Chapter Four

Leah was hungry. No, she was starving! It had been hours since the man had come in that morning and she hadn't seen him since. She hadn't moved from the cot either and she could tell that nature was about to insist that she get up and find a place to relieve herself. Standing up slowly, Leah attempted to be silent and allowed the blood to return to her neglected legs as she approached the tent flap. 

Pulling it back the tiniest amount, Leah looked outside. It appeared as if most of the men were gone and she knew those must have been the horses she'd heard riding out earlier. Not everyone was gone, however. There were still a few men sitting around the tents and fires. And those women were still there, sitting in the men's laps with their skirts hiked up. Leah's face flamed red when she heard the grunts and moans. 

Leah dropped the tent flap. She knew exactly what those men and women were doing. She had once heard her brother and his friends bragging about being with women and she had, from time to time, heard her mother and father whispering and moaning to each other through the thin wall that separated their bedrooms. But never had Leah actually witnessed those acts taking place. 

She had to get away from here! Was that what these men wanted her to do? To moan and throw her head back and shake her hair like that? If that's what they wanted, if that's what this Chase wanted, then Leah had news for them. She still had her gun in her pocket. She had forgotten about it that morning but the cold piece of metal was there and she reached in her dress and closed her hand around it. 

Leah heard bootsteps coming toward the tent and knew it was now or never. She moved to the side of the flap and waited with her gun held tight. Her heart was pounding in her ears and her shaking hands were slick with sweat. The flap was pushed aside and Leah felt her heart catch when she realized it was Chase. He stepped into the tent and rose to his full height as his gaze fell on the empty cot. 

"Stop right there and put your hands up," Leah ordered, her voice holding a bravery that neither her heart nor her shaking legs felt. 

Chase did not even tense as he turned to face her. He seemed relaxed and unafraid as he reached up and moved his hat back so that she got her first clear look at his face. Without those shadows hiding his features, the sheer rugged handsomeness of him nearly took her breath... but Leah kept her gun aimed at his chest. 

It was then that she began to notice just how sculpted his cheekbones were, just how longa and straight his nose was, and exactly how dark and intense his eyes were... Leah realized something that had her taking several large steps back. 

"You're an Indian!" She had thought that all the savages were on reservations but here stood one. Tall and dark and seeming more dangerous than a coiled rattler. 

Chase stared down at her causing Leah to feel small and helpless as he pinned her in place with nothing but his gaze. He raised one arched brow and crossed his arms over his chest. The black cotton shirt he was wearing tugged and pulled at his broad shoulders with his movements. Absently, Leah noticed that he didn't wear the collared, buttoned shirts that were common among men. Instead, his shirt was loose and made of thin cotton beneath his vest--and his legs were encased in soft buckskin. 

Case reached up and pulled off his hat. Long, black hair, tied at the nap of his neck, fell from beneath his hat. The midnight black strands fell more than halfway down his back. 

"What do you want from me?" Leah demanded, her nerves getting the better of her as he stared her down in silence. Her hands were beginning to shake violently and the gun bounced with their movements. 

"Shoot me or put the gun down," was all he said in response. His voice was slightly accented and it was deep and rich. 

"You will let me go. I want to go home." 

She watched his nostrils flare and realized that she had made him angry. Chase tossed his hat over onto the floor beside the cot and shook his head. 'You are mine." 

"You killed my finace and kidnapped me! I belong to no one!" 

"I killed no one," Chase countered. "And I saved you from a far worse fate." 

Leah cocked the revolver and licked her shaking upper lip. Chase studied the woman and had to admit that she showed grit. Very few men had the nerve to hold a gun on Chase Caldwell and Chase certainly hadn't thought he'd find a woman with the nerve to do so. He could tell by the look in her green eyes that she wanted to shoot him. She wanted to kill him and make her escape. She simply didn't realize that if she killed him, she would be alone with a group of lawless men who cared nothing about the innocence or willingness of women. They would take her and they would rape her again and again and use her up until she had nothing left. They would break her spirt, break her body, and eventually leave her for dead. She was better off with him than without him. But if she chose to shoot and kill him, then Chase supposed she would find that out the hard way. 

Seconds ticked by and the tension was thick and heavy inside the tent. It was almost a palpable thing. It became something they could touch and feel as it pressed down on them. Just when Chase was certain she wouldn't pull the trigger on that tiny gut buster in her shaking hand, she did. 

The sound echoed inside the tent and Chase grunted as a searing pain pierced his arm. He clamped his jaw tight and glanced down at the scratch she had placed their when her bullet had grazed him. With lightning fast reflexes that had never been matched, Chase reached out and snatched the gun from her trembling hands as she stared at him with shock. 

She quickly covered her mouth and her green eyes filled with tears. "I'm sorry!" she exclaimed before racing from the tent. Leah couldn't believe what she had just done! She had shot a man. True, the man was holding her prisoner, but the thought of causing harm to another person made her stomach hurt. She had to get away. She didn't even pay attention to where she was heading as panic fueled her race through the camp. 

"Whoa there, pretty thing." 

Leah skidded to a stop as a man stepped in front of her. She recognized his voice. He was the short, thin man that had been eyeing her the night before. "Did Chase get bored with you already? Of did you kill him with that shot I heard?" 

"Let me go," Leah pleaded as she tried to edge her way around him. 

He stepped to the side and blocked her path. "You got pretty green eyes and I like all that dark hair. You look like you'd be nice and soft beneath a man." He reached out and touched her cheek with  his dirty, long-nailed fingers. 

"Don't touch me," Leah hissed, swallowing bile. 

"Oh, I'm going to touch you," he promised as his gaze drifted lower and she realized the top buttons of her dress had come undone. Leah quickly did up those buttons and the man's beady blue eyes rose back to hers. There was a hunger in them as he leered at her that would have caused her to vomit had Leah had anything in her stomach. 

Leah took two quick steps backward and bumped into something hard and hot. She turned quickly and looked up to see those dark black eyes, flashing with anger as they glared hard at the short man. Without taking time to think about what she was doing, Leah quickly moved behind Chase and the familiarity n his presence that made her feel protected. 

"Chase, dammit, I'm the one that saw those folks! I'm the one that aid we should go after them. I'm the one that decided killing that bastard was a good idea because I wanted the woman! You had no right to just take her as your own. I want a damn ride on her!" 

"She is mine," Chase stated calmly. Inside he was raging. He and Petey had never gotten along. Petey was the worst kind of man. Chase had once seen Petey sticking himself inside a woman whose life blood had already drained from her. Chase would die before he would allow Petey to touch this woman. 

"I guess we'll just have to see about that!" Petey exclaimed, lowering his hand toward his gun. 

Chase felt Leah tense behind him and he wondered what she was thinking. Did she think he was a man like Petey? Was she hiding behind Chase because she knew he would keep her safe or simply to be out of Petey's line of sight? Something inside Chase hoped she sought his protection because she knew he would protect her. And he would--with his life. 

"What's going on?" Boss Henderson asked as he rode back into camp and jumped from his horse beside the two men. 

Petey instantly took his hand away from his gun and pointed at Chase. "Boss, he is hogging that damn woman! She done shot his ass once because she wants away from him but he won't let no one else have a go at her! It's not fair boss!" 

Boss glared. "Petey, I'm tired of hearing you whine like a damn babe that still needs his mama's titty." 

"I don't whine," Petey argued stubbornly as he stuck out his bottom lip. 

"Wah! Wah! Wah!" Tig helpfully added as he skipped by. 

Boss shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. "Petey, you know damn well that Chase is Apache. She is his spoils of war and you'll just have to find something else to entertain yourself with," Boss told the man. He turned to Chase. "Chase, you know how I feel about fighting among my men." 

"Control them and there will not be fighting," Chase stated coldly. He turned, took Leah by the arm, and led her back toward the tent. 

"Boss that man aint safe to have around!" Petey exclaimed. 

"I owe it to his pa to look out for him," Boss replied with a shrug. "Besides, he ain't never pushed it too far yet. If he does then he'll be dealt with. You just leave his woman alone." 

***

"Chase, I can't go back in there yet," Leah whispered as they neared the tent. He looked down at her with a raised brow. She turned red and felt every last shred of dignity fall away. "I have to... you know..."

Chase nodded his understanding. He led her to the back of the tent and several large bushes. "Outside?" Leah demanded. "In the open?"

Chase simply nodded, turned his back, and crossed his arms over his chest. "No one will bother you." 

Leah lifted her skirts the best she could and crouched behind a bush. Never in her life had she thought she'd be forced to do something so humiliating. When she finished relieving herself and stood back up, she cleared her throat. Chase once again took her by the arm and led her back around the tent. 

Leah didn't fight against Chase as he led her inside. She knew that to onlookers his touch would appear rough, but truly, he was holding her arm very gently in his strong hand. Leah felt his touch through the sleeve of dress and it caused head to spread up her arm and through her body. The feeling was something she had never felt before--it unnerved her and had her yanking herself away from him once they were inside. 

Chase didn't say a word. He moved to the cot and grabbed the small burlap sack that he had thrown at her that morning. He held it out and this time Leah reached for it and took it from his hand. She opened it and saw jerked beef and hardtack biscuits inside. 

Once again she reddened with embarrassment. She had been hungry all day and angry that this man wasn't feeding her and he had given her food that very morning. Chase still said nothing. He walked around her and pulled the canteen from the sack in the corner, handing it to her as well. 

"Tomorrow, you will cook for us," he stated. "I hunt for food instead of using what these men use. You will prepare our meals." 

"Why should I cook for you?" Leah demanded. Chase stared at her for several long moments. Long enough that Leah found herself looking away and picking a piece of jerky from the bag.

"You do not leave this tent unless I am with you. It is dangerous," he warned as he pulled a cigarette from his pocket and did not answer her previous question. 

"What do you want from me?" Leah asked, throwing her hands up with exasperation. "I won't do with you what those other women were doing with those men--what that man wanted me to do with him. I'd kill myself first." 

"I want nothing from you except warm meals and patches on my clothes," he stated with indifference as he lounged against the support beam in the center of the tent. "And in return I will protect you from them and those like them." 

"You could simply take me home," Leah countered. She wasn't sure why she believed he wouldn't force her to lay with him. She certainly had no reason to trust the man--but she did. he could have taken advantage of her already and he hadn't. He had just protected her and had seemed willing to fight for her safety moments ago. She had shot him and still he protected her. Leah wasn't sure what to make of that but she determined that he wasn't dangerous to her safety. 

Chase pulled his hat lower. "If you want to go home, then go. I will not stop you but I will not take you there and I will not protect you if you choose to leave me." 

He didn't want her to leave him and yet he knew he couldn't tie her up in the corner and make her stay with him. Chase did not want her hatred. Instead, he wanted her to feel the pull toward him that he felt toward her. The pull he had felt since he'd first seen her so scared and unsure in the moonlight. She was beautiful with her wide green eyes, dark hair and full lips. Her skin was soft and her body full. She had a sheltered innocence about her and yet she had shown both strength and spirit when she had not only held a gun on him but pulled the trigger. 

Chase's father had always spoken of a life mate. He'd said that each person had only half a soul and you had to find your other half out there somewhere or be incomplete forever. As far as Chase could tell, this woman was his life mate and everything he had ever wanted in a woman. Chase's father had always claimed that Chase's mother had been his life mate. He had stolen the woman from her tribe and she had tried to escape him several times before faling in love with the man and choosing to stay. While Chase did not know anything about love, he hoped that this woman would choose to stay with him as well. 

"You mean you'll let me leave?" she asked, her green eyes lighting with hope. Chase nodded slowly. "Where is my horse and coat?" 

"If you leave here, you leave on foot. Other men have claimed your horse and I will not fight them for her. You will take a small sack of biscuits and a canteen of water. Nothing else." Leah felt every bit of her hope die. She could not go out wandering in the night alone and  on foot... she had no idea where she was--and there were men like Petey just waiting on her out there. 

"I will leave you to decide what you want to do," Chase added before leaving the tent. 

Leah went to the cot and sank down feeling utterly defeated. She had no idea what she was going to do. Was this going to be her life now? Cooking, cleaning, and obeying this Indian and never again seeing her home or her family? And what was that intense look in his dark eyes when he looked at her. What was the heat she felt whenever he touched her or she held his gaze for too long? All Leah knew wa that this man was dangerous. Perhaps not a danger to her physically but he was holding her prisoner and refusing to let her leave with any hope of surviving. 

Leah buried her head in her hands and wept. She wept for Benjamin but mostly she wept for herself and the life her stubborn foolishness had cost her. 

***

Chase gave the woman plenty of time to think things over and come to terms with her new life. He returned to the tent after nightfall with a bowl of stew that he had made from wild onions, greens and a rabbit he had killed that morning. 

Walking in, he saw her curled up in the shadows on the cot with her back to him. Chase could tell by the rhythm of her breaths that she was awake but she seemed to want him to believe she was asleep so he humored her. He sat the bowl on the wooden crate beside the cot and went about lighting a fire in the center of the tent. 

Chase saw her stir aupon the cot and knew that the scent of the stew must have reached her nose. "Eat," he ordered. 

Sitting up slowly, she turned to face him. Her green eyes were red rimmed and puffy. It was clear that she had spent much of the day crying. Chase wished she wouldn't do that. Tears were a waste of time and solved nothing. 

"You cooked for me?" she whispered hoarsely. 

Chase nodded as he sat down cross-legged on the ground and pulled his knife from the sheath on his leg. He laid it across his buckskin pants and pulled a sharpening stone from the sack beside him. As he went about sharpening his knife in the firelight, Chase was very much aware of the woman as she began to eat hungrily. He fought against the way his body responded to the sounds of her hungry moans. She was a temptation for him but he had trained himself well in not giving in to temptation adn this would be no different. Until the woman welcomed him into her bed, Chase would not lay with her. 

"What is your name?" he finally asked. 

She paused with her spoon halfway to her lips. She was silent for several long moments before letting out a sigh. "Leah." 

"You will not regret your decision to stay, Leah." 

Chapter Five

"You want me to skin that?" Leah asked as she covered her mouth and nose with her hand to block the scent of the bloody rabbit that Chase was currently dangling in front of her.

He thrust the rabbit toward her. "Yes."

Leah shook her head and fought back a gag. "No."

She and Chase had been together at this camp now for a week. She still cried herself to sleep most nights but the pain of her losses and the knowledge that she was stuck here were both beginning to ease. In truth Chase treated her very well. He let her have the cot each night, he made sure she had enough to eat and drink and he stood guard over her at all times ensuring that none of the other men would touch her or even look at her crosswise.

But in that time Leah also hadn't left the tent for longer than ten minutes and she was beginning to get cranky. Riling the Indian was proving to be quite an entertaining pastime.

"Yes," Chase repeated, giving the rabbit a little shake as he held it up by the ears.

"I'll cook it just like always but I am not skinning it," she argued stubbornly. "If you don't skin it then we'll be eating stew with fur and all!" Chase grunted and stomped from the tent and Leah covered her mouth to try to stifle her laughter. He really wasn't a bad man. He was quiet and didn't speak much but he was patient to a fault and had yet to truly act angry with her.

Leah still didn't understand why he wouldn't let her leave. She had no real idea of why he was keeping her around as a houseguest, but, she already had a plan. She had been paying attention to the way Chase slept at night and she had familiarized herself with his breathing when he truly slept.

Tonight was the night that Leah was going to run. She was going to wait until Chase was asleep, take his gun and set off into the night on whatever horse she could find. While it wasn't the most detailed of plans, it was all she had to hold onto.

Leah got busy cutting up the vegetables that Chase had brought in with the rabbit. She had no idea where he found canned carrots and peppers but she assumed some homesteads cellar was a bit emptier this morning than it had been last night.

When Leah finished with her task, she began sewing a tear in one of Chase's shirts, happy to have something to busy her hands. She had spent the first two days stubbornly refusing to do anything Chase demanded but then she had found herself growing bored and decided that doing chores would help cure that boredom and keep her from going stark raving mad.

It didn't take long before she was done with the shirt as well and she sighed and looked toward the tent flap. Where was he? Sure Chase wasn't much for conversation but she had become accustomed to having him poke his head in and check on her now and then.

She was just standing up to poke her head out to look for him when he stepped through the flap and she felt her breath catch in her chest the way it always did when she saw him. So tall. So handsome. So masculine. She felt that heat growing in her blood again as well as a tingling sensation that had her shifting awkwardly and tugging on the skirt of her dress. She hated herself for feeling those things toward this man... He was one of her captors--one of the men who had led to Benjamin's death--Leah couldn't let herself forget that.

This thought brought Benjamin to her mind and she realized with sudden shame and guilt that she had not thought much about Benjamin in days. What kind of woman was she? Leah bit her lip to fight back the emotion that rose in her throat. The answer to that question was that she was not a very good woman at all.

Chase had seen Leah's face light up when he had entered the tent and his heart had grown lighter but the sudden sadness that suddenly darkened her features had his heart turning back to stone. The last week had been a new experience for him. He liked knowing that someone would be waiting for him when he came back to his tent. He liked listening to her soft breathing as they both lay in the darkness.

While they had not spoken much because she still seemed to be angry with him and he wasn't much of a talker, Chase realized that for the first time in his life since his father had died nearly fifteen years ago, he didn't feel lonely.

"Here," he said as he held out the skinned and gutted rabbit, along with a knife for cutting.

Leah sighed and took both from him. Truthfully she had skinned and gutted plenty of animals in her life but she had wanted to be difficult with him earlier out of spite. She had always liked to be difficult and it was something that her parents and brother had always been scolding her for. Thoughts of them had yet more tears forming behind her eyes and she quickly blinked them away and got busy cutting up the meat on the wooden stump Chase had in the corner just for that task.

"You are sad," Chase stated as he lit a cigarette.

"You don't care," Leah snapped.

Chase nodded and left the tent. "You look like someone pissed in your wigwam, Chief," Yancy announced as Chase walked to the main fire and sat down on a stump. Yancy seemed to think he was clever with all of his Indian comments. Chase simply found him annoying.

"You do look awfully tense, big guy," one of the camp whores purred as she sashayed her way to Chase and sat down on his lap, straddling his waist with her long legs.

Chase had always enjoyed this particular whore's attention. Louisa was a Mexican woman whose husband had been killed leaving her to provide for herself the only way she could find. She had dark skin, big brown eyes, curly dark hair and high tight breasts and Chase knew she favored him.

Chase felt his body responding in a naturally male way as she pressed her painted lips against his neck and rubbed herself against the growing arousal in his pants. He moaned as she moved those professional lips to his ear.

"Why don't we go somewhere a little more private?" she breathed.

Chase wanted to. He wanted to in the worst way. It had been a while since he'd had a woman and having Leah around but unable to touch her was the worst kind of torture he had ever endured. He was about to say yes to Louisa when suddenly Chase heard his fathers voice in his head.

'Your life mate should not have to share you with any other, my son. She will be both air, water, food and blood to your body. She will sustain you and you will sustain her. Just as the wolf mates faithfully for life so will you, my child. That is how the great mother wished it to be.'

Chase quickly stood, keeping his hands on Louisa's arms to stop her from falling as he placed her on her feet. He stepped away from her and strode toward the woods without a word.

"What was that about?" Louisa pouted as she watched him disappear.

"He's got himself a woman now. He doesn't need you anymore." Yancy chuckled. "Now me on the other hand...."

Louisa sighed and rolled her eyes before going to him. Chase was what she wanted. He was the only halfway decent man among all these men. Louisa would give him time to get over his new woman but if he didn't return to her arms soon Louisa would have to do something about her.

***

Leah sat up slowly, staying as silent as she could. It had taken hours of agonizing tension and waiting, but finally Chase seemed to be sleeping. Leah had noticed that he had acted strange all evening. He'd been even more quiet than normal and his dark eyes had been more intense each time she had caught them looking into hers.

His eyes made something in her respond and so she had quickly turned her head only to find herself glancing back moments later. There seemed to be something pulling her toward Chase. It was as if some unseen force drew her toward him.

She was sure people would think her crazy. He had been holding her against her will after all! That's why she had to leave here. She had to go now and find her way back home to her family. Being cooped up here in this tent with Chase was causing her mind to turn to mush.

Leah's hands were shaking and she could hear her heart pounding in her ears as she moved as quietly as she could toward Chase's sleeping form. He slept with his revolver and his knife beside him and she took the revolver. She tiptoed to the sack in the corner where he kept food and extra clothes for himself and picked it up, tossing it over her shoulder.

She stopped at the tent flap and turned to look at him. He looked so calm, so peaceful, as he lay there in the dark. Leah's heart was tugging in two separate directions. Part wanted to run away and go home to her family and part wanted to stay here and stay with Chase. Determining that the second part of her heart was crazy, she squared her shoulders and slipped out into the silent night.

Chase's eyes opened immediately and he watched the tent flap fall closed. Disappointment and sadness filled him. He had been certain that Leah had finally decided to stay with him but he had been wrong.

He had no doubts that she was his life mate. He could feel it when their eyes met and he could see that she felt it too, she just wasn't sure what the feeling was or that she wanted to feel it.

If she was that determined to leave him then Chase would let her. If they were destined to be together then surely somehow their paths would cross again. He rose from the ground and picked up his knife.

He couldn't find it within himself to be angry that she had stolen from him. She was his life mate so anything that was his was hers as well. He heard an owl hooting in the night and knew he couldn't let Leah wander alone. There were too many dangers and he would never allow anything bad to happen to her.

He slid his knife into the leather sheath on his leg and headed out into the night to track her. He would stay out of her sight and remain silent. Following her simply to ensure that she made it safely wherever she was going.