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But Two Eagles had farther to go to his tepee.
Hawk Woman realized that she was standing right in front of his lodge.
She tried to hurry away from it, but Shadow blocked her path and stood there, gazing almost unblinkingly into her eyes.
Hawk Woman again tried to shoo Shadow away, but the wolf still didn’t move. Instead she emitted a low growl from the depths of her throat.
Suddenly Hawk Woman was afraid of Shadow.
Hawk Woman had been taught by the Wichita that wolves were mystical in many ways. She had heard many myths about what they were capable of. She had always thought that the stories about wolves were just superstition.
But now?
Hawk Woman felt the strangeness of what was happening and truly feared Shadow, knowing that she had joined a pack of wolves that lived nearby. She feared that they might join Shadow at any moment now.
Two Eagles rode up and dismounted.
He gave Hawk Woman a quizzical stare, and then noticed the strange behavior of Candy’s wolf, which was staring almost without blinking up at the woman. He saw that Hawk Woman seemed almost terrified of Shadow, a wolf known for her gentleness.
Two Eagles knelt in front of Shadow and stroked her brown fur. “It is good to have you home again,” he said, but realized that the wolf was paying no attention to him.
Shadow still stared straight up into Hawk Woman’s eyes.
Feeling that something very strange was going on, Two Eagles rose to his feet and turned to Hawk Woman.
He was surprised to see strange fear in the woman’s eyes. She was standing stiffly as she gazed, mesmerized, into the wolf’s eyes.
Two Eagles was suddenly aware of something else.
He turned and stared at his tepee. He only now realized that Candy hadn’t came from his lodge, as she would have upon hearing his voice. Candy always greeted Two Eagles with a welcoming embrace when he had been gone for any length of time.
He hurried inside his lodge, his heart filled with panic when he saw that Candy was not there.
He rushed back outside, but just before he could question Hawk Woman as to whether she had seen Candy, the pack of wolves appeared at the edge of the village, White Wolf emitting a low growl as he, too, focused
on Hawk Woman.
His jaw tight, his eyes narrowed, Two Eagles went and stood before Hawk Woman, who still had not budged from her fearful stance. “Why is Shadow acting so strangely, and what has drawn the pack of wolves to my village when they rarely come close enough for anyone to see them?” he asked, his eyes glaring into Hawk Woman’s as she now met his gaze.
“Hawk Woman, what have you done? Where . . . is . . . Candy? Or should I ask, what you have done with her?”
Her heart pounding, feeling trapped, Hawk Woman slowly stepped away from Two Eagles. Just as she turned to run, Shadow lunged for her and stopped her by sinking her teeth into the skirt of the woman’s buckskin dress.
Now knowing that something was very wrong here, Two Eagles went to the woman and gripped her by her shoulders. “Where is Candy?” he asked forcefully. “Where is my future wife?”
Hearing him call Candy his future wife seemed to snap something inside Hawk Woman. “I hope Candy is dead by now!” she screamed. “For I expect Candy will try to fight off the man as soon as he removes her bonds, giving him no choice but to kill her. He wants tame women . . . not hellcats.”
“The . . . man?” Two Eagles said tightly. “What man?”
“Albert Cohen,” Hawk Woman said. “He was the one who came and demanded food from you. I hid from him. He now has your Candy.”
Rage filled Two Eagles’s being. His fingers dug into Hawk Woman’s shoulders. “Tell me what happened,” he demanded. “Did you stand by and allow that white man to abduct my woman? Were . . . you . . . laughing as you watched? Did you truly believe that if Candy was gone, I would allow you to take her place?”
Hawk Woman’s words were frozen inside her, as her heart seemed to be frozen. She felt as if her world had just been broken in half.
She hung her head in defeat, then raised her eyes back up and looked defiantly at Two Eagles. “I will tell you nothing else,” she spat out. “Do you hear? Nothing!”
Two Eagles fought off the urge to hit her. He had never hit a woman before.
