Thirty-two-year-old mixed blood John Strobaw, known to the Sioux as Medicine Hair, returns to his Turtle Crick Farm after a six-year exile on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Grief-stricken at the loss of his mate and lover Matthew Brand, known as Shambling Bear, at the Battle of Wounded Knee, he struggles to become a farmer again while fighting an internal battle to let go of the past and face his future. Will that future be with his best friend Winter Bird or with Pretty Face, an outrageous flirt who hasn’t yet decided who he is?<br><br>But before he can come to grips with this, John faces several battles. Will his former friends and neighbors accept him now the Indian War has come to an end? Can John forgive those same friends and neighbors after the murderous ambush of the Sioux by the 7th Cavalry at Wounded Knee? Or survive the hostility of an Indian-hating sheriff named Charles Landreth and protect himself against the mindless fear and loathing for Two Spirits, men who love men?

Wastelakapi…Beloved

I dropped behind the earthen embankment as the second man was bringing up his rifle. His bullet showered dirt down on me. I stayed down as Andre opened up. When the firing stopped, I risked a look and saw both rustlers lying on the ground. Without taking my eyes off the fallen men, I climbed the embankment and whistled all clear to Bird as I examined the two men in the dirt. Both were dead.


We located their horses, along with two of our cattle, deeper in the draw and draped the dead rustlers’ bodies over their mounts. I had just recovered Thunder when we heard gunshots out on the prairie. Abandoning everything, we headed straight for where we’d left Pretty Face. Once we cleared the entrance to the breaks, I saw him standing his ground and throwing shots at half a dozen riders bearing down on him. The rest of the gang, likely.


Chapter 20