Savage Beloved

“I had no idea that he was your cousin,” Candy said, glad that they were near the village.

She glanced down at Spotted Bear. He hadn’t stirred again.

She looked then at Shadow, who had caught up with them. She smiled when she saw that her wolf stayed close by Spotted Bear’s side.

She caught a glimpse of one of the wolves following them. It remained hidden in the dense forest at the left side of the trail.

She imagined that the wolves feared for their friend Spotted Bear’s life and hated being separated from him!

“We are almost home,” Two Eagles said, drawing Candy’s attention back to him. “I shall ride ahead and prepare my people for Spotted Bear’s arrival. I shall also prepare my shaman. It is all in his hands now, whether my cousin lives or dies.”

Candy watched him ride away; his warriors continued on with her and Spotted Bear.

When they arrived at the village, everyone was standing outside, looking guardedly at the man on the travois.

Candy knew that there would be some who might never accept Spotted Bear’s presence in their village.

But that mattered not.

What did matter was that finally Spotted Bear was home, truly home, and his chief had accepted him, and his shaman was awaiting him.

Candy rode onward and stopped before Crying Wolf’s lodge, where Two Eagles stood, waiting.

Candy dismounted while Two Eagles gently unwrapped the blankets from around Spotted Bear, then lifted him into his arms and carried him inside the shaman’s lodge.

Candy waited outside.

When Two Eagles came out again, she gazed into his eyes as he looked lovingly into hers.

“He is now under the care of our shaman,” he said. “Hiyu-wo, come, my woman. Let us go home. There we will await word about my cousin’s condition.”

Candy saw that their horses had been taken away and that the warriors had returned to their homes. She also noticed that everyone in the village had resumed their normal activities.

When Candy and Two Eagles were inside their tepee, where Shadow was already asleep on her pallet, Two Eagles placed his hands at Candy’s waist and turned her to face him.

“Thank you for being the woman that you are . . . a woman whose heart is loving and giving,” he said thickly. “Had you not gone when Shadow came for you, my cousin would have died.”

“He might still,” Candy murmured.

“He is in good hands, so I doubt that he will leave this earth just yet,” Two Eagles said. He took her by the hand and led her down beside his lodge fire, which was now only glowing embers. “If he was strong and brave enough to have lived through the scalping, he will not allow an ordinary fever to take him away from the life that now awaits him. I will make it all up to him; he will soon forget that time he felt he no longer belonged among his own people.”

Candy was relieved that he still loved her and wasn’t angry that she’d gone to help Spotted Bear. She was thankful that he had found her that day of her own misfortune, when she was crawling away from the massacre. She now knew that nothing would ever stand between them and their devotion to one another.

“I’m so tired,” Candy murmured, easing into Two Eagles’s arms as he held them out for her.

“Sleep,” he said, holding her close. “I shall hold you and watch you. I find it hard to take my ey

es off you. You are everything precious on this earth.”

Candy melted into his embrace.

She went to sleep with a contented smile on her face.

Chapter Twenty-eight

The soul unto itself

Is an imperial friend—