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“You . . . are . . . hurting my wrist,” Kaylene was only able to say as their eyes locked in silent battle. “Please unhand me.”
“If I do, will you behave?” Fire Thunder spat out. “Will you quit sparring wrongfully with me? I have no intentions of forcing myself on you. If we ever come together in that way, I would hope that it would be something desired by both of us at that moment. I cannot lie. I have dreamed of kissing you, of holding you. But not this way. Not while we are facing one another as enemies.”
Kaylene was at a loss for words at his confession of feelings toward her. They matched her own, how she felt about him. She saw even more danger in that. She had to hate him for what he did. And she could never forget that he was holding her hostage.
How on earth could he ever believe that she could show him how she truly felt while he was holding her against her will?
She saw no future for them whatsoever, for it had all begun between them in the wrong way. What she had dreamed of, their being together in ways that men and women come together when they loved one another, was doomed.
And she could not altogether blame him. They could never be together as lovers because of her father’s greedy, evil ways. Her father had forced Fire Thunder’s hand so that Fire Thunder had had no choice but to react in the way that anyone would, should their sisters have been held captive in a dreadful cage.
Fire Thunder released his hold on Kaylene. He took the blanket from around her shoulders, grabbed up the one that he had spread beside the fire, then gave her an angry stare. “Come with me,” he said sternly.
“No,” Kaylene said stubbornly, not budging. The chill wind swept around her. Missing the warmth of the blanket around her shoulders, she hugged herself. “I refuse to sleep anywhere near you, the murdering vile man that you are.”
At his wit’s end, finding this situation with Kaylene hopeless, Fire Thunder slung the blankets over his left shoulder and with his right hand grabbed Kaylene by the arm. “If that is what you truly want, to sleep totally alone, especially away from me, I think that can be arranged. I will see to it that you are far enough away to satisfy you. I will take you far from the campsite and tie you to a tree.”
Kaylene gasped as she stared up at him. “You wouldn’t,” she said, her voice trembling with shock.
Fire Thunder ignored her. In angry, determined steps, he yanked her along with him, Kaylene struggling against his hold.
In truth, Fire Thunder had no intentions of leaving her tied to a tree. He was hoping that by making her think that, it might force her to say that she would cooperate with him after all.
He was anxiously waiting for her to say that she would cooperate with him; that she would sleep anywhere he told her to, if only she wasn’t left tied to a tree.
But the farther they walked, the moon lighting their path, the more doubtful he became of her begging him for anything. She was proving to be a stubborn woman. He just might be forced to leave her out there alone, tied to a tree, or look like a fool in her eyes from having backed down from something he had said he would do.
“You would leave me alone like that,” Kaylene cried. “I know it. Did you not leave my father to die in a horrible way? You are capable of anything.”
She laughed throatily. “
And look at you,” she taunted. “You say you are an Indian, yet you have the eyes of a white man! And you speak English as well as a white man! I would say you are only half Indian! You are a ‘breed.’ Does my saying so insult you?”
“Nothing you can say insults Fire Thunder,” he said, giving her a smug smile. “I am proud of my heritage, having French kin somewhere in my background. As for my speech, my ability to speak your language? I am proud of my excellent command of English. It has come in handy when I have been forced to deal with cheating, lying white men!”
Before Kaylene could think of another way to rile him, hopefully enough to have him release his tight hold on her so that she could try to escape into the darkness, she noticed a hint of movement in the shadows of the trees; something she sensed, rather than saw.
When they stepped out more into the open, where the trees had thinned and the moon had a chance to illuminate things around them, the moonbeams outlined the tawny body of a panther traveling directly toward them in their path. The big cat stopped in midstep, the gleam of green eyes staring at Fire Thunder, white fangs quickly showing as the animal hissed a snarling growl and crouched, ready to spring.
Kaylene quickly recognized Midnight. But before she could explain to Fire Thunder that this panther was her pet, Fire Thunder released his hold on her and drew his knife from his sheath at his right side, his rifle having been left at the camp.
Knowing that she had no time to stop her panther from leaping onto Fire Thunder, Midnight surely having sensed that Fire Thunder was Kaylene’s enemy, Kaylene now wanted to protect her panther—the same as he wanted to protect her. Kaylene stepped quickly between Fire Thunder and Midnight just as the panther leaped and Fire Thunder threw his knife.
Midnight twisted sideways to avoid landing on Kaylene just as Fire Thunder brought the knife down.
Instead of hitting his target, the panther, Fire Thunder’s knife plunged into Kaylene’s left shoulder.
Kaylene screamed with pain. She gazed pleadingly up at Fire Thunder, then collapsed in a dead faint at his feet.
Fire Thunder stared disbelievingly down at Kaylene, and then at the panther as the animal went to Kaylene and licked her face.
He was in awe of how the panther, in an effort to stop the blood flow, lapped up the blood with his tongue as it poured from Kaylene’s wound.
Running Fawn had taken advantage of her father’s absence. She had sneaked away with three other friends and had met the young Mexican men at their secret trysting place in the forest, many miles from their village.
Running Fawn and Pedro Rocendo, the son of the powerful Mexican general who ruled from his villa in San Carlos, had slipped away from the others and had spent the night making maddening love.
It was coming close to the time when they would have to return to their own villages.
