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“Too warm to wrap ourselves in a blanket?” He gave her what he hoped was a lazy grin.
“What are you talking about now?”
“Another courting ritual. One we learned from the Cheyenne. Unmarried couples who want time alone together wrap themselves in a blanket and talk quietly.”
“And?”
He arched his brows. “And…other things.”
“Goodness.”
Again, her blush ensnared him. “Have you never been courted, tehila?”
“Well…no. I guess not. Andrew and I, we talked of marrying, but we never…that is…”
“I understand. You did not love him, Ella.”
“No.” She shook her head. “You’re right. I didn’t.”
His heart thundered. “You love me.”
“Oh, Raven, I hardly know you.”
“But you feel the connection the Spirit has forged upon us. We are mates, Ella. We cannot escape our fate.”
Raven stood and held out his hand. His body throbbed in time with his heartbeat. Her soft, supple body would slide against his so easily, so perfectly. He burned with the urge to take her, to thrust into her and make her his. But first, a walk. A walk with his beautiful mate. “Come, tehila. The moon is bright and the stars shine. Walk with me.”
“But your bread. Your blackberries.”
“Can wait. Right now I wish to walk under the stars with my tehila.”
* * *
Raven was even more beautiful in the moonlight than in the sunlight, Ella thought, as she walked next to him, following the moonpath against the edge of the wooded foothills.
“Do you see those hills? To the west?” Raven’s long finger pointed toward a crest of blackness, nearly invisible in the dark.
“Yes.”
“They are sacred to my people. Warriors and braves climb the rocks to commune with the Spirit. Sometimes the Spirit will grant a vision.”
“Have you ever made such a…pilgrimage?” Ella asked.
“Many times, but only two times has the Spirit granted me a vision.”
“Would you tell me?”
“Of course. I have no secrets from you, tehila. The first time, I was young. Only ten winters had passed since my birth. I climbed the rocks and prayed to the Great Spirit. I was granted a vision of a bear cub, lost and wandering.”
“Oh? What did it mean?”
“The next day, my brother came to us, starving and frightened. We call him Wandering Bear.”
The devotion in Raven’s eyes moved Ella. Clearly he loved his brother very much. “How very interesting. What of your other vision?”
“That was more recent, the day before the bear attacked me.”
“Yes?”
