White Shadows

by Susan Edwards

  Winona went to follow. Her mother stopped her. “Let him speak for himself.”

  Torn, Winona sent a worried look at her father. “Father—”

  “Your father will listen. He may not like what he hears, but he will listen.”

  “You are wise, Mother. I just hope you are right,” she muttered.

  Seeing Eyes smiled and put an arm around both her and Jenny. “He will not think so, and will not for some time, I fear.”

  The women hugged and laughed, bringing dark looks from each of the men.

  Clay told his story. Jenny and Dream Walker and Winona spoke only when called upon. Sharp Nose and Crazy Fox had also arrived. Sharp Nose produced the messages Hoka Luta had left along the trail. Following Hoka Luta, he’d found each one buried.

  But before Hawk Eyes had a chance to do more than learn the facts, one of Henry’s warriors who’d been traveling with Hawk Eyes stepped forward. “None in our tribe knew of his past. He lied to us, spoke falsely.”

  Clay stared for a long moment into the eyes of the warrior who’d spoken. “I knew him well, yet knew him not at all.” Later Clay knew he’d go over and over his younger years spent with a boy named Henry Black Bear with mixed feelings, for Henry was a part of his past and together they’d shared many happy days.

  In those days, Henry had been a brother in his heart. Now the man was truly dead to him. Forever. No longer would this man cause him pain.

  The warriors from Henry’s tribe nodded, and without another word they turned away.

  Clay glanced over at Winona and felt as though the sun had risen deep inside him. When Henry had ended his own life he’d been furious. He’d needed to avenge the deaths of his family and the pain caused to him and Jenny. But, to his surprise, he no longer cared. The hate that had once been his shadow was gone, and all he could think of was the woman he loved.

  He glanced over at her. She was pale, trembling from her ordeal. The day had been a hard one for her. Winona had her arms around her. Jenny looked shaken and on the verge of collapse.

  Clay held out his arms to the two women who meant everything to him. Winona ran to him. He looked at Jenny. “Jenny,” he whispered. “I never gave up hope that you would still be alive.”

  With a sob, Jenny ran to him, too.

  “Welcome home, little one,” he told her, holding her tightly. Winona stepped back. “It seems we have a new family to get to know.” He stared at Dream Walker.

  Star Dreamer walked up to him. She glanced back at her grandmother, then motioned him down. “There are two more brothers,” she whispered.

  “Yes, little one. I have two more brothers to someday find.” He wasn’t sure when, but when the time was right he’d also try to find the twins.

  The little girl opened her mouth, then shut it and walked back to her grandmother.

  “Come on, let’s go.” With an arm around his love and one around his sister, Clay headed down the hillside.

  Epilogue

  Summer ruled. Her breath swept across the land, turning the grass brown and brittle. Colors faded, and many streams were either dry or offered just a trickle of water for both man and beast. But high in the hills, in the shadow of a tower of granite near a large sapphire-blue lake, the grass had remained soft and green, the water glass-smooth.

  Winona leaned back against Clay and stared up at the fingers of color streaking across the sky from the east. “I cannot believe we are truly wedded.” She sighed.

  Clay grunted. “We have been wedded for weeks.”

  Giggling, Winona gave a gentle tug to the fine strands of hair covering his knee. “Am I not worth two weddings?” Not only had her father insisted they return to be properly wedded, but then Clay’s family had also insisted upon another wedding and celebration.

  Clay’s arms tightened. “You know you are. It was the separation until the second ceremony that I objected to. Dream Walker’s doing, no doubt.”

  Threading her fingers through his, Winona snuggled close. “He is a medicine man.”

  “He is a pain—”

  “He is your brother.” Winona turned in her husband’s arms and met his gaze.

  “Yes, my brother,” Clay agreed, wonder filling his eyes.

  The shock of leaning that Dream Walker was not just a friend or brother in spirit, as he’d believed, but a half brother, had stunned Clay.

  He and Dream Walker shared the same mother. Yet as wonderful as that was, learning the truth about his father was a betrayal almost too painful to comprehend.

  “Stop fretting, Golden Eyes. I am fine.”

  “You are sad.”

  “Yes. I feel guilty. I wish I’d known the truth. Things would have been different.”

  “You cannot change the past, my husband.” Winona smoothed her fingers down the side of his face.

  Clay sighed and leaned into her caress. “The truth does not lessen the pain or guilt.” He rubbed his face in her hair.

  Pulling back, Winona focused her gaze on his. “No. The past is gone. But you have the future. You have brothers, family.”

  Clay sighed. “Leave it be, my love.”

  Shaking her head, Winona slid her hands down his arms, massaging the tenseness from him. “I cannot. You have two brothers who are also your family, and they may need you and Dream Walker.” Winona watched him wince in pain. He’d lost so much, yet he’d been given a wonderful gift. Not only did he have his younger sister back, he’d gained not one, but four brothers. Where there had been no family, Clay was now surrounded by family—hers included.

  She turned back to watch the ducks float across the lake. “You will find them,” she said. No matter what he said, she knew he would eventually seek them out. His first wave of excitement had waned, and when his father’s betrayal had sunk in, he’d changed his mind about locating them, not wanting to bring more pain to others, or to deepen his own.

  She knew it was fear—fear that they didn’t need or want him, fear that his presence would stir up new pain for his brothers or their families—after all, he knew not their circumstances—but most of all, he feared that if he found a new family he’d forget the family that had been ripped from his heart.

  “Perhaps,” he finally agreed. “Someday.” He bent his head to the side of her neck.

  Staring at the smooth, glassy surface of the lake, Winona didn’t see the reflections of the lake but of the man behind her. The new, free-of-the-past man. She saw life, color and rebirth in that crystal-clear surface.

  Winona tipped her head to one side. “Clay?” She felt his forehead drop to her shoulder, heard his soft moan of frustration. She smiled.

  “We are finally alone and you want to talk?”

  Breathing deeply, Winona let the beauty of the lake setting wash over her. “We have time. Lots of time,” she said. And it was true. Not only did they have the rest of the summer to explore this beautiful world where it all began, but they had the rest of their lives. But there was one last issue to address.

  Clay straightened and sighed deeply. “I love you, Golden Eyes. Talk and I will listen. But not for long. There are other things on my mind.” His hands moved upward to cup her breasts. “Many things.”

  Winona laughed softly and turned so that she faced him. Her fingers traced his jaw as she cupped his face and stared deeply into his eyes.

  “You no longer live in the shadows.”

  Clay smiled. “Thanks to you. You fill my heart and soul with light.”

  “Your name speaks of shadows.”

  Clay understood. His tribe and family still called him by the name of Night Shadow, yet his wife called him Clay. It was the name she knew, the name of the man she’d fallen in love with, and a name he loved hearing from her lips.

  “If you wish, I will inform all that I will be known as Clay.” He reached out and just as gently ran his fingers through her hair and over her scalp.

  To his surprise, she shook her head. “You are no longer Clay.” Winona rose to her knees. “It would please
me to give my husband a new name.”

  Incredibly touched, Clay remained still for a moment. To hide the deep emotion that threatened to break free, he forced a grin. It wasn’t uncommon for a wife to give her husband a new name. But in this case…?

  He tugged gently at a long strand of silky-soft hair. “I seem to remember that you have given me many names in the past. Dare I trust you?”

  Winona’s eyes watered. “As much as I trust my life to you.”

  Clay turned serious. He trusted her with his life. With his heart and soul. “Then speak, my wife, my breath, my life.”

  Taking his face between her soft palms, Winona moved close. “You walk in the light, not the shadows, and are brother to Dream Walker.” She paused. “I give you the name Sun Walker.”

  The name brought tears to his eyes. It was true. He walked in the sun; he had light and laughter in his life. And love—more than he’d ever thought possible.

  “It is a good name for this warrior, for it is because of you that I no longer walk in the shadows, Golden Eyes.”

  Winona held out her hands and stood. “Walk with me, my husband. Let us greet this day together.”

  Sun Walker pulled his wife into his arms. “Walking is still not what I have in mind, pohkeso.” His hand cupped her buttocks and pulled her dress upward until his palms cupped her soft, rounded flesh.

  Laughing softly, Winona wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on tiptoe. “Mastinca.” Giggling at his furrowed brows, Winona buried her head in his shoulder. Truthfully, he was her igmuwatogla, her lion, to his kitten, but as often as he tried—and succeeded in—mating with her, calling him a rabbit seemed fitting.

  “Be warned, Golden Eyes: I will never get enough of you. I need you, your touch, your love, much more than I need food or even the air I breathe. You are everything to me.”

  This time when her husband lowered her to the damp grass, Winona didn’t protest. Her need for her husband was just as great. With Sun Walker poised over her, Winona shifted her hips and invited her husband to enter. He bent his head to the hollow of her shoulder.

  Overhead, the dawn colors swirled as if rearranging to paint a picture. She held her breath, transfixed by her husband’s slow entrance deep inside her and by the sudden shape of a mountain lion peering down at her from the sky.

  Igmuwatogla snarled once. Use your power wisely to protect those you love, he seemed to order. Then he was gone.

  “Forever,” she whispered, holding Sun Walker tightly to her.

  “Yes, love, forever.” Sun Walker lifted his head. “You are mine. Forever.”

  Winona shifted beneath him. She wanted him. All of him. Now.

  “As you are mine. Now move. Take me to the stars.”

  Sun Walker pulled out, then slid slowly back in until they were joined fully. “In time, Golden Eyes. In time. There is no rush.” He breathed against her ear. “I love you, my wife.”

  Squirming beneath her husband’s pinning weight, Winona groaned. “As I love you.” When he refused to begin the rhythm she so desperately needed, she shifted beneath him. “Witapima.”

  Sun Walker slid out and laughed softly as Winona struggled to pull him back inside. “A toad, am I?”

  “Clay—Sun Walker—please.” She opened one eye. “A very handsome toad, then. A very big toad, if it pleases you, but if you do not stop teasing me, you will be a very flat toad!”

  “Well, I cannot have that. So I will take care of my golden-eyed kitten lest she show her claws.”

  Torn between love and duty; having to choose passion or security; caught between the need for independence and the lure of an all-consuming love. Don’t miss these additional titles from Susan Edward’s White Series, available now.

  White Dawn (Book 1 of 12)

  White Dusk (Book 2 of 12)

  White Wind (Book 4 of 12)

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  About the Author

  Native American/Western romance writer Susan Edwards is the author of the popular White Series. She was nominated for the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Western Historical and the Reviewers’ Choice Best Book Award. She is very pleased to be able to offer her series in digital format. Susan is working on an idea for a new White book, a reunion of characters. She is also working on developing a new series, one that she is very excited about. Check her website, www.susanedwards.com, for current news.

  Susan lives in Central California with her husband and a houseful of cats, including two rescue kittens who stole her heart. Her other passion is gardening. Through her love of all things Native American, she has designed a twenty-six-foot medicine wheel garden and has “broken ground.” It is a big project but one that she loves. You can follow her progress on her website. Susan also loves to knit and join her husband for hikes in the hills when it isn’t too hot outside.

  You can follow Susan at her various social media outlets:

  Facebook: www.facebook.com/susanedwardsauthor

  Twitter: www.twitter.com/susan_edwards

  Blog: http://www.susanedwardsauthor.blogspot.com

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  ISBN: 978-1-4268-9267-7

  Copyright © 2011 by Susan Edwards

  Previously published by Leisure Books

  Copyright © 2003 by Susan Edwards

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  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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