Savage Beloved

But this creature standing before him was not a woman!

A fire entered his eyes that made Hawk Woman suddenly afraid of Two Eagles for the first time in her life.

Chapter Thirty-six

Love laughed again, and said, smiling,

“Be not afraid.”

—John Bowyer Buchanan Nichols

Hawk Woman had never seen such fire in Two Eagles’s eyes.

She was very aware that his shouts had brought the people from their homes. Even now they were gathering around Two Eagles and Hawk Woman.

Following White Wolf’s lead, the wolves were moving closer, something no one had ever seen before.

Hawk Woman flinched when Two Eagles’s grip grew tighter on her shoulders. Her knees were trembling so violently she could hardly stand.

“Tell me everything you know about what has happened to my woman,” Two Eagles said in a low hiss as he leaned his face closer to Hawk Woman’s.

When she still didn’t answer him, he shook her so hard her teeth clacked together.

Truly afraid for her life now, Hawk Woman knew she must give him the truth or possibly die right there, with Two Eagles’s people as witnesses.

“Please stop!” she cried, tears streaming from her eyes. “I’ll tell you everything.”

But only she knew that she would not actually tell him everything. She would never tell him of her intention to kill Candy before she was abducted by Albert Cohen.

“I am waiting,” Two Eagles growled, still holding her tightly by her shoulders. “Tell me now, or I will take you to the white man you escaped from as I go and save my woman from him.”

“No, oh, please don’t make me leave the safety of your village,” Hawk Woman pleaded, her heart racing at the thought of ever having to be with Albert Cohen again.

She loathed the man. He was a beast!

“I will allow you to stay, but only if you give me the answers I seek,” Two Eagles said, slowly dropping his hands from her shoulders.

He placed his fists on his hips. His jaw tightened.

“I am waiting,” he said flatly.

“Alright, I’ll tell you,” Hawk Woman said, glad that his fingers were no longer digging into her flesh. She knew she would have bruises there, for her skin throbbed from the punishment of his grip. “I went into the forest to gather greens for my evening meal.”

She swallowed hard beneath his steady stare. It felt as though he were looking right into her soul and might know a lie when he heard it.

But she had to try to convince him that what she was telling him was what had really happened.

“But I didn’t get the chance to gather anything,” she said. “I . . . I . . . came upon a dreadful scene of abduction just as Albert Cohen grabbed Candy and dragged her away. Candy had a basket and was gathering her own greens, and had just plucked roses from a vine when he took her.”

Two Eagles grew cold inside as he imagined his woman being forced away by the evil white man.

And there had a been a witness to the crime!

Again he placed his hands on Hawk Woman’s shoulders, his fingers squeezing into her flesh. “When you saw my woman in trouble, why did you not hurry back to the village to seek help?” he said heatedly. “Had you done this, my men might have gotten there before the white man traveled far with Candy.”

But before Hawk Woman could reply, a thought came to Two Eagles that made a flood of hot rage fill his veins.

He dropped his hands away from her as he leaned into her face. “You are not telling the truth,” he said, his teeth clenched; his hands were doubled into tight fists at his sides. “You never leave the village alone for any reason. You know the danger, especially after you saw the man you escaped from come into my village. You have stayed within the perimeters of the village ever since your arrival here, so that no white man or woman could see you. You always feared that word might spread that a golden-haired woman was living among the Wichita.”