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

He shook his blond head. “Don’t see how? It would raise too many questions. I take it you have established a liaison with him.”


“Aye. That is why we were at Pine Ridge. Touch the Clouds and Red Cloud said words over us.”


His face registered his feelings on that subject, teaching me to be only so frank with my brother-in-law. After all, he was white to the core. To him, marriage between men was likely even more incomprehensible than sex between two males.


“Bad timing,” I said to move us on. “I thought by now he’d have found a way to sneak away and come home.”


“They’re patrolling the most likely escape routes.”


I cleared my throat and turned the subject to Ides, explaining my perception of the boy and touching on my belief he should understand both bloods that coursed in his veins. Gideon studied the porch railing for a long while before speaking.


Chapter 85