The Heart of a Warrior
By
Daniel Running Water
Edited by
Jim Running Bear
Chapter Six
List of characters:
Strong Bear 50s Chief
Yellow Hawk 40s Strong Bear's husband
Hawk aka Thomas Hawk 31 Strong Bear's son
Shadow aka Trevor Spenser 31 Twin brothers to Hawk
Jacob Mathews 28 Secretary to Kyle and also his lover
Flaming Arrow aka Clark 29 Married to Hawk
Moon Dancing aka Rebecca 29 Married to Shadow
Moon Shadow aka Jason 14 son of Shadow and Moon Dancing
Captain Bradley Anderson 36 Army doctor
Previously in chapter five:
"And Shadow, surely he's still here," Hawk inquired.
"Shadow and I had a falling out and now if you do not mind, would you just turn around and go back where you came from," he abruptly said, causing Hawk to gasp at the rudeness and coldness of Jacob's remark.
"But this house and my uncle's money must have gone to my brother and me," Hawk threateningly demanded.
"Nada...no, not one red cent and neither did the house go to either of you, but solely to me," he sarcastically said, his mind flashing back to the day that he had changed Kyle's will, leaving him the sole heir to Kyle's fortune.
"I do not know what has transpired between you and my brother, but you can rest assured that I shall find out Jacob, and return. If I find out that something is amiss here, you will not like my revenge," he said just as rudely, motioning to the driver to leave.
"Do not threaten me Hawk, I'll have you arrested for trespassing, now leave," he ordered, turned abruptly and moved up the steps just as quickly.
As the car drove away, Hawk turned and saw the coldness in Jacob's eyes as he stood there defiantly, with his arms crossed over his chest.
"I don't know that man, Hawk, but I do know that I do not like him," Brad whispered, glancing back and seeing Jacob as he glared back at them. "His eyes looked like those of the devil, himself," he added as a shiver ran down his spine.
"I intend on finding out what's happened here while I have been away, and I promise you, if Jacob is in anyway involved with my uncle's death, he'll regret the day that he met me and my family," he promised as the car drove through the iron gate and onto the main thoroughfare.
Now chapter six:
The train ride to Montana was exhausting for Hawk, both physically and mentally, because of all that Hawk had learned, since his return. He also knew that the closer he got to being home, the closer he was coming to having to decide... between Flaming Arrow and Brad.
"Are you expected?" Brad asked, looking over at how handsome Hawk looked.
"No, I figured that I would surprise my fathers, instead of having them meet us at the station," he said. "I do hope that you can ride a horse, because as far as I remember, going by horseback is the only way to my village," he added.
"Ride a horse... I was practically raised on one. I have been riding and competing in horse shows for as long as I can remember," Brad excitedly said. "I cannot wait to be in the saddle again, sweetheart," he added.
The blowing of the train's whistle told Hawk that soon, he would be home again. The train rumbled when its breaks strained to slow it down to a stop. Hawk waited as the other passengers gathered their personal belongings and left, before he and Brad got up and retrieved their duffle bags from the overhead compartment.
`Well here goes nothing,' he thought as he moved along the aisle toward the door.
The air was crisp and clean as he stepped out onto the platform, gazing around at the changes that had been made to the depot before descending the stairs.
Horse and buggies, as well as cars now waited in what was once just a small area for horses. It was now much larger and the once earthen ground was covered with bricks. He looked around the area and sighed when he could not find a place to secure a horse that would take him to his village.
"Well I'll be damned... Uncle Hawk, why didn't you let us know that you were coming home," his nephew Moon Shadow called out.
"Moon Shadow?" a stunned Hawk questioned, looking eye to eye with his nephew, who now stood before him smiling.
Hawk raked his eyes over his handsome nephew's body and wondered when the boy had grown into such a handsome young man. His hair hung down his back in long, black waves of silk, and his eyes... oh how his violet colored eyes sparkled.
Even his body had changed into that of a man, with sinewy shoulders, arms, chest and abdomen that rippled with muscles. But it was his face, that kept drawing Hawk's eyes back to it, with his high cheek bones, straight nose and lips that were full and oh so kissable.
"I wanted to surprise everyone," Hawk replied to the boy.
"Surprised... they are going to be shocked is more the word," he said and Hawk noticed how his nephew kept glancing over at Brad, wondering just who he was.
"Brad, this is Shadow's son, Moon Shadow, Moon Shadow, my...my friend, Brad Anderson," he said, stammering over how to introduce him to Moon Shadow.
"Friend... is this how I am to be introduced... as just a friend," Brad asked and Hawk could hear the hurt in his voice over the term `friend'.
"You are absolutely right, babe, Moon Shadow, this is my husband to be, Brad," he corrected and Brad smiled warmly at the boy, shaking hands.
"It's actually Jason Moon Shadow," he corrected coolly and Hawk noticed how quiet Moon Shadow had become at the reference to Brad as his future husband.
"I'm going to go find a... well you know what I need to find," Brad said and rushed off for the depot's building.
"You are going to marry him, Uncle Hawk? And what of Flaming Arrow," he added, looking into his uncle's eyes.
"Can we not talk about this," Hawk asked seeing Brad coming out of the building.
"Flaming Arrow is expecting you to come home to him, and not be bringing a new husband with you," a still surprised Jason said, gazing over at Brad's return.
"Is everything all right here," Brad asked, looking from the boy and then to Hawk, sensing a tension between them.
"Everything is just fine sweetheart," Hawk said. "So tell me, how my brother and your mother are," he asked, hoping to change the subject, but also noticing the immediate sadness that quickly filled his nephew's eyes.
"Didn't anyone write you while you have been gone?" Jason asked quietly and Hawk shook his head.
Hawk gasped and took a faltered a step back when Jason told of his mother's murder.
"And what of my brother... is he healing of his wound," Hawk asked as tears now flooded his eyes.
"Physically he's healing, but mentally he is not. He feels that he was not enough of a man to have protected my mother," Jason told him and then lunged into Hawk's arms.
As if he were hearing the news again, Jason cried hard against Hawk's chest, while Hawk looked over Jason's shoulder at Brad.
"Come Jason, but first I must find two horses to rent," he said, offering the boy his handkerchief to dry his eyes.
"I have a wagon here and there his plenty of room for the two... ah sorry, the three of us on it," he said and his face reddened at his blunder.
"Wagon... why a wagon and not just a horse?"
"I came to pick up provisions from the general store and I was..." but he let the reason for his having been at the station drop.
Hawk was no fool; he knew that the fort and the train depot were far enough apart so that his nephew had to have had a reason to be at the train station.
"What are you not telling me, Jason?"
"What do you mean uncle?" Jason said, casting his eyes downward.
"I know that the fort is a bit in that direction, so why are you here?" Hawk challenged Jason with his question.
"I have my reason for being here and I would rather not say at the moment," Jason told him adamantly, now looking into Hawk's questioning eyes.
"I can respect your privacy for not sharing why, but I do hope that you will look to me as someone that you can confide in." Jason nodded and led the way to where his horse and wagon were waiting.
The long ride out to the Choctaw village was a quiet one, with no conversation passing between the three of them. When Hawk's eyes took in the sight of the village in the distance, his heart leapt in his chest.
"Father," he whispered, seeing Strong Bear and Yellow Hawk standing beside the river, not seeing his approach. "Take Brad to my father's cabin," Hawk simply said and jumped from the still moving wagon, running as fast as his feet would take him.
Hawk swallowed back the lump in his throat as he grew closer to where his fathers were standing. Tears were clouding his eyes as he ran toward them, and calling out in his excitement.
"Fathers... it is Hawk," he screamed, no longer able to contain his tears or excitement.
Both Strong Bear and Yellow Hawk turned in unison to see their son running toward them, and ran with open arms to meet his approach, embracing him once they met.
"My son... you have returned to us," Strong Bear cried out, his own tears now falling down his cheek.
"I have so missed you both," Hawk cried as he kissed first one father and then the other.
"Not nearly as much as we did son," Yellow Hawk said, wiping away his own tears with the back of his hand, and then embracing Hawk once again.
They stood there for what seemed eternity just hugging and kissing each other, until Hawk pulled away and grew serious.
"Tell me, tell me how Shadow is doing?"
"How did you hear about your brother," Strong Bear asked, walking back to the village with his arm around Hawk's shoulder.
"Jason told me father, at the train depot," he said and also noticed that questioning look in Strong Bear's eyes. "Now what is going on here father that no one wants to tell me about?" he demanded of Strong Bear.
"Now is not the time son, we shall talk later... much later, because now is the time for rejoicing and celebrating your return," he said, but there was something to his father's voice which was lacking.
"Ay-uh father, but we will sit and talk later... but not much later," Hawk demanded also, and froze when he saw Flaming Arrow stepping from a cabin that was once theirs...Hawk and Flaming Arrow's.
Strong Bear looked at his son and then to Flaming Arrow, seeing the love that was in Hawk's eyes, but Hawk had turned his eyes to Brad, who was standing on the porch of his father's cabin, looking directly at him.
"Oh Hawk," Flaming Arrow screamed out when he had turned and saw Hawk walking with his fathers. "My husband has returned to me," he leapt from the porch and ran toward Hawk.
When he stopped in front of Hawk, Flaming Arrow lunged into Hawk's arms, joining their mouth in a heated kiss. Hawk embraced Flaming Arrow and pushed his tongue deep into Flaming Arrow's mouth in a renewed dance of love.
Brad stood there stoically watching them kissing...
"I've lost him to the ghost of his past," he muttered, turned away, for he was unable to watch the loving reunion.
Hawk had opened his eyes soon enough while kissing, to see Brad's reaction to the reunion.
"Oh Hawk, I just knew that once you got my letter that you would return to me. Oh how I so love you," he whispered and then kissed Hawk again.
Hawk gently pushed Flaming Arrow from him, stepping back so that he could talk to him, but Flaming Arrow sensed Hawk's reluctance.
"You have returned to me, have you not?" Flaming Arrow questioned and then followed Hawk's eyes to where Brad stood. "Oh... him," Flaming Arrow said coldly.
"Yes him, the very man that saved not only my life Flaming Arrow, but also yours. He has a name and its Brad... not him," he stated as he began to walk on, leaving a stunned Flaming Arrow standing there...shocked.
When Hawk walked up the steps of his father's cabin, he grabbed Brad into his arms and kissed him just as heatedly as he had Flaming Arrow. Brad stepped back gasping for air once they had broken their kiss.
"Come sweetheart and share in my happiness to be here with my fathers again," he said, taking Brad by the hand and leading him to where his fathers stood.
"Ah...Dr. Anderson," Yellow Hawk said cautiously. "It is so nice to see you again," he added with a warm hug.
"The pleasure is mine, Yellow Hawk," Brad said and turned his attention to Strong Bear, who stood with much wondering in his eyes. "How are you Chief Strong Bear," Brad asked, holding out his hand to the chief in friendship.
"I am still alive and thankful that my son has returned to us, but what I do not understand...is why you are here," he blatantly asked, surprising all that stood on the porch.
"I...uh...Hawk?" Brad said and turned to him, looking for his help with this situation.
"Brad and I are going to be married, father," Hawk said, stepping forward and placing his arm around Brad's waist, oblivious to the fact that Flaming Arrow was behind him, holding his hand to his mouth.
"Married?" he said questioningly. "And what about Flaming Arrow, my son," he added, seeing Flaming Arrow standing there and not bothering or caring that Brad stood in Hawk's embrace.
"So what about Flaming Arrow, after all father, he divorced me, remember," Hawk said sarcastically, turning when he heard a stifled sob, and found a crying Flaming Arrow standing there behind him.
Flaming Arrow stood a moment longer and then ran away. Hawk did not know what to do, run after him or stay with Brad, and it was Brad that turned to him and said... "Go after him Hawk, he needs you more now than I do to talk to, but remember my love, just how much I love you and come back to me," he said, his heart breaking, because he was more than likely, pushing Hawk away and into Flaming Arrow's arms.
Hawk kissed Brad softly on the lips and chased after Flaming Arrow. When he ran into the cabin that he and Flaming Arrow once shared, Hawk found him crying on the bed that they had so many times made love on.
"I'm sorry sweetheart that you had to hear that that way," Hawk whispered, his breath caressing Flaming Arrow's ear. "I do love you...I never stopped, but you must admit that it was you that divorced me," he added, gently rubbing Flaming Arrow's back as the man cried.
"Ay-uh, but it was not me that did this, but the man that the beating had changed me into," he said in his defense.
"Ay-uh, but even you will have to admit that not only my fathers, but yours also, tried to tell you that you should wait."
"But to stay in this kind of marriage would have been admitting that I was of two spirits," he paused, "and I was not sure that I ever was," he confided, turning onto his side and facing Hawk.
"So what changed your mind and for that matter, what made you remember me?" he asked, Flaming Arrow gasped, remembering that it was sex with his fathers that triggered his memory.
"I'd rather not say, but just let it be that I did remember you and also us, my love," Flaming Arrow said thickly and then pulled Hawk's mouth to his in a kiss that was all consuming.
Hawk stood up quickly and moved to the window, his mind racing from the kiss. He felt between a rock and a hard place, as he considered both of the men that he loved, and flinched when Flaming Arrow came up behind him, encircling his waist with his arms.
"I love you Hawk and I am truly so sorry for the pain and hurt that I have caused you. Had I known that night that we snuck off to have sex, I would have never asked you to go."
Hawk turned quickly to face Hawk, his heart pounding with love, he too had been remembering that fateful night when Troy and Mike had beaten them, leaving Flaming Arrow near death and his mind wiped of him.
"Oh baby, I do love you so," Hawk said, framing Flaming Arrow's face with his hands as he captured his mouth with his own.
As their tongues dueled, Hawk and Flaming Arrow's hands moved over each other's body, re-familiarizing each other with each other's body. Flaming Arrow stepped back and began unbuttoning Hawk's shirt, slowly, seductively, he eased it over his broad shoulders, letting it fall to the floor.
Hawk gasped when Flaming Arrow lowered his mouth to one of Hawk's taut nipples and bit it. Hawk thrust his head back as old flames of ecstasy with his husband came flooding back to him.
Flaming Arrow kissed and nibbled his way down to Hawk's rippled abdomen, and while he traced each valley of Hawk's muscles with his tongue, Flaming Arrow undid Hawk's breeches, letting them fall to the floor around his ankles.
Flaming Arrow removed Hawk's shoes and socks, before helping him to step from his breeches. Now with Hawk totally nude and his manhood standing tall in its full glory, Flaming Arrow quickly engulfed the head, swirled his tongue around it and then slowly sucked his way down the shaft.
Hawk fisted his hands in the silky softness of Flaming Arrow's hair as his lover moved up and down on his manhood. Hawk had so missed his husband's mouth and the way that Flaming Arrow had was a way like no other, of making his need rise quickly. Hawk, wishing to not climax this way, gently urged Flaming Arrow away.
"Oh Hawk, please tell me that it's me that you want and... and not the doctor," Flaming Arrow asked, gazing up from his knees and into the blackness of Hawk's eyes.
Hawk helped Flaming Arrow to stand and when he had him before him, kissed him with the tenderest kiss, holding his hand and walking over to the bed.
"Flaming Arrow," he whispered as he eased himself onto the bed.
When Flaming Arrow saw Hawk's manhood still glistening in the light, wet with his saliva, he blushed. He gazed at the thick black forest of hair that surrounded it and sighed, bending to ease his fingers through its thickness.
Flaming Arrow drew in a deep breath and asked, "So where is the doctor, and just how did you manage to escape his arms," he asked with jealousy in voice.
"He sent me to you when he saw you running away," he whispered, his voice thick with need. "You act like you do not wish me to be here," he added and started to rise from the bed, but Flaming Arrow eased him back down.
"Gah-ween my love, I am most happy that you have come to me," he replied, kissing Hawk again.
"Flaming Arrow undress for me... but do it slowly, I want to watch you as you reveal your body. Do it like when we were young and long before our lives became complicated," he asked thickly, easing back as Flaming Arrow stood and stepped back.
Flaming Arrow's hands began to unbutton his shirt slowly, and when he had it unbuttoned, he eased it open, one side at a time, teasing Hawk. He eased it from his body and then cupped his chest, massaging and pinching his taut nipples, again teasing Hawk.
But when he lowered his hands to his breeches and began to slowly lower them, revealing that beneath them he wore no undergarment, Hawk leapt from the bed and quickly removed them.
"But you wanted me to go slowly," Flaming Arrow reminded him.
"But you were cruel...you teased me and now I cannot wait any longer to possess your gorgeous body," Hawk said, scooping Flaming Arrow up in his arms and gently laying on the bed.
Flaming Arrow lifted his legs and Hawk crept between them, thrusting his manhood deep into Flaming Arrow's velvet sheath, his strokes urgent. Hawk could feel waves of ecstasy enveloping ever nerve... every pore in his body, he was saturated with lust for Flaming Arrow as his thrusts deepened and his rhythm quicken into a frenzy of urgent thrusts.
With a ferocity, Hawk's fingers dug into Flaming Arrow's flesh and pulled him closer as their bodies exploded into a realm of ecstasy, that Hawk and Flaming Arrow believed that they were floating...flying, as if their spirit had left their body, the climax that they shared together was that intense.
Both men were crying out as wave after wave of pure pleasure enveloped them, both shooting their seeds. Hawk and Flaming Arrow still clung tightly together, long after their seeds were spent. While still gasping for air, their bodies quivering with spent passion, the rode out their renewed love's sweet afterglow.
"Marry me again, Hawk," Flaming Arrow whispered against Hawk's lips, hoping to keep Hawk's mind off his love for Brad and only on loving Flaming Arrow as he had once done.
"I cannot... my heart is in battle Flaming Arrow, a battle between you and Brad," Hawk admitted, now feeling guilty for having made love with Flaming Arrow.
"But Hawk, look at the love that we just made, how can you deny that it is me that your heart wants? No Hawk, I shall never let you go as long as there is breath in me," he added, looking up as he pulled Hawk's mouth down to his, meeting in a heated kiss.
Hawk gently pushed Flaming Arrow away from him and ran from the room, needing to put space between them and also needing to think...alone.
Feeling the nervous energy around him, Brad looked at Strong Bear and then Yellow Hawk, wondering what to say next.
"So how is Shadow really doing," he decided to ask, hoping to ease the tension between the three of them.
"Maybe you should go and see for yourself, and then you might be able to tell us, how he is doing," Strong Bear suggested. "He just sits in his cabin and whenever someone comes to see him, it's as if we are invisible," he added.
"Has his wound healed fully?" Brad asked.
"Ay-uh, but it is his mind that has not healed. He feels responsible for Moon Dancing's death and less the man for not being able to protect her," Yellow Hawk said.
Brad remembered back to when Hawk had been wounded and how inadequate he felt also for not being able to protect him.
"Do you mind if I go and speak with him? I have had some training dealing with people in this frame of mind." he asked.
"Gah-ween, his cabin is right there, next Hawk's and Flaming..." but Strong Bear stopped, seeing the pain once again in Brad's eyes at the mention of Hawk being together with Flaming Arrow.
"I doubt that he'll be back soon, but if Hawk does come back before I do, would you tell him that I am at his brother's cabin," he asked, Strong Bear nodded and Brad hurried away and over to the cabin.
Brad stood a moment and cringed, his heart breaking when he heard the muffled sounds of someone making love, but more so, the sounds of combined fulfillment that were coming from Flaming Arrow's cabin.
Drawing in a deep breath, he softly knocked on Shadow's door, but when he got no reply, he knocked louder, again he waited and giving up with knocking, he turned the handle and slowly eased the door open.
"Shadow," he called out, "may I come in and talk with you," he asked and when he got no reply, he opened the door fully and walked into the dim light of the cabin.
There was a scent of stale perspiration and even dried urine, mixed with the smell of something rotting; he felt the urge to vomit as he covered his mouth and nose with his hands. He looked about the cabin and found rotting meat in pots and pans on a stone cold stove.
`How can his fathers let him live this way?' he thought as he moved further into the cabin toward the bedrooms.
He looked into what he thought to be a guest bedroom and found it empty, before moving further down a hallway to another bedroom, finding Shadow lying across a bed, an empty whiskey bottle beside him.
`Oh Shadow, how sad,' he thought, and then stepped away, moving back to the main room of the cabin.
Needing to take his mind off of Hawk, and what he was probably doing with Flaming Arrow, he began to clean up the cabin. He first started a fire in the fireplace and when it was spreading its warmth through the air, he turned to the kitchen area. Several hours later, he had completely cleaned the cabin and had a healthy meal cooking. He stood back and took in his hard work and smiled, hoping that Shadow would like what he had done.
He suddenly gasped when he felt a hand touching his shoulder, turning he saw Shadow standing there half naked, wearing just a loincloth.
"Oh... at first I thought it was..." but Shadow didn't finish his thought, but turned and slowly walked away, pausing before a built in cupboard and taking a fresh bottle of whiskey from it, before meandering down the hall to his bedroom.
Brad quickly followed him and when he saw how he was standing at the window with the bottle titled to his lips and swallowing, Brad stepped over beside him and removed the bottle from his hand.
"Come with me Shadow, I've made you a nice meal," Brad coaxed, taking him by the arm and gently leading him to the living room. "Now just sit there and I'll bring you a nice dinner," Brad said, after easing Shadow down into a chair at a table.
"I do not wish to eat, just how did you get in here, I always lock my door," he said bitterly, starting to rise from the chair.
"The door was unlocked so I just entered after knocking and getting no reply," Brad said, pushing Shadow back down into the chair. "Now sit damn it, you are going to eat whether or not you want to. Everyone has coddled you much too long and look at what it's done to you," he said adamantly.
"It's my business how I live... not some white man's," he said and got up and started back toward the bottle that Brad had left on another table, but Brad was quicker.
"Now you listen to me mister, and I know damn well that you know who I am, I saw the recognition in your eyes. I am not going to let you destroy yourself with the white man's firewater," Brad said, grabbing the bottle from the table before Shadow could reach it.
"And what right do you have to dictate to me what or what not I am going to do?" he asked defiantly, standing almost nose to nose with Brad.
"I care about what happens to you Shadow... I really care," he said and stepped away, Shadow's body odor was strong and offensive. "When was the last time that you bathed," he asked.
"Why bathe when you have no one to bathe for," he sadly asked, a tear escaped his eye and slowly rolled down his cheek.
Brad's heart went out to the young man, remembering back to that day when he and Hawk were about to ship out for the war, and how handsome and well kempt he looked. "Well now you do have someone that cares about you... me," he said, covering his mouth with his hand, realizing what he had said.
"I saw a tub in the outer room, so I am going to draw you a bath, and by damn, you are going to bathe," he said with much determination to his voice and again moved Shadow over to the table and made him sit. "But first you are going to eat, even if I have to force it down your throat," he shouted, causing Shadow to look up at him in fear, nodding.
Brad served him a dish of roasted rabbit that he got from an Indian woman and on the side, wild potatoes with various vegetables. He stood for a moment watching Shadow eat and then set several kettles of water to boiling, while he dragged the tub into the main room and set it in front of the fireplace.
When Shadow was finished with his meal the tub was ready for his bath. Stubbornly he sat in the chair, not wishing to be told what to do, but Brad was just as stubborn as Shadow, and forced him to his feet and into the tub, loincloth and all.
Grabbing a large bar of scented soap, which Brad assumed had belonged to Moon Dancing, he rubbed it vigorously over Shadow's chest and back, using a doeskin cloth to further scrub Shadow's dirty skin.
Shadow sat in the water stubbornly, unwilling to help Brad in the least, but when Brad poured a large container of water over Shadow's head, it shocked him.
"Sit," Brad shouted when Shadow went to stand up. "And give me that loincloth before I take it off you myself," he demanded, Shadow fearing that Brad would, reluctantly removed it and threw it across the room, hitting the cabin door with it.
"Now stand up," Brad ordered once he had Shadow's long, black hair squeaky clean.
Thinking that he was done bathing, Shadow stood. But Brad had already lathered up the cloth and began washing Shadow's ass. Shadow unwillingly moaned, when Brad's fingers slid over his rosebud. Thinking that this man needed much more attention than simply a bath and meal, Brad rubbed the bar of soap between Shadow's hard round globes, using just his hand to work up lather between his cheeks.
Shadow closed his eyes and moaned, "mmmmm," again escaped from deep within Shadow. Adding more soap to Shadow's ass and to his own fingers, Brad eased a finger into Shadow's sheath. He fucked his ass with the finger until Shadow's breath became ragged.
"Let's get you dried off before you catch a death of cold," Brad said, suddenly pulling his finger out and standing up.
Shadow looked long and hard at Brad, remembering long ago, and how this man touched a part of his heart that even then surprised Shadow. Shadow stepped first one foot and then the other from the tub, but when his second foot found the bar of soap that Brad had left sitting on the floor, he slipped and fell forward and into Brad's arms, with both men crashing down onto the floor.
"You left the soap beside the tub on the floor," Shadow said thickly, as his body covered Brad's and their eyes met.
"Yes...I... oh Shadow," Brad cried out and wrapped his arms around Shadow's neck and kissed him, pretending in his mind that it was Hawk that he was kissing.
Stunned but not angered by the kiss, Shadow pressed his mouth painfully harder against Brad's, kissing him back. When Shadow felt Brad's tongue caressing his lips, he opened his mouth and accepted it into his mouth.
"We shouldn't," Shadow said, feeling a sudden wave of guilt.
"You are right... my heart belongs to Hawk, Shadow," Brad answered back and then rose to his feet.
"As mine is still locked to my Moon Dancing's," Shadow said as he felt the sting of loss returning.
They stood quietly, neither of them able to look into the eyes of the other. It was Shadow that was the first to break the deafening silence between them.
"Fight," he said looking into Brad's eyes. "Fight like your life depended on it for my brother's love," he advised to Brad.
"How can I fight against a man that Hawk once would die for and loved beyond any words could ever express?" he asked, feeling defeated before he had even started to fight for Hawk's love.
"If I know my brother, my twin, he too is probably torn as to what is the right thing for him to do. Go now, go and find my brother and tell him how you feel and that you will fight for him."
Brad knew that Shadow was right, he did love Hawk and that he would fight for his love or die trying.
"Thank you Shadow, I came to see you, hoping to help you in some way, and now it is you that has helped me," Brad confessed and gave Shadow a tender kiss.
"I shall be alright my friend, but... but if my brother does not see the depths of your love... you come to this brother, I would be honored to love you. For you see Brad, I have had feelings for you since that day when we first met," it was now Shadow's turn to confess and Brad stepped back, shocked by the confession.
"Me...you have had feelings for me, but you were still married and Moon Dancing was still alive?" he said disbelievingly.
"Yes Brad, even though my heart belonged to Moon Dancing, there has always been a part of my heart that desired to be loved by a man," his eyes were watering, he still felt guilty for the double life he lived. "I never realized though, how badly I desired a man until we met, and it was as if my heart added on a room to it and now needed you, and only you, to fill it," he admitted and then turned away, putting his back to Brad.
Brad placed his hands on Shadow's shoulders and turned him to face him. He framed Shadow's face with his hands, pulling Shadow's lips to his and kissed him softly.
"Should destiny deny me Hawk, know that it will be you that I will love. And I will love you with a depth that Hawk never knew with me, and not just because you were my second choice, but because you are most worthy to be love by me."
Shadow pulled Brad to him and kissed him with such need...such demanding in his lips that it left Brad gasping for air when they separated.
To be continued...
I do hope that you have enjoyed this chapter and would love for you to share you comments about it at danielrunningwater@yahoo.com
Thank you, Daniel