly when she saw.
Tilly and Hilda stood by the door of the cabin.
“Bring me those herbs,” Ma Hetty said to Hilda, who was next to a shelf containing small pots.
Hilda grabbed every one of the pots and brought them to the table.
“Aisha, when that water boils, you wet a towel with it and dab those wounds.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Aisha said.
Ma Hetty got Tilly and Hilda to help her grind down some of the herbs with a pestle and mortar. She took some of the water from the kettle and started making a paste with it. Aisha wet the towel with the water once it had boiled, then she went and sat on the bed next to Logan’s powerful frame.
“This might sting,” she whispered.
Logan made a low growl to let her know he’d heard her. Then he growled louder when she started cleaning his wounds with the hot water.
“Shh,” Aisha said soothingly.
Logan seemed calmed by her voice, so she spoke to him. She told him that she’d been very worried when he’d gone off by himself, and that he was a fool for refusing to form the handmaiden’s bond with her. He seemed to listen to everything she said, although she couldn’t be sure if he was actually listening, or just lying quietly so that she’d get his wounds cleaned more quickly.
When she was done, Ma Hetty came over with the paste she’d prepared. Hilda and Tilly stood by Aisha, and they all watched as Ma Hetty put the paste onto Logan’s back.
Logan growled aggressively as she did it, and Aisha had to kneel by his face and hold his hand. She stroked his face as Ma Hetty rubbed the paste into all of his wounds. His back was such a mess that by the time she’d finished, his back was literally caked in the paste.
“What now?” Aisha said, looking at Ma Hetty.
“Now we wait.”
Aisha sighed. She didn’t want to wait. She didn’t know if she could wait. She was so worried for Logan. She realized that she’d be completely devastated, completely lost, if anything were to happen to him. If he died because of her, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to live with herself.
“Will he make it?” she asked.
Chapter 34
MA HETTY LOOKED AT HER, but she didn’t respond. Aisha was terrified of what that might mean. She went to the door of the cabin, opened it, and stepped out. The street was deserted. She reached out to the other three brothers. They had chased the men into the forest and were already on their way back to the village. She waited for them in the street.
They came running back and shifted into men when they reached her. She was suddenly surrounded by naked men.
“How is he?” Packer said.
“Ma Hetty didn’t say. She’s put a poultice on him, but he’s very badly wounded.”
Packer went on toward the cabin. Tucker and Hardy came up to her.
“He’ll be fine,” Hardy said. “He’s virtually indestructible.”
Aisha thought it was very kind of him to be offering her comfort when it was his brother. They all knew how much she cared about Logan, even though she hadn’t managed to bond with him when she’d tried.
She followed the men into the cabin, and when she got there, she almost laughed, despite the seriousness of the situation. Hilda and Tilly were staring at the three brothers, and they were dumbfounded. Their jaws had literally dropped. They were eyeing the men’s massive penises, admiring their muscular chests and torsos. Aisha could tell they were breathless. They were also speechless.
“How long till the men return?” Ma Hetty said.
“Not long,” Packer said. “We tried to get their guns from them, but there are always more. If there’s one thing the humans have an infinite supply of, it’s rifles. We don’t have much time.”
Ma Hetty sighed. “Well, your brother needs more time,” she said.
“What he gets and what he needs might not be the same thing tonight,” Packer said. “Let me go take a look outside. I’ll check the perimeter of the town.”
They all sat at Ma Hetty’s little wooden table and watched Logan’s labored breathing. Hilda and Tilly scarcely took their eyes off Hardy and Tucker. Aisha shook her head.
When Packer returned, he said the men still weren’t venturing back to the village. They were gathering in the forest and discussing what they needed to do. Packer thought they were going to go to the lumber mill and get more weapons, maybe take a helicopter into the air.
“How long will that take them?” Tucker said.
“An hour, maybe a little more,” Packer said.
Aisha breathed a small sigh of relief. At least they didn’t have to move Logan just yet.
“And there’s another thing,” Packer said.
“What is it?” Hardy said.
“Those two men Logan attacked, the ones who came north with Aisha.”
Aisha looked at him, and before he even said it, she knew what he was going to say.
“They’re dead,” she said. The words sounded cold and hollow in her mouth, like dust.
Everyone in the room looked at her. They didn’t know if she still had feelings for the men who’d brought her to Alaska. Aisha herself didn’t know. She walked out of the cabin and toward the post Logan had been chained to. She hadn’t even thought of the two men in her eagerness to get to Logan. Now that she was back outside, she saw that indeed their two bodies were still lying in the middle of the street like crows on a highway.
She froze. She didn’t know what to do. Very slowly, she approached the bodies. It was rude to think it, but they reminded her of garbage bags. They had the same slumped look to them. When she got closer, she saw what Logan had done to them. He’d ripped out both of their throats. It was a bloody mess. She looked around for the bodies of the other men Logan had attacked, but there were none. Heath and Hunter were the only two men he’d killed. He’d killed them on purpose, and it had to be more than a coincidence that the two men who’d brought her up from Washington, the two men who’d raped her numerous times, were the only two Logan had chosen to kill.
She had to ask him about it, but she couldn’t. Not yet.
She bent down over Heath’s body and turned him over so that she could look him in the face. He was hardly recognizable. His face had been so mauled that it was just a mess of blood. And his neck had been opened up like a sardine can. She almost threw up. Aisha couldn’t believe that Logan had done that just because of the whipping Heath had given him. The brothers killed every day, but they’d never been vindictive like that. That wasn’t their way.
As she looked into Heath’s torn apart face, she asked herself what she felt at that moment. Was she sad that the man she’d spent so many years with was now lying dead on the ground like that? She didn’t know the answer. It was shocking to see him lying dead like that. It was shocking to think that she’d watched him die and hadn’t even noticed that he was drawing his last breath. She hadn’t even noticed that his throat had been ripped out. All she’d had eyes for was Logan. She didn’t care about Heath.
And she cared even less about Hunter. Hunter had seemed like a nice man when he’d first come to her house in Washington with his land cruiser. He’d seemed so exciting all those weeks ago. She’d looked up to him and admired him. She’d trusted him. She’d known that he’d be able to stand up and protect her in situations that were too much for Heath. And he had been good to his word. He’d delivered her safely to Dead Wolf, just as he’d said he would.
But he’d raped her. Together with Heath, he’d completely taken advantage of her. They both had. And something told Aisha now that that was the real reason these two men were dead and none of the others were.
Had Logan somehow found out what Heath and Hunter had done to her?
Chapter 35
IT WAS MANY DAYS BEFORE Aisha could ask Logan any of these questions. He’d regained his consciousness long enough to make the journey back up the mountainside to the house. Aisha had said a heartfelt farewe
ll to Hilda and Tilly before leaving the village. Ma Hetty had accompanied them back to the house in case Logan needed her healing skills. It had been a good thing she had, because more than once Logan’s temperature had risen sharply, and if it hadn’t been for Ma Hetty’s herbs, Aisha wouldn’t have known what to do for him.
When she finally got to speak to him, he was lying on the porch on a bed of furs they’d put out for him. He still couldn’t lie on his back or sit on a chair, but he said he wanted to be outside, so this was the best they could do. Aisha stood in the doorway and admired his firm buttocks from where she stood.
“You looking at me?” Logan said.
Aisha blushed. She thought she’d managed to creep up on him. She cleared her throat.
“I was just coming out to check on you,” she said.
He smiled at her. She sat down next to him on one of the wooden rocking chairs. She still wasn’t fully used to the fact that the men were always naked, and she caught herself glancing back down at his perfectly chiseled butt. She wondered what it would feel like to hold it in her hands. She wondered if she’d ever have a chance to make love to him. Would he mate her, or would he keep up his resistance, refusing to let her form her handmaiden’s bond?
“Logan,” she said.
“Yes, Aisha.”
“Can I ask you a question?”
“You can ask me anything you want,” he said.
“Back in the village, the two men you killed?”
“Yes?”
“Did you know them?”
“They were the men that brought you here,” he said.
“I didn’t know you knew who brought me here.”
“One of them was Hunter. I’ve known him well enough for years. The other was the man you were with when you lived like a human.”
“Heath,” she said.