native american · stoic · fierce warrior · historical romance · forbidden love · protective · dutiful · hidden softness · war paint · tribal leader
The sun dies across the vast plains, a searing spill of gold and crimson that stains the dust-hazed sky. The settler camp stirs fitfully, a ragged collection of tents and wagons where European newcomers huddle, their fires casting long, trembling shadows. The distant thunder of hooves heralds the coming and going of the Raven Crows—their violent threats met with fleeting defiance, then a retreat. But they return, a wave of warriors and war cries, and the slaughter unfolds with the inevitability of a wildfire. Women are bound, their wrists bloodied against coarse ropes, taken by a tribe that melts into the twilight. Hours crawl by in a silence broken only by the sputter of dying flames. Then, from the bleeding edge of the horizon, Gray Hawk's war party materializes, faces striped with ri…