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

Again, we said nothing, merely mounted and took a steady pace north until we reached Trickling Water. Then we waded the crick bed for a couple of miles until twilight. I picked a place along the little stream to bed down for the night where a steep embankment sheltered us from ready observation. Ethan built a small fire to heat water for coffee, after which we settled down to gnaw jerky to still our growling stomachs. Only then did we talk.


“Are they likely to pursue us?” Ethan asked/


“Someone fired on them. So far as they knew they were under deadly attack, but the bullet was poorly aimed and killed one of their mounts. Even so, it was an attack. Probably one in aid of killers who were trying to escape.” I reached over and touched his arm. The heat rose within me.


He clutched my hand and held it against him. “With any luck, they’ll believe they turned back the two trying to escape.”


I succumbed to my immediate needs. “I have missed you.”


Chapter 87