Passions of the Heart - BOOK 2 of PASSION series

Chapter Two - Reminiscing...

I just posted Chapter One - so please read it first - I don't normally post two chapters in the same day! LOL!

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Chapter Two

Reminiscing…

When the dance died away, Kaitlin thought about the day she’d met the impending man of her life.  Never would she have dreamed of falling in love with him.  Never would she have believed that she was more accepted in the Indian community than among her own people!

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Kaitlin had been living with her father and brother in the first house built outside of the small fort.  They were bereft of money and possessions.  Even so, her father and brother drank the days away and gambled possessions they didn’t have.  Finally, her father sold her to the highest offer: Jed Coldwater.

Jed was an evil man.  He’d committed many vile and atrocious crimes against the Sioux people and herself.  The two oldest Coldwater boys had raped and killed three Oglala maidens as well as sacrificed a young brave not yet in manhood. 

Kaitlin had run away from her fate, hoping to make a life of her own inside the walls of the settlement rather than be the payment for her father’s debts.  Unfortunately, Jed found her before she reached safety.  While trying to escape his evil clutches, Kaitlin was knocked unconscious. 

When she awoke, The white girl was cradled in the strong, domineering arms of the bronze war chief.  His eyes had caressed her body and made her experience feelings that had never been born in her before.  Fear and desire warred within her for many days.  During the time of healing, the enchanting blonde didn’t realize that she now belonged to the prominent leader…

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Kaitlin looked up into Woniya Mato’s mesmerizing eyes.  There was question in them.  She shook her head, ridding herself of the last of the hazy memory she had momentarily lapsed into. 

“Are you tired, Wastelaka, my love?” his spirited voice asked softly.

“Not excessively,” she replied.  He drew her into his warm embrace.  She leaned her supple shape against his hard body and watched more festivities. 

It was an hour later when Spirit Bear pulled her to her feet and took her to their tipi.  She still obeyed him without protest.  Today was her first full day of freedom from her shackles of bondage. 

Was it really only the day before that he’d asked her to marry him?  She’d been a slave then, escorted by a male wherever she went.  She’d earned the leader’s mistrust with her attempted escape the prior month.

How had she’d gone, in one month’s time, from a fully escorted slave into the status of betrothed to Woniya Mato?  It seemed impossible.  If it weren’t for the black she-bear, it wouldn’t ever have happened. 

The Indians seemed to worship the strength of the bear above most animals.  Other animals they favored included the eagle, hawk, wolf, and fox, but the bear was the most mighty and fearsome of all.  Warriors never killed them unless the Great Spirit instructed them to or if it was to save a life. 

If the bear’s essence had to be sacrificed, it was mourned and praised like a fallen warrior.  Only men who had slain a bear were allowed to wear its claws and teeth.  Kaitlin was allowed the bear claw wanapin because the she-bear had given it to her of her own free will.

Kaitlin had run into the large black mother bear at least three times, and three times, she had walked away unscathed.  The superstitious Indian community took it as a sign from Wakantanka that she was an Oglala at heart, and it was the will of the Great Spirit for her to join with the famous chief.