Loved by the Pack: Wolf Shifter Menage (The Wolfpack Trilogy Book 3)

by Abby Weeks

  “Are you sure?” she said.

  He held her tighter.

  “How do you know?”

  He leaned down and looked into her wet eyes.

  “River wasn’t the only person I spoke to when I was in Fairbanks,” he said. “There’s another man there, an old shifter. I went to see him and told him you’d returned from Washington. I figured, if anyone knew about you, it would be him.”

  “Who is he?”

  “His name is Gray.”

  “I thought there were no other shifters left.”

  “They’re rare, but there are a couple, here and there.”

  “So what did Gray say?”

  “I asked him about your mother.”

  “You know who my mother was?”

  “Ma Hetty told me who she was. She knew what I was doing.”

  “Who was she?”

  “Well, I understand that Ma Hetty told you a little about her.”

  “She told me that she left me in Seattle because I’d be safer down there.”

  “It was true. She did leave you in Seattle because it was safer.”

  “The thing I don’t understand,” Aisha said, “is why she left me there. Why didn’t she stay there with me? If she brought me there because it was safer, I understand that. But why couldn’t she stay with me?”

  “She couldn’t.”

  “Why not?”

  “She had to come back here.”

  “Why? What possible reason could there be to leave your own newborn baby?”

  “She didn’t have a choice, Aisha.”

  “You keep saying that,” Aisha said.

  She was getting upset. She knew she shouldn’t be—what was the point at getting mad at something that had happened so long ago? What could she possibly gain from it?

  “The reason your mother had to come back,” Logan said, “the reason she couldn’t say in Seattle with you, was because of your father.”

  “What about my father?”

  “It was a complicated situation,” Logan said.

  “Well, I’ve got time,” Aisha said.

  Chapter 38

  SHE WANTED DESPERATELY TO KNOW what on earth could have persuaded her mother to abandon her in Seattle. If her mother had stayed with her like a mother was supposed to, her whole life would have been different.

  “Well, your mother was a captive of the humans for a long time,” Logan said. “She’d been used as a whore in the brothel in the village.”

  “I know the place,” Aisha said.

  “Well, it was your father who helped her get out of there. And once she was free, it didn’t take long for them to mate, as you can imagine.”

  Aisha nodded.

  “Well, after mating, your mother got pregnant. That was you.”

  “And she went down to Washington?”

  “That was the plan,” Logan said. “But the humans captured your mother when your father was out hunting.”

  “While she was pregnant with me?” Aisha said.

  “Yes. And they brought her to this place. By that time, this place was already deserted. The men used it as a prison.”

  “So how did she get out?”

  “Your father, he was a very brave shifter. He was the alpha of the entire valley.”

  “Like you are now,” Aisha said.

  “Yes, but like you can imagine, there were a lot more shifters in the valley back then. It meant more to be prime alpha of a larger population.”

  Aisha nodded.

  “So he rescued her again?” Aisha said.

  “Not quite,” Logan said. “He tried. He tried a number of times. He and a number of other shifters, they tried to get your mother out of here. Your father was desperate to get her out. His mate and his child were in there, but there were so many men guarding this place that it just wasn’t possible.”

  “So what happened? How did my mother get free to go to Washington?”

  “Well, your father spoke to the humans. He said he’d give them his own life in exchange for your mother’s and yours.”

  “And what did they say?”

  “They said that was two lives in exchange for one. They wouldn’t make the deal.”

  “But he was the prime alpha of the entire valley.”

  “They told him they’d give him your life, the unborn cub, in exchange for both of theirs.”

  “For both my parents?”

  “Yes.”

  “How would that work?”

  “They said your mother could go down to Seattle and give birth to you. They knew that if she left you down there, you’d never even know you were a handmaiden. And being so far from our homeland, your shifter instincts would never kick in. They figured that made you harmless.”

  “But how did they know that my mother would return?”

  “They knew. First of all, your mother was a handmaiden, and handmaidens don’t lie.”

  “But if it was a choice between staying to raise her baby and coming back here to die, she might change her policy on that.”

  “That’s why the humans had all the males who’d been fighting alongside your father give themselves as guarantee.”

  “What?”

  Logan nodded. “It was all the remaining adult males in the valley.”

  “What?” Aisha said again. “They all turned themselves in?”

  “Yes they did.”

  “For me?”

  Logan nodded.

  “But that’s crazy. Obviously the men were lying. They killed all of them, didn’t they?”

  “Yes they did.”

  Aisha was shocked. “That’s what happened here.”

  “Yes.”

  “But surely my mother and father saw that it was a trap.”

  “They knew it was a trap. So did every one of the males that volunteered his freedom to the men. Every one of them knew that they were going to be killed, and your mother knew that she was going to come back and get killed.”

  “And they walked right into it.”

  “Because of you, Aisha. Even then, everyone knew you were special. You were worth it.”

  “How could I be worth that many lives?”

  “Because you were the future. Every one of those males knew it. Your mother was the last handmaiden, or close to it. There was a very real chance that you were the last pregnancy that the shifters of this valley would ever have. They couldn’t let the humans kill you. What would be the point of fighting on if they let you die?”

  Aisha couldn’t believe it.

  “If they let you die, what were they fighting for? You were it, Aisha.”

  “So what happened?” she said.

  “Your mother went to Seattle alone. She gave birth to you. And then, knowing you were safe down there, she came back to face her death.”

  “Were the males still alive when she got back?”

  “Yes. The humans didn’t kill them because they needed to make sure your mother arrived. And when your mother got back, that was when the massacre happened. There was no fight. The males were in cages. They couldn’t fight back. They were shot in the cages and left here. So were your parents.”

  “Were your parents among them?”

  “Our father was,” Logan said.

  Aisha looked at him. His father had died so that she could be born, just as her own parents had. She was stunned. So many had died for her. That changed everything. It made her see her entire childhood in a different light. She also saw why the four brothers were so amazed that she’d returned. And she realized just how much she owed them. Everything had been given up for her in order to save their race.

  “Why didn’t they come after you?” she said to Logan.

  “They didn’t know about us. Not till we were old enough to defend ourselves. It’s very difficult to kill a male shifter when there are no females left to force us to come in.”

  Aisha realized that was how her race had been wiped out. The females were easy to capture because they couldn’t shift, and then
the males would trade themselves in to rescue them. It was heart-breaking.

  “Show me her grave,” Aisha said. “And my father’s.”

  Logan looked at her. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?” he said.

  She nodded. She hopped down from the fence, and he led her to one of the graves.

  “This was your father,” he said. “And my father’s next to him.”

  Aisha bent down in front of the grave and crossed herself. She’d never been very religious, but she knew there was more to life than what she could see in front of her. She knew there was a God who watched over everyone, and if that was true, it meant he watched over shifters and humans alike. They were all creatures created by him.

  She prayed. For the first time in a long time, she completely opened herself to her prayer. She prayed for the soul of her father. He’d given his life for her. He’d given the lives of all his friends for her. She’d never thought much of her father because she’d never met him. She’d assumed her father had been some deadbeat who’d made her mother pregnant and then run off. Now that she knew the truth, she was deeply touched.

  She looked around at the place. It was certainly peaceful. The trees hung low over the little cemetery. The air was still. Even the birds seemed to know that the place was sacred. She figured there could be worse places to find her father.

  She lifted a piece of soil from the ground and kissed it. Then she got up.

  Logan put his hand on her shoulder. “Are you all right?” he said.

  “I’m fine,” she said. “Take me to my mother.”

  He led her to the back of the graveyard. There was a large cross there that Aisha had thought was for everyone.

  “This is your mother,” Logan said.

  Suddenly, Aisha felt a wave of emotion rush right over her. It caught in her throat and she tried to hold back her tears, but she couldn’t. She sobbed.

  “Aisha,” Logan said.

  “I’m fine,” she said. “It’s just … it’s a lot to take in.”

  “I can imagine.”

  “I waited my whole life to find my mother,” she said.

  “Well, this is where you found her.”

  “I never imagined it would be like this,” she said.

  “You thought she’d abandoned you.”

  Aisha tried to stop crying, but the sobs kept coming. She’d spent her entire life being angry at her mother. She’d spent her entire life trying to stop herself from hating her mother. Now she realized that she’d been wrong all along. She’d had completely the wrong idea. Her mother had sacrificed everything for her. She’d come back to die with her father and the rest of their pack just so that Aisha could have a chance at life. She got down on her knees in front of the cross.

  The tears kept coming, but she wanted to say something. She had to speak to her mother, give some acknowledgement for all she’d given up for her.

  The only word that came to her mind was thank you, and she said it.

  “Thank you, Mom,” she said, and she choked up. She sobbed and cried, and once she started, she couldn’t stop. She cried and cried and cried.

  “Thank you for bringing me to safety,” she said. “And for giving me life,” and she wailed as she said that. “And thank you for coming back for my father. It wouldn’t have been right to let him and all the other males die for us without returning. It just wouldn’t have been right.”

  She went to the cross and kissed the charred wood, then she said another silent prayer to thank God for giving her a mother and father who were willing to go to such lengths to protect her and bring her to safety.

  Chapter 39

  AFTER SEEING THE GRAVES OF her parents and learning what they’d done for her before dying, Aisha couldn’t help looking at the whole world differently. Everything in her life, everything that had happened to her in the past, seemed to be colored in a different way now that she looked at it with the knowledge of her parents’ sacrifice. And she was so grateful to Logan for having given her that gift. She was touched that he’d gone to all that trouble to find out for her who her parents were. He’d made sure of all the facts before presenting any of them to her. That meant he really cared about her. He’d also made sure Packer’s story was true before he’d killed Heath and Hunter. That meant he had a strong sense of justice. Those were two things that Aisha was quickly realizing were very important to her.

  She knew that she was ready to bond with Logan. Every time she saw him, her heart started pounding in her chest. She’d hear his voice and look around, searching for him. The other brothers all noticed it too. They didn’t mind. They knew that Logan was the oldest and most alpha of the four of them. It was only right that he’d eventually get her attention like this. Even Packer wasn’t jealous. He seemed satisfied with the bond he had with Aisha—he knew that she would mate with him regardless of the fact that she was going to bond with Logan. He knew that her relationship with Logan wasn’t a threat to her relationship with him.

  Aisha was very relieved that her new infatuation with Logan wasn’t upsetting him. But more than that, she was amazed at how much love she was able to hold in her heart. She’d always thought that a woman could only properly love one man at a time. Ma Hetty told her that a good handmaiden was able to have a heart big enough for many men. Aisha was beginning to see how true that was. She felt nothing but love and desire and passion for each of the four brothers, in a different way for each of them, and her love for any one of them didn’t interfere with her love for the others.

  She knew the ball was in her court. She was the one who had to form the bond with Logan. The problem was that she was nervous to bring it up. Despite everything that had happened between them, she could still remember all too clearly the feeling she’d had when he’d run off. She’d been there on that mountaintop, ready to offer him everything, and he’d run. What if that happened again? What if something she did or said during the bonding ceremony set off some other deep-rooted emotional response in him, and he couldn’t go through with it? She would die if that happened.

  She thought about it for days, but never got any closer to making a move. She’d walk up to Logan when he was washing in the stream, or when he was out on the deck smoking his pipe, but every time he turned to face her, the words just disappeared from her mind. She’d keep changing the subject, making up some other reason she needed to speak to him. He must have been wondering if she’d changed her mind about forming the bond with him at all.

  Eventually, after she realized she desperately needed to do something, she went out one evening and began climbing her way back up the mountain to the Knife Point, the place she’d tried to bond with him the first time. It took her longer than she remembered to climb all the way, and by the time she got there, the sun had set and the sky was a deep pink. She looked up and saw geese flying north in their v-formation. It was a beautiful sight. The night was perfect. The air was calm and still.

  It felt like the kind of night where dreams could come true.

  And then she heard Logan’s voice. “Aisha.”

  She spun around, startled. “Logan,” she said.

  “Are we doing this?” he asked.

  She nodded her head. Ma Hetty had told her that she’d know how to form her bond with a male when the time came, it was different every time, and not something you could learn. It had worked last time. She wondered nervously if this time would be the same.

  Logan stood before her, naked in his human form. He was looking right into her eyes, his face a mixture of love and desire. He and his brothers always managed to make her feel so beautiful. It was the way they looked at her. She didn’t know what they saw, but whatever it was, they liked it. It made her so happy to be loved like this.

  She opened the tie at her neck and let her furs fall to the ground at her feet. Standing in front of Logan naked was like standing in warm sunlight. The look on his face lit her up, it warmed her. He took a step toward her, and she took a step back. He smiled.

&n
bsp; “Just look at me,” she said.

  He looked at her, his cock stiffening with desire as he did.

  “Tell me what you see,” she said.

  Chapter 40

  LOGAN CLEARED HIS THROAT. “Well,” he started, uncertainly, “I see you, Aisha. I see the most beautiful female ever to have graced these forests. I see the future of my species. The last female. The precious child that all the males of the valley gave their lives to protect. When I look at you, I see everything. I see happiness, I see pleasure, I see sexuality and desire. I also see pain, and wisdom, and so much nurturing love. There’s enough love in you to keep me and my brothers happy for the rest of our lives, and that’s something that’s so important to me. When I look at you, Aisha, I see everything. You’ve overcome so much. You grew up alone. You didn’t even know you were a handmaiden, and yet you still found your way back to us. That’s got to be a miracle. I always thought you were lost forever. I never understood why my father had given up his life. When I went out to find your mother for you, I finally found the answer to that question I’d always had. Everything makes sense to me now that you’re in the world. My father’s death. The death of our people. The future of my seed.”

  Aisha blushed. Logan had so much to say. When he mentioned the future of his seed, her vagina quivered with desire for him. She wanted him inside her, right now.

  Slowly, moving as sensually as she knew how, she moved her hand down to her vagina and slid it inside her. She was already wet with desire. When she brought her finger out it was wet with her juice. She waved it in the air for Logan to catch the scent of it.

  “Never forget that scent,” she said to him. “It’s the scent of my heat. When you smell that, you’ll always know that I’m ready to mate with you. And I’m always willing, Logan. For you, if I’m hot, I’m hot for you. You can always mount me.”

  Logan nodded. His penis was so hard it looked like a wooden beam that was jutting out from his body.

  “Come closer to me,” Aisha said. “I offer you my handmaiden’s bond. I offer you myself, my body and my heart. I am always yours, and you are always mine.”