Pinto Lowery never wanted anything more than the chance to raise a family and find a piece of land he could call his own. But after fighting in the Civil War, he couldn't settle, and instead drifted all over the West breaking mustangs, haunted by the ghosts of his fallen comrades. All that changed in a flash. There didn't seem to be a good reason to leave mustanging to go work on the farm of Mister Tully Oakes while Oakes travels north on a cattle drive. The man had a reputation for being stingy, ornery and contrary. But when Pinto met Elsie Oakes and her young children, an old yearning stirs in his heart and Pinto decided to take Tully's offer, Time goes by quickly when the work is hard. Yet, while the corn is being harvested and everyone is around the fire at night, Pinto can almost fool himself into believing he's found a loving family, and the first secure home he's known since boyhood. But the day of Tully's return looms and...

When his father dies and the family scatters, Erastus ('Rat') Hadley hires on as a hand to a local farmer. Rat is abused and tortured in his new home, but a depression is on and it's a tough time for a young man to be on his own. When Rat's loyal childhood friend Mitch Morris intervenes and the sheriff rescues Rat, his luck changes. Landing a job at last, Rat rides shotgun for the Western Stage Company out of Fort Worth. He quickly picks up a reputation as a crack shot, and as business increases, Rat is able to save towards the small ranch he'd always dreamed of. His steady routine is interrupted when the hero of his childhood, Sheriff Cathcart, asks him to become his deputy. Rat's first duty as deputy is to track down the Oxenberg gang, one of the deadliest groups of bandits in all of Texas. When he draws close to his quarry, Rat is faced with one of the toughest lessons of his life: friendship and old loyalties don't always square with justice and the...

Eight years ago, forty-year-old Caulfield Blake was run out of the West Texas town of Simpson by a lynch mob. As sheriff, he'd been called on to carry out justice. But the War was ending and upholding the law was a tough kind of business. And when it meant hanging 'Colonel' Henry Simpson's son for killing an unpopular federal judge, the community—including Blake's own wife and children—wanted no part of him. Now Colonel Simpson wants to expand his spread and force out his neighbors, so he blocks up Carpenter Creek and dries up the already barren soil. There's only one man who will stand up to the powerful Colonel Simpson and he's been making a good living for himself rounding up mustangs by the Brazos River. But when Caulfield Blake gets an urgent letter from his remarried ex-wife, he listens to his heart, and not to his sense, and heads back home.

Mastincala, the Rabbit Boy, is born in a tumultuous and uncertain time for his people, the Lakota. He is but a boy when his father is killed during the clash between the Lakota and Colonel Harney's army at Rosebud, and he vows to avenge his father's death. Mastincala joins Crazy Horse and the Oglala on their rides against the Crow, fighting against the encroachment and overhunting of Big Horn country. He earns the name Tacante, Buffalo Heart, for his courage during one particularly fierce battle, and sheds his softer boyhood persona. When gold is discovered in the sacred Black Hills, a series of unstoppable events is set in motion—culminating in the bloody massacre at Little Big Horn. In the midst of the turmoil, Mastincala must decide how to forge a future for his family while defending the honor and tradition of his ancestors.Lakota vividly details the struggle of the Lakota people against the white man for control of their hunting grounds, and offers a moving,...