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

“Do you know how much I love you?” He switched to Lakota. “All my life, I’ve been looking for something. I didn’t know what it was, and I probably made a fool of myself in the way I sought it. But it was you, Medicine Hair. It’s a great mystery why I didn’t waste myself on boys with hard cocks, but I had never been with one of them until Winter Bird initiated me. And I only went with him because I thought that was as close to you as I would ever get.”


He drew a breath. “It pained me when I understood this was what drove Bird away, but I was selfish enough to be glad, too. You would need me now. But I waited and waited. I was close to returning home when you came to me that night. You were loving and gentle, yet you taught me who I was and how I fit into this world.”


Embarrassed by the knowledge I’d wrestled with reservations because of Matthew on the very night he described, I quipped. “I’m going to have to change your name to Good Talker.”


Chapter 49