Free Wolf Shadow by Madeline Baker

another.
    Winter Rain sighed. Tomorrow she would leave her mother’s
lodge and begin her new life as Strong Elk’s wife. She would do the things she
had seen her mother do: she would tend the fire, do the cooking and sewing and
mending, keep the lodge tidy, gather wood and water, and entertain Strong Elk’s
friends. If Strong Elk was not pleased with her as a wife, he would divorce
her. Among the Lakota, it was a simple thing. All he need do was publicly
announce that he had “thrown her away” and she would return to her mother’s
lodge in disgrace.
    Winter Rain frowned at the turn of her thoughts. Not even
married yet, and she was thinking of divorce.
    A moment later, her mother hurried into the lodge and there
was no more time for worry or doubt, only time to make plans for the morrow.
    Mountain Sage laid out the dress and moccasins she had
prepared for the occasion. In addition to the new clothing, Mountain Sage gave
her daughter new robes for sleeping, a sewing kit of her own, and a pair of
willow backrests.
    “You have chosen wisely,” she remarked later that night
while brushing Winter Rain’s hair. “Strong Elk will make you a good husband. He
is wise and brave. He is a good hunter. You will always have meat in your lodge.”
    Winter Rain nodded. She would gain honor and prestige in
being married to a warrior such as Strong Elk.
    She went to bed early that night, yet sleep eluded her. She
was to be married tomorrow. Why did the thought fill her with trepidation
instead of excitement?
    Long after her mother was asleep and her father was snoring
softly, she lay awake, staring at the sky through the smoke hole of the lodge.
And when sleep came, it was not her future husband she dreamed of, but a tall
man with a scarred back and storm-colored eyes.
    * * * * *
    Chance sat outside his cousin’s lodge, a cigarette dangling
between his lips. So, she was getting married tomorrow. She would don her best
tunic and moccasins and her father and mother would escort her to Strong Elk’s
lodge. There would be a feast, presents would be exchanged, and Winter Rain
would become Strong Elk’s bride. She would build a new lodge for the two of
them, bear his children, warm him on cold winter nights.
    Damn.
    Taking a last drag on his cigarette, Chance tossed the butt
away, watching the faint red glow as it arced through the darkness, then winked
out in the dirt. His hopes of collecting the reward were in the dirt, too, he
thought glumly. Maybe he should have just grabbed her and made a run for it. He
considered that a moment, then shook his head. As much as he wanted to pay off
the mortgage on the ranch, it wasn’t worth losing his cousin’s respect, or
jeopardizing his standing with the People. In a choice between the two, he
would give up the ranch. The Double C might be all that his father had left
him, but it was just a few thousand acres of land. The Lakota were his people.
Though he had not made his home here in years, his heart and soul were here, in
the land where he had been born. His ancestors had lived and died here. His
mother’s blood had watered the ground.
    Tomorrow, he would go back to the ranch. Maybe, if he was
lucky, he could talk the bank into an extension on the loan. As a last resort,
he might be able to sell enough cattle to make up the difference between the
five thousand Bryant had paid him and what he owed the bank. If not…
    He gazed out into the darkness. There was no point in
worrying about that now.
    He glanced at Winter Rain’s lodge. Was she sleeping soundly,
dreaming of tomorrow? And tomorrow night?
    He scowled at the thought of her sharing Strong Elk’s lodge.
What was it about the Bryant’s daughter that had him tied in knots? Hell, he
hardly knew the girl. She wasn’t even his type. He liked his women tall and
blonde and experienced. Yet none of the women he had known stirred him the way
she did, or had kept him up nights, unable to sleep for thinking of her,
wanting her.
    Muttering an