The Vow (Black Arrowhead Series Book 1)

by Dannika Dark

  Lives were at stake.

  When someone brushed against his back, he jolted forward and spun around. His heart pounded against his chest as he stared down at Melody, who was wearing a wreath of wildflowers around her head. The little white flowers somehow suited the color of her hair and the shade of green in her eyes.

  “What are you still doing here? What’s with that?” he asked, pointing at her crown.

  She lightly touched it and gave him a sheepish grin. “It’s for a wedding.”

  Lakota cocked his head to the side. “Whose?”

  She centered her gaze on his, the amusement gone. “Ours.”

  Chapter 16

  “Don’t be mad,” I said, doing my best to placate Lakota.

  “Mad?” He glared down at me, eyes volcanic. “Why would I be mad? I’m only going to be mated against my will.”

  I sighed. “Don’t be a drama queen. Come sit down so we can talk.”

  We approached a round table by the back window and pulled out the chairs.

  Lakota moved a vase of flowers aside and rested his forearms on the table. “Explain.”

  I wasn’t sure if there was an easy way to lay it out so that he’d understand. “Look, it’s not as bad as it sounds. Shikoba lied to a Councilman so he wouldn’t get suspicious about my being here. Lying to the Council is a major offense, and you know that. They showed up unexpectedly, and I was standing around in my nightshirt. Not exactly the behavior of a woman here on business. You get the picture. You’re somewhat of an outsider, so the Council bought it and dropped the matter. The thing is, Shikoba’s also afraid that his people will lose trust in him if he lies so easily, so he’s taking this more seriously than I first thought. After a long talk, we reached an agreement.”

  “Oh, this sounds good. I leave you alone for five minutes, and we’re getting mated.”

  “We both get something out of this mating ceremony. Shikoba won’t look like a liar to the Council or his tribe, and to show his appreciation, he’s going to cut a deal with Hope and me. He thinks if I’m mated to someone with Native blood, then he’ll have more reason to trust me. Look, the wedding doesn’t mean a thing. It’s not legal in the eyes of my Council since they won’t be present or officiating. Tribal laws don’t apply to us. Oh, Lakota. This would be huge for our business! We talked numbers, and he offered to accept less than what I was willing to pay. Less!”

  Lakota shook his head. “I’m not agreeing to this.”

  My heart sank. I’d known when talking with Shikoba that the offer wasn’t firm unless Lakota agreed. “You have to!”

  “No, Melody. I don’t. You can’t play with people’s lives like this.”

  I had to make Lakota understand what everyone stood to gain. “It won’t count. It’s not a real mating, and we can go about our lives like normal when we leave this place. Shikoba will never find out. It’s not like he’s going to pop in for a visit, and if he asks how you’re doing, I can answer honestly since we’ll still keep in touch. Do it for Hope. This would mean so much to her. She doesn’t have to know how we closed the deal. This can be our secret.” I took off my crown of flowers and set it on the table. “No one ever has to know, and like I said, it won’t be legal. What do we have to lose? We’re just playing dress-up.”

  He rubbed his face with his hands, mumbling something unintelligible.

  I brushed my finger against a tiny petal on the crown. “This would be a good way to prove your loyalty to Shikoba. We’ll go our separate ways in the morning.”

  “I can’t leave, Mel. Not until this case has ended. Besides, how’s it going to look if you take off without me?”

  I sat back in the chair. “I took care of that. I told him I have to go home and open the store. He also thinks I need time to break this to friends and family, but what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Since this isn’t exactly an ordinary negotiation, he doesn’t have any say in when we move in together. The ceremony itself is the only thing that’s part of our agreement. If he asks, just tell him you have to wrap up some business here or sell your place.”

  Lakota tilted his head to the side. “I’m staying in a cheap apartment, and as far as they’re concerned, I don’t work.”

  I nudged his foot with mine. “Then how are you paying for your apartment? They’re not dumb. They know you’ve got money coming in somehow. Make up a story that you’re doing something on the side. That’s not exactly a lie. Our agreement had nothing to do with us moving in together.”

  Lakota snorted. “Just mating for life.”

  Twirling my hair around my finger, I said, “He thinks it’ll be good fortune for his people if he has a mating ceremony just after a burial. The circle of life or something like that.”

  “Why didn’t he ask me himself?”

  “You weren’t here.” I batted my eyelashes. “Maybe he knows you’ll do the right thing. Save him from shame and all that.”

  Lakota groaned as he sat back. “This is worse than the time you made me pretend I was blind.”

  “It was the only way that cop was going to let a thirteen-year-old off the hook for driving a car.”

  “I knew I shouldn’t have let you behind the wheel, Speedy Gonzales.”

  Cops in the country sometimes went easy on kids doing dumb things, and that summer Lakota was visiting his family in his new car. Somehow I’d talked him into letting me take it for a spin. My pack had no problem with me driving on the property, but I was a daredevil and wanted to sail down the open road. So when Lakota stopped by to take me over to spend the night with Hope, I convinced him I was an excellent driver. And I was.

  Until I reached sixty miles per hour.

  I told the cop that Lakota was blind and his grandma had just had a heart attack and we were on our way home from the hospital.

  Lakota sighed. “I’ll talk to Shikoba. Maybe there’s another way you can make a deal with him that doesn’t involve a mating ritual.”

  I’d already tried everything, but I didn’t bother mentioning it. If Lakota could swing a better offer, I would happily take it. “Just don’t do anything to jeopardize the deal I have with him. Okay? My clothes are only half the business. If we could secure Shikoba as our supplier, our customers would be lined up out the door.”

  “Fine.”

  “What does ‘fine’ mean?”

  He sat forward and rested his arms on the table again. “It means I won’t jeopardize your deal.”

  I felt the excitement bubbling. “So if you can’t come up with another deal, does that mean you’ll go through with the whole mating thing?”

  “Yeah, Mel. I’ll be your wife, because clearly you’re the one wearing the pants in this relationship.”

  I sprang out of my chair and hugged him from across the table. “Thank you! Thank you!”

  A few giggles erupted from the doorway, and we both glanced at two women who had empty glasses in their hands. They set them on the edge of the counter instead of putting them up and ushered each other out, peering at us with amusement.

  I let go of Lakota and slithered back into my chair.

  He rubbed his mouth with one hand and reached out with the other. His fingers brushed over my knuckles, and a tender moment passed between us. “Are you okay about everything?”

  “Everything” meaning the best night of my life. Yeah, I was pretty good about reading between the lines. “Are you?”

  His thumb circled over one of my knuckles, and neither of us answered. Maybe the question was more complicated than that, and a simple yes or no wouldn’t suffice.

  “Whose belt is that?” he asked.

  “Tak’s.”

  Lakota broke contact, and his expression hardened. “Stay away from him.”

  “Why? I thought he was your friend.”

  He lowered his voice. “Until I figure out who’s behind the murders, you can’t trust anyone. Especially Tak. Rumors are circulating, but I can’t slander a man without evidence.”

  Breed laws were designe
d to protect a man’s reputation unless there was incriminating evidence. Slander without substantial proof could ruin a person’s standing and future income even if he was found innocent. People always remembered the accusations more than the final ruling, and tarnishing a man’s reputation could never be undone, no matter how many centuries passed.

  Lakota stood up and wagged his finger at me. “We’ll talk later.”

  I batted my eyelashes. “At the wedding?”

  “Do me a favor and don’t tell my sister we’re betrothed. You owe me for this. Big time.” He stalked off.

  Maybe I did, but as far as I was concerned, I’d sealed the deal. It had made the whole trip worth taking. Well, besides our amazing night together. Lakota had set the bar so high that I was certain no man would ever be able to reach it. He’d done me a favor by securing my status as a single woman.

  “Did it fit?” a woman asked in the doorway. Her braid was hanging over one shoulder and had a narrow piece of leather securing the bottom of it.

  I stood up and collected the flowery crown. “Yes, it’s gorgeous. You really don’t have to go through all this trouble. I’m fine just wearing this dress.”

  The woman giggled and looked down at my long nightshirt. “You can’t get mated wearing that. You must show your life mate that he has been chosen by the most beautiful rose in the garden. Your mating has given us something to look forward to, so you shouldn’t carry any guilt in your heart. Your dress should be ready tonight.”

  The young woman collected the crown and headed out. The men in the tribe had a powerful presence in the house as protectors, but the women wielded their power in a different way. They were the core that held the tribe together, and it made me realize they weren’t so different from packs.

  The yard just outside the kitchen window was in a recessed part of the house where they stored firewood. When I caught sight of Tak, I stepped behind the curtain and watched.

  He looked left and right over his shoulders. Then he reached behind the woodpile, removed a brown satchel, and hooked the strap over his shoulder. Instead of returning to the backyard, he veered left toward the garden.

  Curious, I snuck out a side door. No one noticed me since the women were busy preparing for the mating ceremony, and most of the men were asleep in their rooms after a long night.

  Tak kept walking, so I fell back to a safe distance. There was no point in skulking in the shadows if my purple hair was going to be blowing in the breeze, so I gathered it as I would a ponytail and twisted it into a knot.

  I hadn’t expected Tak to keep walking, and by the time we were deep in the woods, I had to choose between following or heading back. It was too late to alert Lakota, but if he suspected Tak, then maybe following him would lead to something. Whenever I thought Tak might stop to rest, I dodged behind trees, but he never did. I was fortunate to have grown up in a house in which two of my uncles were former bounty hunters, so they’d taught me a few tricks on how to follow a person without giving myself away.

  For all I knew, he was hunting. After all, that was how the tribe acquired all their meat. But he didn’t have his bow, and something about the way he kept looking over his shoulder led me to believe he was doing something he wasn’t supposed to be doing. Having grown up with two brothers, I knew that behavior all too well.

  There came a point of no return when I realized I needed to see it all the way to the end. Lakota had warned me to stay away from Tak, but I couldn’t just walk away if it meant saving a life. So I kept quiet and maintained a safe distance. If something went wrong, I was a fast runner and an excellent tree climber.

  Sweat trickled down my face, so I rested behind a tree to catch my breath. When I peered around the trunk, Tak was no longer in sight.

  Careful not to make too much noise, I quickly jogged ahead to catch up. My pace slowed when I neared a thicket of trees and heard voices just down the hill. I stealthily weaved around a tree and stood frozen when I caught sight of Tak.

  A few feet in front of him stood a girl who looked to be in her teens. She gripped the ends of her green shorts, her arms stiff as Tak approached. I couldn’t hear anything they were saying, but he reached out and touched one of the dark curls on her head.

  My throat dried up. I glanced around for something to use as a weapon, but all I could see were flimsy sticks the size of pencils. Tak held the satchel under his arm, and when he reached inside and slowly withdrew his hand, I readied myself to shift. My wolf could take care of business.

  Probably. But panic set in when I remembered Tak was an alpha.

  The girl shrieked and reached for something. A loaf of bread?

  “What the—” I whispered.

  What had first appeared to be bushes behind the girl was actually a makeshift shelter made of branches and leaves. A frail man stepped out and bowed to Tak, accepting everything given to him.

  From my vantage point, it looked like tomatoes, canned fruit, okra, and other foods wrapped in plastic storage bags. The teenager held the bread to her nose and hurried back to the shelter, calling for someone. A toddler wearing nothing but a pair of dirty shorts crawled out and looked up at her. The girl tore off a piece of bread and handed it to him. My eyes welled with tears. They were homeless Shifters.

  While rogues had gained a bad reputation in many communities, not all of them were criminals. Occasionally wolves or other social animals lived on their own for personal or financial reasons. Some were on the run from crazy families, others didn’t have the skills to survive in the real world, and some had been turned away from packs or other organized groups of animals.

  Tak approached the shelter and gripped one of the branches, giving it a firm shake. While he talked to the man, I circled to the other side of the tree and sat down to rest. I felt like an ass for coming out all this way, and now I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to find my way back. If Shikoba discovered I was spying on his son, he might forget about our deal.

  After taking a short breather, I quietly stood up and brushed off the bottoms of my feet. My heart nearly shot out of my chest when a hand clamped around my mouth and a strong arm pinned me to the slender tree.

  “Why are you following me?” Tak growled in my ear. “Did Lakota send you?”

  I wrenched away, my hair falling askew. “How did you know I was here?”

  He circled the tree and came into view. “I could smell you. Maybe you should think about a shower before your wedding,” he said with disdain.

  “So this is what you sneak off to do in your spare time? Meanwhile, people are suspecting you of murder.”

  “I think I know what people you speak of, and Lakota is not my people.” Tak turned his head away so only the tattooed side showed. “What I do is nobody’s business.”

  Circling in front of him, I said, “People in town are saying you did it. Is this what you were doing the other night—bringing food up here?”

  He answered with his silence.

  “Why would you rather people think you’re a killer than a kindhearted man? This is your alibi.”

  His eyes slanted down at me. “What outsiders think of me is of no consequence, especially if it’s not true. Stealing food from my own tribe is a punishable offense.”

  “Shikoba will understand.”

  He huffed out a laugh and brushed past me. “You don’t get it.”

  “He’s your father, isn’t he?”

  Tak spun around, his anger barely quelled. “Food is very valuable to us, more than money. Maybe where you come from no one would care, but the way the elders would see it, I’m stealing from the mouths of our children. I am giving away food that someone labored over—food that could get us through winter—to a band of rogues. This would shame my tribe. My father believes in helping others but not if it means putting our people second.” He pointed at the makeshift camp. “Do you see that family down there? They’re not even wolves! They’re living between pack territories on unclaimed land, sometimes stealing to feed their child
ren. That’s how I found them. I caught the girl in our garden one night. She could have gotten herself killed if one of our wolves had been out there. His mate is the only predator in the family, but her fox can’t kill large enough animals to feed them all. Just birds and mice. What I give isn’t enough. I came here today to find she’s gone hunting again. One of these days she might get herself killed.”

  “So you thought giving them food would save them from getting caught.”

  Tak looked irritated and stalked off.

  I jogged after him and caught his wrist, forcing him to stop. “You have to tell everyone what you’ve been doing. If you don’t, they might have enough evidence to pin it on you and make an arrest. That is, if the locals don’t take matters into their own hands first.”

  He bulldozed me with his gaze, and Tak was a strong man who could probably crush stones. “Is saving my honor more important than keeping a family together? If I tell the truth, what do you think will happen to them? They’ll drive them out of here and put those children in an orphanage. Do you think I would see their family torn apart just to save my good name? That would besmirch my honor, and sometimes honor is all a man has left in this world when his good name is already black.”

  I had no comeback. Tak lived by a different code, and while his choice didn’t do him any favors, it was noble. He cared more about keeping that family alive and safe than he did about his freedom.

  “Do you think I don’t know what people are saying?” he asked as we continued plodding back to the house. “Someone is setting me up. Who better to target than the chief’s son?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Each time I come out here, there’s a murder. But what can I do? If I space apart my visits, the family will resort to stealing again, and I won’t have their blood on my hands. But a killer is out there, and he’s going to take lives no matter what I decide. Someone is going to die tonight.”

  I glanced over my shoulder, but the family was no longer in view. “Did you build that shelter for them?”