The Vow (Black Arrowhead Series Book 1)

by Dannika Dark

  “You certainly need one.”

  “Men take showers. Baths are for women.”

  “Are they, now?” I laughed. “Do you think your mother gave you showers when you were a toddler?”

  “I wasn’t a man then. I was a boy.”

  “I can’t believe you’ve spent your whole life thinking there are actually things that are either for girls or for boys. What in the world must you think of my shooting a bow and arrow? The mind boggles. Too bad you feel that way. There’s all this room in here. I’m naked and—”

  Lakota shot to his feet and sat in the water so forcefully that it splashed over me like a tidal wave. He draped both legs over the edge and relaxed his arms on the rim, his head reclined. “Not half bad. A little hot for my taste.”

  I leaned over and removed his shoes and socks. “If you’re going to do this, you’re going to do it right. Take off your clothes.”

  Without argument, he stripped out of his shirt. Lakota had a fine chest, worthy of admiration. Then he worked on his jeans. “I might need your help with these, wife.”

  “You can cut that out anytime.” I tugged on his jeans, and the water rocked dangerously close to spilling over the edge again.

  One leg came free, and he peeled the other side off before tossing the wet jeans to the floor.

  “It’s easier when you get naked beforehand,” I informed him.

  He reached for my foot and placed it on his chest. “Is it, now?” Lakota circled his fingers over the scars on the top.

  “This would never have worked out between us,” I said. “We’re the most unromantic couple. If you start making bubbles, I’m leaving.”

  He kissed my toe. “That was the old Lakota.”

  “And you’re the new and improved?”

  He chuckled darkly while massaging my calf. “I’ve had some body work done.”

  “I’ll say,” I murmured.

  His brows arched high, and he tugged my foot. “What was that? I didn’t hear you.”

  “Nothing.”

  “Funny. It almost sounded like a compliment. If I didn’t know better, Melody Cole, I might believe that you actually find me pleasing to look upon.”

  I flicked water at him with my finger.

  Because Shifters aged slowly, Lakota would remain handsome for many years to come—undoubtedly improving with age.

  After running my fingers through my hair to smooth it back, I grabbed the floating sponge. “We can’t tell anyone back home that we slept together.”

  “You don’t think they’ll notice something’s different between us?”

  “Unless you plan on making out with me at the dinner table, I don’t think anyone will be able to tell we’ve had sex.”

  He wiped his face and slicked back his long hair. “My stepfather will. Lorenzo can see right through people.”

  “Then we’ll just make sure he doesn’t see us together. That shouldn’t be difficult. You don’t come around much anymore, and when you do, I never hear about it until after you’ve left. I haven’t seen you in years.”

  He frowned, his hands still caressing my leg. The silence should have been awkward, but it wasn’t. It allowed me to slip into the moment and enjoy the heat from the scented water all around me—my right leg draped over his thigh, and our bodies comfortably tangled in the oversized tub. I’d never thought I would end up taking a bath with a man, but inside that quiet room alight with candles, nothing could have made more sense.

  “Maybe that’ll change,” he finally said. “I don’t visit as often as I used to because of work. But you’re right. I haven’t made an effort to see you.”

  “You’re not under any obligation. I’m Hope’s friend.”

  He gripped my foot. “No, you’re not just Hope’s friend. You’re my friend, and I’ve neglected you. I always ask about you when I write or call home.” His eyes flashed up to mine. “Do you ask about me?”

  Always, I thought. “Sometimes.”

  “Too busy with city life and boyfriends?”

  I smiled and pushed the sponge toward him. It floated to his side, and he reached for it. I saw no sense in encouraging something that wasn’t meant to be, something that wouldn’t last after tomorrow.

  “I guess I’ll be hearing about all your girlfriends from now on,” I quipped. “Hope likes to inform me what a prize her big brother is.”

  He rocked with laughter. “Hope has exceedingly high expectations for the woman she wants as her sister-in-law. She was always asking about who I was seeing and what pack or tribe they were from.”

  I played with the ends of my hair. “Have you ever dated someone like me?”

  He tickled the bottom of my foot and gripped it when I tried to jerk it away. “You mean a sassy woman with abysmal taste in music?”

  I furrowed my brow. I’d meant white, and he knew it, so I left it unsaid. Lakota wasn’t full-blooded, but he embodied many of the features of his people. It hadn’t escaped my memory that the girls he’d dated in his youth had all been from the local tribes.

  Lakota slid my foot aside and lifted the other to hold. My leg looked so pale against his chest. “When I moved your Jeep earlier, I heard your music,” he said, evading my question.

  I didn’t press. This would be our last night together. “That’s my uncle’s music.”

  He winked playfully. “Sure.”

  And there we were, back to our playful banter. I couldn’t bring myself to hold any kind of grudge against him for long.

  He wiggled his toes in my face. “Aren’t you going to wash my feet?”

  I shoved his leg away and bent my knee, my foot suddenly resting right between his legs. When I felt something twitch, I placed the sole of my foot over his shaft and slowly stroked. His eyes hooded, and his cheeks flushed. The moment he arched his back, I moved my leg away and gripped his lengthened erection in my hand. The skin was taut, like pure muscle within my grasp.

  Lakota looked like he was coming apart at the seams, his arms hugging the edge of the oversized tub, his expression hungry and filled with need. I let go and caressed his thigh, his stomach, then went down to parts of him where he’d never known a woman’s touch.

  He jerked forward, the motion so swift that as soon as he pulled me onto his lap, I was facing away from him. Once situated, I reclined my head on his shoulder and realized his erection was tucked between my legs, protruding from the front. His soft lips kissed my jaw before he nibbled on the shell of my ear, making me squirm. I whimpered when he pinched my nipples, which hardened against the cool air. In return, I cupped my hand over the length of him, giving him one erotic visual.

  “You need to stop doing that,” he whispered, his voice quavering.

  “You started it,” I whispered back, rocking my body as I continued stroking.

  The way his rough hands petted my body had my wolf howling. The seduction was so gripping. The need for him, the yearning, it was sweet torture, and I never wanted it to end.

  A gasp escaped my throat as he sucked on my neck, his hands squeezing my breasts and pulling me tighter against him. Water splashed against the rim of the tub, threatening to spill over. I slid up high so that when I moved down again, he was inside me.

  Lakota bit down on my shoulder, his moan barely contained. I rocked my hips in the only way I could.

  “I’m going to touch you, female,” he growled, his hand sliding down to where we were joined. When his fingers found our connection, he circled them fast and purposefully. A sharp orgasm hit me so suddenly that my entire body locked up. My back arched, and I let him give it to me.

  Boneless and panting, I became aware that Lakota needed his own release. I forced myself to keep moving. Writhing on top of him, my slick body moved in a serpentine motion as my head fell back on his shoulder. Water sloshed to one end of the tub and back, some spilling over the edge. It suddenly felt like his hands were everywhere.

  “I need to claim you.”

  Though I wasn’t sure what that meant, I c

lenched my walls around him. “Claim me,” I said. “I’m yours.”

  “Say it again.”

  “Claim me.”

  “Not that,” he growled, on the brink.

  Somehow, he began pumping from beneath me while moving my body the way he wanted. I no longer cared about splashing water or the noises our bodies were making against the tub. Candles flickered around us, and it was as if the entire world had disappeared. I could barely think as he begged me to say it again.

  “I’m yours.” That time it came out like a needful moan.

  Lakota’s arms tightened like a boa constrictor, and every muscle hardened like stone as he came. It looked like it took considerable restraint for him to keep from screaming, and oddly, that turned me on even more. I became intoxicated by him, marveling how every sound that unfurled from him was one that I had drawn out.

  Water lapped against us until it finally stilled. He never once let go, and his embrace was so certain, a confirmation that I was safe in his arms. I savored him, and my pulse quickened when he softly kissed my neck.

  Lakota finally caught his breath. “I approve of this ritual.”

  I pulled his hand up to my mouth and kissed his palm. “I bet they have zero cases of cold feet before a mating ceremony.”

  We both chuckled.

  In those moments just afterward, neither of us said anything. We let our bodies speak for us in the tender way he stroked my arms and the care I took kissing each of his fingers. It wasn’t easy sitting in a bathtub with another person, so I tried scooting off his lap so he could be comfortable.

  But Lakota wouldn’t have it. He held me close while I turned over one hand and studied all the wrinkles on the pads of his fingers.

  “Is this what it’s always like?” he asked, breaking the silence.

  “In what way?”

  “I mean… when you’re with other men. Do they pleasure you this way?”

  Twisting my body around, I looked up at him. He tried to steer his gaze away, but I wouldn’t let him. Lakota wanted to know what all men wondered: how he stacked up.

  “No,” I assured him. “I mean, sex is sex. But with you… I don’t know. I’ve never felt this present.” A doleful smile touched my lips.

  “What’s that look?” he asked. “I haven’t seen that one before.”

  “It’ll sound silly.”

  “Tell me.”

  I stroked my finger across his Adam’s apple. “You make me feel adored. Is that how you make all women feel, or—”

  A cacophony of shouts and footfalls erupted from outside the room. We both tensed. When someone ran down the hall at breakneck speed, Lakota stood up and got out. He struggled with his wet jeans before wrapping a towel around his waist instead and flying out the door.

  Alarmed, I stepped out and quickly dried off. After putting on the long nightshirt, I swung open the door and ran into Lakota.

  “What’s going on?”

  His eyes were grim. “The Council’s here with an arrest warrant.”

  “For who?”

  “Tak. They found another body.”

  Chapter 18

  Two Councilmen waited in the driveway while Shikoba read their warrant, which came from the higher authority. They were Jack the Giant and Robert the Unshaven. The sun had already dropped below the horizon, the light of day a fading memory. Crickets began their nightly song, and a wolf howled nearby.

  “What proof do you have?” Shikoba asked. “This warrant doesn’t tell me anything.”

  Jack raised a familiar satchel, and I couldn’t help but stare at the ring of sweat on the armpit of his blue button-up. “We found this by the body. Tak’s name is on the strap, and the murder weapon’s inside.”

  I was standing beside Lakota, watching in disbelief. Robert was beside Jack, a look of disappointment on his face as he barely looked Shikoba in the eye.

  “Release him,” Jack demanded. “If you don’t, we’ll have to call the Regulators out, and they’ll take him by force. You shouldn’t have protected your son.”

  Shikoba struck the ground with the end of his cane. “I refuse to believe this! What reason would Tak have to murder those women?”

  “You’re asking me? Everyone knows he’s got a rocky past. The victim was one of your neighbors. Did you know that? Her mate noticed she wasn’t in the house, and when he saw the car still there, he went out in search of her. Found the body himself,” Jack said, emphasizing the grisly scene with a shake of his head. “He’ll have to live with that for the rest of his life. You know why? Because no one around here uses a blade like yours. It does a lot of damage, am I right? We’ve seen the same marks on nearly every body. We’ve found arrowheads and trinkets at some of the crime scenes. But now we’ve got more than clues—we’ve got a smoking gun.” Jack held up the satchel. “You can hand him over, or you can fight us on this. But no matter how you slice it, you sheltered and protected a murderer. That says a lot about you as a leader, don’t you think?”

  I weaved around a group of men and went inside in search of Tak. A few packmates were lingering near the fireplace, but they were too engrossed in their heated conversation to notice me as I veered toward the kitchen.

  Tak was alone, eating a bowl of blackberries as if he didn’t have a care in the world. “You know, I never did like these things. Too many seeds. I guess I won’t be getting food like this in jail, so I’d better enjoy the taste of freedom while I can.”

  I crossed the room and lowered my voice. “You have to tell them the truth. They have a warrant.”

  “The truth will destroy people.”

  “So will a lie.”

  He shook his head, finishing the last berry. “Telling the truth will put an end to that family, and if you think they’re the only ones I’ve been helping, think again. I’ve hunted on land I shouldn’t have to feed them. And do you think that would be enough to convince them that I’m not guilty? They want to paint us as savages. We’ve been dealing with this bullshit for too many centuries.” He set the bowl in the sink and strode up to the island. “If I strike a deal with them and confess, they might leave my father out of this.”

  “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

  Tak rounded the island and smoothed his braid. “Doesn’t it? What world do you think you’re living in? One made up of justice and happy endings? Our world doesn’t work that way. Never has. Let’s just say they believe my alibi and let me go. What do you think will happen next? The packs will come after us. They’ll think we bought off the Council with our money, and they’ll invade our territory and kill our women and children as retribution. It happened fifteen years ago when Koi’s father was accused of a crime he didn’t commit. The outsiders took the law into their own hands and hung him from a tree along with two boys he was hunting with—their throats slit.”

  I swung my eyes down to the granite countertop. “So I’ll tell them we were together. I’ll be your alibi.”

  “And blacken your good name? You’re about to be wed this very night.”

  “To a man I don’t even know—for a deal. My reputation is already tarnished with this pack. I’ll tell them we went out alone together and had sex.”

  “Shikoba will break your deal. Besides, your word isn’t good enough. Kaota said they have my satchel and knife.”

  “Where did you leave it?”

  He jerked his thumb at the window. “A half a mile away. If someone had seen me coming from the woods with that empty bag, they would have asked questions.”

  “Was anyone around?”

  He tilted his head to the side and gave me a perturbed look. “Don’t ruin your life. Your mating ceremony and negotiation are at least two good things my father has to look forward to. I already brought shame to this pack long ago, so this won’t come as a surprise to anyone. They won’t go to war for me. Better it was me than someone else.”

  “You would rather your father think you were a murderer? There has to be a way out of this.”

  “My father would shun me if he knew the truth. No matter how this works out, I’ll never have his respect again. The truth will set me free, but it will put my people in bondage when they are kicked off their land. Those families I’ve helped will suffer. The right choice isn’t always the easy one.”

  “Tak!” someone bellowed.

  He glanced at the door. “My time is up. I don’t want more bloodshed on this land.” He lowered his head. “Sooner or later, there will be another murder, and they’ll see it wasn’t me.”

  “Or they’ll think more of you are behind it.”

  I wanted to tell him that Lakota had his back, but the two had recently had a falling out, so it probably wouldn’t matter to him. Lakota’s secret wasn’t mine to divulge, and I wasn’t about to put a target on his back.

  “Don’t give me an alibi,” Tak insisted, his voice tight. “If they separate us and ask questions, our stories won’t match. You’ll make my tribe look deceitful. You’re just a drifter in our world, little flower.”

  “Tak!” the person yelled again.

  Without another word, Tak walked proudly—like a warrior—ready to sacrifice his freedom.

  Why would an alpha have such an affinity for outcasts in our world? I rested my arms on the kitchen island, my head hung low. It was all so unjust, yet I knew he was right. If they let him go, it was going to be a witch hunt. That was what happened out in the country among packs when the Council didn’t do its job. I’d already witnessed the discord between the Shifters in the community, and after having experienced a pack war myself, I knew the fatalities it could bring. If they found him, they would torture him, and his death would be on my hands. At least in jail he’d be safe.

  “Mel?” Lakota came up behind me. “Are you okay?”

  I turned around and flattened my hands on his chest. “You have to do something,” I said, my voice filled with despair.

  “I can’t,” he whispered. “Not without proof. They have enough evidence to make a conviction. His weapon and satchel are damning, and he’s got no alibi. I don’t think anyone saw him leave, but they saw him coming back.”

  “You know someone on the Council, right? Talk to him. Tell him Tak is innocent. Tell him you’re close to finding the killer. Lie.”

  -->