by Abby Weeks
Aisha could see where this was leading. “Wait a minute,” she said. “You’re not going to tell me I’m that child, are you?” She was shaking her head. “I’ll never believe it.”
Ma Hetty raised her hands in the air. “All right,” she said. “Have it your way. I didn’t want to share the prophecy with you in the first place. If you don’t want to hear about it, that’s up to you.”
“I don’t,” Aisha said, rolling her eyes. “I’ve heard enough crazy stories lately to last me a lifetime.”
Ma Hetty nodded. “I understand,” she said.
But there was something about the way she said it. It got Aisha’s attention. Ma Hetty was saying it like it was perfectly reasonable for Aisha not to want to hear the story, like she’d heard enough already, and that one more piece of information would be too much. That made her curious, but not curious enough to ask about the prophecy.
“You’re living it. That’s enough for me,” Ma Hetty said.
“Oh God,” Aisha said, knowing already that she’d regret this. “Just tell it to me. But don’t embellish it. Just tell me plain and simple.”
“I’ll try,” Ma Hetty said, “but it’s not a plain and simple story. It’s anything but simple. It goes all the way back to my own childhood.”
“How?” Aisha said.
“It’s the main reason I became a seer.”
“What do you mean?”
Ma Hetty suddenly looked so old to Aisha. She remembered how old she’d looked the first time she saw her. Since then, they’d become friends, and Aisha had forgotten Ma Hetty’s age. Now she was very aware of it all of a sudden.
“The real purpose of the seers was to make sure this story wasn’t forgotten. This story was the purpose of the seers. Thankfully, now it’s been fulfilled and there’s no more need to pass it on, I suppose. But for hundreds of years, there was always a seer who made sure the handmaidens knew this story.”
“Then tell it to me,” Aisha said. “I’m a handmaiden. Pass it on to me.”
“I don’t have to anymore.”
“Why not?”
“Haven’t you been listening? It’s been fulfilled, child. You fulfilled it. That means there’s no more need of it, and no more need of seers. It means my job is done.”
“Ma Hetty!” Aisha said. “Please tell me this story before I lose my patience.”
Ma Hetty smiled. “Relax, child. Of course I’m going to tell you the story. I wouldn’t have brought it up if I wasn’t going to tell you it.”
“Then why drag it out?”
Ma Hetty raised her hands in the air as if to say none of this was her fault. “You’re the one who said you didn’t want to hear it.”
“Well I want to hear it now. I’m begging you. Please.”
Chapter 44
MA HETTY SMILED. THAT WAS all she’d wanted, an admission from Aisha that the story was important and worth hearing.
“All right,” she said. “Listen well, because I’m only going to say all this once. A long time ago, here in this valley, back when there were many shifters and many handmaidens, there was a wise handmaiden. She became the first seer. She said she had a story that had to be passed on from generation to generation. There always had to be one seer, and the principal job of the seer was to make sure the handmaidens never forgot this story, for it would become the most important thing for our survival.”
Aisha was listening carefully. She nodded as Ma Hetty continued the story.
“For the last fifty years, my job was to make sure this story wasn’t lost.”
“Yes,” Aisha said. She already knew that.
“The story says that a time would come when our people would be all but wiped out. So many of us would be killed that it would look like we were going to become extinct. We’d seen it happen to many creatures before in these parts, we knew all too well that it was possible, but what we never foresaw was the coming of the humans. When the Europeans got here, they changed everything so drastically that for the first time, every shifter realized that there was a very real chance that the time of our end was coming. First the Europeans brought traps, then they brought guns, then they brought bigger guns, and logging companies, and helicopters, and every manner of destruction. There were those among us who wanted to kill every human we could, and there were many shifters who did just that.”
“They killed humans,” Aisha said.
“Yes. They worked with the wolves to kill the humans. But this story changed everything. The seers worked hard, and they managed to instill in the shifters a belief in the prophecy, and gradually the shifters realized that there could be no survival for our species other than through adherence to the prophecy.”
“And what did the prophecy say?”
“It said that a time would eventually come when the shifters and the humans would live in harmony. But that time wouldn’t come until almost all shifters were wiped out. All hope would be lost. We would think that the extinction had actually happened. The last remaining shifters would think there were no more handmaidens. The last remaining seer would think that the prophecy had failed to come true. Everyone would think we were going to become extinct when the last of the handmaidens was killed.”
“And that almost did happen,” Aisha said.
Ma Hetty laughed. “Almost!” she said. “I spent twenty years of my life fearing that it had in fact happened. My entire purpose was to keep belief alive in the prophecy, and I myself thought for years that the prophecy had failed. I thought the last of the handmaidens had died with your mother. I would have sworn by it. At first I told the four brothers the story of the prophecy every day. But there came a time when I stopped telling it. And I think there came a time when I finally stopped believing it.”
“What did it say?” Aisha said.
“It said that when the last of the handmaidens was dead, and the last of the males were waiting for death, lonely and unloved, that a new handmaiden would arrive. She would be from this valley, and not from this valley. She would be the most important handmaiden of all, but she wouldn’t even know what a handmaiden was. She would bring life back to the shifters, but she would have been raised in the land of the humans.”
Aisha was watching Ma Hetty’s lips move. She couldn’t quite believe everything she was hearing, but she did her best to listen to the story till its end.
“The prophecy said that this female would arrive by ship from the south, that she would be aided by humans, but that those same humans would abuse her. It also said that she would be attacked by wolves, and that if the shifters didn’t watch for her, the wolves would kill her before she ever arrived.”
“Is that why Packer was on that ship?”
Ma Hetty nodded.
“Packer and Logan took turns watching the passengers that came off the ships from the south. They couldn’t be there for every ship, but for most of the weekly sailings, they went to the port and made sure no one fitting the description of the prophecy was on the boat. Because they knew that if they weren’t vigilant, the wolves would kill the handmaiden.”
“Packer killed the wolves that attacked me on the way up here.”
Ma Hetty nodded. “Of course he did,” she said. “It was prophesied.”
“Is that why the brothers kill so many wolves?”
“Part of the reason,” Ma Hetty said. “It’s also the reason they help the humans, even though the humans wiped us out. The prophecy said the humans would bring the last handmaiden here. It said the humans would raise her.”
“I was a ward of the city of Seattle.”
Ma Hetty nodded.
“It also said that the prime remaining alpha would kill the humans who brought her here, but he would only do it after finding out exactly what they’d done to her. And out of respect for the fact that they’d brought the handmaiden back to the valley, he would kill them mercifully, instantly.”
“That’s why Logan ripped out their throats?”
“It’s the fastest way he ha
d of killing them. They would have been dead before they even knew what hit them.”
Aisha nodded.
“What else did it say?” she said.
“Most importantly of all, it said that she would bond and mate with four brothers. She would have one pup by each of the four brothers. The pups would be two males and two females. These pups would in turn be able to mate with each other and bring the bloodline of the shifters back to life. In time, they would come to make peace with the humans, make peace with the wolves, and live in the valley in peace and prosperity for all time to come.”
“That’s it?” Aisha said.
“What do you mean, that’s it? That’s the most important prophecy of our people, Aisha. It’s the reason your father and mother and all of the remaining males were so willing to give their lives for you before you were even born.”
“How did they know the prophecy was about me?”
“It had to be about you,” Ma Hetty said. “There was no one left. You were the last one. There were already four brothers who’d managed to survive the killings, and then there was the pup in your mother’s belly. You had to be the one. That’s what I told her before she left.”
“You spoke to her?”
“Of course. What’s the point in having a seer if you don’t speak to her?”
“What did you tell her?”
“It was a difficult time for us, Aisha. It was the end days. Our Armageddon. We thought we were about to be wiped out.”
“What did you say?”
“I wasn’t at my strongest. I was beginning to lose hope. She came to me looking for strength, and I’m not sure that’s what I gave her. I’ll regret that to the end of my days. I should have been more encouraging to her.”
“What did you tell her?” Aisha insisted.
“I told her what I could. I said, either you were the child foretold in the prophecy, or God never spoke to us at all. Either the prophecy would be fulfilled through you, or the prophecy was a lie.”
Aisha nodded.
“I wish to God that I’d been able to give her more than that,” Ma Hetty said. “I should have told her without any doubt that she was carrying the child of the prophecy. But my faith wavered.”
“Did my mother’s faith waver?”
“Not for a second. She knew the truth. She went back and told the males that you were the one. You were the child who was going to fulfill the prophecy and bring life back to our people. She did what I was supposed to do. She brought hope back to the pack. She persuaded the males to do what they did. Then she went to Seattle and saw that you were placed safely in the hands of the humans.”
“I see,” Aisha said.
“Her belief in you was so strong that she brought hope back to all of our people, Aisha. Even me.”
Aisha nodded. It was difficult for her to hear things like this about her mother. She’d been so angry with her mother for so long. Now she was realizing the circumstances her mother had lived in. It made her eyes fill with tears.
“And now you’re pregnant,” Ma Hetty said. “You’re bringing life back to our people.”
Aisha was crying. She felt the tears streak down her face before she realized it. She was crying for all that was lost, and all that could be gained.
Chapter 45
AISHA’S HEAD WAS LITERALLY SPINNING with all of the information Ma Hetty had given her. What did it all mean? Was she really supposed to bring life back to the valley? Was she really going to have two male pups and two females? Were they going to be able to mate with each other?
She sat on the porch and sipped tea and tried to listen to her body. It had only been a few days since she’d mated with Logan, and she could already tell that something was different. Everything was different. She was pregnant. She could feel the young pup already forming within her. She could even feel in some subconscious way the powerful shifter that he was going to become. He was Logan’s son, and he was going to take on the role as prime alpha of the valley. He was going to be the leader of the new pack that carried them into the future. He was the future.
She finally understood what her mother must have felt when she’d found out that Aisha was their future. What a responsibility! To know that your baby was the last hope for your entire species. No wonder she and all the other males had been willing to give up everything to bring her to safety.
What must it have taken for her to leave her child down in Seattle, not knowing who was going to care for her? It must have been the most terrifying thing in the world. Aisha thought of all the things that had happened to her while she grew up. She’d always thought about how things would have been better if her parents had been there to take care of her. That had made her so angry at one time. Now she realized that her mother must have foreseen all of those things. She must have known that Aisha’s life would be less than perfect as an orphan. She also would have known how Aisha would always feel like an outsider, like there was something missing, just because she didn’t know anything about the shifters. What courage it must have taken to leave her child alone in that foreign world and have enough faith in the prophecy to know she’d overcome all those difficulties and somehow, miraculously, come back to the valley and find the brothers she was fated to partner with.
Packer came onto the porch. He had furs wrapped around his waist and his muscular chest. Aisha took in a deep breath when she saw him. She was constantly amazed at how good-looking the brothers were. Even now, after she’d bonded and mated with all of them.
“So,” Packer said. “Ma Hetty has finally told you the whole story,” he said.
Aisha nodded.
“And you’re still here,” he said. “That’s good.”
Aisha laughed. “I’d never leave this place,” she said. “Not now.”
“Not now that you’re pregnant,” Packer said.
Aisha smiled at him. She wondered how he knew.
“I knew as soon as it happened,” he said. “I cried tears of joy.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “It means the prophecy is coming true. It means I’ll have a pup by you too. That makes me so happy, Aisha. The prophecy is true.”
Aisha gave him a sly look. “I won’t be able to give you a pup for a little while,” she said.
Packer nodded. “In the meantime, I have a lot of ideas of things I’d like to do with you.”
“Even while I’m pregnant?”
“That’s not going to stop me,” he said.
Then he got up and came over to her. He reached down and took her hand.
“What are you doing?” she said.
“I’m taking you up to your loft,” he said, smiling at her.
“Right now?”
Packer looked around. “I don’t see any reason not to,” he said.
“Ma Hetty’s here,” Aisha said.
“She’s in the forest collecting herbs,” Packer said.
“Your brothers?”
“My brothers are fine. They’ll be looking for the same soon enough. Don’t worry about them. Don’t worry about any of us. We’re a pack now. We all know where we stand. Logan is the prime alpha, which we always suspected. Now that he’s made you pregnant, we know for sure.”
“Okay then,” Aisha said, feeling very naughty.
She loved her new life. She was doing good, giving life back to the valley, and she was having so much pleasure and love and happiness doing it. It was like a gift.
She let Packer lead her up to the loft. He let his furs drop to the floor as soon as he got to the top of the ladder. Aisha was already taking off her own clothing.
“Come here,” he said, stretching his hands out to her.
She stepped toward him. He put his hands on her hips and lifted her into the air, and then brought her softly down onto her bed. Before she knew it, his head was between her legs, his mouth pressed against the lips of her vagina in a passionate kiss that she knew she would love forever. She wrapped his head in her legs and arched her back. His t
ongue slid over the soft pink folds of her clitoris and she sighed in pleasure. She flung her head back in ecstasy. How had her life become so sexual, so pleasurable?
How had she become so lucky? She was basically being worshipped by four amazing brothers for everything that came so naturally to her. They worshipped her body. They worshipped that she could give them the pleasure of fulfilling sex. They worshipped that she could give them companionship. They worshipped that she could give them young. She was everything to them. She was the future of everything. And they were her future. She worshipped them too, and she knew that she always would.
She was ecstatic about what the future held. She was going to be surrounded by love. She had Ma Hetty there for guidance. She had Tilly and Hilda down in the village to look out for. She wanted to help them, and she knew that she would be able to with time. But most importantly of all, she had the brothers. And she was going to have her pups. It was everything. It was a full life. She would raise strong, proud young who would grow up to take charge of the valley and build up a pack that was worthy of all the trust that had been placed in her. The pack would grow to make all the sacrifices of the previous generations worth it. And she would make peace with the humans. She knew she could do it. She’d grown up with them. She knew them. And she knew what had to be done to live peacefully with those people. The town of Dead Wolf was a difficult place. There weren’t enough women there to keep the men under control, but Aisha knew that in time, that would change.
As Packer slid his strong wet tongue into her hot pussy, she began to moan his name.
“Packer,” she moaned. “Packer.” Over and over.
She thought back to everything that had led her to this place. She remembered the difficulties of her childhood, the hardships of living with foster parents who weren’t always suitable people to leave a young orphan with. She thought about the years she’d spent hating herself for feeling different, for feeling inadequate, for feeling like she didn’t belong. She thought with shame of all the things she’d allowed Heath to do to her, of things she’d allowed him to get away with, the ways he’d disrespected and abused her. When she thought of the journey north and the ways Heath had shared her with Hunter, she almost trembled.