Savage Arrow

“You now speak words to each other that can come only from your hearts, for I have said all that I can to bless this union of my chief and his woman,” Hawk Dreamer said, slowly stepping back and suddenly disappearing amid

the crowd.

Thunder Horse held Jessie’s hands as he gazed into her eyes. “Today I take you for my wife, to protect and love you forever and ever,” he said with deep emotion, his eyes searching hers. “What is mine is now yours, for my shaman has not only blessed us, Jessie, he has married us. We are now as one with each other. Your heart is joined with mine. Our souls are as one until the day we part from this earth, and even then they will remain united, for nothing can ever separate us. Not even death. Jessie, from here on, I will care for you and the children you bear me. You will never be out of my mind. My mitawin, my wife, you are with me now for always.”

Jessie was amazed that she was already married and had not even been aware of when Hawk Dreamer had joined them as man and wife.

But she was glad that the ceremony wasn’t as complicated as she’d thought it might be.

She was Thunder Horse’s wife!

She could hardly hold down her excitement, but knew that she must, for she had words to say to Thunder Horse, too, words to tell him of her love and commitment.

“My love, my chief, my husband, I will always be here for you, as your wife and the mother of your children,” Jessie murmured as his hands gripped hers gently. “However you want me to be, I shall be. I want never to disappoint you. When I bear children, I will eagerly hand them over to you to hold and to love. My darling Thunder Horse, my husband, I love you now and forever and ever.”

He drew her into his arms and kissed her gently at first, and then more ardently and passionately.

The singing began again, and the drums beat more loudly. Many other instruments added their voices to the music, sending the wonder of it heavenward.

And then Thunder Horse took Jessie by the hands and turned her so that they both faced all of his people, which now were definitely also hers. “My people, may I present to you my bride?” he cried.

Cheers and chants rose into the sky.

Dancers began dancing around the huge fire.

Thunder Horse grabbed Jessie into his arms and carried her at a half trot to their new lodge.

After the ties were secured to ensure their privacy, they stood and faced one another. Between two stones a fire burned with the coal-like glow of cottonwood bark. Across the stones lay a large buffalo bone, the meat cooking slowly.

Before Jessie and Thunder Horse had come into the lodge for their first night as man and wife, a woman had been there to turn the meat so that it would cook evenly and thoroughly.

It would be their first meal as man and wife, awaiting them after their lovemaking. They would crack the bone and before they ate the meat, each would suck out the tasty marrow.

“It is done,” he said, his eyes dancing. “We are now husband and wife!”

“It is a day I shall never forget,” Jessie murmured, flinging herself into his arms. “And I shall never disappoint you. Never.”

Slowly he lifted the flowers from her hair, and then with his teeth he removed those from between her breasts.

He dropped those flowers to the rush mats on the floor, then slowly removed her dress so that he could devour every inch of her with his feasting eyes.

“You cannot say that I am much to look at now,” Jessie said, smiling shyly at him.

He laughed softly. She knew that her body was terribly out of shape with the baby rounding her belly into a ball.

“No matter how your belly grows, you will always be beautiful to me,” Thunder Horse said hoarsely. “A child growing within a woman’s womb causes a radiance within the woman. I remember my sister when she was carrying Lone Wing inside her belly. She glowed. I recall how her husband could hardly take his eyes off her. Yet surely he did not love her as much as I love you, for I love you with every ounce of my being.”

“As I love you,” Jessie murmured, closing her eyes in ecstasy as he kissed a slow path across her belly, and then downward, where she throbbed with need of him.

She threw her head back and sighed as he touched her with his tongue where she was already tingling and alive.

She wove her fingers through his thick hair and brought him closer to her. She felt as if she were floating on wings, as he brought her close to that realm of total rapture.

But wanting to be with him when she reached that treasured moment, she leaned back away from him.

He smiled at her, then removed his own clothes and soon lay over her. Their bodies moved together as though one, their lips meeting passionately in lingering kisses.

A flood of emotions overwhelmed Jessie as Thunder Horse, her husband, groaned against her parted lips while he moved slowly with acute deliberation within her. Gradually he moved faster with quicker, surer movements, each thrust almost sending Jessie over the edge into total bliss.