Authors: Maddy Barone
Glory was relieved to know that Heather wouldn"t be staying with the Pack. “Why do I need an escort?” grumbled Glory. “Do I look like I"m five years old?”
Jill put Rose"s jeans aside with care, and looked right at Glory. “No,” she said quietly.
“But sometimes you act like it.”
“What?” Glory crossed her arms over her chest and stared at her old friend.
Jill opened her mouth to speak, but as Rose came back, teeth chattering loudly, she shrugged. “I shouldn"t have said that. I forget how young you are. Here, Rose, take a blanket.
Pin it at the shoulder like this, then tie this rope around your waist.”
A five-year-old? Glory fumed. She would have liked to make Jill talk, but not with Rose there. Was it because she"d cried? Well, who wouldn"t cry when she found herself in a nightmare with her parents dead and her whole life gone? Her eye caught on Jill"s thin white hair. She was old. Sometimes, if Glory didn"t look at her, she could imagine that Jill was still her BFF from before. But actually, Jill was in her late seventies. No wonder Jill thought she was young.
“You"ll need to go back and hang your clothes by the fire until they dry,” Jill ordered.
Rose picked up the sodden wad of her clothes. “Thanks for washing them,” she said politely.
That kid was so polite it restored Glory"s faith in the young. She glanced again at Jill and shook her head at her own flippant thoughts. Young didn"t mean exactly the same thing it had back in 2064. Glory picked up her own bundle of blue and pink without enthusiasm. Navy blue had never been one of her favorite colors. Why had she bought something that was so not-her? Black and red was more her style, but that would have clashed with her pink hair.
Well, it didn"t matter now anyway. The job was gone just like everything else. She walked beside the teenager, who seemed way too perky considering her blue-tinged lips. They looked ridiculous in their wool-blanket togas. But nobody seemed to want to stare at them except one guy who seemed to appraise Rose with hot eyes. Glory thought it might be the same guy as this morning. Perv.
Tara was at the fire in the main cooking area with Emma and Stands Tall. She helped them drape their clothes over a rack by the fire, then gave them cups of hot tea to drink. Tea was not Glory"s thing, but she was cold enough to at least like holding the warm cup.
“Where"s Sandra?” Glory asked.
Emma"s lips tightened, and Tara"s feathery brows twitched in a brief frown. “My son Jimmy came home last night. They have not come out of their lodge yet.”
Emma muttered something that sounded like, “Good-for-nothing.”
Rose, always polite, said, “I bet Sandra"s glad to see her husband again. She said he"s been gone since early summer.”
“Consorting with those women at Gabriel"s Place,” muttered Tara. “When he has a
loving wife right here.”
Rose"s ears seemed to prick with interest, and Emma quickly offered them some of the soup Tara was stirring.
It looked like Tara had a big pot of beef soup going as well as water simmering over the fire. Supper was a long time ago, and Glory"s hangover had eased enough for food to smell good.
“Eat,” Tara urged them.
While they were eating, the wounded survivors began trickling into camp, some on
horseback, others on triangular beds dragged behind horses. They were a pitiful sight, arms and legs splinted and bandages spotted with blood covering wounds. Glory and Rose both found themselves helping the wounded to the tents that had been vacated for them. Glory kept trying to rearrange her blanket to maintain modesty while she fed the survivors soup and tea, and tried to make them comfortable. It was hours before her clothes were dry enough to put back on, and by then she was exhausted enough to not care that the once pristine business suit was a wreck.
resembling work. Heather managed to keep herself busy in other ways. She had met Jimmy White Elk, who according to Jill, was risking punishment by the Clan council for flirting with the fake redhead. In 2014, a married man having affairs might be a matter for gossip and maybe some disapproval. Here in the Clan it was a crime. Jimmy was suspected of paying the prostitutes over in Omaha for sex.
“But he denies it,” said Jill. “Nothing has been proven, and Sandra hasn"t asked the Council to step in.”
Glory watched Heather fluttering over the handsome men from the Clan and the visitors from Taye"s Pack, and wondered what would happen to the woman involved in the adultery.
Jimmy was good looking in a flashy way. He took after his mother more than Muddy Wolf, with his short reddish brown hair and green eyes, and he wore jeans and a flannel shirt. In fact, he didn"t look half Lakota at all. Glory could see Shadow in him, though, and she thought she knew why Sandra had fallen in love with him. Heather probably flirted with him just to hurt Sandra, though she flirted with every man who crossed her path, married, mated or single, young or old.
One of those men was a kid named Blue Sky At Midday, but everyone called him Sky.
The name suited him since he had vivid blue eyes in a pretty face. Heather seemed taken with him, but he was at least ten years younger than she was, or maybe more. He was another of Shadow"s brothers, and the shape of their faces and eyes were almost exact, but Sky was young and soft enough to be called pretty, while Shadow"s face had matured into rugged handsomeness. Glory hadn"t seen much of Shadow in the past couple days, but Sky had become a pretty permanent helper in Glory"s assigned tent. The kid was young, but he acted like a grown-up. She liked the way he treated her. Teenagers from her world weren"t very respectful. Except for Rose, she admitted. Hell, she hadn"t been too respectful herself. But she loved that he was a hard worker. Glory imagined Shadow must have been like that ten or twelve years ago.
Rose had been mostly in one of the other tents of injured survivors, but on the afternoon of the second day she came rushing into the tent where Glory and Sky were changing a dressing on a woman named Renee, whose cheekbone had been fractured and the scalp above her temple torn in the crash. The blonde teen ducked into the tent so quickly she almost sprawled flat. But she gathered herself up and hurried towards Glory.
“Hi.” She nodded quickly at Sky and turned to Glory. “That guy keeps following me.
Can"t you tell him to stop?”
Glory waited for Sky to hand over the rolled-up bandage, but he was staring open-mouthed at Rose, inhaling deeply, bandage forgotten in one hand. Glory smirked a little.
“Rose, have you met Sky yet? Rose, this is Sky, Shadow"s brother. Sky, meet Rose Turner from the plane.”
Rose barely bothered to nod again before saying urgently, “Glory, that guy creeps me out. He said he wants to marry me!”
“Eww.” If it was the guy Glory thought it was, that was just plain gross. The man was handsome, but way too old for Rose. “Sky—”
But Sky had put the roll of bandages down carefully. “Who is bothering you? Tell me!
Now!” he ordered.
Sky was a lot more like his big brother than Glory had realized. And Rose seemed to think so too, because she backed up one step, staring at him like he was a wild animal about to attack. Maybe it was the way his nostrils flared as he sniffed the air.
But the tent flap opened again, and that guy who had been staring at Rose came in.
“There you are, Rose. I"d like to talk to you for a minute.”
Sky growled. Literally. His lips drew back from his clenched teeth, and the noise that came out of him could only be called a growl. Rose looked from the guy to Sky, as if trying to decide which of them was the lesser evil. Apparently Rose thought Sky was safer. She sidled closer to the kid. Maybe Sky
was
safer. He was at least closer to her own age than the other guy. But Glory wasn"t sure how safe Sky really was, not with that feral look on his face. And Rose changed her mind in mid sidle. She threw a panicked look at Glory. With her hands occupied with bloody bandages and a moaning patient, Glory was left with only her voice.
“Hey, you,” she said sharply to the older guy. “Can"t you see we"re busy in here? Get lost.”
Renee, whose head was beginning to bleed again, moaned louder. Glory put a hand on her shoulder. “Sky, help me with these bandages.”
But the kid got up from his crouched position beside the hurt woman and stalked toward the man. “Two Bears, you will leave Rose alone,” he growled. “She"s mine.”
Rose gave a gasp, and Glory growled like a wolf herself. “These guys are so romantic,”
she said sarcastically to Rose. “Will ya hand me that bandage, please?”
With wide blue eyes Rose watched Sky drive Two Bears of out of the tent. She tore her eyes away when the tent flap dropped closed behind the two men and helped Glory change the bandage. Glory had had no experience in nursing until now, unless her classes on treatment for oceanic wildlife counted. But she had figured out how to put a bandage on someone without causing too much more pain. Rose"s long-fingered hands were even more gentle.
When they had finished they got up from the bed on the ground and stood in weary
silence. Rose sighed. “I hate to complain,” she said. “But I wish this was just a dream.”
“I hear you,” Glory muttered morosely.
“I wish I at least had my suitcase.” Rose tried to put her lank, greasy hair behind her ear.
It slipped free and fell over her cheek again. “I think I know where it is, too. But I guess we can"t just go off and get it.”
Glory thought longingly of her small carry-on bag with its change of panties, a pair of jeans and T-shirt, her black satin bustier and toiletries. God knew where it was. Glory was pretty sure it had flown out of the plane before the crash. “Yeah. I want mine too.”
“It was a small blue bag, right? Kind of like a big purse with a flap?” said Rose. “It"s about a half mile away from my suitcase. If we walked straight west of here for a day and then turned north we"d find them, and some other suitcases too. Maybe we can get them sometime soon.”
Glory forgot she was tired and stared at the kid. “How the he—heck do you know that?”
Rose"s pale cheeks got red. “Well … I just know things like that sometimes.”
“Damn. I really want my bag. Why don"t you ask Sky to go get it for us? I bet he"d do it if you asked.”
Rose shuddered. “No way. Why don"t you ask Shadow?”
“Grr. I hate it when you kids are sassy.”
Rose peeked at her to see if she was teasing, and smiled when she saw Glory"s grin. But it died when she looked at the door flap. “I don"t want to go out there. I don"t want to get married to anybody. This is just so scary, you know? My mom wouldn"t even let me date until I was sixteen, so I"ve only had one date in my whole life.”
Glory gave her a bracing slap on the shoulder. “Don"t worry about it. No one is going to force you to do anything. Muddy Wolf won"t let them and neither will Jill. And Muddy Wolf is definitely king around here. Even Shadow does what he says. And I"ll slap up any guy who bothers you. Let"s go back to Jill"s tent.”
But Glory never got the chance to slap up Two Bears or Sky. When she woke up the next morning Rose"s blankets were empty but not neatly folded like usual. When she stumbled to the eating fire she found out that Rose was gone. So were Two Bears and Sky.
“Whaddaya mean, gone? “ Glory said. She slammed the bowl of disgustingly wholesome oatmeal down with a thump and stared around the cooking area at the dozen clan men and women there. “What happened?”
Jill"s lined face looked even more ancient today. “I don"t know. But we can"t worry about that now. Sky will look after her. Three of our wounded died last night. We have work to do today.”
So Glory made herself eat the oatmeal and go off to the tent she was working in. One of the beds was empty, and she cried a little to remember the woman who had been there yesterday. Renee, the woman with stitches in her scalp and a fractured cheekbone, had regained consciousness and seemed to be determined to get well. A man from the Clan sat with her for most of the morning, speaking to her in gentle, low tones. He did everything for her, except help her take care of personal business. Glory saw her look at him with a frown several times. But it could have been pain that made the grotesquely swollen face frown. All the survivors had pooled their purse medications, but aspirin, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen did only so much for broken bones and crushed organs.
It was around lunch time when she was stirring blankets in a huge cauldron of boiling water to sanitize them that Shadow found her. She was so tired that she didn"t even argue when he put his arms around her and kissed her forehead. Besides, he smelled so good, especially compared to the smoke of the fire and the wet dog stench of boiling blankets.
Boiled wool might be warm and tough, but it stank to high heaven.
“How"s my sunshine?” he whispered.
Even that didn"t make her do more than growl halfheartedly. “Has anyone found Sky and Rose and that other guy?”
“Did you want them found?”
“Well, yeah! What if Rose is hurt? Or Sky could be hurt. Did that guy Two Bears try to do something to her? She"s barely sixteen, for God"s sake! What happen—Hey!”
He ignored her protest and kissed her again. But it was a gentle kiss of comfort, so she gave up and let herself lean against his strength. He murmured in her ear, “I think Sky"s wolf chose Rose to be his mate. Sky won"t let Two Bears do anything to her.”
“But we don"t know that.” She found herself petting his long black hair and snatched her hand away. “They could all be dead.”
He had no problem combing her sticky hair with his fingers. It must feel gross since she hadn"t really washed it in days. But he didn"t seem to care. “Sunshine, if it will make you feel happier I"ll go look for them, okay?”