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Image: Free Wallpaper from http://www.scenicreflections.com/ ~Sephrena.

Author's Note: Thank you Hope for your encouragement and help in editing. Thank you Sephrena for making the post appear professional. Most of all thank you to all who have commented or left Kudos. For those who have left comments, I answer them with what I hope is something witty and appreciated. ~Barbara.

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Chapter 34: Winning Her Heart
 
The remaining members of the posse were awakened mid-morning when the local National Guard unit showed up with two Vietnam era tank retrievers. These machines were designed to travel into boggy areas to rescue tanks that managed to get stuck in the rice patties of the war zone. The Guard unit had been maintaining these relics for decades, but never had much chance to use them. The Sheriff's office had called a towing company to send trucks out to get the rustlers vehicles, but with the ground wet and soggy, the owner of the company had reached out to his friend who headed up the local unit.

The wolves had left at daylight except Silver Ears. He sat watching the commotion with interest as the two trucks were hooked to the winches and towed to the top of the hill. Jesse walked over to the wolf and said, “Before the trucks leave the ranch we will take some beef off of them for the freezer at the ranch and for you to take back up to the den. Gabriel and I will load the beef onto one of the four wheelers back at the ranch house and take it up to the lake for you. We are going to ride the horses back to the ranch house if you want to come with us and see Merry before you head up to the lake.”

The young couple mounted the horses while Alex took over the recovery of vehicles. The Sheriff's Office will take the trucks and sell them at auction to support the victims’ reparations program. The beef will be divided between the ranchers, a local charity and the rest will be sold to the local markets. Jesse asked her future father-in-law to get her little girl from Doc Henley and bring her back to the house. She figured that the old doctor could use some relief from the precocious little girl.

During the stand-off, the riders picketed the horses just over a small rise out of sight of the fugitives. The wolves would have spooked Gabriel's horse, and they didn't want to take any chances of a stray bullet hitting a horse. Big Spot had tried to soothe the other horse when it had tried to bolt at the sound of howls of the wolves or when the scent came on the wind. The other horse was still shaken from the panicked gallop into woods of the previous day. Big Spot couldn't fault his companion for its nervousness. It had not been to the wolves den. It had not faced down an evil panther. The other horse had not met Coyote. Looking back on the past few weeks, Big Spot decided he had packed a bunch of living in a very short time. Would he do it again? He decided he wouldn't hesitate as long as his rider was with him. She had accompanied him through the tough times and showed uncommon care for him. She took time to learn from him and pay attention to his concerns. Still, he was glad to be heading back home. He had a little girl to teach to ride. And from conversations with Jesse, he may have another little girl to teach. Teaching little ones to ride was his favorite task around the ranch.

Silver Ears had run ahead to keep from frightening Gabriel's horse. The others rode in silence lost in their thoughts about the last couple of days. Gabriel had witnessed the girl he loves kill a man while protecting her ranch and the lives of the deputies. He had heard snippets of the conversation she had with his father. The young man loved this girl like no other. There was something about her when he met her that set his heart racing. He couldn't stop thinking about her when she was gone. When they dated a couple of years back, she was always shy and reserved. The other boys would speak about their conquests. Most of which were probably exaggerated cow pies, but he just knew the girl he was dating was sweet and pure. He would do nothing to compromise that. He was afraid if he pushed too hard to be sexually intimate, he would lose any chance to be with her. And his mother would flay his hide if she ever found out he treated a girl with such disrespect.

'This trip turned out to be adventurous', the young rancher thought. He found out why his would-be girlfriend was so shy. She was a BOY when they first started dating. The boy was only pretending to be a girl to help relieve the depression of his grandmother, so the pretend girl wasn't dating him because she was gay or because she thought she was really a girl, but just an act of love for her/his grandmother.
'I can't fault him for that', he thought, but why did he fall so hard in love with the girl he thought she was, and why is he not upset and disgusted when he learned he had kissed a boy. “This is so confusing,” he accidentally said out loud.

“What's confusing?” asked his companion.

“Thinking that you were ever a boy. I'm so deeply and truly in love with you, I can't see that you were anything but the girl I first met. You told me and convinced me that I kissed a boy, and it doesn't freak me out. If anything, the reason behind you pretending to be a girl makes me love you all the more. You are compassionate and considerate of others, but you are strong enough to take a life if you have to. The confusing thing is trying to keep the gender pronouns straight. When you were a boy that would be he and his. Now you are a she and her, but when you were pretending it gets difficult to keep those things straight.”

“You are making things much too difficult. I am a girl now, and if you can live with the fact that I was once a boy, that is wonderful. The right pronouns now and for the rest of our lives are she and her.”

“May I add smart to that list of reasons that I love you.”

“One of us has to be,” said the young girl. She clicked to Big Spot to get him to pick up the pace while the young boy digested her comment.

“HEY!” he shouted and urged his horse to run after the two.

“RUN Big Spot! The girl laughed. The chase was on. Big Spot just kept his rider out of reach of her amorous pursuer. They caught Silver Ears and past him on their chase. He just sat and shook his head. {youth}. Jesse leaned down to her horse and said, “Let them catch us. This is beginning to hurt my arm, and it will be good for his ego.” The horse slowed just enough to be caught, but not make it look like they were slowing down to be caught.

Gabriel rode up beside the other animal and grabbed his rein to slow him down to a walk. The girl was almost giggling and laughing enough to fall out of the saddle. Her laughter was infectious, and the boy who was already on the verge of laughter, burst out with his own.

“I love it out here.” said the young wolf after catching her breath. “I see why generations of my family have lived on this ranch. The mountains are beautiful. The lakes and streams are mostly pure enough to drink straight from them. The pastures just have this lovely smell to them after a rain. I love ranching. A few pesky varmints like those rustlers aren't going to spoil that for me.”

They had come to a stream and stopped to let the horses drink. Gabriel helped the girl off her horse. They would walk some to give the horses a rest and stretch their legs. It was an idyllic morning. The snow was melting and would be gone by lunch as was the way of these late spring snowfalls. It would linger longer at the higher elevations, and may continue to snow where the clouds encircled the very tops. The boy reached over to take the hand of the girl. She didn't pull back, but stepped closer to him. He knew that he was winning her heart, but he agreed that a year was the appropriate amount of time before they were married. He would wait a month, and if her feelings grew stronger for him he would formally propose.

They had been walking in silence for about thirty minutes when the girl stopped and took a sharp breath. The cowboy looked in the direction she was staring as a large male elk stepped from the woods. It had its head held up proud and walked like it owned the field it just entered. The bull elk snorted as he looked toward the riders then turned and walked back into the woods. “Wow, I knew there was a possibility that elk lived on the ranch, but to see such a magnificent animal. Wow!”

The girl had turned and had flung her good arm around the cowboy's neck bouncing up and down. He grabbed her waist to stop her bouncing. “There is no doubt that you are a girl. I'm beginning to doubt you were ever a boy. Maybe physically, but never in spirit.”

“You may be right, but I didn't mind being a boy. I don't mind being a girl. I'm kind of looking forward to having my own children.”

They remounted their horses and rode at a brisk pace until about two hours before sundown. They had come upon one of the small lakes on the ranch. It was a perfect place to make camp. The young wolf soon had a fire going as the rancher set up the tent. He had hobbled his horse as he didn't want it to bolt when Silver Ears joined the camp. They ate of the beef that was cooked the night before. The old wolf came into camp as the couple finished eating. He accepted the beef that the girl had set aside for him, then walked over to talk to Big Spot.

The cowboy cut a long branch of a willow tree near by and tied a fishing line from his emergency gear to the end. They had saved a few scraps of the fat to use as bait. He walked down to the shore of the lake and sat on a rock dropping the line into the water. The girl came down and sat next to him and snuggled into his shoulder. “This is so peaceful. The sunset is beautiful on the water. I have a handsome man to snuggle with. What more could a girl want”

The young man turned toward her and said, “This.” Then he kissed her, gently at first, then with more passion. The make shift fishing pole jerked in his hand, but he didn't pay it any attention until it jerked again almost pulling out of his hand. He quickly let go of the girl he was kissing and pulled a trout out of the water. He put the fish on a stringer and put it back into the water to keep it alive until morning. After re-baiting the hook, and putting it back in the lake. He turned to find the girl had slipped off the rock and had walked back up to camp. Sighing, he watch as she added more fuel to the fire and began to get ready for bed. Another tug on the fishing line took his attention away from the girl as he pulled in another fish. The two fish would make a good breakfast in the morning. Still he re-baited and continued to fish. He would give the girl time to settle into the tent then he would join her.

A few more minutes and he had three fish on his stringer, which he decided was enough to feed the three carnivores in the morning. He washed the fish smell off his hands and began to prepare for bed. Silver Ears sat watching him. “Old one, I am hopelessly in love with that girl. If she doesn't agree to marry me, I may just go crazy. What should I do to make sure she knows that I love her.”

{She knows, and she is hopelessly in love with you, but she is still learning to accept that she is female.}

“I can see that, but I want her to be my wife so bad. I want to raise a family with her, to take care of her. How do I get her to understand?”

{Patience my young friend. Patience.}

“We were kissing on the rock by the lake when the fish interrupted us. Then she left. I don't understand.”

{She was afraid.}

“Afraid? Why should she be afraid of me?”

{Not you, her. She didn't want to stop kissing you and she was afraid that she would have mated with you tonight if she didn't stop.}

“Oh, I guess if the fish hadn't interrupted us, I wouldn't have stopped at just a kiss if she was willing to go further. I need to apologize to her.

“Thanks for listening.”

The young cowboy climbed into the tent where he found that the girl had zipped the two sleeping bags together. It would be too cold to sleep on top of the bags. He gave it some thought before he sighed and crawled into the his half of the sleeping arrangements. He found that the girl had stripped out of her jeans and flannel shirt and was wearing one of his tee shirts as a night shirt. He rummaged through his pack and picked out the pair of sweat pants and another tee shirt which he put on. He lay down facing his love and noticed she had watched him undress in the dim light of the camp fire. Also, he knew that Silver Ears wouldn't interfere with the couple tonight.

“I'm sorry that I kissed you down by the lake. It was presumptuous of me to...”

She held her finger to his lips. “I wanted you to kiss me. Do you remember our first kiss?”

“Yes. I ran back to the truck like I had made the winning touchdown. I felt like I had too.”

“I wanted you to feel that way again, but I got scared. I wanted you to keep kissing me until I gave into you and let you mate with me.”

“I won't ever feel the same way as that first kiss. Now when I kiss you its much more passionate, more primal. I feel the heat of my love grow to all I want to do is make love to you.”

“What if I don't say no or say stop?”

“Then I will have to say stop for us. As much as I want to make love to you, I would rather wait until we are married, than hurt you by mating with you before you're ready. It is as much the responsibility of the male to try and control these urges as it is the female.”

“I don't know if I want to wait.”

“Let's do this. We will sleep in each other's arms tonight, then you can talk to Doc Henley if you are convinced you don't want to wait. We will have plenty of opportunities to make love as I plan on living a long time with you. Now roll over and take the inside spoon and let me hold you as you fall asleep.”

The girl rolled over on her side facing away from the boy and he put his arm under her head for a pillow and with his other hand he held hers. By holding her hand he thought that would keep him from stroking her perky breasts and fanning the flames of passion again. He had placed his pack under his head for a pillow and just laid in the dark listening to his love’s breath and smelling her. He was thinking, 'We've been on the trail for three days. One would think that our body odor would be unbearable, but I can't seem to get enough of her scent.'

Her breathing became soft and rhythmic as she fell asleep. The young man was not far behind her. The night progressed in to the wee hours. The rancher was awaken by a scream. The couple had rolled away from each other in the middle of the night, and the young woman was having a nightmare. She continued scream until the boy wrapped her in his arms make shushing noises trying to calm her down. She finally woke crying and realized that she was being held.

“Hold me tighter. I'm scared.”

“What's wrong Sweetheart?” he asked.

“I keep seeing the man I had to kill in my dreams. He was threatening my pups with that weapon he was using.”

“Everything will be okay. I will look after you and our pups. We will seek Coyote when we go to the lake if the dream keeps bothering you.”

“You promise to help me protect our pups?”

“I won't let anyone harm our children. You can count on that.”

Silver Ears came over and scratched on the tent, {Are you well Far Wanderer?}

“She just had a bad dream, Silver Ears,” answered the boy. “She dreamed that the man that was killed was going to kill her pups, and it scared her. She's okay now.”

{Far Wanderer, always remember that you have the strength of the pack to help you through these bad dreams. Lie back down and sleep with your mate. He will be strong protection for you.}

The young woman answered the old wolf meekly as an errant little girl, “Yes sir.” She lay back down and cuddled with the cowboy. “Its times like these when I miss my grandfather the most. He was always strong for me when I was scared. Thank you for being strong for me,” she said to the boy. She snuggled in tighter to the young man with her head on his chest and was soon asleep.

He lay there and whispered, “You're welcome.” He, too, finally went to sleep. Though he was asleep he was aware that the girl had him in a tight snuggle and wouldn't move from that position as long as she felt frightened. He was glad to be her strength.

When morning came, the couple could be found as they were in the tight snuggle.

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To Be Continued...