Read Wolf Shadow for Free Online Page A

that filled the air? Was Winter Rain lying inside
her mother’s lodge, smiling a secret smile?
    He cursed softly. The girl’s happiness meant nothing to him.
Once he returned Winter Rain to her rightful parents, she could stay in San
Francisco and live a life of ease, or she could run back here and marry Strong
Elk. Either way, he would have the money he needed to pay off the loan at the
bank. Nothing else mattered.
    He swore softly as a muscle twitched in his back. One other
thing mattered, he thought bitterly. Finding the last of the men who had raped
and killed his mother. Hands clenched, he let himself remember that day. Rage
and pain flowed through him like a flashflood, stirring up old hurts, old memories,
washing the dust of years off the horror that was never far from his mind…
    It was a summer he would never forget. He had been sixteen
at the time, old enough to be considered a man by the People. His mother,
Summer Moon, had expressed a desire to go and visit her cousin, who lived with
the Cheyenne. Chance’s father had been away from the village, attending to
ranch business at the time, so Chance had volunteered to accompany his mother.
    Chance and his mother had been a day’s journey from the
Cheyenne village when the white men found them. Four white men who had been
Army deserters, though Chance hadn’t realized that at the time. He had known
they meant trouble, though. He had known it from the moment the wasichu rode
up to their campfire just after dusk. Too late, he had reached for his bow. One
of the men had struck him over the head with a rifle butt. Stunned, Chance had
dropped to the ground. One of the men tossed his bow into the fire. Chance had
tried to fight them while they tied his hands and feet, but he had been no
match for four men. His head had throbbed so badly it was hard to think, hard
to focus.
    He had watched the men surround his mother. She had screamed
in defiance and fear, her fists and feet flailing as they reached for her. One
of the men struck her hard across the face. She stumbled backward and they were
on her like wolves after a wounded doe. In the wavering light of the fire, the
scene had looked like a horrible nightmare. Three of the men had wrestled his
mother down to the ground and held her there while the fourth unbuckled his
belt and dropped his trousers.
    Chance had felt the bitter taste of bile rise in his throat
as he realized what they were doing to her. He had tugged against the rope that
bound his wrists, hardly aware of the pain as the rough hemp cut into his skin.
    The sounds of his mother’s cries and the grunts and lewd
remarks of the four men spurred him on. In desperation, he struggled harder
against his bonds. Blood oozed from his lacerated skin, trickled down the side
of his neck from the gash in the back of his head.
    The fourth man was lowering himself over Summer Moon by the
time Chance managed to free his hands and feet. Crawling snakelike across the
ground, he had grabbed a knife that one of the men had left stuck in a log. Clutching
the weapon in his fist, Chance rose to his knees and sprang at the nearest wasichu. Grabbing a fistful of the man’s greasy hair, he had pulled his head back and
slit his throat.
    Blood gushed from the wound and sprayed over the other three.
They scrambled to their feet, cursing viciously. One of them pulled a gun and
aimed it at Summer Moon.
    “Drop the knife!” the man hissed. “Drop it or she’s dead.”
    Chance believed him. As soon as he dropped the knife, two of
the men had grabbed him and tied him to a tree. And then they had taken turns
whipping him until his back was a bloody mess and he was unconscious.
    When he came to, his mother was on her knees behind him,
fumbling with the rope. She managed to loosen the knots enough so that he could
free himself, and then she fainted.
    Tears had blurred his eyes as he knelt at her side. She had
put up a fight when they raped her and the white men had not been gentle