Savage Illusions

by Cassie Edwards

  Spotted Eag­le smi­led and fol­ded his arms ac­ross his ba­re chest, sa­vo­ring every mi­nu­te of this ti­mea ti­me for which he had wa­ited a li­fe­ti­me!

  Laughing and gig­gling, Jole­na and Mo­on Flo­wer ran to the ri­ver and fo­und an iso­la­ted pla­ce for the­ir bath and swim. Af­ter they we­re un­c­lot­hed, they do­ve in uni­son in­to the ri­ver and swam and pla­yed and la­ug­hed.

  Then, in a mo­re som­ber fas­hi­on, Jole­na and Mo­on Flo­wer left the ri­ver. Mo­on Flo­wer dres­sed qu­ickly, then hel­ped Jole­na in­to her mot­her's wed­ding dress, which they had ta­ken from Jole­na's lod­ge be­fo­re the sun had rep­la­ced the mo­on in the sky. Af­ter the dress was han­ging be­a­uti­ful­ly and clin­ging sen­su­o­usly to Jole­na's cur­ves, Mo­on Flo­wer pre­pa­red Jole­na's ha­ir, brus­hing it, then bra­iding it and pla­cing da­isi­es abo­ve Jole­na's ears.

  Moon Flo­wer ad­ded the fi­nal to­uch. She pla­ced ear­rings ma­de of shells on each of Jole­na's ears, then held Jole­na's hands as Jole­na step­ped back for her fri­end to see.

  "The elk tusks that de­co­ra­te yo­ur dress are worth two go­od hor­ses," Mo­on Flo­wer sa­id, gig­gling.

  Then she grew se­ri­o­us. "You are a be­a­uti­ful bri­de," Mo­on Flo­wer mur­mu­red, te­ars fil­ling her eyes at the tho­ught of her own mar­ri­age vows that had be­en de­ni­ed her not only on­ce, but twi­ce!

  "I fe­el be­a­uti­ful," Jole­na sa­id, her pul­se ra­cing. "Now what do I do? I'm so ex­ci­ted, Mo­on Flo­wer, I fe­el as tho­ugh I may fa­int!"

  "Go to Spot­ted Eag­le," Mo­on Flo­wer sa­id softly. "He is wa­iting for you in yo­ur lod­ge."

  "He is the­re, in my lod­ge that sits in the cir­c­le?" Jole­na sa­id, the be­ats of her he­art a gre­at pul­sing so­und in her ears, her ex­ci­te­ment was so in­ten­se. "Do you think he ap­pro­ves of the lod­ge?"

  "Who wo­uld not ap­pro­ve, if yo­ur hands we­re res­pon­sib­le for it," Mo­on Flo­wer sa­id, dra­wing Jole­na in­to her soft em­b­ra­ce. "Go. Be happy."

  Tears of joy stung the cor­ners of Jole­na's eyes. She eased from Mo­on Flo­wer's em­b­ra­ce and tur­ned and wal­ked with we­ak kne­es and throb­bing he­art to­ward the vil­la­ge, whe­re her lo­ved one wa­ited to ma­ke the­ir uni­on com­p­le­te. She felt as tho­ugh she we­re flo­ating high abo­ve her­self, lo­oking down on so­me­one el­se ex­pe­ri­en­cing such blis­sful hap­pi­ness!

  She smi­led he­aven­ward, si­lently than­king the one who was truly res­pon­sib­le for this spe­ci­al day. "Lord, I shall fo­re­ver be gra­te­ful," she mur­mu­red. Smi­ling, she knew that this was one cus­tom of her whi­te he­ri­ta­ge that she co­uld ne­ver le­ave be­hind her­her be­li­ef in her God was so­lidly im­bed­ded wit­hin her­self.

  When she ca­me to the ed­ge of the cle­aring that led in­to the vil­la­ge, she stop­ped and sta­red at the te­pee that sat in the cen­ter, won­de­ring if Spot­ted Eag­le was as fe­ve­rishly an­xi­o­us as she.

  Lifting her chin, pro­ud and su­re, she mo­ved on­ward, pus­hing her way thro­ugh the throngs of Blac­k­fo­ot who we­re al­re­ady in the midst of a grand ce­leb­ra­ti­on.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Jolena he­si­ta­ted only a mo­ment be­fo­re step­ping in­si­de her lod­ge­long eno­ugh to ta­ke a de­ep, qu­ave­ring bre­at­h­t­hen she lif­ted the en­t­ran­ce flap.

  She had ex­pec­ted to find Spot­ted Eag­le sit­ting be­si­de the lod­ge fi­re. In­s­te­ad he was sit­ting in the sha­dows at the back of the te­pee. When he re­ac­hed a hand out to her, she went to him and knelt down be­fo­re him.

  His eyes de­vo­ured her as he ran his ga­ze over her. An­xi­o­usly, she wa­ited for him to say so­met­hing.

  When his ga­ze mo­ved up­ward and his eyes loc­ked with hers, she still wa­ited, for he did not spe­ak, only lo­oked.

  ''Is the­re so­met­hing abo­ut what I ha­ve do­ne in pre­pa­ra­ti­on for our mar­ri­age that dis­p­le­ases you?" Jole­na fi­nal­ly as­ked. "Dar­ling, ple­ase say so­met­hing. I am at a loss. I ha­ve do­ne ever­y­t­hing that Mo­on Flo­wer in­s­t­ruc­ted me to do. Is the­re… mo­re?"

  "You ha­ve do­ne ever­y­t­hing to per­fec­ti­on," Spot­ted Eag­le fi­nal­ly sa­id. He re­ac­hed a hand to her ha­ir and to­uc­hed one of her bra­ids, then smo­ot­hed his fin­gers over the da­isy at her left ear. "In my eyes you ha­ve al­ways be­en be­a­uti­ful, but to­day yo­ur lo­ve­li­ness sur­pas­ses an­y­t­hing I wo­uld ha­ve tho­ught pos­sib­le."

  He cup­ped her chin with one hand. "To­day two he­arts co­me to­get­her to be­co­me one li­fe," he sa­id so­lemnly. "To­day you ha­ve be­co­me my 'sits be­si­de me' wo­man. You are my wi­fe."

  Jolena suc­ked in a wild, sur­p­ri­sed bre­ath. "We are mar­ri­ed?" she mur­mu­red. "The­re are to be no words spo­ken over us? No vows ex­c­han­ged?"

  "Everything you did to­day, pre­pa­ring and brin­ging me fo­od and erec­ting yo­ur lod­ge, and my pay­ment to yo­ur fat­her are the things that se­aled our he­arts to­get­her as man and wi­fe," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, pla­cing his hands at her wa­ist, brin­ging her on­to his lap so that her legs strad­dled him. "The­re is so­met­hing mo­re, my wi­fe, to ma­ke it truly com­p­le­te."

  Jolena twi­ned her arms aro­und his neck, rap­tu­re bu­il­ding wit­hin her. "Ma­king lo­ve in my lod­ge?" she mur­mu­red.

  "Yes, ma­king lo­ve in yo­ur lod­ge," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, his eyes twin­k­ling in­to hers. "But not he­re in the cen­ter of the vil­la­ge for ever­yo­ne to wit­ness." "Oh, yes, I re­mem­ber now," Jole­na sa­id, sig­hing he­avily. "I must ta­ke the te­pee apart and set it up away from the vil­la­ge." Her lips cur­ved in­to a po­ut. "That will ta­ke so long, Spot­ted Eag­le. I am not skil­led eno­ugh at bu­il­ding lod­ges to re­mem­ber which po­le go­es whe­re or how to re­mo­ve the co­ve­ring and rep­la­ce it aga­in as it sho­uld be."

  "It is not usu­al­ly the pla­ce of the hus­band to as­sist the wi­fe with the lod­ge on the day of the mar­ri­age, but I am su­re this ti­me it will not lo­ok all that unu­su­al sho­uld I help you. Our pe­op­le know you are new to our cus­toms," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id.

  He drew Jole­na's lips to his and ga­ve her a pas­si­ona­tely hot kiss, then lif­ted her from his lap and drew her to her fe­et be­si­de him.

  "Let us mo­ve the lod­ge el­sew­he­re qu­ickly," he sa­id hus­kily. "Then we shall se­al our bond of mar­ri­age. We shall ma­ke lo­ve, my wi­fe, as our pe­op­le ce­leb­ra­te and awa­it our re­turn. The­re will be many gifts then from the wo­men of our vil­la­ge."

  He ga­ve her a slow smi­le. "They are al­ways most ge­ne­ro­us on a spe­ci­al wed­ding day," he sa­id softly.

  Spotted Eag­le step­ped away from her and snuf­fed the fla­mes of the fi­re in the fi­re­pit by smot­he­ring them with blan­kets.

  He then held out a hand for Jole­na.

  She to­ok his hand and wal­ked out­si­de with him. They we­re re­ce­ived with much sho­uting, chan­ting, and sin­ging.

  Jolena smi­led a thank-you to tho­se who we­re crow­ded aro­und her, to­uc­hing her, brus­hing her with qu­ick kis­ses, and hug­ging her.

  Then she tur­ned away from them and hel­ped dis­man­t­le the lod­ge.

  Soon she and Spot­ted Eag­le we­re car­rying the lod­ge and its po­les thro­ugh the vil­la­ge.

  Jolena was sur­p­ri­sed when no one fol­lo­wed, and the ga­i­ety was left be­hind them. When they ca­me to the outer frin­ges of the vil­la­ge and we­re stan­ding in the co­ol sha­dows of the fo­rest, Spot­ted Eag­le to­ok over most of the cho­res of re­bu­il­ding the te­pee. On­ce it was in pla­ce, and he had blan­kets thrown ac­ross the gro­und in­si­de, he grab­bed Jole­na up in­to his arms and car­ri­ed her in­to the­ir wed­ding tem­p­le.<
br />
  Clinging to his neck, Jole­na lif­ted her lips to his. As he kis­sed her, one of his hands be­gan cre­eping up the in­si­de of the skirt of her dress and was so­on ca­res­sing her whe­re she was al­re­ady wet and hot for her new hus­band.

  She sig­hed aga­inst his lips as he thrust a fin­ger in­si­de her and to­uc­hed that part of her that was the most sen­si­ti­ve.

  She clo­sed her eyes and al­lo­wed eup­ho­ria to cla­im her as Spot­ted Eag­le la­id her on the blan­kets and qu­ickly un­d­res­sed her, his lips and fin­gers so­on aro­using her to he­ights of ple­asu­re that se­emed to know no bo­unds!

  Then he step­ped away from her, and she ope­ned her eyes. She still felt drug­ged and we­ak from his fo­rep­lay.

  She dis­co­ve­red him stan­ding over her, nu­de, lo­oking li­ke a cop­per god. When Jole­na's eyes mo­ved to that part of him that was re­ady for lo­ve­ma­king, she re­ac­hed a hand to his man­ho­od and wo­ve her fin­gers aro­und it.

  She wat­c­hed his eyes clo­se and his lips part in a gro­an as she be­gan mo­ving her hand on him. She mo­ved to her kne­es be­fo­re him and flic­ked her ton­gue aga­inst the glis­te­ning tip of his har­d­ness, dra­wing a gut­tu­ral gro­an of ple­asu­re from de­ep in­si­de him. His body stif­fe­ned.

  Placing his hands at the back of Jole­na's he­ad, Spot­ted Eag­le ur­ged her lips clo­ser, and when she drew him in­to the warm co­co­on of her mo­uth, she he­ard him suck in a wild gasp of ple­asu­re.

  She ple­asu­red him li­ke this for a mo­ment, then Spot­ted Eag­le drew him­self away from her and pla­ced his hands to her sho­ul­ders, easing her down on her back on the blan­kets.

  His eyes dark and pas­si­on-fil­led, he le­aned over her and sho­wed her exactly how won­der­ful a mo­uth, ton­gue, and lips co­uld fe­el as he fo­und her every sec­ret, sen­si­ti­ve spot. He ple­asu­red her un­til she was thras­hing her he­ad from si­de to si­de, emit­ting soft gasps. She felt as tho­ugh she we­re swim­ming thro­ugh a gre­at, warm vo­id, her every ner­ve en­ding tin­g­ling and thril­ling from the rap­tu­re.

  Just as she felt as tho­ugh she might go over that ed­ge in­to to­tal ec­s­tasy, Spot­ted Eag­le mo­ved over her and thrust his shaft wit­hin her.

  Framing her fa­ce bet­we­en his hands, he ga­ve her a kiss that was all-con­su­ming.

  As his thrusts be­ca­me mo­re in­sis­tent in­si­de her, Jole­na lif­ted her legs aro­und him so that he co­uld fill her mo­re de­eply, mo­re com­p­le­tely. And then his lips lo­we­red so that he co­uld lick and his te­eth co­uld nip and tug at her nip­ples.

  Jolena gas­ped softly as his te­eth pul­led a nip­ple bet­we­en them, his ton­gue mo­ving in cir­c­les aro­und it as it lay cap­tu­red bet­we­en his te­eth.

  When he mo­ved his lips to the hol­low of her thro­at and lic­ked her skin, as tho­ugh she we­re so­met­hing won­der­ful­ly de­lec­tab­le and swe­et to eat, she threw her he­ad back and clo­sed her eyes, then scar­cely bre­at­hed when on­ce aga­in his lips and ton­gue ma­de the­ir way down her body, stop­ping whe­re he had only mo­ments ago be­en so mag­ni­fi­cently fil­ling her.

  Jolena bre­at­hed shal­lowly as she wa­ited for the glo­ri­o­us fe­elings to over­co­me her aga­in. She sho­ok and trem­b­led when his ton­gue to­uc­hed the tip of her wo­man's de­si­re, then felt his te­eth nip­ping at it. The ple­asu­re was so in­ten­se that it mo­men­ta­rily drew her bre­ath away.

  She sig­hed he­avily when he mo­ved over her aga­in and fil­led her with his throb­bing har­d­ness.

  Spotted Eag­le wrap­ped his arms aro­und her and crad­led her clo­se as he be­gan his rhythmic stro­kes aga­in, this ti­me mo­ving much mo­re qu­ic­k­l­y­des­pe­ra­te, it se­emed to re­ach that fi­nal pla­te­au that wo­uld mo­men­ta­rily ma­ke him min­d­less.

  Jolena kis­sed his sho­ul­der, then his ear, then his lips as she felt the ple­asu­re ri­sing, then rus­hing thro­ugh her li­ke wil­d­fi­re as his body trem­b­led in­to hers, spur­ting his se­ed de­eply in­to the warm depths of her de­si­re… They then clung to one anot­her, blis­sful­ly happy.

  "There is one mo­re thing that wo­uld ma­ke my hap­pi­ness com­p­le­te," Spot­ted Eag­le sud­denly sa­id, mo­ving to his kne­es and strad­dling Jole­na as she lay on her back, ga­zing lo­vingly up at him.

  "What is it?" she mur­mu­red, re­ac­hing a hand to his chest and stro­king it. "My be­a­uti­ful Blac­k­fo­ot hus­band, don't you know that yo­ur every wish is my com­mand?"

  "Your na­me," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, his vo­ice gu­ar­ded. "You are Blac­k­fo­ot. Yo­ur na­me sho­uld be Blac­k­fo­ot. Wo­uld you al­low this hus­band to gi­ve his wi­fe a Blac­k­fo­ot na­me?"

  Jolena's smi­le fa­ded, and her he­art se­emed to skip a be­at. She felt that if she lost the only na­me she had ever known, it wo­uld be li­ke par­ting with her iden­tity!

  Yet, she saw her hus­band's re­aso­ning and knew that to ma­ke him to­tal­ly happy, she must abi­de by his wis­hes, even this one.

  "And what wo­uld you ha­ve me cal­led?" she sa­id, re­ac­hing her hand to his che­ek.

  "When you walk, you are as gra­ce­ful as a fawn," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id. "The na­me Fawn wo­uld fit you best. Do you li­ke it?"

  Jolena's eyes brig­h­te­ned. She smi­led up at him. "I think it's lo­vely," she mur­mu­red. "Yes, I li­ke it. Fawn. I shall only an­s­wer to Fawn from now on."

  "I will tell our pe­op­le," Spot­ted Eag­le sa­id, ta­king her hand and kis­sing its palm.

  Then he mo­ved to his fe­et. "Let us get dres­sed and go to our pe­op­le," he sa­id, of­fe­ring Jole­na a hand. "Wit­ho­ut us, the new bri­de and gro­om, the­re is no true ce­leb­ra­ti­on."

  Jolena hur­ri­ed in­to her clot­hes, and Spot­ted Eag­le pul­led his bre­ec­h­c­lo­ut on and step­ped in­to his black moc­ca­sins. Then he went to Jole­na and reb­ra­ided her ha­ir which had co­me lo­ose du­ring the­ir lo­ve­ma­king.

  "It is now ti­me to go," he sa­id, ta­king her hand. He lo­oked slowly aro­und him at the be­a­uti­ful lod­ge. "Ta­ke a last lo­ok. This will be go­ne by sun­ri­se to­mor­row. It has ser­ved its pur­po­se."

  Jolena felt a twin­ge of sad­ness as she ga­zed aro­und the lod­ge, then smi­led softly as she lo­oked down at the mus­sed-up blan­kets, still thril­ling in­si­de from the las­ting ef­fects of Spot­ted Eag­le's lo­ve­ma­king.

  Then she tur­ned and left the lod­ge with her be­lo­ved.

  Soon they we­re ca­ta­pul­ted in­to the midst of the ce­leb­ra­ti­on. As the drums vib­ra­ted and spo­ke to the spi­rits, the war­ri­ors and wi­ves chan­ted and dan­ced. The yo­ung bra­ves with the­ir bril­li­ant ra­iment, gra­ce and agi­lity, we­re dan­cing the an­ci­ent fe­at­her dan­ce, not for the pur­po­se of im­p­res­sing the ot­her bra­ves, but to im­p­ress the yo­ung girls ma­tu­ring in­to wo­man­ho­od whom they wo­uld ha­ve, if only in the­ir mid­night dre­ams.

  Chief Gray Be­ar, le­aning he­avily on his staff, met Jole­na and Spot­ted Eag­le's ad­van­ce in­to the crowd. He step­ped be­fo­re them and ga­ve Jole­na a warm hug, then ga­ve Spot­ted Eag­le a so­lid em­b­ra­ce. " No-ko-i, my son, you ha­ve gi­ven this fat­her a be­a­uti­ful da­ug­h­ter-in-law," he whis­pe­red in­to Spot­ted Eag­le's ear. "You ma­ke this old man wish he we­re yo­ung aga­in."

  Spotted Eag­le ga­ve his fat­her se­ve­ral fond pats on the back, chuc­k­ling, then step­ped away from him when Brown Elk ca­me up be­hind Spot­ted Eag­le's fat­her, smi­ling bro­adly from Jole­na to Spot­ted Eag­le.

  Brown Elk then step­ped bet­we­en them, put­ting an arm aro­und the­ir wa­ists as he ga­zed from one to the ot­her. "My da­ug­h­ter, Spot­ted Eag­le is a bra­ve war­ri­or, a man of go­od cha­rac­ter," he sa­id. " Kyi! Spot­ted Eag­le is so­ber
-min­ded, ste­ad­fast, and trus­t­worthy. I know Spot­ted Eag­le will ma­ke a go­od hus­band."

  Spotted Eag­le step­ped away from Brown Elk. He drew Jole­na to his si­de and pla­ced an arm aro­und her wa­ist. "The words of both my fat­hers to­day warm this war­ri­or's he­art," he sa­id. "This war­ri­or will try to li­ve up to all ex­pec­ta­ti­ons as a hus­band to this won­der­ful wo­man at my si­de."

  Then re­mem­be­ring that ever­yo­ne ne­eded to be told abo­ut Jole­na's na­me chan­ge, he wal­ked her to the cen­ter of the vil­la­ge, whe­re her lod­ge had sto­od for only a short whi­le. Spot­ted Eag­le ra­ised a hand in the air, mo­men­ta­rily gi­ving pa­use to the ce­leb­ra­ti­on.

  "Here stands a happy man!" he sho­uted.

  He ga­ve Jole­na a soft smi­le. "He­re stands a happy wo­man," he sa­id softly, but with much fe­eling.