Reclaiming Clover: Lone Wind, #1

By Alyssa Bailey

He was her only hope for freedom, and she was his only path to happiness.

 

When her protector abandoned her to go into the Army, leaving fourteen-year-old Clover Sweet Medicine to go through high school virtually unsupervised, she felt as though her spirit had died. She survived the loss, and now she was eighteen and graduating. However, grad night turned into a life-changing event, complete with an arrest and loss of her new adult status. Suddenly, Clover needs a guardian, and the tribal council chooses the only person who cared enough to make her follow the rules, Jared Little Fox. Would he be willing to reassure the little girl inside and still want the woman outside?

 

Jared Little Fox is a man of his word, and when he left to join the Army, it was to gain skills, a college degree and to earn money. He was going to fulfill his destiny with his tribe, and he was going to marry Clover Sweet Medicine. He tried to explain all this to Clover before he left, but she'd turned a deaf ear. Now, he worried that four years might have been too long, with the changes in his girl. His Clover was a woman-child who was out of control, angry, scared, reckless, and desperate for love. She had lost all the security he had worked so hard to give her, ensuring she was happy, safe, and healthy since her early childhood abandonment.

 

Now, instead of starting their adult lives together, the council wants to kick her off the reservation. They charge him with the task of saving her once again, or else. He had claimed her once. He could do it again. Would his Sweet Medicine Woman be able to submit to a man she once loved but now proclaims to hate to find her forever?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Alyssa Bailey
• Release date: Oct 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223365631

Alyssa Bailey

USA Today and #1 International best-selling author, Alyssa Bailey, is a dyed in the wool Texan living amongst the beauty of Southeast Alaska. Along with her husband, she lives where the sky meets the rainforest; the forest meets the mountains that touch the ocean, and the wildlife frolic on land, sea, and air. Humans, the ultimate interlopers, are wedged in where allowed and are properly thankful for the privilege. Alyssa loves writing realistic romance for the naughty in all of us. As a social worker, a banker, a mother of 11, a “Coastie” military brat and the wife of a retired Army NCO, she takes from her many experiences to write. After scrambling events from her world with her imagination, the fictitious worlds she creates often seem real and draw you in.  She loves writing power exchanges between strong, intelligent, sassy women who are not afraid to make a stand and men confident enough to give his woman space, but Alpha enough to keep her safe despite her choices is a common theme, and of course, there’s always a happily ever after.  If she can throw a little humor or suspense in her stories, it’s even better. Her characters predominately live in Regency England, Ireland, and Scotland amongst lords and ladies, in the Contemporary Realm amongst men and women of the world, and of course, hard-working Cowboys and fiercely romantic Indians.

Book preview

This is a complete work of fiction, and all situations are only imaginings of the author. The author does not condone any non-consensual activities in this work of romantic fiction or in any of her works. Reclaiming Clover is not based on any person living, or deceased, nor is it, in any way, a representation of the way of life as a Cheyenne today or, at any time, historically.

Please purchase or borrow your book from reputable sources. The author has worked hard to create a story you would enjoy. Please give the respect hard work deserves and don’t get this or any book from pirated sources. Enjoy!

Reclaiming Clover

The Reclamation of Clover Sweet Medicine

HE WAS HER ONLY HOPE for freedom, and she was his only path to happiness.

When her protector abandoned her to go into the Army, leaving fourteen-year-old Clover Sweet Medicine to go through high school virtually unsupervised, she felt as though her spirit had died. She survived the loss, and now she was eighteen and graduating. However, grad night turned into a life-changing event, complete with an arrest and loss of her new adult status. Suddenly, Clover needs a guardian, and the tribal council chooses the only person who cared enough to make her follow the rules, Jared Little Fox. Would he be willing to reassure the little girl inside and still want the woman outside?

Jared Little Fox is a man of his word, and when he left to join the Army, it was to gain skills, a college degree and to earn money. He was going to fulfill his destiny with his tribe, and he was going to marry Clover Sweet Medicine. He tried to explain all this to Clover before he left, but she'd turned a deaf ear. Now, he worried that four years might have been too long, with the changes in his girl. His Clover was a woman-child who was out of control, angry, scared, reckless, and desperate for love. She had lost all the security he had worked so hard to give her, ensuring she was happy, safe, and healthy since her early childhood abandonment.

Now, instead of starting their adult lives together, the council wants to kick her off the reservation. They charge him with the task of saving her once again, or else. He had claimed her once. He could do it again. Would his Sweet Medicine Woman be able to submit to a man she once loved but now proclaims to hate to find her forever?

Chapter One 

Clover

Jared Little Fox was returning tomorrow, and Clover couldn't sleep.

Clover Sweet Medicine loved Jared Little Fox with her whole being. She had loved him for as long as she had known him, and that was almost forever. Ever since she had reached an age to know of such things, she knew she belonged to the grandson of the great chief, Little Fox.

Even the sheer number of 'greats' before grandfather did not diminish the wonder from that fact. Little Fox was an influential leader born nearly two hundred years before and died over one hundred years ago. It seemed like too many years and 'greats' to include, so Jared proudly announced the bare facts. He was his grandson. And indeed, he was.

Jared Little Fox is destined for greatness. That seemed to be the tribal mantra when speaking of her protector. Her everything. What she also heard was, you are blessed that he cares for you. What they meant was, you are unworthy and yet he gives you worth. Don't lose him or you will be nothing again. Jared was naïve in his view of the world, but Clover was not.

Clover remembered the first time she looked into the expressive eyes of Jared Little Fox. Another child on the bus coming home from school chose that one fateful day to harass her. It marked the beginning of Jared's self-appointed status as protector of Clover Sweet Medicine. He claimed her that very day, and everyone knew it. Clover, most of all.

The story of Sweet Medicine of old told of a healer who saved the tribe from starving. He wondered if that was the reason her mother named her Clover Sweet Medicine for, in Cheyenne, Sweet Grass and Sweet Medicine, was interchangeable sometimes. Unfortunately for Clover, she couldn't ask her mother if that was true. What kind of healer couldn't heal themselves or their family, the ones who were closest to them? It didn't make sense.

Also, unfortunately, the bus driver didn't see the significance of her name, nor did he have compassion for a newly orphaned child who rained her agonizing pain as a torrential rage on the young man who taunted her mercilessly. He kicked both kids off the bus. Jared got off with them and walked the spitting wildcat home, knowing she was too young to walk home alone. She was six.

Where do you live, little one?

She yelled at him. Leave me alone.

Her pain turned to anger was so powerful she wanted to hurt and maim someone. She kicked at him, attacking the dirt around her as her rage fueled by the injustices in her life, continued to burn.

Did the boy hurt your feelings?

She nodded. But I am strong enough to handle it. Go away.

How dare this person try to become part of her pain. He couldn't help. No one could. She kicked the ground again, raising a sizeable dust cloud. She aimed and struck out, her foot hitting his shin. Suddenly, his arms encircled her tightly. She hated it and she loved it.

He continued to hold her as she raged. She kicked out and contacted his leg again. Still, he held on. She relaxed in his embrace. Someone really thought she mattered. She tried to bite him because that was a lie she couldn't allow herself to believe. He leaned down and swatted her backside. It wasn't hard, but it was enough to cause her to think. It didn't really hurt anything but her pride, but at the time the insult was huge and the taking control necessary.

I am old enough to walk home on my own. She wasn't yelling, but she had to push him away. She didn't know why, but she did.

Jared nodded at her statement but followed her home, anyway. Clover allowed him because it felt so right and at six, how was she to stop him? Even at her very young, traumatized age, she needed to feel like the world was good again, even though her experience taught her otherwise.

What's your name? she asked in a demanding voice.

Jared Little Fox and you are a little hellcat Clover Sweet Medicine.

It didn't seem strange that he knew her name. It seemed everyone did.

You said a naughty word.

He paused. I apologize. She regally nodded her acceptance.

You kicked me, twice and almost bit me. That was naughty Clover.

Clover had always lived on the reservation, but fast on the heels of her mother's premature death, she moved over to her auntie's home and spent the next few years back and forth between her father and auntie's homes. Her father's unrealistic dealing of that loss pushed Clover emotionally from his life as well. It was evident to all that he was sadly unable to believe his wife of nearly a decade would not be returning. He began to speak of the reincarnation that some elders and others still believed in.

The overwhelming grief, and his preoccupation with looking for his wife, gave way to a vast wasteland of mourning that was so profound, he could not discuss things with his daughter. Caring for her alone and the demonstration of any love was simply out of his capabilities. He did, however, share his peyote with her, hoping that her innocence would entice her mother back from the spirit world.

While Clover never looked for her mother in the dreams after the first full-color display, she did learn to enjoy the journey it took her on. She moved to her auntie's soon after that, but long after her mother left this world, Clover could sneak a little from her father's stash whenever he used it. She didn't crave it, but she considered it her escape, and even today, after years of Jared's watching over of her, she remembered its power to numb her pain. When she felt alone, when Jared wasn't around, it was her only solace.

Many thought the mourning of Aiyana, Clover's mother, would resolve itself. For Forrest Sweet Medicine, it never did. Jared assured Clover that people loved in different ways, but Clover later had to acknowledge the truth. Once her mother was gone from this earth, she could no longer buffer and shield from her daughter the distinct lack of paternal understanding or abilities of her father. Following the death of her mother, it became incredibly apparent that Forrest remained kind, if more distant, and unfortunately their relationship never progressed beyond that of a fond acquaintance.

Aiyana Sweet Medicine may have had less Cheyenne blood than her husband, but she was much more Cheyenne in her heart than he ever professed to be. Clover was more like her mother than her father in that even as a seven-year-old, she wanted to follow the Cheyenne way.

Her similar manner of dealing with things, even as a child, was so like her mother that what Forrest would shake his head at good-naturedly before her mother's death, now only seemed to bring him pain. Clover learned to avoid him and she learned to be more outspoken and annoying.

Clover, for heaven's sake, stop leaving messages about Mr. Styx's garbage on his door and in his yard.

How do you know it's me?

It says 'Don't litter. It's bad.' And you signed it with a drawing of a clover.

But, Dad, he leaves his trash and then shoots at the dogs that get in it. It's mean, and it's littering.

I don't care. You leave Mr. Styx to live as he sees fit.

The next day, when the garbage in question was found strewn all over Forrest Sweet Medicine's yard, Forrest was the one complaining.

Clover, in her seven-year-old wisdom, told her father, We have to leave him to live as he sees fit. Her father stormed out of the room to address the issue with their neighbor.

She found her interactions with the rest of her world to be as difficult as living alone with her father had proven and indeed with her auntie. The discord was partly because of her recent loss, but as time passed, it was because Clover Sweet Medicine looked for adventure. Without her mother there to guide her, she was a rather loose cannon, her auntie had said. While Clover was sometimes overcome by her insecurities, she pushed against her self-professed protector. However, Jared Little Fox, who had taken on that role, didn't allow too much pushing. That very fact had grounded her throughout the early years.

One day, eight-year-old Clover asked fourteen-year-old Jared, Do you think I'm dirty?

Jared had looked at her clothes and scrutinized her face before responding. You're clean, baby. I'll toss you in the bath when we get to your auntie's tonight, if you like.

She stomped her little foot at the end of her scrawny leg. No, imbecile. I mean, because I'm not whole.

Jared stared hard at his charge. You're whole for now, but if you stomp your foot at me again and call me an imbecile, I will tear up your 'whole' backside.

She sniffled. No, I'm not whole like you.

Jared Little Fox was a full blood Cheyenne Indian. Clover was five-eighths. Jared would get angry when she brought it up. He said blood is only one way of proving who you are as a Cheyenne.

He hit his chest over his heart. You are Cheyenne in here. Nothing else matters.

He preferred to know a person by their deeds. She knew he was right. It shouldn't have mattered, but to her, it did.

It's easy for you to say that. You are whole. Her mutinous heart didn't expect him to smile. He didn't understand. More than one blood wasn't uncommon in many places and was indeed celebrated, but on the reservation, purity of blood mattered. It mattered a lot. No one usually gave her too much trouble over her mixed breed status. However, it hadn't always been that way. Sweet Medicine had problems. Jared knew it was mostly because of her sorrow.

In school, she was an attentive student but not always a good problem solver.

Clover had heeded Jared's request that she be patient about her father and the teasing, and after waiting two long years, her father began to see his daughter as his responsibility once again. The teasing didn't stop. Forrest finally acknowledged that she had needs that he must meet in some acceptable way. With firm determination, he brought Clover home from her auntie's and for all intents and purposes, had brought Jared Little Fox back as well.

Jared was entering high school the next term, and since everyone told Forrest that Jared was who really cared for her, he decided anytime Jared wanted to come to the house, he could. Then he gave Jared a house key, gathered his gear, and went off to another job, leaving his not quite nine-year-old in the hands of a fourteen-year-old.

While there was grumbling, the council said if Jared did a good job, then it was allowed.

Forrest was careful to never stay gone more than a couple of days, but that's how Jared raised Clover and how Clover fell in love with Jared. She loved him because, even though she hated discipline in any form, she adored him for being predictable.

She loved everything about him except... Well, except that one thing. She had to whisper it even in her own mind. Jared spanked. She wondered if he spanked his girlfriends because he didn't seem to keep them long. She asked him once, and he said it was his business. That meant he did.

Jared, stop! I hate it. You can't punish me.

It looks like you're wrong, doesn't it? If you're dishonest, you get spanked. She hated being spanked. Jared spanked her anyway.

You aren't my father.

I care about you and am your caretaker.

The Cheyenne don't spank their children, she exclaimed with great haughtiness.

This Cheyenne does. Besides, I'm not an adult who worries about other's expectations. I am not your parent. I am, however, older than you are, and if you're intent on breaking the moral laws we live by, then I will impress their merit upon your backside.

Why? Why do you care? she yelled at him.

Because, he responded gently, you are mine, and I take care of what is mine.

That settled it, and they all knew it. But kids can be cruel.

I saw you with Jared Little Fox. Don't get too attached to him, sneered a boy that often taunted her. No warrior class Indian would ever muddy his blood with yours. It would dilute the purity.  

Well, good thing there are no warrior societies now, then, isn't it? came Clover's haughty response, but inside, she shriveled at what she knew to be true. The translation was glaringly obvious; you're not good enough for Jared Little Fox. He was destined for greatness. He would make something of himself.

The scenario played out many times over the next few years, until one night, Jared found her, as he often did after his ball practice or other activity, home alone, but this time he had caught her crying. Though she tried to hide it, he was a master at getting the real story from her.

What is wrong with my little warrior woman?

She loved him so much, because no matter how bad things got, he shielded her. She knew it wouldn't last, but she didn't want to think about that inevitability.

Nothing really. I'm behaving like a child. Ignore me, replied Clover, trying hard to hide her sniffles.

He pulled her into his already strong, sturdy young arms and coaxed the words he needed to hear from her. Clover, you are a woman-child, but you're mine to care for and protect. What's wrong? Truth.

Adam White Cloud and his group of friends started repeating it again that I am not good enough for you, and then the rest joined in. The teacher said I needed to get stronger to repel their hurtful words, not shoot the nasty arrows back at them. She said I must deflect not attack, whatever that means, the twelve-year-old replied in an attempted nonchalance with minimal success.

When she had finished her recounting, Jared had gone still. Worried, she looked into his face. There, she saw his eyes had turned the blackest she had ever seen them and the developing muscles of a hard-working sixteen-year-old were flexed. His fists knotted. His breathing was deliberate and measured. His tone was low and menacing, as only Jared's could become.

She was not scared, but curious as he looked sternly into her eyes. After a moment, he asked in the voice that she had learned over the years was his defender voice, Who is this Adam White Cloud and why would he tell you that lie?

He pulled her fiercely to him and reaffirmed to Clover that she was his. She knew it, but she was not so young to miss that people and their feelings changed without notice. Her insecurities were enough to cause her to question Jared's desire to hold his claim on her. His question was her reassurance, her answer to the question in her heart. Though all the world would abandon her, he never would.

It had been a lie told to confuse her. People always confused her because she lived on the fringes of the community in more ways than the physical. She had little family and even less who attended to her. There were, however, many who doubted her ability to survive well.

She'd relaxed into Jared's embrace. When her father did not take care of Clover, her protector had remained constant. She had no doubt her mother had sent him to her. She had never had a strong feeling for the spirit animal chosen for her, but she would be all right so long as Jared stayed near, his shadow covering her. She knew without any doubt that she would die without him.

The next morning, Jared was leaving her school when she arrived. He slowed to tousle her hair, then continued out the door. From that group of children, she never had another incident. She had no idea what Jared had done, but she knew he was looking out for her and the knowledge was enough. With Jared as her watchdog, no one dared harass her in defiance of him. They all knew Jared Little Fox would do great things. If he kept her safe, they