Autumn Wind Read online

  "He is a brave man, your Takoda,” Mina's grandmother pronounced. “I would not mind having him warm my blankets on a winter's evening."

  "Nesheka—Oxacha!” Wasula gasped at her mother-in-law then laughed. The two women exchanged knowing looks then both wiped the grins from their faces.

  Mina's eyes were red and she was trembling. She had lost her heart to Takoda Dark Wolf in an evening's time and seeing his wrists lashed to the hotaheen, the punishment pole, with rawhide strips she wanted to fall to her knees, rend her clothing, and tear at her hair, trilling the ululu of a grieving woman.

  "Stand up straight. Put back your shoulders! Be as brave as your man,” her mother hissed at her. “See how he keeps his head high? Are you not as honorable as the one willing to take your pain upon himself?” She reached out to brutally pinch her daughter's arm.

  Biting her lips to keep from crying out at the unexpected hurt, Mina clasped her hands in front of her and kept her eyes on Takoda. Already the estahno, the warrior designated as punisher, was uncoiling the bullwhip that would stripe the flesh of her lover's back.

  "Such a vile custom we have taken from the white man,” Mina's grandmother said then turned to spit on the ground. “A split cane would be more respectable."

  "And would better have mirrored the punishment Mina should have received,” Wasula agreed.

  Since the estahno was left handed and threw the braided rawhide thong over his opposite shoulder, the first lash cut Takoda from right shoulder to left hip as it came down. Takoda's body jerked at the contact, but he made no sound. He shifted his legs farther apart to brace himself, his breathing slow, even and deep. Those watching closely saw his fists clench before the second hit but his facial muscles never moved. Each time the lash descended upon his bare back, his body involuntarily slammed against the pole but not once did he betray the pain he was enduring. Twenty times the thong fell to break open the skin of his smooth back and twenty times blood ran in rivulets.

  When the estahno ceased and stepped back, coiling his blood-stained whip into a loop, it was Kohana who stepped forward to cut the rawhide binding Takoda's wrists. Though he said nothing to the young man, he did catch Dark Wolf's eye and gave him a quick nod before turning away.

  His back on fire from the lashing, Takoda turned to face the people of his tribe. He held his head high, his shoulders back though that action caused him great agony. He chaffed his wrists—beaded with blood from the tight rawhide—and swept his gaze to his intended.

  Mina heard her grandmother order her to Takoda's side, but she would have gone without the demand. She was shaking as she neared him and tears were gathering in her eyes again. He was pale and had to be in great pain, yet he was smiling at her, standing with one hand held out to her. As she slipped her hands into his, he drew her to him, holding her lightly.

  "It's all right, arechi hyegahaota,” he said softly. The nickname he had given her was so sweet on his lips.

  "By this man's pain has he claimed my daughter for his own,” Kohana said to those gathered. “This night will see their Joining! Rejoice with my family!"

  A loud ululu went up from the people and at last smiles showed on the faces of those who were pleased at the outcome of this day. Those who were not pleased—Takoda's father and grandfather among them—remained stony faced, though they cheered the couple as was traditional less the man and woman be cursed by the Great God and no fruit come forth from their union.

  "I am sorry,” Mina whispered as tears fell down her cheeks.

  Takoda put a finger under her chin and raised her head, thumbing away her tears with his other hand. “There is nothing to be sorry about,” he said. “I have what I have wanted all your life."

  She looked up into his handsome face and felt the earth shifting beneath her feet. She longed to have his lips upon hers but that would have to wait. Such intimacy would be frowned on by the Sun People.

  Chaska came to his brother and gave Takoda a bland look. “I did not want her to begin with,” he said in a low voice. “It is no hardship I suffer now."

  "I know,” Takoda said and realized from that day forward there would be antagonism between him and his brother.

  Chaska sent Mina a hateful look and walked away.

  "You should watch him, chemioha,” Mina told her lover. “He is a vindictive man."

  Takoda was too happy to be worried about his brother's wounded pride. He wanted nothing more than to have his back washed and salved and when his mother and his sisters headed toward him, he eased Mina away from him. “I must go, but I will see you this night for our Joining."

  Mina ached to be the one to care for his wounds but already his mother and sisters were there, elbowing her aside and taking Takoda's arms to lead him to their tipi. Though one sister gave her a frown, the other three gave her broad smiles and one even winked. The last she saw of her intended that day was as his grandmother swept aside the tipi's flap and he disappeared inside to be attended.

  Chapter Three

  Takoda could not lie on his back in his mother's tipi for the lash marks were a burning, stinging pain that made it difficult for him to remain still as he reclined on his belly. He wished he could writhe on the pallet to relieve the agony but did not want to show such weakness to his new wife. Mina was removing her Joining dress and the click of the quills and beads as she lovingly folded it made him wish he had been able to take it from her as a husband should. Instead, he had chills that clicked his teeth together and a fever that had made him weak. So there he lay wishing for something that would never be. He lifted his head to see her slipping an unadorned buckskin dress over her head and sighed deeply.

  "Your mother has instructed me to smooth the salve on your back before you go to sleep and again in the morning,” Mina said as she sank down beside him on the pallet. “Is now a good time?"

  He sighed, wrinkling his nose. “As good a time as any.” He was keenly aware of her as she knelt there and he ached to take her in his arms, to make love to her as was his right and duty.

  She dipped her fingers into the salve made from dried white cedar leaves, honey, and melted bee wax. As gently as she could, she spread the salve over the wicked slashes on his back, her lower lip tucked between her teeth to keep from crying at the sight of his ruined back. Her touch was light, but she knew she was hurting him. His fists were doubled against the fur of the pallet as he tried not to make a sound. When she was finished, she went outside for the small pot of bee balm tea she had brewed for him. She came back in with a tin cup.

  "Here, tutishna,” she said, calling him husband for the first time since their Joining. “You must drink this for the fever."

  He rose up with teeth clenched until he could bring himself into a seated position. He was striving not to show her how much he hurt and even managed to cross his legs as he took the cup from her. “I hate tea,” he complained, taking a cautious sip.

  Mina smiled. He was as naked as the day he was born and shivering despite the unseasonable heat of the late September night. “The tea will help the chills, as well."

  Takoda looked longingly at the buffalo robe he wished he could drape around his shoulders but he doubted the feet of the skin would help the agony along his back. He took another sip of the tea, trying not to pucker his face at the taste.

  She looked down to see his shaft arched upward and was amused that he could be lustful after the ordeal he'd gone through. She lifted her head to meet his eyes and cocked a dark brow at his innocent look.

  "A man will be a man, hishnae," he told her. “I have no control over him."

  She was sitting with her legs bent to one side, half-reclining on her elbow as she watched him struggling to down the tea. “What can I do to help you gain the upper hand with him, then, tutishna?"

  He grinned, lifted the cup to his lips, but said nothing.

  Mina scooted over beside him and laid her hand on his rigid staff. “Poor thing,” she said. “He is afraid of me."

  "Afraid of y
ou?” Takoda repeated, blinking. “Why would you think so?"

  She trailed her fingers down his length from tip to scrotum. “Ayai, he's afraid of me. See how he quivers when I touch him?"

  "He quivers for want of you,” Takoda told her in a husky voice. Her hands were torturing him in a delicious way that set his blood to pounding.

  "But sees how he tries to escape my touch?” she complained as his shaft jerked toward him.

  "Perhaps he should have a tongue lashing for doing so,” he said and then winced, squeezing his eyes shut. He remembered too late her repugnance at touching him in that way, but she surprised—and shocked him—when she merely grinned and bent over his lap, taking him into her mouth without a qualm.

  Takoda nearly choked on the tea in his mouth. “Mina!” he gasped.

  She slid her lips from him for just a moment and looked up at him. “My grandmother said you would like this and that there was nothing wrong with drinking from a man's reed."

  His eyes wide, he could do nothing but stare at her as she lowered her head again to run her tongue along the head of his cock, slipping her tongue in the slit. He shuddered and nearly dropped the cup. All thought of the pain networking his back was forgotten. Tossing the cup away, he buried his hands in her unbound hair and held her head lovingly as she suckled him. Closing his eyes, he let his head fall back—his breathing shallow and quick—as her lips worked their magic upon his willing flesh.

  Mina had not been as keen on doing what both her mother and grandmother assured her would be of great benefit to her husband this night. The sight of Chaska with the white prostitute was a bitter memory in her mind. But Takoda was not Chaska, and he would never ask anything of her that she might find offensive. She said as much to her mother and grandmother as they had dressed her for the Joining.

  "Ayai, but he will be hurting and you would not want him to go to sleep with his shaft hard and hurting as well,” Wasula had told her daughter. “He will be aroused all night with you at his side and be unable to mate with you. That would be cruel. A warrior needs his rest."

  "I don't think I can.... “Mina had begun to protest but her grandmother had taken Mina's chin in her hand and stared into the young woman's eyes.

  "The essence from a man's reed is salty and slick, but it is not a bad taste once you are accustomed to it. All women do this for their man. There is nothing shameful in it,” her grandmother Zuzela had encouraged. “Know that you will be helping him to rest better by drawing the essence from him and giving him pleasure at the same time."

  "When a man's essence builds up in his reed,” Wasula said, “it causes great discomfort. Such discomfort makes them as testy as a wounded bear."

  "You would not want your tutishna to feel more discomfort than that he already feels upon his back."

  Mina had given in to the older women of her family and had decided they knew more than she. Surprised the taste of her husband was not loathsome after all, she began experimenting with the swirl of her tongue over his flesh, running the tip along his length and across his sac.

  "Teshima,” he told her, loving her all the more for doing what she was doing. Her lips were setting him ablaze with passion and it was all he could do to remain still as she plied her sweet, moist tongue over his straining flesh.

  Taking him deep into her mouth—striving not to gag as the broad tip of him touched the back of her throat—she suckled hard and heard him groan, felt him shiver. She cupped his sac and lightly kneaded as her grandmother had instructed and when he jerked in her mouth, she slid her lips up and down his shaft as her mother had suggested.

  He could take no more of such exquisite torment without spilling his seed and the last thing he wanted to do was flood his woman's mouth with what should be in her tight sheath. Gripping her head, he pushed her away, barely noticing the surprised and wounded look on her face.

  "Take off your dress,” he said, struggling to get to his knees.

  "Takoda.... “she began.

  "Woman, take off your dress!” he said, his heart racing, his breathing coming in brutal little pants.

  She did as he ordered, yanking the dress over her head. He was on his knees with his teeth clenched. When he told her to lie down, she quickly obeyed.

  Completely ignoring the pulling, tearing pain rippling down his back, Takoda bent over her and captured one breast between his teeth. He lightly nibbled her then pulled the warm bud deep into his mouth to suckle her as hard as she had suckled him.

  Mina gasped, her hands shooting forward to grab his shoulders but caution intervened at the last moment and she lowered her arms. She grabbed handfuls of the fur and dug her heels into the pallet, arching her hips as her husband laved her nipples—licking and flicking and suckling with abandon.

  His shaft was as hard as flint and prodding the side of her thigh as he swung one leg over hers and nudged her thighs apart with his knees. He switched to her other breast and suckled her, rubbing his stomach against hers, dragging his cock between her thighs.

  "Hishno!” she cried out.

  He slammed his hands under her hips and dug his fingers into her soft ass. Lifting her up, he impaled her on his shaft—going down to the root of it within her. His blood was boiling in his veins, his body aching for hers, and as soon as her hot, slick moistness tightened around him, he began to pump into her as though there was no tomorrow.

  As much as she wanted to throw her legs and arms around him, she knew she could not. She did not want to hurt him, to do more damage than had already been done to his broad back.

  Takoda dragged his mouth from her breast and slanted it across her mouth, piercing her with his tongue as his shaft pierced her cunt. His was a need that sent tremors through him and when that first ripple of intense pleasure took his woman, he increased his rhythm, his speed, his depth until she was grunting with each hard stroke into her velvet heat.

  Forgotten was the humiliation of debasing himself before the tribal council. Forgotten were the looks of disapproval and outrage from his family, the disappointment on his father's and grandfather's faces, the anger on the visage of his eldest sister. Forgotten was the knowledge that Chaska would hate him forever and that there would now be no more closeness between them. Forgotten was the shame of having his wrists tied to the hotaheen and the agony that had slapped against his back, tearing open flesh, and slicing into muscle. It was all forgotten as he thrust into his woman—his wife—and felt her keen pleasure undulating over his shaft. All that mattered was satisfying her and reaching for that illusive paradise that was beginning to spread warmth through his upper groin and spill down his hard shaft.

  Mina was in the throes of a release so intense it brought down the stars from the heavens to dance before her eyes. Her womb was clenching, her sheath locking tight around Takoda's rod, rhythmically squeezing him, milking him, and drawing his essence deep into her. She felt him pulse and then the heat of him spilling into her.

  "Mina!” he cried out, frantically pushing against her until the last ounce of him squirted into her channel. He released a long breath then fell upon her—spent and gasping for breath—his entire body quivering with the intensity of his climax.

  How she longed to hold him but all she could so was put her hands on his upper arms and squeeze to let him know how she felt. She, too, was struggling for breath, for her own release had nearly taken off the top of her head with its strength. When he finally pushed off her and collapsed on his belly beside her, she turned to her side to stroke his hair.

  "Teshima,” she said but realized he had fallen asleep as soon as his head had touched the pallet from a combination of the dream tea and the passionate mating that had driven them.

  Snuggling close to him to keep him warm, she laid her head on his shoulder and was soon fast asleep beside him.

  Epilogue

  Takoda Dark Wolf caught his wife's attention and pointed to where the children were playing. The little boys were racing one another, the little girls playing with their d
olls, but one boy and one girl were apart from the others. It was to these two Takoda directed his wife's gaze.

  Huya-Na Lone Star was face down in the mud puddle, his angry little face covered in the dark brown goo, his hair plastered with the stuff. The six year old looked as though he could pummel the girl child pointing at him and laughing but Takoda knew better.

  "Like mother, like daughter,” Takoda drawled and drew his wife into his arms.

  "Did she push him down?” Mina asked.

  "What do you think?” he countered, rubbing the bulge of her distended belly where their third child was nestled.

  "Tahcawin!” Mina called out to her daughter, shaking a chastising finger back and forth when the little girl glanced her way.

  "Leave them alone, hishnae,” Takoda said. “Had we been left alone, perhaps I would not have spent my growing up years a lonely man."

  "And bringing up that loneliness every chance you get,” she said with exasperation though it pleased her he still remembered those years without her. “Enough is enough, tutishna."

  The warrior nuzzled the side of his woman's neck. “It will never be enough,” he stated.

  Their child took that moment to kick its father's hand and Takoda laughed. “A boy,” he said. “No girl could kick that hard."

  A cry rang out and he turned to see his eldest daughter pull her foot back and kick Huya-Na.

  "Shall I still leave them alone, hishno?” Mina teased. “Or will we allow Tahcawin to maim the poor boy?"

  "Just watch,” her husband suggested.

  As the grownups observed, Huya-Na seemed to have had enough of Tahcawin's actions and when his tormentor would have kicked him still again, he caught her ankle and jerked. She went down with a loud oomph sound. Before she could scramble up, the little boy was over her, pinning her down.

  "The little imp,” Mina said and started to call out but Takoda slapped a hand over her mouth to prevent it.