Savage Skies

by Cassie Edwards

  She would, too, for he had ways to make her mindless. Even now, she began to writhe in response to his fiercely passionate kiss. The power of his body made her long for more.

  She was breathless, her eyes closed, as she clung to him. He plunged into her, withdrew, and plunged again. He rolled one of her nipples with his tongue, and then the other, all the while not missing one thrust inside her.

  She clung to his rock hardness and wrapped her legs around his waist, becoming one with him in every way. She gave herself up to the wondrous rapture as his dark, stormy eyes gazed into hers. Again he kissed her with a fierce, possessive heat.

  She buried her face next to his neck, mindless as waves of bliss flooded her senses.

  Blue Thunder felt the warmth of rapture rising up inside him, spreading and swelling until it blotted out all other sensations.

  He clung hard to her. He placed a hand beneath her chin and lifted her face so he could kiss her precious lips again while his hard, taut body continuously moved against hers.

  “I cannot hold back any longer,” he whispered into her ear. “My mitawin, my woman . . .”

  Shaken by desire, she clung to him and rode with him as her passion crested to match his. Then suddenly everything she had been feeling, the wondrousness of it, dissolved into a delicious tingling heat, spreading, searing her heart and very soul. She knew that he had found his own ultimate pleasure as his body rocked and swayed with hers, each new thrust inside her leaving them both in ecstasy.

  “Again, my mitawin, again you have made me see that there is always something more that you give to me,” Blue Thunder said huskily as he braced himself on his elbows and gazed into her eyes. “You give me the most exquisite love each time we are together.”

  “Then I have warmed you sufficiently after your swim in the icy river?” Shirleen asked, giggling softly as he gave her a mischievous gaze.

  “I believe I need to be warmed just a bit more,” he said, brushing soft kisses across her lips. “Do you have more to give?”

  “I shall show you how much,” Shirleen said, reaching for his manhood and cupping it within her warm hand.

  She moved her hand on him, knowing that he loved for her to do this. When she did, he always got a burning look of desire in his eyes as the pleasure built within him.

  He closed his eyes and let the passion fill him, then leaned up on an elbow and gave her a wicked look. He moved down her body and loved her with his tongue and mouth as he had the first time he had shown her this special way of making love.

  She sighed with pleasure, closed her eyes, and slowly tossed her head from side to side as the passion built within her. Then he was over her again and his manhood was inside her.

  She clung to him as he kissed her, and soon both were trembling with completion a second time as the ultimate pleasure was sought and reached.

  Afterwards, they lay together beside the fire, their eyes closed. The ecstasy they had shared was unique and pure.

  “I know we made a baby today,” Shirleen suddenly said, causing Blue Thunder’s eyes to open and look at her.

  She turned on her side and giggled. “I feel it,” she murmured. “I just know that what we did today made a baby.”

  He laughed, glad to see her so lighthearted and hopeful about the subject that usually pained her. He reached for her and held her against him. “I feel it, too,” he said, hoping that what they had both felt was true.

  In time they would know.

  In time . . . “My owanyake, handsome warrior,” she whispered against his lips as she leaned closer to him. “I love you so very, very much.”

  “You are learning my . . . our . . . language very well,” he said, laughing.

  Chapter Thirty-two

  She could feel as if she were

  Out for the day,

  As she had not done

  Since she was a little girl.

  —James

  May . . . Moon When the Ponies Shed

  Radiantly happy, so proud of the swell of her belly, Shirleen was now four months pregnant. She had left the village to pick spring flowers, loving the pretty blue lupines and wild pink roses that grew up the trunks of trees.

  Every spring the aspen trees exploded with color and sound as waves of yellow-rumped warblers came north to feast on caterpillars and insects on the budding branches.

  Shirleen had been amazed the first time she had looked up and seen the sheer volume of birds in the sky.

  It was a feast for the eyes and ears.

  Blue Thunder had seen her marvel over the birds and had told her that they came every spring to the northern forests on their way to the breeding grounds in Canada and beyond.

  Shirleen laughed softly as she looked over her shoulder and saw Megan and Little Bee chasing beautiful butterflies. The girls were hardly ever apart, true sisters, as though they had been born from the same womb, created by the same mother and father.

  Little Bee still slept in Bright Sun’s lodge, because of their attachment to one another, while Megan most of the time slept in Shirleen and Blue Thunder’s tepee.

  Megan did sleep with Little Bee and Bright Sun whenever she could, for the children loved talking and laughing into the wee hours of the morning. They never seemed to lack for things to talk about.

  “I have never felt as at peace as I do now,” Shirleen murmured as she looked over at Speckled Fawn, whose face still wore sadness from the loss of her husband. She reached over and gently touched Speckled Fawn’s arm. “One day you will be at peace again inside your heart. Each day should get easier for you.”

  “I know that most people see it strange that I could have loved an older man so deeply, but I did,” Speckled Fawn said softly. “I doubt I shall ever love again. They say you only love once—I mean truly love—in your lifetime. Dancing Shadow was my true and lasting love.”

  “You are still young,” Shirleen said as she slowly pulled her hand away from Speckled Fawn. “I believe you will find another man who will bring sunshine back into your heart.”

  “I’m not sure I would even want that,” Speckled Fawn said, her eyes brightening when she saw a patch of yellow daisies a short distance away. They were growing at the edge of a thick stand of aspen trees. She walked quickly to them. “I love daisies. I want some for my lodge.”

  Shirleen always felt uncomfortable when she was so close to trees where anyone could be lurking.

  She knew she shouldn’t have wandered so far from the village, yet if she turned and looked in its direction, she could still see smoke spiraling from the smoke holes of the tepees and felt that she was safe enough.

  But she would not go farther.

  She must do nothing to endanger her unborn child, or her two darling girls.

  “Don’t go any farther, Speckled Fawn,” Shirleen warned, still studying the dark shadows between the aspen trees. A soft wind suddenly blew, rustling the leaves and creating a peaceful sound that almost lulled Shirleen into forgetting that danger could be anywhere, at any time.

  She was so glad that the renegades, especially Big Nose, were no longer wreaking havoc.

  And no one from the fort had come to the village to question the Assiniboine about the renegades’ deaths.

  Sighing, standing, and waiting for Speckled Fawn to gather the last of the daisies, Shirleen marveled about the goodness of her husband. He and his Assiniboine people had accepted her and Megan completely into their lives.

  And soon, ah, soon, another child would be born into their lives.

  “Hurry, Speckled Fawn,” Shirleen said, growing even more uneasy.

  Again she gazed into the forest.

  She flinched when she thought she saw movement among the shadows, and heard what might be a twig snapping.

  She chided herself for being so uneasy, especially on such a beautiful spring day. She had waited a long time for such a day after having been forced to stay inside her lodge for so long due to the cold winter and early spring.

  Suddenly she w
as aware she could no longer hear the children laughing, and her mind snapped back to attention. She grew stiff as she turned on a moccasined heel and looked for the girls.

  She sighed with relief when she saw them darting in and out of tall lupines, laughing as they chased butterflies.

  She hoped they knew not to wander farther than the flowers and wanted to tell them, but something warned her not to draw attention to them.

  The children came into view long enough to wave at her, and then they were gone again as they ran to chase the butterflies.

  Again a sound from the darkness of the aspen trees brought Shirleen around to stare into the forest. Even Speckled Fawn seemed aware of something amiss; she backed up toward Shirleen, her eyes locked on the trees.

  “You heard it, too?” Shirleen whispered as Speckled Fawn stepped quickly to her side. “Perhaps it’s only a deer, or a red fox. I have seen several foxes these past days. They are so beautiful, I hate to see them killed for their pelts.”

  “They do seem to be so trusting,” Speckled Fawn said, clutching her basket of flowers closer to her side. She laughed softly. “I think we are letting our imaginations get out of hand, thinking that what we heard was something besides a forest animal.”

  She turned to Shirleen. “Let’s go home,” she said. “I think we’ve had a long enough outing, don’t you?”

  “Yes, and enough flowers to make pretty decorations for each of our lodges,” Shirleen said, laughing softly. She grew serious again. “It is so sad that you had to destroy the tepee in which you lived with your husband. It held such memories for you.”

  “It is the custom to take down a tepee where someone has died,” Speckled Fawn said somberly. “I understand the custom, but I, too, would have loved to remain where my husband and I had sat together beside the fire.”

  “But I like the fact that your new lodge is much closer to mine,” Shirleen said, smiling sweetly at Speckled Fawn. “We don’t have so far to walk now to gossip together.”

  They both flinched at the same time when they heard a sound coming from behind some thick bushes nearby. What they saw next made them grab for one another as their baskets of flowers fell from their hands.

  Earl stepped from behind the bushes, a shotgun aimed directly at Shirleen’s swollen belly. “Well, what do we have here . . . two of my favorite women?” he said, chuckling.

  He was unaware that Megan had heard his voice and had grabbed Little Bee’s hand. The two children were now running through the tall flowers behind him, toward their village.

  Megan knew the danger her mother and her mother’s best friend were in. She and Little Bee were going to seek help!

  Earl’s smile faded as he glowered at Speckled Fawn.

  “Well, now, Judith,” Earl said, speaking the only name by which he knew Speckled Fawn. “Ain’t you the smart one? You talked me into giving up my daughter while all along planning to take her back to her real mommy.” He glowered even more darkly at Shirleen, then gazed at Speckled Fawn again. “After sobering up enough to understand what had happened, I thought it over and knew that something was rotten in Denmark. I had to find out what. I just had a hunch that the woman who took Megan was connected somehow with my wife.”

  He heaved a sigh. “But I had no idea where Shirleen was after she was taken by the renegades. I searched around here for a while, then went to Johnson’s Fort, downriver from Fort Dennison. But after thinkin’ more on what happened, I began to believe that Shirleen would still be somewhere in this area, so I looked and looked. Finally I found her, as well as you, Judith, and my child.”

  He had been watching the girls romping and playing, and only now realized that he no longer saw them anywhere. He guessed that Megan had gone into hiding the minute she had seen her father with a gun aimed at her mommy’s belly.

  He would find her next, and then he’d show Shirleen that it was not the smartest thing to do to cross ol’ Earl Mingus. He’d take his daughter again, but not before killing her mother and the golden-haired woman who seemed to be her best friend.

  He gazed at Speckled Fawn’s attire and how she wore her hair in two long braids. Then he stared at Shirleen who was also dressed like an Indian.

  His eyes lingered long on her belly.

  “And so you’re someone’s squaw, are you?” he said tightly.

  He gazed past her at the smoke rising from the tepees not far away.

  Then he smiled cruelly at Shirleen. “Yep, I saw you with a savage,” he said. “You’re living in sin with that savage, you know, because you are still legally my wife.”

  “I am nothing to you,” Shirleen said, frowning at him. She was so afraid, she could hardly stand. “The father of my child is my husband in all respects . . . my true husband. In my eyes, and God’s, you are no longer my husband. You lost the right to call me your wife after you abandoned me, and after you stole my daughter from me.”

  Shirleen placed her fists on her hips, trying to stare him down. “In fact, Earl Mingus, you are nothing to anybody. You are no longer a father to my Megan. The man I married is everything to me and Megan. Do you hear? Everything.”

  She prayed that Megan would arrive soon with Blue Thunder, for out of the corner of her eye she had seen Megan run off toward the village.

  “Well, I’d never even want to touch you again after you’ve slept with a lice-infested savage,” Earl snarled. He motioned with his rifle toward the darker depths of the aspen forest. “I have one extra horse besides my own, but both of you women can share it. I’ll get you far enough away from the Injun village, and then kill you both. And to hell with Megan. I don’t care what happens to her. She’s been nothin’ but trouble since the day she was born.”

  The hatred that Shirleen felt for Earl at this moment was so intense, she was ready to try to grab his shotgun, but knew she didn’t have a chance against him.

  And she wanted this baby that grew inside her womb so badly, she would do nothing to harm it.

  She only hoped that Megan’s little legs would take her to Blue Thunder in time.

  “You will never get out of this alive and you are a fool if you think otherwise,” Shirleen said, trying to buy time. “I’m not sure if you realize just who my husband is. He is Chief Blue Thunder. He will hunt you down, and when he finds you, he will scalp you slowly and painfully while you are still alive, and then he will kill you.”

  Earl took an unsteady step away from her. He had grown pale. “I knew you were married to an Injun, but had no idea it . . . was . . . such a powerful chief,” he said. “I had no idea it was his village I had been stalking. I just knew it was a village of redskin heathens and that you and Judith lived there. I even watched you from afar, and also Megan, waiting for the chance to get you.”

  He laughed cynically. “You probably think you’ve done yourself good by marrying a chief,” he said.

  He looked past her, at the spot where he had seen Megan hide. “Megan, come out, come out, wherever you are,” he said. “If you don’t, Papa is going to come for you. You don’t want Papa to spank you with his belt, do you?”

  Just as he spoke the last threatening words, an arrow came whizzing past Shirleen and Speckled Fawn, landing directly in the arm that held the shotgun. Earl dropped it immediately.

  And then another arrow came just as quickly, sinking into Earl’s stomach. He screamed in pain and fell to his knees, trying to yank the arrow from his stomach.

  “You son of a bitch!” Earl cried out as Blue Thunder stepped into view, his bowstring readied with another arrow.

  Shirleen hurried and grabbed up Earl’s shotgun, then stepped quickly away as Blue Thunder ran up to her side.

  He held the bow steady as he glared down at the injured man. “The girls came and warned me,” he said as he looked from Shirleen to Speckled Fawn, and then gazed down at Earl again. “I told them to stay with Aunt Bright Sun while I went to save her mother and Aunt Speckled Fawn.”

  Speckled Fawn smiled widely at her new title of aunt.
Every day she felt more accepted by Blue Thunder and his people.

  Shirleen gazed unblinkling down at Earl as he fell over to one side and lay in his own blood, his eyes glassy now as he looked back at her, pleadingly.

  “Save me,” Earl begged. “I was something to you once. Please . . . save . . . me. Your papa would want you to save me. Don’t you remember? He thought I was something special.”

  Blue Thunder eased his bow across his shoulder and slid the arrow that had been locked on its string back into his quiver. He took Shirleen’s hand. “Let us go home,” he said, totally ignoring Earl as he clung to his last moments of life, begging for mercy.

  Shirleen could not help staring at Earl as his breathing became slower and slower and his eyes grew dull. “What about him?” she asked, looking quickly up at Blue Thunder.

  “Leave him be,” Blue Thunder said coldly. “He deserves to die alone, and he will. He will die soon. He will be food for the animals that roam the darkness of night.”

  Earl heard that last comment. “No!” he screamed pitifully. “How . . . can . . . you be so inhumane? Shirleen, how . . . can . . . you . . . ?”

  Shirleen turned away from him with Blue Thunder and Speckled Fawn at her side. Together they walked away from Earl, his screams growing weaker and weaker.

  “It does seem so inhumane,” Shirleen said, visibly shuddering.

  “Consider who the man is, and then you will see why he should die in such a way,” Blue Thunder said implacably. “I will send warriors later to make sure he is dead. When word of his death is brought to me, I shall do what is right in your eyes. I shall have him buried, but far, far away, so we will never come across his resting place. I want no reminders of him to trouble us.”

  Shirleen sighed with relief that Earl would get a proper burial even though she knew he deserved much less.

  When they reached the outer edges of the village, Megan came running toward Shirleen.

  Shirleen bent to her knees and took her daughter into her arms. “The nightmare is now truly over,” she murmured into Megan’s ear. “My micinski, you can sleep well at night now, and you can run and play free of worry that your father may suddenly appear to abduct you. My darling daughter, we have both been freed of a demon.”