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

The sheriff stepped between us, a move that made me nervous because I couldn’t see what Pindleton was doing. I glanced at Ethan and saw he was watching the big man closely.


Landreth walked toward me, arms spread wide, a piece of paper in his right hand. As soon as he was close, he thrust it at me. “This here’s his bill of sale.”


I refused to take it. “And it has my signature on it?”


He glanced at the paper. “Well, it’s got your mark.”


My eyebrows went up. “My mark? What mark?”


“It’s an X. But it’s witnessed by somebody named Philby Parsons.”


Pindleton spoke up. “The gentleman who witnessed your signature. He’s a surveyor. A respected professional.”


I ignored the crook. “Landreth, I can write the English language as well as you can, maybe better. I sign contracts with my name, not an X. And why would I sell water rights to my farm? That would render it useless to me.”


Chapter 46