Savage Courage

by Cassie Edwards

  His hands slipped between them. As one hand found a breast, cupping it, the other swept downward and began caressing her where her heart seemed to be centered. She was throbbing almost in unison with her heartbeat.

  As their bodies strained and rocked together, strange new sensations were born inside Shoshana, so sweet and wonderful, she realized now that this man she loved would always find new ways to show his love for her.

  Delicious shivers of desire raced across her flesh as his lips moved downward and his tongue swept around one of her rose-tipped nipples. His hands now moved to her buttocks, splaying his fingers across her soft flesh and holding her more tightly against him as his manhood moved even more insistently within her.

  Storm was in awe of this woman and what she could do to him. His passion for her was like a burning flame. He felt a tremor beginning deep within him and knew that the moment of rapture was near.

  He wanted to be certain that she reached that same peak.

  He paused and gazed deeply into her midnight-dark eyes. “I have never known such happiness as when I am with you,” he said softly. He reached one hand to her face and slowly traced her features with his fingers. “My woman, it is magic that you have brought into my life. I love you, Shoshana. Oh, how I love you.”

  “Before you, I had no idea such love existed,” Shoshana murmured back to him. “It is so magical, Storm. Every moment I am with you is better than any fantasy someone could think up. Oh, Storm, just to think that I fled from you—”

  He placed a gentle finger against her lips to still her words. They were together now, and what he or she had done to get them to this point was not important. That they were together, and would be forever, was all that mattered.

  “Hush, my woman, and just enjoy these precious moments, for soon we will be facing reality again and I will have difficult decisions to make for my people.” He gave her a lingering kiss, his arms around her, anchoring her fiercely against him as again he thrust into her.

  Shoshana felt a blaze of urgency building within her. It stole her breath away. She clung to him as she felt the passion building.

  Then they both gasped as the world began to spin around them in silver flames, their bodies coming together as one as they again found that secret place of rapture that only those truly in love could ever know.

  Breathing hard, Storm rolled away from her. He closed his eyes and waited for his heartbeat to slow. He was keenly aware of her lips moving over his body, causing the passion to begin anew within him.

  But, knowing what lay before them—the journey up the narrow passes, which would be especially difficult with only one horse for the two of them—Storm opened his eyes and smiled at Shoshana. He placed his hands at her shoulders and gently eased her away from him.

  “If you continue, my energies will be spent, and I need much strength to get us through the next hours as we travel up the mountain to our stronghold,” Storm said huskily.

  “‘Our stronghold,’ ” Shoshana said, sitting up, her eyes filled with contentment. “Ah, how I love the sound of that. It is so good to know that I am a part of your life now and will be for always.”

  “Yes, for always,” Storm said, sitting up and reaching for her. “One last kiss and then we must bathe quickly, eat, and be on our way.”

  “I wish we could stay here with the magic we have created beside this lovely stream,” Shoshana said. Then, sighing, she rose from the blankets and gazed wonderingly at the slowly meandering stream. “I bathed there before you awakened. It was so cold!”

  “You were there while I slept?” Storm said, his eyes widening. “I normally do not sleep that soundly.”

  “It is because so much has happened to tire you,” Shoshana said, taking his hand as he rose to his feet. “Soon everything will be as you wish it to be.”

  “I would not say it will be as I wish it to be when it comes to moving my people to Canada, but I see it as the only way for my people to survive,” he said sorrowfully. “The United States Government has done a lot to trick all men with red skins. The Apache no less than the others.”

  They waded into the stream, splashed water on each other’s bodies, then hurriedly left the water and wrapped themselves in warm blankets as they sat down before the fire.

  “I’ve heard how the government has tricked so many tribes,” Shoshana said, drawing her blanket up to her chin. “How have the Apache been tricked, Storm?”

  “In many ways, but I will tell you mainly of one incident,” Storm said tightly. “My father was chosen to go into council with many white-eyes from Washington. The Apache tribe, as a whole, unanimously sent him to ask for peace. My father told the white-eyes that the Apache chiefs had chosen to offer all their mountains, waters, woods, and plains in exchange for peace. Those Americans said they saw that the Apache truly wanted peace. They sent my father back to our Apache people with assurances that the Americans wanted none of their woods, waters, or mountains, but that they desired peace, as well.”

  “And then they broke the promise,” Shoshana said sadly.

  “Ho, the pindah-lickoyee broke their promise,” Storm said, nodding. “And so it is that most Apache are now on reservations. My band has been spared, but mainly because we live where no white man wants to live, and where no white man has ever found us. Were they to discover our stronghold, I believe it would be the end of our band of Apache. They would come and slaughter us.”

  “And this is why Canada looks so good to you,” Shoshana said, nodding her thanks as he gave her a small wooden dish of berries and sliced pemmican.

  “This is why we have no choice but to go there,” Storm said. “And soon.”

  “I will be happy no matter where I am as long as I am with you,” Shoshana said, enjoying the food and reveling in these special moments with the man she loved.

  They ate their fill, then dressed and broke camp and headed once again for the stronghold. As they rode upward on the pass, Shoshana saw flowers that she had not seen before.

  “Those lilies are so beautiful,” she murmured as she clung to Storm’s waist, this time riding behind him on his steed.

  “After a long winter, glacier lilies bring the first color back to the high country,” Storm said, smiling at her over his shoulder. “Their bright yellow blossoms flourish in the bare earth and melting snow.”

  He gazed at the lovely flowers. “The cheerful little lilies follow that elegant black and white boundary up there, drinking thirstily from the steady drip of the vanishing snow,” he said. “They chase the departing snow like a brilliant yellow fire, one wave after another, up and over the ridges. The Apache children of our stronghold, who gather flowers, are taught gratitude and respect for them. The girls are reminded that glacier lilies are the season’s first food for the grizzlies.”

  “They look good enough to eat,” Shoshana said, laughing softly and trying not to think about grizzlies. She still could not forget her fear of the panther that still prowled this mountain; the idea of bears was even more frightening.

  “They can be eaten,” Storm said, again smiling at her over his shoulder. “But more than a handful will give you a stomach ache. It is best to eat only a few, no matter how tempting their sweet crispness.”

  They rode onward, Shoshana taking in everything with delight. She felt as though she had entered paradise.

  “Look up and to your right,” Storm said, knowing how much she was enjoying the beauty of his mountain. “I call what you see ‘sun fields,’ because they are filled with the purple and gold fairy slipper. This wild orchid can also be found close to my stronghold. The girls are instructed to take only one of these flowers each year, though they can pick any other flower to their heart’s content.”

  “I see so many varieties of flowers and plants; this place takes my breath away,” Shoshana said as they rode steadily upward.

  “Yes. There is the sweet-scented royal-blue lupine, fire-red paintbrush plant, the cerise fireweed, and then there are the oxeye daisies,�
�� he said.

  Suddenly the lovely sweet mountain air was disturbed by a noise that brought Storm’s eyes around to meet the questioning look in Shoshana’s.

  “You heard it too?” Shoshana asked, snuggling closer to Storm.

  “Yes, it sounds like someone crying for help, but with a voice not much louder than a tiny bird’s cry,” Storm said, drawing rein.

  “Then it wasn’t my imagination,” Shoshana said, her eyes searching around them for any signs of life.

  “Let us sit here for a moment and listen,” Storm said, his eyes darting from bush to bush, then into the thick aspen forest at his right side.

  Shoshana’s heart beat loudly within her breast as she listened. And then she heard it again, this time more clearly.

  She and Storm exchanged quick glances. “Yes, I too heard it,” he said.

  He dismounted, grabbed his rifle from the gunboot, and lifted her from the horse.

  After tethering its reins to a low tree limb, they moved stealthily, hand in hand, toward the spot where they had heard the second cry for help.

  “We must be wary of the panther,” Storm said, his rifle held tightly at his left side, while Shoshana was at his right.

  “Yes, the panther,” Shoshana said. “Storm, I’m so afraid!”

  “I am with you, so do not fear anything,” Storm reassured her. “I will protect you from all harm.”

  “But the panther could be stalking us even now, above us, watching our every move,” Shoshana said.

  She glanced up at the ledges of the mountain. She was relieved when she didn’t see anything but lovely flowers and green growth.

  Suddenly they heard the cry again, and this time so close, they knew that it was a man . . . a man in much pain.

  “Please . . . help . . . me,” Mountain Jack pleaded as his eyes met Storm’s.

  Shoshana’s knees almost buckled beneath her when she saw Mountain Jack. Not out of fear because he was alive after all, but out of horror at just how badly injured he was. His hair and whiskers were filled with dried blood.

  She gulped and turned her eyes away. One of his arms had obviously been chewed on, while his bare chest revealed many deep, bloody claw marks.

  His clothes were half torn off him, and what was still there was stained with blood.

  But the worst of his injuries was to his legs. Shoshana did not want to even think of the pain he must be enduring with so many teeth wounds in his leg.

  She did not see how he could still be alive after losing so much blood. But surely men as vile as Mountain Jack, without heart or conscience, did not die all that easily.

  Storm gaped openly at Mountain Jack, deep revulsion filling his senses at the sight of his enemy. The knowledge that this man took scalps from any red man he could manage to corner made Storm look past his terrible injuries and see the killer he was.

  “Please . . . please . . . get me away from here,” Mountain Jack pleaded, tears streaming from his eyes. “The panther might return at any moment. It . . . it . . . is keeping me as though I am some sort of toy. It injured me enough to make it impossible for me to escape. Please, oh, please have mercy.”

  Storm’s jaw tightened. He swung his rifle up and aimed it at Mountain Jack. “When did you ever show mercy to any of my people?” he growled out.

  Shoshana scarcely breathed as she waited to see what Storm was going to do. She understood his need for vengeance.

  She sought her own, for she would never forget sweet Major Klein, and how heartlessly the scalp hunter had taken his scalp. Nor would she ever forget how he had taken her hostage, chaining her up and threatening her life.

  This man was pure evil.

  “Please don’t kill me,” Mountain Jack begged, reaching a bloody hand out toward Storm. “I’m sorry for what I did. Chief Storm, you are a man of peace, a man of good heart. Look past your need of vengeance and show me mercy!”

  Storm’s eyes narrowed. His finger found the trigger of his rifle.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Out of your whole life,

  give but a moment.

  —Robert Browning

  The report of the rifle caused Shoshana to flinch and close her eyes.

  She trembled as she turned her back to what must be a terrible sight.

  Even though she detested and loathed Mountain Jack with every fiber of her being, and knew he deserved to die, she just wasn’t used to seeing death up this close.

  Young Major Klein’s death was the first she had witnessed. This time, Mountain Jack deserved to die. Yet she did not want to look upon the face of death again so soon.

  “Thank you, oh, Lord, thank you, Chief Storm . . .”

  Stunned by the sound of that voice, Shoshana opened her eyes wide in wonder. The evil scalp hunter was still alive.

  She spun around and gazed at Storm, who still held the smoking firearm, then looked down at Mountain Jack, who had a strange twisted smile of relief on his face.

  “I decided that it was not what I wanted to do after all,” Storm said, lowering the rifle to his side. “Why should I be the one to give this man a quick, merciful death, when he took so many lives in unmerciful ways? It is best that he be made to suffer the wounds the panther has inflicted on him. To kill him would have taken his pain away. It would have been too merciful . . . too quick.”

  “But you fired the rifle . . .” Shoshana said, gazing down at it, then looking slowly up at him again.

  “I felt that it was best to fire it, in case the panther was close by. The sound will frighten it,” Storm said, looking sternly down at the man groveling at his feet. “We need time to get this man away from here.”

  “Where will you take him?” Shoshana asked, gazing down at Mountain Jack.

  “To Fort Chance,” Storm said without hesitation.

  “Fort Chance?” Shoshana gasped out. “Truly? You are going to Fort Chance?”

  “Ho, and I want you to go with me,” Storm said, reaching a gentle hand to her shoulder. “It is best that we hand over this hunted man to those who will know what to do with him. He is a wanted man, hunted by both my people and the white-eyes. I would rather his final fate be decided by whites, not the Apache. If I give the pindah-lickoyee this opportunity, I believe they will realize, once and for all, how I long to have a permanent peace with them.”

  “But you were going to achieve that by going to Canada,” Shoshana murmured. “Are you considering not going there now? Do you think those who are in charge in Washington will truly be swayed by this act of friendship? Will it be enough to make them respect your people?”

  “I will still take my people to Canada land, but I feel that handing over the scalp hunter to them will assure that our people’s journey there will not be marred by possible attacks from the white eyes,” he explained.

  “But if you take him to the fort, I must go with you, and you know I left a note that might not have been taken kindly by the colonel. Also, they might follow you to your stronghold,” Shoshana murmured. “I’m not sure about any of this, Storm.”

  He took her hands in his. “I feel that it is best to allow them to see the truth between you and me, that we will soon marry,” he said softly. “If not, the colonel would always wonder where you were, and possibly decide to try to find you, even though you said in your note that you didn’t want to be found.”

  “I still don’t,” Shoshana said, her voice full of emotion. “I want to just look forward, not backward. I’m afraid that if I return to the fort now, while George Whaley is still being prepared for burial, they will expect me to stay long enough for the funeral. How can I explain my feelings about him? Perhaps I should have shown them the scalp that I found in George Whaley’s trunk. Then they would understand.”

  “It is not important that they understand anything but that you and I are going to be married and that you will live out the rest of your life as an Apache,” Storm said firmly. “I truly believe you should go and let them see that you are all right and let them know
what your future holds. Afterward, they can go on with their own lives, no longer concerned about you.”

  “You do believe I should?” Shoshana asked, her eyes searching his.

  “It is best that we clear the way for many things today by taking this man to the fort,” Storm said, glancing down at Mountain Jack, who regarded them with a look of horror.

  “I’d rather you’d have shot me,” Mountain Jack said, his voice breaking. “Shoot me now, Storm. Put me out of my misery. I can’t bear to come face to face with Colonel Hawkins. That man hates me with a passion. He’ll surely torture me slowly before he hangs me, for he is a hanging man. He hangs any man he hates and can get away with hanging.”

  “Your fate is what you have made for yourself,” Storm said, his jaw tight. “You will go to the fort. We will leave you there. Whatever happens then is nothing to me, or Shoshana.”

  “Ma’am, tell him he’s wrong,” Mountain Jack begged. “Surely you’re grateful to me for not hurting you. You know I could’ve.”

  “I know that if Storm had not saved me, I would probably be dead now,” Shoshana said. “I have no pity for you. As Storm said, your fate is what you have made it.”

  Storm slid his rifle into the gunboot on his horse, then began gathering limbs that had fallen from the aspens. “We must lash together a travois and get out of this area before the panther returns,” he said, already laying the limbs out. “Come and help me, Shoshana. I’ll show you how. This is the only way we can get Mountain Jack to the fort.”

  They worked together until the travois was large enough to carry Mountain Jack. They soon had him tied onto it and covered with a blanket.

  Shoshana clung to Storm’s waist as they made their way down the mountainside, and then rode across a straight stretch of land.

  This time Shoshana didn’t admire the flowers, or anything else. Her mind was on what lay ahead, and what she would say to Colonel Hawkins when he saw her with Storm.

  She gazed down at her dress. It was the dress her mother had given her, the doeskin beautifully embellished with pretty beads of all colors. She felt Apache today and knew that she looked it. Even the soft, beaded moccasins on her feet were like those her Apache sisters wore.