Savage Spirit (11 page)

"Boors?" Cloud Eagle questioned, raising an eyebrow. "This word boor. I do not understand its use."

Alicia laughed softly. "No, you wouldn't," she said in a low, sultry tone. "That just proves again the goodness that I have found in you."

She urged his lips to hers. Leaning closer to him, she drowned in ecstasy as they kissed and moaned against his lips when he slipped his hands down to caress her breasts through the smooth buckskin material of her dress. She flicked her tongue through his lips, amazed at herself for knowing, somehow, that this could be an even more exciting way to kiss.

Their moment of passion was interrupted when Gray came into the tepee from his early morning   stroll, growling. He pushed himself between them, nudging them apart.

Sensing that something was wrong by Gray's odd behavior, Cloud Eagle knelt and stroked his coyote's fur comfortingly. "What is it?" he asked. "What troubles you?"

Gray whined pitifully and gave the entranceway a quick glance. He ran there and yelped several times, then bounced back to Cloud Eagle.

Alicia watched, then realized that Snow had not come into the tepee with Gray. "Snow," she said. "Could Gray be telling you that something has happened to Snow? Don't she and Gray usually stay together?"

Cloud Eagle sighed heavily. "Snow has done this before," he said, turning his dark eyes to Alicia. "One other time the call of the wild recaptured my she-coyote's heart. She left to mate with one of her own kind. She returned later with two pups."

Alicia glanced down at Gray, then up at Cloud Eagle. "But I thought that Gray and Snow were mates," she said, eyes wide.

"Gray is one of Snow's pups," he said, smiling when he saw the surprise in Alicia's expression. "The other pup wandered off to answer its own call of the wild."

"Then that's why Gray shows such devotion to Snow and is so upset over her absence," Alicia said, bending to give Gray an affectionate hug.

"Yes, that is the reason," Cloud Eagle said. He moved to the back of the tepee where his weapons were stored. He grabbed his bow and positioned his quiver of arrows on his back. "I will go and search for Snow just to make sure nothing has happened to her."   "I want to go also."

"I will go alone. Gray will stay and keep you company."

"If you think that is best," Alicia murmured, finding it surprisingly easy to agree with him. But since last night, when they had made love, she had felt different in every way. She doubted that she would ever argue with him again, about anything.

Cloud Eagle knelt before Gray and stroked the coyote's back. "You stay with Alicia," he commanded. "Stay. Do not follow."

Gray looked dutifully up at Cloud Eagle as though he understood English as well as a human, then barked softly.

When Cloud Eagle rose again and gave Alicia a lingering look, she moved to Gray and knelt down beside him and hugged him. "Go on," she murmured. "Gray and I will do just fine while you are gone."

She did not tell him that she was uneasy about his leaving the stronghold, especially when she knew two women who must hate her with a vengeance. Until last night, before she knew that Cloud Eagle no longer slept with or loved the women he had chosen as his wives, she had understood why they would despise the very ground that she walked on and felt some sympathy toward them.

But now, when she knew that trouble had been brewing between Cloud Eagle and his wives long before she had entered their lives, she could not condone their behavior toward her. They had to know that they had already lost his love.

No man as sweet and gentle as Cloud Eagle   would treat his wives the way he did unless he had a good reason.

She hoped to discover what the reason was soon.

"I love you, Cloud Eagle," she blurted out just as Cloud Eagle nudged the entrance flap aside with his elbow.

Cloud Eagle stopped. He looked down at Alicia and smiled warmly, his heart soaring over the confession of her love for him. "My love for you is everlasting," he said, then turned and left.

Had he told the two other women the same thing? Alicia fretted to herself. Had he told them that his love for them was everlasting?

Alicia had to find out, somehow, why he no longer loved them or claimed them as his wives. But knowing that she could not be the cause was enough for now.

Restless, she looked around the tepee for something to do. She could take the dishes to the river and wash them. That would also give her just the right amount of exercise to get the strength back in her wounded leg.

Gathering up the dishes and whistling for Gray, she left the tepee. The day was brilliant and bright; the sun was spiraling through the cottonwood trees as she hobbled beneath them.

When a fresh pain stabbed through her leg, she tried to ignore it. She walked onward, ignoring the stares from the Apache women, children, and men. She was glad when she reached the edge of the stronghold and was alone as she headed for the river, Gray devotedly beside her.

"You're my pal, aren't you, Gray?" Alicia asked, smiling down at him. Then she laughed softly. "I never thought that I would become friends with   a coyote. But you're more dog than coyote, aren't you, Gray?"

Her smile faded when she thought of Snow. "I hope Snow is all right," she said beneath her breath.

She stopped with alarm when Lost Wind and Spring Dawn stepped from behind a heavy stand of bushes and blocked her way. Gray snarled and showed his fangs as he edged protectively closer to Alicia.

"Down, Gray," Alicia said, patting his head. "I'm sure they don't mean me any harm."

"White woman go away," Lost Wind said in a low hiss. "Leave. Now. You not wanted in Apache stronghold."

Spring Dawn took a bold step closer. "Your hair would look pretty on a scalp pole," she threatened, smiling devilishly at Alicia. "You go or I take scalp."

Alicia's color paled and her heart skipped a beat. She had no idea the women hated her this much.

Faced with such threats, and not sure if the women were actually capable of carrying them out, Alicia realized that she must look brave in their eyes or lose everything. Now that she had found a man who made her heart sing, she was not about to allow anyone to force her to give him up. Cloud Eagle had told her that he no longer looked to these women as his wives. She would take him at his word and fight for her right to have him for herself. Divorce was practiced in her world, and there was no shame in being in love with a divorced man, or one who would soon be divorced. She had to believe that the custom was the same in the Apache world.   "Step aside," Alicia said, lifting her chin stubbornly. "Go about your business. I shall tend to my own."

"You are our business," Spring Dawn said, stepping to Lost Wind's side. "Leave or we will force you to."

"And what would you tell Cloud Eagle about my absence?" Alicia asked, looking steadily from one to the other. "And don't you know that he would come for me if I did leave?"

"Out of sight, out of heart," Lost Wind said, laughing. "You are just a thing that has intrigued him for a short while. He would thank us if we rid his life of you."

Before Alicia could respond, Spring Dawn and Lost Wind ran up to her and spat on her face.

Enraged and gagging in horror, Alicia dropped the wooden platters to the ground. "How dare you," she cried, wiping the spit from her face.

Spring Dawn and Lost Wind moved to each side of Alicia and began kicking her.

"Stop!" Alicia screamed, pushing and shoving at the women. "You're crazy!"

Under any other circumstances, Alicia would not have stood and taken any abuse from anyone, especially these women. But she was afraid to fight back, unsure of what the people of the village might do to her, especially in Cloud Eagle's absence.

Stars seemed to explode in her head when Lost Wind hit the wound on her leg with her fist. The pain was excruciating.

Without further thought of what anybody might do if she fought the Apache women, Alicia tore into them. Her pride, and her sore leg, had taken all they could.   Gray barked and snarled as the three women tangled and rolled across the ground. Alicia ignored the pain that stabbed through her wounded leg. All that she could think about was defending herself and putting enough fear into the hearts of these women that they would never try anything with her again.

She scratched. She pulled hair. She slapped. She pummeled one and then the other with her fists until suddenly Spring Dawn and Lost Wind ran away from her, squealing.

Breathless, her whole body throbbing with pain, Alicia sat down on the ground and held her leg between her hands. Moaning, she slowly rocked back and forth.

Whining, as though he sympathized with her, Gray nudged up against Alicia and looked at her with his large gray eyes.

''I shouldn't have done that, Gray," Alicia said, sobbing when the pain became almost too much to bear. "But I couldn't allow them to humiliate me in such a way. And when Lost Wind hit my sore leg, there was no holding me back."

Through a blur of tears, she looked toward the stronghold. "I hope Cloud Eagle returns soon," she murmured. "Before Spring Dawn and Lost Wind spread rumors that might endanger me."

She placed her arms around Gray's neck and hugged him tightly. "Gray, oh, Gray, what am I to do?" she whispered. "Should I just disappear from Cloud Eagle's life? Would it be simpler for everyone concerned?"

She closed her eyes and recalled his gentleness and his ways of loving her. "No," she whispered. "I can't go. I don't want to leave Cloud Eagle ever. I love him so, Gray. Oh, how I do love him."   She sat there for a while longer, then slowly pushed herself up from the ground. She looked down at herself, groaning. The dress was stained with grass and mud. She was filthy from her head to her toes. She could even smell perspiration that had been brought forth from the strain of the fight.

She knew that she must bathe herself and wash her dress before she could return to the stronghold. And when she did return, she would go there with a lifted chin.

She prayed that Cloud Eagle would have returned by then. For the first time in her life, she felt the need for a man at her side.

Cloud Eagle pushed his way through the tangled brush of the mountainside. His eyes were alert for all movements. Thus far all he had seen were fox, squirrels, chipmunks, and deer.

When a covey of partridges suddenly shot into the air a few feet away from him, Cloud Eagle jumped with alarm, an arrow quickly notched onto his bow. But as his eyes followed the flight of the birds, he lowered the bow, removed the arrow, and slipped it back inside its quiver.

He then continued his search for Snow. It gave him a lonesome, empty feeling to think that Snow had decided to seek out a mate. He knew now that it could be several months before he saw his pet again. By then, would Snow be as tame as before?

The other time, she had returned as tame and affectionate as she had been before she left. It would depend on the coyote she mated with. If her mate taught her not to trust humans, then Snow would be lost to Cloud Eagle forever.   Shrugging, knowing that destiny would have its way with Snow regardless of anyone's feelings, Cloud Eagle chose to give up the search.

Just as he turned to return to his stronghold, he found himself face to face with Ten Bears, Lost Wind's brother. Knowing that the warrior had to be stalking him for Cloud Eagle not to have heard his approach, Cloud Eagle stood his ground, his jaw tight. He presumed Ten Bears' reason for being there was to find out why Alicia was in his lodge.

"And so you have joined the search for my pet she-coyote?" Cloud Eagle said, although he knew that was not the reason for Ten Bears' presence. He hoped to find a way to stop an altercation before it began.

"Your pet is no concern of mine," Ten Bears said stiffly. He placed a hand on the knife sheathed at his right side. "My sister is my sole purpose for following you. We now have privacy while we discuss my sister."

"So speak," Cloud Eagle said flatly. "But guard your words well. This is no ordinary man you are speaking with. This is your chief."

"I know well that you are my chief," Ten Bears said, sarcasm thick in his words. "But that was not of Ten Bears' choice."

Cloud Eagle clenched his fingers around his bow so hard that his knuckles grew white.

But he said nothing. He waited for Ten Bears to condemn himself. Lack of respect for an Apache chief was not tolerated.

"My sister came to me red-faced with humiliation and crying," Ten Bears said, his eyes flashing. "Her hair was dirty and her dress was ripped. She says the white woman is responsible."   Cloud Eagle's eyebrows arched.

Still he said nothing.

"She said the white woman attacked her down by the river," Ten Bears continued. "Also Spring Dawn. I found them both hiding behind your tepee afterwards. They are scared of your woman. They said she fights and has claws like a panther."

Cloud Eagle was taken aback by this. He realized that Alicia had the spunk and fire of ten women. But he could not envision her fighting two women at a time without first having been provokedespecially not Apache women. Alicia would not want to cause hard feelings among his people.

And he knew that she would not have started a fight while her leg still pained her.

He hated to think of what Spring Dawn and Lost Wind had in mind when they decided to take Alicia on in a fight. And he was certain that was what had happened.

"I demand to know what your true intentions are for this crazed white woman," Ten Bears spat out venomously. "Do you make her your wife to the exclusion of your Apache wives?"

Anger flooded Cloud Eagle's insides. This warrior was making demands of him? And this warrior called Alicia a crazed woman?

Ten Bears had stepped across the line of what was wrong and right while addressing his chief. His error brought a quick response from Cloud Eagle.

"What I have planned for the white woman is not your affair," Cloud Eagle hissed between clenched teeth. "Cloud Eagle is your chief. My affairs are my own."   "The white woman and this singular favoritism toward her breeds trouble in our stronghold," Ten Bears spat back.